Steam review from Japan were overwhelmingly negative compared to other languages
twitter.comTranslated tweet text from Japanese gaming Youtuber Shinjisan:
"I checked out the reviews on Steam now that you can see them by country, and I noticed that for almost every game, the reviews from Japan were overwhelmingly negative compared to others. (China and Japan seem to be particularly harsh.)
However, when I read the content of the negative reviews, many of them were surprisingly reasonable. Upon digging into the reasons, it seems like people in Japan tend to leave negative reviews to voice complaints, but they don’t bother leaving positive reviews for games they enjoyed. In short, it just looks like harsh ratings due to a lack of positive reviews. (Giving a negative review to something you didn’t find fun isn’t necessarily a bad thing.)
Steam’s review ratings often impact game sales, and because of Japan’s harsh reviews, some developers apparently avoid Japanese localization during early access or initial release to avoid getting reviewed at that stage.
What I’m trying to say is, if you get into the habit of leaving a positive review—even just a short one—for games you enjoyed, game companies might be more inclined to support Japanese localization sooner or treat us more kindly (⋈◍＞◡＜◍)。♡. I’ll keep up my habit of leaving positive reviews for fun games whenever I remember to do so. Best regards."
In my observation, reviews (in general) are different in Japan. Look at something simple like google maps reviews of restaurants or clinics. The bad reviews are often extremely personal and not really representative of what most people would experience.
"I really didn't want to speak with anyone or make eye contact, but the staff cheerfully greeted me and seemed to want to talk to me. One staff even looked at me from behind the counter while I was drinking my coffee." >> One star