Visiting Japan Via Videogames (Persona, Ghosts of Tsushima, Yakuza)

Is reading manga, watching anime, playing Final Fantasy, and blasting bad guys in Call of Duty scratching that travel itch for Japan?  I know I want to visit again, but international travel restrictions prevent that along with concerns for your personal safety.  However, the pseudo-experience of being in Japan can be found in a few videogames.  So ready your canned coffee, sembei crackers, and cup noodles to visit Japan in the present and in the past.  Video games are wonderful as they can immerse you in another world for dozens of hours in a fantasy, historical setting, or an alternate present. I'll mainly use a PS4 to travel to Japan myself, but you can pick your own platform as your Tardis.  There are piles of videogames that will take you to Japan too and I'm only really going to discuss six of these.

 The summer of 2020 released the hit videogame Ghost of Tsushima.  It is set on the island of Tsushima that lays between southern Japan and Korea.  You're travelling back to the in the time of the Mongol invasion of Japan in the year 1274.  You play the character Jin, a samurai who survives a massive battle with the Mongols in the opening credits, but loses his lord and pretty much everything else.  The rest of the game is spent traveling around the gorgeous island and beating other bad guys and Mongols.  The game depicts a pre-Sengoku period feudal Japan fairly accurately and has made the island a bit of a tourist attraction too.  It is the third western game to be rated a perfect score by Famitsu magazine in Japan and the executive director of the Yakuza games for Sega has said that Japan should have made it.  Don't expect 100% historical accuracy though as liberties were taken to make the game more interesting.  Things like sake brewing, Japanese use of gunpowder, and wearing of katanas is a little early for the time for example.  You can also watch the anime Angolmois: Record of Mongol Invasion to get more Tsushima.  This anime shows the Mongols introducing the Japanese to gunpowder even features the Tsushima leopard cat.  While some people didn't like the parchment background effect in the visuals, I didn't mind it too much and quite like the anime.

In a more fantasy oriented Japanese game play, you can load up Sakuna of Rice and Ruin.  This fun game has you being a down and out goddess who must regain her place in the divine realm after allowing the rice grainery to burn down.  To accomplish this, Sakuna must plant rice and harvest it, but needs to battle monsters and clear the island she is on to gain resources for successful farming.  It is an interesting combination of side scrolling combat and farming simulator.  You will learn the basics of rice cultivation and have fun while doing it.  Nice visuals and interesting characters round out the game.  The deluxe edition even came with a nice little artbook and three CD soundtrack!  This game has also received some pretty good reviews.

Other Samurai videogames that are pretty popular include Sengoku Basara, Onimusha, Total War, Samurai Warriors, Nioh, Sekiro, and many more.

Lets spin the time machine forward now to return to the present.  Again, there are piles of games set in present day Japan.  A couple of my favourites are Persona and Yakuza series of videogames.  Both Persona 5 and Yakuza 6 are set Tokyo, with Yakuza 6 also being set in the coastal city of Onomichi.  Persona 4 and 5 are a couple of my most favourite videogames with their mix of daily time management of your school life and friendships while delving into supernatural dungeons at night. These games allow you to wander the city streets in the areas they render so you get a virtual visit.

The Yakuza games revolve around the adventures of Kazuma Kiryu in the criminal underworld and there is usually a pretty good story going.  The Yakuza games involve a lot of brawling and Yakuza 6 shows you an amazingly rendered Kamurocho, a fictionalized version of the red light district of Kabuchiko in Shinjuku.  In Yakuza 6, which wraps up Kiryu's story, you start out by searching for the attackers of your adopted daughter's mother, and the story get convoluted from there.

Persona 5 has you in the role Joker, the leader of a band of friends who fight the Shadows with their supernatural personas in turn based combat.  You get to capture Shadows to power up and evolve your personas to make them more powerful, while solving the true mystery behind all of the nasty events happening in Tokyo.  The game takes place in many major locales in Tokyo like Shibuya, Shinjuku, Asakusa, etc.   

Both the Yakuza and Persona games will keep you going for hours and you'll get to sight-see around Tokyo.  You can even visit arcades and stores, but just can't really buy snacks, onigiri, and cup noodles to eat for real at the konbini.  You do get a feel for the actual districts from the in game versions as you will recognize landmarks and can do some exploration of rendered areas.  In Persona, I like how you get to really wander around a few of the places such as Shibuya Station, Center Gai, and I recognize areas I have been at.  Kabuchiko is a given for wandering in Yakuza.

Many anime are set in a contemporary Tokyo with some sci-fi/fantasy elements thrown in.  Video games like Persona are not unusual in that respect.  Some other videogames that really showcase Akihabara include the more classic Akiba's Trip and its not quite so good Akiba's Beat.  In Akiba's Trip, you're fighting the undead Synthisters who can be destroyed by literally beating the clothes of them to expose them to sunlight.  Kind of dumb, yet fun, and you do get to roam around a fairly detailed Akihabara.  There is even an anime series based on Akiba's Trip.

Tokyo Mirage Sessions is another Persona-ish video game where your character becomes a Mirage Master who uses mirages to fight hostile mirages and a force that is stealing all of the creativity out of Tokyo.  You explore Persona-ish dungeons and roam around various Tokyo locales.  This one incorporates musical elements into the game play.

There are piles of other videogames to take you Japan out there, so grab your controller and get gaming!

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