Article - The Japanese Shmup Scene, Interview with Superplayer Arasaka

Japanese STG player interviewed: Arasaka

Interview conducted by: Mark MSX

https://youtu.be/1tCXj2dA52w

(Arasaka 481 Mill Ura 2-All)

Yeah … this dude is legit.

Forward:

An  article like this has been a long time in the making, I’ve reached  out  to Japanese players before, but have had no luck until Arasaka.  Given  his openness and willingness to indulge my questions, I think it’s   really fortunate that there is someone like him in the Japanese scene,   so massive thanks to him! The reason why I conducted this interview is   that, over the past year, I have accumulated a bunch of questions about   the Japanese STG scene, but have been unable to get them answered   directly from the source. I’m really glad I was able to get in touch   with Arasaka and I think the information provided will be interesting to   my fellow non-Japanese players.

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Q1: How did you get into STG? What is your personal history with the genre? What about STG hooked you?

A1:
To  make a long story short, my first STGs were Fantasy Zone (1986, SEGA)   and Life Force (1987, KONAMI). Visuals, art, music, story, the overall   experience of STG … everything was awesome. The music of these games   hooked me. Since then, I have been playing numerous STGs on various   platforms. Recently, I play CAVE’s Danmaku STGs mainly. My favorite game   is Ketsui.

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Q2:  When you first got into STG, what was the Japanese scene  like? How has  it changed over time? What do you think the future of the  Japanese STG  scene looks like? Is the genre becoming more or less  popular in Japan?

A2:
In  the 90’s, there were a lot of small arcades everywhere in Japan.   Around the train station I often used were 7~8 arcades. I went there   frequently on the way home from school. Unfortunately, most of them are   already closed. The number of arcades in Japan is decreasing year by   year, especially small and medium sized arcades. They are nearly   extinct. For various reasons, I think it’s difficult to recover the   population of the arcade to the previous level. However,  I don’t think   it will disappear completely.

As  for STG scene, in the past 10 years, Touhou has increased the   population of STG players significantly. A lot of indie/doujin devs are   creating quality shmups also. I think they will become the center of   STGs in the future.

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Q3:  What do you think about the current way world records are  recorded and  verified? Do you see this system having trouble in the  future due to  the diminishing arcade scene and original arcade hardware?

A3:
Yeah,  as you said, I think this system already has some troubles due to   diminishing arcades. The “in a real arcade, and within business hours”   rule is a huge barrier for new players. However, this is a valuable   culture with a long history, so I also think that we should preserve   them as is as long as we can. JHA is doing a great job for that.

Aside  from that, thanks to the internet technology, everyone can  currently  post a high-score with some evidence (photos, or videos) to  the sea of  the internet. We can treat the highest score available on the  internet  as the world record. I think this method will become  mainstream in the  future.

JHA has a long history,  but it is not an official tracker or  anything, it’s just one of the  many community record keepers, same as  western forum, etc. Having  multiple ways of recording things is good for  coverage. I think each  site should keep on going their way.

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Q4:  What do you think about video replays of high scores? Do you  think  having them be publicly available is beneficial for the shmup   community, or do you feel that part of STG involves discovering   strategies on your own?

A4:
Except  for the limited situation (ex. during the limited period  competitions,  etc), I think sharing videos publicly is always beneficial  to the  future of the shmup community. Hiding something causes decreased   popularity, obviously. It does nothing but harm.

I  feel aiming for a high-score and taking the game apart are like   scientific development. A lot of players have contributed to that in   various ways, so I think we should keep in mind the whole “standing on   the shoulders of giants” thing.

Of course it’s just my opinion. There are a lot of players who don’t think so. I will also respect their decision.

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Q5: What are the challenges of sharing video replays publicly in Japan? Are sites like YouTube hard to access?

*This  may seem like a dumb question, but I asked it because I am  still  confused why some Japanese players continue to use Nico,  considering  how awful it is. I was wondering if there was some type of  problem with  accessing YouTube or something. If you are a Japanese STG  player and  you are reading this … please do not use Nico!*

A5:
There  are no challenges with using YouTube, even in Japan. You can see a  lot  of Japanese STG players on the various streaming sites like  YouTube,  Twitch, or Nicovideo nowadays.

However,  it’s really difficult recording video from old JAMMA based  PCB games  set in candy cabinets in a real arcade environment. In most  cases, this  requires special apparatus such as video converter,  recorder, and a  DIY soldered JAMMA middle harness. Only a few arcades  (ex. Ebicen,  Acho, etc.) can provide such a service.

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Q6: In the past, has there been a lot of rivalry between Japanese players? If so, what was that like? Has that changed overtime?

A6:
In  the age of ancient Gamest magazine, we could watch the battles of the   top high scores on the magazine’s high-score pages. The winners were   replaced every month and in some games, sometimes only two players won   alternately. I’m not sure if they consider each other rivals, at least   that was really impressive.

That’s  old history. With the shrinking of the arcade scene, they have  already  faded away. But I have seen similar situations on the Touhou   scoreboards, so I think newer generations still have the same potential   for that.

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Q7:  What do Japanese players think about emulation and console  ports? Is  emulation used frequently as a practice tool? Are console  ports  popular? Do players have interest in arranged modes, generally?

A7:
Practicing  on the console ports is really popular even in Japan.  Especially in  case they are aiming for high-score, or aiming for  TLB/2-ALL tier  achievement. Of course, they use stage select mode on the  console ports  for practice. In fact, there are some players who don’t  use any  console ports for practice. For example, one of my Ketsui friend  got  Ura 2-ALL with totally PCB-only-play last year. But such a case is   really rare.

Emulation is not  popular in Japan for various reasons. Some players  use that for  practice, but perhaps most players have never touched  emulation.
Setting  up the emulation environment legally is really troublesome. I  don’t  want to be bothered by such a thing, so I’ll keep my distance from   that.

*This  information didn’t surprise me. From what I have gathered,  being a  follower of various emulation scenes, Japan copyright is much  more  strict about roms and all that and it seems more taboo among  Japanese  gamers, compared to the west. I am glad to hear that the  Japanese scene  seems to be warming up to console ports, because their  online leader  boards are a way the Japanese and western communities can  interact with  each other.*

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Q8:  What are the Japanese players general thoughts on the western  shmup  community? Is there much interest in interaction? Could you see   Japanese players being interested in submitting scores to our forums   like the French one?

https://hiscores.shmup.com/

A8:
Unfortunately,  except for a few exceptions, most of Japanese players are  not  interested in foreign communities. That French forum looks really  nice!  But as you know, Japanese players are not so outgoing. They will   hesitate to post to foreign forums.

I  think most of Japanese players tend to prefer loose connections,  such  as posting a score on Twitter casually, rather than actively  committing  to smaller communities.

Also, there are a lot of players who don’t say anything on the internet.

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Q9:  Outside of Touhou, is there much interest in PC shmups among  Japanese  players? Do Japan players use Steam? Are titles like ZeroRanger  or Blue  Revolver on the radar in Japan?

A9:
Yes,  Japanese players play PC shmups a lot. In the doujin shmups scene,   there are a lot of masterpieces besides Touhou, such as Hellsinker,   RefRain, etc. Steam is very popular even in Japan. Of course I know   ZeroRanger and Blue Revolver. They are very famous among Japanese   players and have really high reputations.

*I bet the devs will be happy to hear that! They deserve it, western indie devs are putting out really great games right now.*

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Q10:  In the western shmup community, there is a divide between  Touhou and  arcade, is the situation similar in Japan? What types of  shmups are  younger/new shmup players interested in?

A10:
Yeah,  more than 10 years ago, there was a divide between Touhou and  arcade  in Japan as well. So I think the situation was similar.
But nowadays,  I’m feeling these dividers are fading away. When I meet  young players  at the real arcade, I always asked them, “What is your  first STG?” Most  of them say: “It’s Touhou.” They enjoy both of Touhou  and arcade  shmups, naturally.

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Q11:  Just curious, is the Xbox 360 popular with Japanese shmup  players?  From what I’ve heard, Xbox in general is unpopular in Japan.

A11:
“Xbox  is unpopular in Japan generally” is true. But Xbox 360 has a huge  STG  lineup, so it’s really popular among STG players — even in Japan.  Most  of my friends who are STG players have an Xbox 360.

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Q12:  What are Japanese players’ thoughts on mobile shmups, most  western  players (myself included) are frustrated when new shmups, like  AKA to  BLUE, are only on mobile.

A12:
AKA  to BLUE and GomaOtsu are very popular in Japan. A lot of arcade   players also enjoy smartphone shmups. But yeah, to be honest, I’m not   interested in smartphone shmups.

*Just saw a survey CAVE put out about which games of theirs they should port to mobile … ugh. How about Futari and SDOJ on PC?*

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Q13:  What is your honest opinion on EXA Arcadia in Japan, do you  think it  really could bring arcades back to popularity, or is it too  late?

A13:
As  I said, I think it’s difficult to recover the population of arcade to   the previous level, but I’m really looking forward to the EXA Arcadia   games and I hope their business goes well.

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Q14:  With CAVE’s inactivity, who do you think can step up to fill  their  shoes, as far as producing quality STG? In my opinion, it will be  indie  devs, but are there Japanese devs we should be paying attention  to?

A14:
My  opinion is the same as yours. Indie and doujin devs are creating   quality shmups. Some of them are ported to other platforms, such as DS,   Nesica, and EXA Arcadia. I think these methods will become mainstream  in  the future.

As for Japanese devs, my favorite games are:
Hellsinker. (RUMINANT’S WHIMPER)
RefRain (RebRank)
∀kashicverse (Endless Shirafu)

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Q15:  How do Japanese players generally practice STG? If you guys  are only  practicing on arcade cabinets, are there some tricks you guys  use (like  rotating players) to optimize playtime, or are you guys  actually  restarting the credit each time?

A15:
When  a new game appears in the arcade, of course there is no console  port  yet. For example, imagine the first month after SDOJ was released.   There was no practice method other than playing in the arcade at that   time. In this case, we always insert 100 yen coin to the arcade cabinet   then restart from the beginning each time. There is no trick or   something like that.

If we already have a good console port, of course we use stage select mode for practice.
Aside  from that, in case I’m aiming for casual 1-ALL, I will play only  on  the arcade cabinet because it’s more fun for me. So whether we use a   port or not depends on the kind of game and situation. There is no fixed   policy for that.

*There  goes my theories on Japanese players coming up with  creative ways to  bypass having to repeat the same gameplay over and  over.*

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Final question (for now): Why is Ketsui your favorite shmup?

A16:

Game  systems, bullet patterns, bullet speed, music, story … all the   elements in this game perfectly match my tastes, definitely all time   best game for me.

Follow up questions (5/15/19)

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Q1:  It sounds like a number of Japanese players do have access to  PC games  and Steam. If that is the case, is there any demand for PC  ports like  the Steam CAVE ports? Western players, myself included, would  strongly  prefer the M2 ports on PC, is there any talk of that among the  Japanese  players?

A1:
Of course, I  think it’s fantastic if M2 ports are also released on  Steam. But most  of us already have a PS4, and in most cases we can play  more  comfortably on the console port rather than on the PC. So I think  that  the demand for PC ports is a little weak among Japanese players.

There  are unlimited kind of environments on the world of PCs. It  means that  more costs are required for user support. I can imagine it  easily  becoming a nightmare for small devs, such as M2. To be honest, I  think  that they shouldn’t consume limited resources for such an obscure  work.  I hope they use their resources only for making the games  themselves.

*I  could see this response being controversial. While I don’t  agree that  the PC ports would be more trouble than they are worth, you  have to  remember Arasaka’s perspective. PC shmups are very niche in  Japan and  the primary market for M2 are the Japanese players (Deathtiny  hasn’t  even been localized yet, for example). So, in that way of viewing   things, I could see why M2 wouldn’t bother with PC ports (though I wish   they would).*

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Q2:  On a typical day at the arcade, how many players are there to  play  STG? What is the peak number of players and are there days where  no one  is at the arcade playing shmups at all?

A2:
It  highly depends on the situation of each arcade so I can’t say  anything  generally. For example, HEY has 70 or more STG cabinets and  most of  them are occupied every weekend. Additionally, there are a lot  of  spectators in the aisles and sometimes their bags hit the player’s   back. It’s slightly unsuitable for the players who play seriously.

Even  in HEY, it’s deserted during daytime on the week days. Only less  than  10 players are there. Most other arcades are not as crowded as  HEY, but  the situations are almost the same: good weekends and miserable   daytime weekdays.

In any arcade,  if no players are there, even on the weekends, all STG  cabinets will be  removed immediately from their lineups. “The day of  completely no  players” may exist, but it doesn’t last for a long time.  As a result,  the arcades which have large STG lineups are really rare in  Japan.

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Q3:  What do you think of the idea of JHA including a column next  to the  scores where players can add a link to a video of their run? Do  you  think this would encourage more players to include videos of their   runs?

A3:
I think it is  not a good idea. In fact, JHA is just a non-profit  organization, but  they are inheriting some kind of authority/fame from  Gamest and  Arcadia. If they want to keep this position, they have to  keep strict  legal requirements.

I think that  uploading game replay videos is mostly harmless in the  recent social  situation. But, strictly speaking, it contains copyright  infringement  and asking for permission for each old game is impossible,  so they  won’t touch such a thing.

*Again,  Japan is very serious about their copyright law, game  play footage  acting as an advertisement is a completely foreign concept  to most  Japanese video game companies, which is a shame.*

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Q4:  Plasmo and I have been working on a video index cataloging  publicly  available STG replays, would something like this be of interest  to  Japanese players?

https://shmups.wiki/library/Category:Video_Index

A4:
I  think that’s really awesome work. As I said, JHA can list only limited   information due to their position. I think that it is a very good idea   that someone complements it. Indexing the videos publicly available on   the internet would be a very important work in this case.

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Q5: What do you think of the Ketsui Deathtiny arrange mode? Is this popular among Japanese players?

A5:

As for me, I don’t like too much bullet-canceling in my games, so I didn’t play that a lot. It’s simply not my cup of tea.

But  Deathtiny arrange is really well made. It has a very high  reputation,  even among my Ketsui friends. Some of them are scoring the  mode  seriously and posting the unbelievably high scores to the leader  board.

*After  the DDP 2-all, I plan on digging into Ketsui more  seriously, this will  also include playing Deathtiny arrange, I  personally really enjoy the  mode.*

End of Interview

HUGE  thanks again to Arasaka for taking the time to answer my  questions for  the interview! 481 million homie points for being so open  and  informative.

Cheers!

Mark MSX