The benchmark where Japanese software allegedly fails (user experience) rings true especially in their video games. One of the major reasons Xbox was so success

The benchmark where Japanese software allegedly fails (user experience) rings true especially in their video games. One of the major reasons Xbox was so successful in the mid 00's is because the Japanese companies were far behind on online user experience. Japanese video games tend to have really great gameplay, but the menus and settings are incredibly lacking. Japanese PC ports were all around terrible up until a few years ago. Elden Ring launched on PC without an "exit game" button in the pause menu, for example. Nintendo's settings menus only having one option (rumble on/off) is a running joke at this point. I think the "design to meet spec, not to anticipate users needs" philosophy is also apparent in the game design. Western RPGs are characterized by their sandbox/do anything capability. Create a character, choose your class, pick your allies, kill any NPC, choose your ending. Japanese RPGs are structured with predefined characters, class roles (with a bit of customization sometimes), narrative, and ending (and maybe a "bad ending" if they want to punish you for not doing all the side quests).