Nothing highlights the cultural differences between America and Japan more clearly, in my opinion, than these two recent live-action Destiny 2 commercials.
The commercial for America gives the spotlight to Nathan Fillion's Cayde-6 character. It goes to explosive lengths to get across the message that everything you know and love about the world is gone. It comically tries to paint the Earth in a post-apocalyptic light. It shows the bad guy's face, it shows racial and gender diversity (well, there's a white guy, a white girl, and a black guy), and it appeals to people's love of puppies. After the Titan goes all Leeroy Jenkins "for the puppies!" a Beastie Boys track plays. There are heroic fights, laser lighting, and particle effects like you haven't seen in a live-action video since, well, probably since Activision's last live-action video game commercial.
But then check out the Japanese live-action commercial. Completely different commercial. It's not even close to the same thing, aside from the fact that it's about Destiny 2. In Japan, Destiny 2 is less about heroically defending the adorable and defenseless, and more about dance parties. Like, y'know, break dance battles and stuff like that. And yeah, the commercial eventually gets into some gameplay footage. Which is also of characters dancing in-game.
I get it that these commercials are selling a lifestyle, not just a video game. I just find it entertainingly confusing how very, very separate these two approaches are to selling that lifestyle. Good times, though, Japan. Good times.
Destiny 2 is out now on PS4 and Xbox One. The (excellent) PC version arrives on Blizzard's Battle.net next month.
