There are thousands of games released in Japan that have become popular all over the world, some of these games you may know and have even played. Game development in Japan has always been on the rise, competing with other major game-developing countries.
Japan is well developed for the creation of games because, they have already created games that are famous until today, the countries that lead the development of games are: China, the United States and Japan. The gaming market is growing more and more, in 2020 alone the gaming market earned more than US$128.5 Billion.
To give you an idea, the gaming market generates revenue greater than the music industry and larger than the movie market, and 28.4% of the world's population plays. So it's clear that this is a very huge market. In this article, we will show you the 10 best games ever created in Japan, which is the 3rd country in the game development ranking.
Table of Content
1st Nioh
This is a great action rpg game, this game became very famous in the gaming world, released in February 2017. The beginning of the game project started in 2004, the game tells a story of a mysterious magic stone and the protagonist William Adams, this magical stone is capable of giving mysterious powers to the person it encounters and transforms that person into a Yokai. Yokai are half-demon and half-human beings in Japanese folklore.
This is a great game for those who want to have fun and learn more about Japanese culture, folklore and many other aspects. It is a game that became very famous around the world in a short time and is available for all platforms, this game took years to develop and has many details.
2nd Street Fighter
This is one of the most famous games in the world, Street Fighter is a fighting and action game that earned the title of best-selling game during the arcade era. This game was developed by the company Capcom and was released in 1991, it is a great 競争ゲーム and features the story of several characters fighting against each other. Street Fighter was considered the best fighting game of its time, played by more than 25 million people just in the United States; in addition, the game sold over 15 million units just in software worldwide.
There is an estimate that this game managed to earn more than 10 Billion dollars in sales. The game available for the Super Nintendo sold over 6.3 million cartridges, making it the most profitable game of all time until 2017. In addition, the game was one of the best sellers in the fighting game rankings until 2019.
3rd Super Mario
The game Super Mario is one of the most known games in the gaming world, even younger players know this incredible game. Super Mario was developed by Nintendo and has sold over 20 million copies worldwide.
The game has a script that involves the character Mario and his brother Luigi, the main mission of the game is to rescue Princess Peach because the Princess was captured by the character Bowser. And to restore the land of dinosaurs the brothers must start a mysterious and risky journey with the presence of various enemies along their journey, the brothers have to do several missions in the 7 regions. The game has several skills that Mário will acquire along his journey and has incredible gameplay, making it a great 2d game.
4th Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong is also a game developed by Nintendo. The game is a classic and was launched in the gaming market in 1981 with the aim of entering the U.S. gaming market; it is a great game that became famous worldwide.
The game has great gameplay and has many competitors around the world, in first place with 1,050,200 points is Billy Mitchell who managed to beat the record in June 2007, being the player with the most points in this game.
5th Space Invaders
This game was released in 1978 and was designed by Tomohiro Nishikado. It is a great and famous game with the objective of destroying enemy ships by controlling a human ship and firing bursts of shots at your enemies, thus earning points. The game was inspired by War of the Worlds and Star Wars.
6th Resident Evil
This is a game known as Biohazard in Japan, it is an amazing survival, third-person shooter and action game. This game was released in 1996, and is famous to this day, it is a survival horror game.
ResidentEvil is one of Capcom's best-selling horror games, sold over 117 Million units worldwide. And it has a nice franchise of the game. They are currently releasing the movie ResidentEvil: Welcome to Raccoon City inspired by the game.
7th Final Fantasy v
It is an Action RPG game developed and published by Square Enix. It was released globally on November 29, 2016 and is available for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One platforms. It is the 15th masterpiece in the “Final Fantasy” series and is part of the “Fabula Nova Crystallis” sub-series. It consists of games with the same mythology. It was originally a spin-off game called “Final Fantasy vs. XIII” specifically for PlayStation 3. Developed, it is considered very different from previous games in the series, and its atmosphere focuses on the real environment and more human characters.
8th Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
It is an action-adventure game developed by FromSoftware and published by Activision. It was released on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on March 22, 2019. The game is set in a fictional, magical version of Sengoku period Japan, and follows a ninja trying to avenge the samurai family that attacked him and kidnapped his teacher.
9th Tales
It is an RPG game series released by Namco. The series is very popular in Japan; some games are released in North America, while only four are released in Europe.
Fantasy Legend was developed by Wolfteam in 1994 and released in 1995 for SNES video games. Most of the participating development teams left TelenetJapan after the game was released and formed Tri-Ace. They were responsible for the development of the Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile game series released by Square Enix.
10th Judgment
It is an action-adventure game developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and published by Sega. As a spin-off product of the Yakuza series, it was released in Japan in December 2018 and on the PlayStation 4 platform in June 2019. The remake of the game, subtitled in Japan and Asia as Remastered[a], was released on the PlayStation 5, Google Stadia and Xbox Series X and Series S in April 2021.