Comparing the Styles of Japanese and North American Box-Art

Gothic Girl | July 31, 2008 | Blog | Misc

Have you ever bought a game and felt that your country got the short end of the stick when it came to amazing box-art? Games often have different box-arts for different regions, and sometimes the differences can be quite interesting.

GamesRadar takes a look at the differences between Japanese and North American box-art, noting that Japanese box-art tends to be more creative, daring and unique, while American boxes usually stick to similar (sometimes boring) patterns and themes depending on genre ...

Why Japanese box art is better... ... except when it's not. Nine astounding differences between East and West.

Some countries just do things better than other countries. America exports films and fast food; France is famous for its wine and snooty red berets; Cuba has cigars and dudes named Castro. And Japan, in addition to many other feats of geek-related awesomeness, can claim the coolest and most creative videogame box art in the world.

You've seen cover comparisons before, of course, but have you ever wondered exactly what makes the Japanese versions so preferable? Or why gamers are constantly complaining about the mangled translations? We did, and after scouring through hundreds of examples, we discovered these nine undeniable trends.

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Images about this story:

91	North American box art for LittleBigPlanet revealed (9) September 1, 2008
77	LittleBigPlanet - Revised North American Release Date. (9) October 17, 2008
64	First North American Guitar Hero Contest Held By Target (2) October 2, 2008
66	Mega Man 9 North American Release Dates Announced (0) September 19, 2008
67	TGS 2008: World Destruction Confirmed for a North American Release (1) October 15, 2008

Comments

1 thumbs!
Cruxis Mana | July 31, 2008

As a general rule, Japan usually get concept art as their boxart, America usually gets some crappy in-game render whilst Europe usually gets a mixture of the two.

In short Japanese boxart > American boxart.

... Or maybe I've just been playing too much RPGs.
1 thumbs!
Silver Mirror | July 31, 2008

Nah you seem pretty dead on, Japan's box art is usually better as well
0 thumbs!
KneeNAR | July 31, 2008

And also how most people can't accept the fact that it is a jap game, not american. Also coz they allow in japan what they wouldn't allow in america unless it's under the R rating. Bah!! Damn these sheltered humans!!!
0 thumbs!
tallteen86 | July 31, 2008

Japanese >_> I know you don't mean offense, but someone will take it [offense] eventually >_>

Yeah, I prefer Japanese box art, most of the time. There was another article like this a while ago, but it deals in different box art, so it can't be the same one.....
0 thumbs!
Seeker X | July 31, 2008

It's really up to debate, honestly. Hard as hell to come up with a conclusion with a handful of comparisons. I mean look at the Backyard Wrestling box-art...JPN one for example...looks good but the concept for Backyard or Wrestling is obviously missed. Outbreak box-art, you gotta admit that a city in ruins speaks better than a dull colored picture of zombies reaching out.

I could go on but the point is that it's hard to determine what is better or even HOW they work.
- 0 thumbs!
  Gothic Girl | August 01, 2008
  
  I thought Outbreak's Japanese/European box-art (with the hoardes of zombie hands reaching out) summed up the game alot better than the American box-art with the gun and ruined city. It's one of the most eye-catching box-arts because of it's simplicity and the obvious theme it portrays.
  - 0 thumbs!
    Seeker X | August 01, 2008
    
    How? It only shows a bunch of zombie arms. Not very creative, there's no background, no playing around with colors...it's too dull at first glance. Good concept art AT BEST. If you prefer that though, that's fine I just think that it really doesn't catch much attention compared to the other box-art.
    - 0 thumbs!
      Gothic Girl | August 01, 2008
      
      The American box-art is too generic. The main focal image is a gun (which is on pretty much every action game's boxart) reflecting a face that doesn't look much like a zombie (more like a skull, tbh). And a ruined city showing the silhouettes of people walking funny (are they zombies? are they people who are sick from an "outbreak" of disease? are they injured people walking from the wreckage of a ruined city? It's hard to tell for someone who isn't familiar with the series).
      A box-art should show what a game's about and entice people into buying it ... and imo the American box-art doesn't really give off the impression that it's a surival-horror game about zombies. It looks more like a post-apocalyptic action game, to me.
      
      A simple black background showing a group of mutated zombie arms reaching for something (probably the main character) gives off the perfect impressions for a Resident Evil game. It shows that the game is about a zombie outbreak. That's all that's needed. It stands out amongst every other game with a gun on the box. (if I were looking for a survival-horror game, the box with the gun on the front isn't going to be my first choise. I wouldn't even bother to look what's in the background because it's main focus is showing me the gun. Gun = action).
    - 0 thumbs!
      Raziel_326 | August 01, 2008
      
      I'm actually going to have to agree with Seeker X on this one. As much as I love the concept art on the Japanese version, it doesn't look like good BOX art to me much at all. I'm definitely in favor of the US version for box art, and I'm an Illustration artist, I'm usually in favor of Japanese box art, but this is not the case for Outbreak's box to me. Also the fact the Japanese box art is a bit too... blue for my taste when it comes to a zombie game.
      
      Art wise, I'm in favor of the japanese box art, but overall when it comes to a video game box art...I'm going to have to go for the US version.
      
      If anything, the Japanese version would make a great teaser poster or teaser art.
    - 0 thumbs!
      Seeker X | August 01, 2008
      
      Ok...
      
      1) The gun. It's a handgun firing off a round AND reflecting a zombie which covers the silhouettes comment. If it was some typical action icon, I'm pretty sure they could've done better with an assault rifle or something like that. A simple handgun delivers a message for survival.
      
      2) Besides the first point, the silhouettes are also a traditional zombie icon...even Dead Rising has it.
      
      3) The box-art couldn't really be any clearer, in my opinion. A city literally in ruins and overrun by the dead. And the red color just fits beautifully with everything in there.
      
      4) While the JPN box-art may be an original concept...it really doesn't show anything other than that. No setting? No destruction? A bunch of zombies? Awesome, where's the eye candy?
0 thumbs!
Zeon I | August 01, 2008

See, over here in America, people seem to think simple is good. I don't know about Final Fantasy, maybe their covers were made in San Fransisco? Probably.

I want good Boxart I can look at in 20 years and I can tell my son, "I beat this shit, son!".
1 thumbs!
BANDITO ATTACK | August 01, 2008

i lold out of my seat when they proclaimed the shitty and/or generic anime boxart as 'more artistic'.
lots of those 'pints' seemed to completely conflict with each other.
1 thumbs!
tekmosis | August 01, 2008

If I had money just burning holes in my pockets I would get both the North American version and the Japanese version. I would put my NA game in the JP box. To put it simply, JP > NA boxart. It's like all the NA branches of a company just screw off and let the interns make the boxart.

Take this for example, the JP version (scroll down to the comments where Xenc posted an image):
http://www.gamegrep.com/news/7414-lost_odyssey_crammed_onto_4_discs_and_crappy_packaging_follows/
- 0 thumbs!
  Seeker X | August 01, 2008
  
  What does that have anything to do with the box-art? It's more about how the discs are badly packaged than the box-art itself (as there's no mention of that anywhere).
  
  I repeat, this is inconclusive, you got some guy comparing a handful of box-arts and he comes up with the most awkward list to "prove" that Japan has the "best" box-arts. It's bullshit, because when you look at the reason why NA's Lair box-art sucks, look at Japan's Mister Misquito's box-art and you'll see that the guy has contradicted himself badly.
  
  Which is the "best"? It's in the eye of the beholder, but it ain't a FACT and it never will be no matter what anybody says.
  - 1 thumbs!
    tekmosis | August 01, 2008
    
    Packaging is closely tied into the box art as it is the same container object for the item. It should be quite obvious that it has absolutely nothing to do with box art but it adds on to the topic that JP seems to do things differently (better in cases) for things such as this; be it packaging, box art, bonus items, promotions, advertisements, etc.
    - 0 thumbs!
      Seeker X | August 01, 2008
      
      It's still not nearly enough to generally discredit the way things are done in NA. All the way back in the PSX era, you got games like MGS with multiple discs but packaged right and in a nice looking box...nothing wrong with the NA version. I got plenty more of those but this could go on all day. The matter of the fact is that this whole "lol america doesnt know art, japan is best" thing is getting pretty ridiculous. Too many factors ignored, there's a lot of things we don't know...we can't start to pretend like we KNOW that one is better than the other with some bullshit reasons.