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Games set in Tokyo

NumberOneSpinelApologist

NumberOneSpinelApologist

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There is a lot of them. Do you have any favourites?
Persona 5 is a classic and obvious choice.

I also actually quite liked playing Ghostwire: Tokyo. It is a very imperfect game but I did like the (horror) atmosphere and looking at the city from above
 
The World Ends With You, Tokyo Mirage Sessions, Yazuka (a fictional area of Tokyo, but still).... probably a lot of others I've played and enjoyed over the years, but those are the ones that most immediately come to mind as evoking nostalgic memories of actually living in Japan and visiting Tokyo.
 
Archaic said:
The World Ends With You, Tokyo Mirage Sessions, Yazuka (a fictional area of Tokyo, but still).... probably a lot of others I've played and enjoyed over the years, but those are the ones that most immediately come to mind as evoking nostalgic memories of actually living in Japan and visiting Tokyo.
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How on earth did Yakuza slip my mind? (same reason as TWEWY, I just haven't engaged enough to have it at the front of my brain) I would point to Persona 5 as the game that most clearly evoked the sense of how overwhelmingly big and packed with things to do Tokyo felt when I visited back in '11, around the same age as the protagonist.
 
Dorothy LaRouge said:
How on earth did Yakuza slip my mind? (same reason as TWEWY, I just haven't engaged enough to have it at the front of my brain) I would point to Persona 5 as the game that most clearly evoked the sense of how overwhelmingly big and packed with things to do Tokyo felt when I visited back in '11, around the same age as the protagonist.
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I guess it's a similar thing for me. Yakuza's streets very much reminded me of the kinds of things I'd see around Nagoya when I'd go wandering, especially in the backstreets.
 
Akiba Strip and Steins;Gate are both set in Akihabara. I never got very far with Akiba Strip but Steins;Gate is one of my favourite games/VNs. Nowadays I'm not too fond of Tokyo anymore due to it's insane centralising presence in Japan. I feel like many more tourists are also drawn to it compared to for example Kansai than before, but I could be wrong and it's just a result of Japan gaining popularity among foreign tourists in general. There's so many interesting and beautiful places outside of Tokyo that are clamouring for attention while Tokyo overshadows them in the international eye.

I think for game developers it's also easier to be self-referential as many of their studios are in Tokyo so there's little need to fund location scouting trips to faraway places in Japan or even abroad. Plus it's instantly familiar to most Japanese (about 1/3 of the population lives in the Tokyo area), and foreigners due to the prevalence of for example photo collections/exhibitions featuring Tokyo and its influence on the popular cyberpunk genre. Many famous anime are set in Tokyo too (Tenki no Ko, Durararara, etc.) I'd say look beyond the Tokyo propaganda (tbf I also fell for it when I was younger) but Steins;Gate is a great story I'd recommend if you're looking for one set in that city.
 
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All of BanG Dream! takes place in Tokyo, which includes both of its mobile games (Girls Band Party! and the upcoming Our Notes) even if they rarely ever make any references to popular areas of the city, with only the occasional event taking place in Shibuya or any other areas you'd often see in games and anime. The way they do it is interesting, too-- areas like Yamabuki Bakery are based off of real life counterparts (in the bakery's case, though, its equivalent recently closed down permanently). You can even see areas that are laid out exactly 1:1 with real life! (The comments in the linked thread are really informative!)
 
Blast said:
I'd say look beyond the Tokyo propaganda
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The Tokyo propaganda is strong indeed. Outside of Tokyo, From the top of my head, I can only think of anime's set in Kamakura, Sapporo, Kyouto and Yokohama.
And from games, also from the top of my head, I can't remember any that are in Japan in a specific named real life location except Persona 4.
As I used to yearly watch an Asian film festival that always has plenty representation from Japan, I've watched several films that were from all around Japan. But a lot of those are "indie" films, so by default less likely to continue the propaganda.
But there really is something unique about the appeal of Tokyo.
It does have a very different from the rest of the Japan and the rest of the world as well, no wonder it sparks imagination.
 
NumberOneSpinelApologist said:
And from games, also from the top of my head, I can't remember any that are in Japan in a specific named real life location except Persona 4.
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Persona 4's setting is fictionalized, although it is inspired and influenced by real locations in I believe Yamanashi Prefecture.
 
NumberOneSpinelApologist said:
Oh yeah, my bad.
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Inaba is at least fully-realized enough that I can understand mistaking it for a real place, haha. There's a lot of texture to how the game presents its setting and a lot of care taken to emphasize its material realities which is something I've always admired about P4. In general, though, the Persona series has tended towards fictionalized locations for its settings - Persona 5 explicitly being set in Tokyo was a bit of an unusual move for the franchise (and even then some locations were still fictionalized, with Yongen-jaya taking the place of Sangenjaya).
 
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