You’re catching a lot of flack, but I’m somewhat inclined to agree.
Of course I realize “Japanese” is not a genre, but in my experience I also tend to dislike a disproportionate number of games from that country. Maybe it’s something about Japanese sensibilities that just don’t click for me. I don’t know.
Well, one thing I do know is that I intensely dislike the traditional anime art style. The hair, the eyes, the mouths… it’s just not for me, at all. Any game that employs that art style is usually an instant skip for me.
Apart from the anime art style, what don’t I like?
For starters, I really don’t care for the most Japanese of all genres, the JRPG. Regardless of art style, I generally find them quite dull. I thought I’d like Octopath Traveler, but I only lasted a couple of hours. It just didn’t keep me interested.
I also find many JRPGs to be melodramatic to the extreme. Although, come to think of it, that seems to not be dependent on genre. I have some tolerance for melodrama in something like Eternal Sonata, which I finally completed last year, but even Ace Combat has nauseating levels of it, and that’s just unnecessary.
But aside from JRPGs, I’m also not particularly fond of fighters or shoot-em-ups. The latter I straight up detest.
Oh, and there’s a cheerfulness in many Japanese games that I find pretty obnoxious too. I’m talking garish colour schemes, hyper cheery voices, overly cutesy character designs…
Anyway, I think I’ve made my grumpy point.
To cap off, I’ll point out that there are plenty of Japanese games that I really like, too. It’s just that on average, I definitely gravitate more towards Western game design sensibilities.