The Japan Region Pack is Not What I Was Expecting... | Cities Skylines 2

[@CityPlannerPlays]

Huge shout out to Raycon for sponsoring today's video! Go to buyraycon.com/cityplanner to get up to 25% off sitewide! And head to my website cityplannerplays.com for the PDF guides that I mentioned in the video!

[@sail15seas]

Raycon's suck

[@zionosphere]

I come to the Raycon sponsorship segments to get music recommendations. They've been good so far.

[@fletchb9816]

The lack of public transport assets, is disappointing considering how important of a role public transport plays in Japan. Was hoping to see a new metro asset/elevated train station.

[@edenite]

i get the feeling that this pack (japan) is for the regional areas. And a more urban pack (Tokyo) will have stuff like mass transit. I'm just speculating tho

[@user-wq9mw2xz3j]

Yeah thats how it is. Sadly there is no "urban pack" and still no working asset editor to upload custom ones. ​@edenite

[@starrwulfe]

There will definitely be a DLC coming for that- Kaminogi hinted on his stream a few times

[@Nognamogo]

@@edenite Are you sure they're doing a separate tokyo pack beyond this one?

[@amshermansen]

Hopefully modders will help fill out those gaps quickly enough.

[@zealandbf7298]

As a Japanese, I do not think it is a wrong choice to portray many of the buildings in the Japan Pack as generic and stateless in design. Many medium- to high-density buildings, with the exception of single family homes and traditional buildings, actually look like this, and what shapes Japanese cities is actually not so much the style of the buildings themselves, but the methodology of how they are placed on a small lot. But, well, the education buildings are totally scream ‘Japan’. The green ball net is totally that of Japan lol.

[@streit23]

I rreally wished for some more traditional buldings on the pack! while a lot of the buildings remind me of my Japan trip I really miss out on the traditionals - or something like a uniqe shrine/temple.

[@zealandbf7298]

@@streit23 I agree with you on that. I expected this pack to include at least one or two things like temples or shrines or something like that😢

[@rosaria8384]

Only thing missing are public transport buildings like train stations styled to Japanese standards, alongside traditional buildings like old temples and old housing (similar to those in Kyoto)

[@bobyao135]

I would really like there to be some really small single family houses, in addition to larger, more traditional houses.

[@CityPlannerPlays]

@@zealandbf7298I think your comment about the shrines is what I failed to articulate and perhaps what I missed the mark on the the video. I had hoped to see a few of those sorts of historical buildings mixed in and perhaps some landscaping that represents the area a bit better. Still, great assets and I’m happy to hear that it represents the area well!

[@たまやん-y4q]

As a native Japanese, I think this pack succeeded in getting the midpoint between representing the authentic look of Japan and making them in a way that they can be integrated with vanilla assets or any other region pack.

[@gladitsnotme]

Agreed! People just like to complain and act like Paradox are evil villains.

[@Mr_Topek]

​@@gladitsnotme They are evil villains to my WALLET

[@gladitsnotme]

​@@Mr_TopekOh, you're broke. That explains your complaints. Try getting a 2nd job.

[@CityPlannerPlays]

That’s a very good way of looking at it. I don’t think that they clash at all. I do think you’ll have to be very deliberate with design and placement to make it feel authentic

[@MadDoodles]

@@gladitsnotme Do they not have jokes where you come from?

[@baydo1468]

A lot of buildings described as "not very japanese" are identical to a type of building I passed in japan every day while going into town. Also buildings completely changing during leveling up, it's actually normal for a building to be completely razed in order to build something new over there, so this works as intended.

[@lisah.7640]

I am a little sad there are no parks. I really hoped for cherrytrees and japanese gardens

[@CityPlannerPlays]

This is the comment that I failed to articulate it I think I was feeling the most. True of the other Mack, too… but perhaps because they were in CS1 and I loved the assists so much, I really felt them not being here.

[@celsorosajunior]

And a torii, a shinto temple...

[@robertchuang2469]

They could’ve added temples or those Japanese parking lots too like from the ROJ in CS1

[@sol_in.victus]

@@celsorosajunior There's literally one church in the entire game and it's a cementery. I understand they might not be the most promiment part of a city built in the 20th century, maybe in sweden either, but in most of the worst places of worship are really central to a city, lots of major cities in europe, for example, have a cathedral in the city center.

[@ThaJay]

@@sol_in.victus We have one cathedral, the Notre Dame. Although it unlocks pretty late so it's hard to build a city centre around it. Even though I do not like religion myself, I would really like some more small churches with high towers because of how villages and towns historically have grown around them because without every build looks like it was started pretty recently like at most 200 years ago while most cores in Europe are way older than that. Also, it's pretty normal to have cemetaries and churches combined, but it would be really nice to have churches, cemetaries and monasteries as upgrades in a radius so we can build flexible religious grounds like we see them all over. Maybe in England there are many churches with a cemetary directly around it but on the main land the cemetary would be off to the side and a monastery would be close with some park or small forest in between connected by foot paths.

[@PeterEvansPeteTakesPictures]

Japanese Large Fire Station: No disaster response upgrade. Godzilla: "... And I took that personally."

[@bananaketchup1363]

I actually liked how the European assets didn’t feel the need to have a disaster response but I don’t understand why the Japanese pack doesn’t.

[@trevordwyer5638]

@@bananaketchup1363 Their disaster response team is Canada, USA and Australia...

[@MichaelCongreve-zt4ep]

I absolutely love that the Japanese Fire House has the slogan "火の用心" (stay vigilant for fires) on it, that slogan is everywhere in Japan and it reminds me of the posters my grandfather made for the local neighborhood council which told children to be aware of common sources of fire

[@Ghiaman1334]

Something tells me Segunda Beach is gonna need that asset's slogan lmao

[@maycherryblossoms]

I lived in Japan for years, in all sorts of prefectures... this is shockingly realistic, actually, but I ADORE the Tokyo suburb modern home design more than most other

[@zackmcclure]

The fact that many of these region packs have buildings that can fit into any city is really interesting. There is a distinct effort to avoid just throwing out some common landmarks we all recognize and to instead focus on what actually shows up throughout real cities. These are buildings you would pass on a walk through town. I love it! Maybe they'll have a landmarks pack later to give the standard set for each of these packs (Big Ben, Eiffel Tower, Brandenburg Gate, Toykyo Tower, etc.)

[@xShurax]

Once the asset editor is finally out, there most likely will be 6 different assets labelled "Tokyo Tower" anyways - I love the region packs we got so far, _because_ they are "boring" or "generic" and are just buildings you'd see when walking through town (Besides maybe the french pack - That one is most definitely Paris-specific). It's more sad that some people are seemingly upset or sad because this pack doesn't feature much stereotypical stuff you'll have made on masse in the asset creator anyways.

[@starrwulfe]

You said it Phil- all of Japan is not Tokyo, and as a longtime resident, 99% of Japan looks like this. The low density residential can be found all over the place

[@Speedster___]

Counterpoint: Tokyo is 20% of Japan (rough guess) But agree with the point

[@Lildizzle420]

every major city in Japan has neon and high density commercial and multi generational living too. completely missing from the pack, also no traditional districts / farm houses

[@gwalla]

Not even all of Tokyo is "Tokyo" (that is, not downtown Shinjuku or Shibuya).

[@DBT1007]

Doraemon, shinchan, take place like somewhere near big city, but not too rural. Suburban, but not like US and Europe suburban.

[@simongeard4824]

@@gwalla Yeah, I spent some time in Tokyo about ten years back, living and working out in the western suburbs along the Tama river. Very different from downtown, but exactly the kind of thing this pack seems to represent.

[@kuttispielt7801]

I think what makes it feel not very japanese are the streets. I think using the alley more might help with the lower densitys. And for the higher density eliminating on street parking might make it feel more japanese.

[@kasska6717]

@@kuttispielt7801 and have overground lines above the streets

[@simongeard4824]

Yes, suburban Japan does feature a lot of narrow streets without on-street parking; it gives a very different feel from other parts of the world, even if the buildings aren't all that different.

[@sownyp9980]

These assets don't feel japanese if u have never been to Japan. They are in fact, quite Japanese 😅

[@dominicmarten]

@@sownyp9980 should the pack be targeting those who have been to Japan only? I have been to Japan yet the overall feel of the pack could very well be of United States

[@sownyp9980]

@dominicmarten the pack should look like japanese buildings look

[@たまやん-y4q]

⁠@@dominicmartenNo, the main role of the pack should be to replicate the feel of the region it’s representing. If you ask me, a native Japanese, the pack encapsulates the aesthetics of our cities very well!

[@Akideoni]

Yup been there twice I can attest the streets are literally that clean irl

[@blackmalt7579]

​@dominicmarten I think the pack should look like actual japanese cities not what people who have never visited or taken a look at actual japanese cities think they look like. For me everything looks really japanese, but the empty space of the low density houses are too large.

[@starrwulfe]

9:35 - literally how Japan builds in bigger cities. I lived in an apartment that got razed and replaced with a bigger new building and it happens all the time.

[@mikebarber8871]

Just a comment for editor Phil. In your most recent video you say that the sub-building to the university in the Japan pack doesn't do anything. But when you place it the graduation time drops from 12 months to 9 months, and the dropout rate changes from 5% to 4%. I'll wager your comment on the clinic will be the same and it will actually do something over time when you review your health data. I don't think CS2 makes it clear enough what some buildings and some sub-buildings do and it appears to be flavour text when actually it does do something tangible.

[@kopshi]

Gosh those low rise commercial buildings look soooooo SoCal. I've always wanted to make a low-slung LA-style commercial strip. This asset pack rocks

[@dalton-at-work]

that level-two apartment complex (3 storeis with parking on one side) is almost a perfect standin for "dingbat" style

[@simonlees2848]

The medium density buildings and low comercial certainly look and feel japan, but for me the thing this pack misses that i enjoy the most about walking around japan is the number of 1 unit wide buolding squeezed into every space

[@splashgod]

Agreed. I know the creators couldn't make smaller low-density buildings due to the game's restrictions, but perhaps row housing-type buildings could've been a good compromise.

[@handles_are_a_bit_rubbish]

@@splashgod Does the game not support 1 unit buildings or is that just a stylistic choice made by the developers?

[@mike4290]

Been living in Japan for 5 years now, and I feel like those mid rises definitely feel Japan. At least here in the Tokyo metropolitan area

[@starrwulfe]

Exactly. 99% of Japan looks this way

[@KaKaPeu]

Hey, I'm trying to move to Japan right now. How did you do it?

[@starrwulfe]

@kakapeu job transfer got me there temporarily, then I went to grad school there, studied the language and culture and got a job. Also got married and had a family along the way 😉

[@rstarks1125]

i stay down in okinawa and the midrises around Naha look just like this. an endless sea of concrete

[@washinthewind]

Holding the vanilla buildings over the new ones got me thinking; it seems like the vanilla game didn't anticipate players doing their own landscaping and detailing, so the expanded a lot of the service buildings and included baked in landscaping to "save players the trouble." Now, with the game being out for a while and having seen how people are using it, not to mention having fan asset makers do the region packs, we're getting buildings with the assumption that WE know best how we want our city to look and feel.

[@AMR_Krissy]

That's a really good observation and I think it shows how they have started to listen to feedback a bit versus at launch and I think it's great that they moved away from the megalith building footprints we saw at the start of the games life cycle. The smaller footprints made the game so much more enjoyable to where you don't have to level 4 city blocks to place a service building in a preexisting part of town.

[@foamyesque]

S'funny because in C:S1 one of the common complaints was that a lot of the assets were too small and didn't have enough setback and separation.

[@KaitouKaiju]

@@foamyesque Now we can control exactly where in a lot a building is placed so it's helpful if they don't have too much fluff

[@MichaelCongreve-zt4ep]

I have a feeling that people who've never lived in Japan will feel somewhat disappointed with this pack and walk away feeling that most of the assets dont feel "Japanese" enough while people who have lived in Japan will feel that its a really accurate depiction of the generic yet distinctly Japanese style of architecture that the average building in Japan has

[@RudeAndObscene]

That's because people have a really warped and fantastical view of Japan.

[@glasgowmcglasgowfacevotegr7049]

I think you’d always have to use mods anyway because the hallmark of lots of urban Japan is having the irregular lots, and the road width-to-height restrictions and set-back roofs

[@carringtonpageiv6210]

That’s what the comments are giving as well. As someone not from Japan nor visited Japan nor that interested, I think that Japan definitely does look like this.

[@evapreu3011]

I think the upside of letting people from the respective countries design those packs is that they will feel realistic to locals while they might not hit the stereotypes of others. As a German, I was very glad that they decided against timberframe houses in the German pack that foreigners might expect but would feel too much like a German themed amusement park than a realistic German city. And without knowing Japanese architecture well, I assume it's the same here. This pack is from Japanese players for Japanese players who want to build cities that feel like home, not like a theme park.

[@simongeard4824]

@@evapreu3011 Pretty much. One of the first things that struck me when I was working in Japan some years back was how normal it was... very western. That's not to say it's not a very strange place to visit sometimes, but that's mostly not there on the surface. Suburban houses *do* have a recognisable look, but it's more in the details than the overall shape... and if the taller blocks look like they could be anywhere in the world, that's because they're pretty typical of anywhere that had to do mass rebuilding after WW2.

[@Dark-Lord-Of-The-Sith]

I really like the signage on the commercial buildings before a company moves in. "Your Sign Here" "Your Business Here".

[@lukedavidson5402]

The view of Tokyo from the Skytree really shows you how “generic” a large Japanese city looks. You really have to see things from the street level to get the unique feel of a Japanese city. That said, it would have been nice to have had some shrines and other unique features that break up the cityscape really well and point to the unique heritage and culture of Japan

[@idonotexistkh8304]

To add to the comments, yes this is what Japanese buildings indeed look like, perhaps a bit too much garden space for low density. And the point that you made about looking American is because your road layout and zoning is still American. Japanese rules are a bit unique and have to be built that way for it to really 'feel' Japanese. CS1 video with kaminogi explains it well.

[@Fantana.B]

I lived in a small town in Japan for two years, and I can say this feels authentically Japanese to me. I would describe most of the building designs in Japan, especially for their service buildings and outside tourist areas, as "functional" and these assets really capture that. The low-density residential assets also reflect the kind of houses you'd see in more rural areas, with decent land sizes and carports (since people in rural areas are quite car-dependent). That said, it's understandable that people may expect a more "Japanese" aesthetic from the assets. I think it would be great if they could include elements like Japanese temples as parks, police boxes (koban), and other iconic features as well.

[@PeterEvansPeteTakesPictures]

Not a bad pack, everything that's in there fits an accurate Japanese small city feel. I especially like the commercial and the service buildings, which could fit in a few builds outside Japan. I just wish it had been fleshed out a bit more. The 'Modern Japan' pack for Cities Skylines 1 was a superb pack as it had a good number of brutalist admin, department store and office buildings that could fit in any city - especially a Brutalist 60s British new-build - and yet still felt Japanese. Coupled with Railroads of Japan it did give a good Japanese flavour if you downloaded Japanese residential from the workshop. As it is, I think this is a good-looking pack. I just wish there were a few more signature buildings, and some more office blocks and hi-res. If there is a purchasable DLC CCP later on along the lines of CS1's Japanese packs, I think it would be pretty superb, and I don't think I'd grudge eight bucks for a substantial pack that completes a Japanese city with cherry blossom, some traditional buildings, rails stations, golf courses, bullet trains and some department stores. What matters with this one is that it covers the residential, service and commercial. Added flavour can come later.

[@EricMesa]

Now that we have so many uni buildings, I'm thinking Magnolia County University could be due for an overhaul vs the "fake" uni buildings you added there back a year ago.

[@CityPlannerPlays]

I’m going to take that one on after we see all of the packs. I’m a bit reluctant to redo it yet knowing we’ve only seeing half of what’ll be offered. I completely agree, though. Time for redevelopment

[@patrickcallahan6936]

These buildings remind me a lot of the buildings I lived in and around in Honolulu. Plus, the white roofs do a great job of reflecting heat, so they'd be perfect for a tropical map

[@Itheeric]

Personally I'm not a fan of upgrades within the footprint of the buildings most of the time, as they make the basic variations of the buildings unnecessarily large with sometimes a lot of empty space. The elementary and high school in this pack are a great example for this; without the upgrade it's so large and empty which looks really bad imo, but with the upgrades it looks great. Kinda forces me to only use it with upgrades to make it look good, but that defeats the purpose. No shade to the creators though, they did a great job with the pack! It's just a CS2 thing in general

[@ultmateragnarok8376]

I like that the police headquarters feels like a headquarters. You can see where the office building part has been added on top of an already-existing police station to take advantage of location or good foundations or whatever reason it would have had in your city for it. Reminds me of those financial district buildings in the first game.

[@zeroibis]

The replacement of the buildings is also a lot more Japanese as buildings get replaced often especially compared to the US. That said I do wish there was a way to keep the mid level version as you actually see a lot of that style in many cities across Japan.

[@MrSu]

the grey and red brick buildings around the 12:00 mark threw me for a loop with the fire escape stairs and the window AC units, as those are very distinct eastern US features, imo. Quick edit: imo also a bit of a missed chance to add a Koban, a tiny neighborhood police post, usually manned by 2-3 officers. Would've been a nice unique service building that could come with wellbeing and crime probability AoEs

[@golden701]

im pretty sure those are basegame assets

[@jasonlescalleet5611]

I had the same thought about a Koban. A 1x1 police station. Sometimes translated into English as “police box” although they’re a bit bigger than an English police box (on the outside at least).

[@marsminer5839]

I love the region packs, this one included, but I can't help but think about how much better CS2 could be if they focused on making a system where you didn't have to know exactly what lot sizes to use to get things to spawn right. It's so unfriendly to new players. I remember CPP saying this before but how could would it have been if they figured out something similar to how Manor Lords does their lots?

[@CityPlannerPlays]

I completely agree, but fear that it's too late for CS2. I would be straight up SHOCKED if another game doesn't come along with modern city building and a ML-esk zoning system. If it comes, I'll play on here for sure!

[@simongeard4824]

@@CityPlannerPlays Yeah, I remember a few years back you did a video asking what a hypothetical CS2 should do differently... and one of the big ones was having more flexible (non-gridded) zoning. Stuff like non-rectangular sections, deep sections with houses front-and-back, etc. Manor Lords is a good example of how that could have been done...

[@bjroo]

The city hall building looks like the dunder mifflin building in a good way. Anyways, hats off to the creators again

[@ardenwarwick1087]

The Japanese education buildings are by far my favourite assets of the whole series so far. They’re cute and they remind me of schools I’m seeing being built in recent years, even here in the UK. These feel like small-medium city urban school redevelopments, rather than then stacked schools.

[@marcrubin9359]

I really love this pack. The medium density was just what I've been waiting for. That being said, I am a little upset that we still don't have any modern looking high density residential or office. Cities all around the world are filled with beautiful glass structures and really must be in the game. I don't understand why vannila growables look more like they're from the 80s at times instead of the modern day. I don't get needing future DLCs to construct cities with new modern looking buildings.

[@kempy2]

The low density houses look great. And probably my favourite part

[@AMR_Krissy]

Im so grateful that we are getting so much more variety from so many different architectural backgrounds for free. We are pushing 10 gigs of free assets and especially compared to the frustratingly large vanilla buildings, ive been finding myself almost spoiled for choice lately, especially in the academics department. Its gone a long way towards making the game a much more enjoyable experience and i personally think the momentum these packs are carrying lately are swinging me to prefer playing Cities 2 over Cities 1 finally. You said it yourself that the assets and level of detail is what makes this game so strong so im very happy to see them play to that strength with every new pack. It feels a lot more unique and alive versus vanilla-ish CS1

[@quoniam426]

In Asia, they tend to redevelop districts every 20 years or so by demolishing every block one after the other. Having level change, also change the look of buildings reflects that, I guess.

[@Warriorette12]

Loving your reviews of all these packs! (Although I almost died at your pronunciation of Kyushu at the beginning 😂)

[@CityPlannerPlays]

Haha, dang. Thought I got it! 😂

[@jasonlescalleet5611]

“Q Shoe” I believe is a rough approximation.

[@hydra5758]

These assets reminds me of this post I saw online that included a bunch of Japanese buildings, and people were saying that if not for the signage they would have thought they were taken in NA. I think they've really leaned into this style in a lot of contexts.

[@eugeneteh4052]

as someone that literally just got back from a trip to japan, these assists captured the kinda flat, kinda bland but very distinctively japanese, very well designed, well thought out feel very well. i think we just have a warped perception of japan through the lens of a few ultra modern streets in tokyo. disappointed about the lack of parks and transit assists though.

[@simongeard4824]

Yeah, Japan outside the tourist centres is very different from how it's perceived from afar. It's got it's own look... but that look is less about individual building styles, and more about the composition of neighbourhoods (e.g. narrow alleys, dense-packed, lots more mid-rise than many other large cities).

[@Baulderstone1]

I've been busy on a work project for the last few weeks, and I just found time to load up CS2 with the new packs this weekend. They are great, but I was struggling with make the right block sizes for the different assets. I'd just resigned myself to watching all of your excellent asset pack videos and taking notes this time on the sizes. And here you are providing that information in a handy downloadable format. Thanks, Phil! As an aside, I've been on a Hall and Oates kick myself lately. I'll have to check out your other music recommendations..

[@ThaJay]

I've been using find-it as a reference to get appropriate block sizes for what I want to put in. The filter menu is very good. You can even filter on width and depth.

[@Ahjusshi_Brown]

Recoloring seems to be a materials thing as opposed to a can/cannot situation. I think It’s not that they’re locking colors in arbitrarily but that, depending on the materials the creators use to make an asset (and the ability to recolor those materials), we end up with an incredibly varied ability to recolor buildings. I doubt CO is checking for the ability to recolor certain asset materials so I feel the content creators wouldn’t have had that much info on it either. Plus we don’t know if these packs were created before or after the recolor mod became a thing

[@draco_drache]

For buildings which are limited to one per city, it would be awesome to have the upgrades like the planning bureau either backed into the building (just baked in no visual changes) or have the option to buy the upgrades even if the building doesn't change visualy.

[@chubiestfish4055]

9:43 also is very common in Japan to redevelop as the generations change, so it is very realistic

[@rosaria8384]

These region packs are good for a start, but the lack of public transport assets and an asset editor in general is just baffling to say the least.

[@knockshinnoch1950]

The game has had a real shot in the arm in recent weeks, it might now finally emerge from intensive care! Be interesting to see if players are returning to the game and there is an uptick in interaction with CS2.

[@KindWeapon]

Honestly surprised to hear you point out the Japanese text on buildings saying it would be hard to fit them in places. In the past couple of US cities I've lived in, seeing Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, Italian, Vietnamese, or any non-English writing, on buildings is normal to me. Even outside of large immigrant towns (a city's chinatown or koreantown for example) and communities, seeing a building with a non-english language on it, or both english and a non-english language on it, is relatively common? Maybe that's just a northeast thing.

[@Beletang]

dude such a thorough video, with the color testing, the light testing and calling out all the additional pops! Bravo!!

[@Beletang]

o also the fact that you look at it in the eyes of "what can be more generic and applied to different country focused city builds" is very helpful!

[@dalton-at-work]

another fantastic breakdown, the real-world experience you inject into your analysis (and playstyle) is such a benefit to this game and community. honestly your presence changed the course of the community for the better! thanks again Phil

[@Saiorcha]

Honestly, having lived in Japan, these assets feel pretty accurate to modern Japan, but.... I'm so disappointed by the lack of lack of what makes Japan feel like *Japan*. I really thought there would be some more strongly themed assets - a Japanese garden park or something at least, or the iconic Conbini 7-Eleven or Family Mart. Also super disappointing they're so inconsistent with the modability; I don't know anything about coding or how these are created, but it is so bizarre that the inconsistency with what can or cant be deleted or recoloured. Honestly all round quite underwhelming 😔

[@dwk__]

I'm glad they're adding mirrored buildings in, but "mirroring" buildings (any and all buildings, not just growables) should be a standard game mechanic.

[@CityPlannerPlays]

Agreed. In hindsight, that also likely doubles the size of the pack, which isn't great.

[@KimForsberg]

I think it's great to see that the leveled up buildings are basically replicating reality, in that usually you don't just tear down your house when you get some more money, you upgrade it, adding on some rooms or making the garden better, or adding a better parking. Of course, in some cases you do if you have a developer renting out apartments.

[@Akideoni]

9:25 yup it constantly screams it’s not very common in Asia that building extent on itself as it changes overtime at most a bit of new paintworks, most instead was however scrap and redeveloped thank you for seeing it👍

[@kgrose102]

For the hospital if you added some of the shorter Medium density residential around it, particularly the ones with the stair case on the outside, it would look like a more cohesive master planned redevelopment where the city was looking to go from a clinic to an urban hospital and offered land around it for higher density redevelopment but with a set design style to match the hospital.

[@MyFairRosaline]

Thank you so much for the recoloring changes!! It was really helpful with seeing what is going on with these assets.

[@iain.sm.c]

I really love how in depth these videos are, thank you Phil :D

[@ShaggyBNE]

Thank you for doing the 3 different colours! I was thinking the same thing with it all being just magenta before.

[@Unknown22539]

i've built some japanese cities and seen videos and driving around japan videos, those buildings are definetly japan

[@Ubi2447]

🌸Engagement

[@jdnaquin4687]

These guides are SUPER DUPER helpful and much appreciated! Hopefully we get the PDF guides for the German and and UK regions soon!

[@jondySauce]

If CO just had a basic checklist of requirements for assets and sub buildings these would be way more consistent. Happy they're pumping out content, but it's a little jarring seeing the lack of consistency.

[@amiefrisch]

LOVE the asset guide you made, I see there is one for France too. I was really hoping for something like that and I will use it a ton. Hope to see the other ones filled in too!

[@2Scribble]

FINALLY - some new commercial buildings!!!

[@julesverne2509]

I like the low and mid density packs the most. My town has a population of 5,000 people. This is actually one of the reasons I like CS2 more than CS1. Because I can make small quaint little cities and towns that look just amazing. I can't wait to see where CS2 will be one year from now if it's anything like the past year.

[@brandonbuechler8825]

The JP communications tower feels a bit funky in the context of a more urbanized area, but it reminds me a lot of the cell towers and comms towers in rural Ontario. I think they’d look very good in rural areas.

[@PockyFiend]

1. These would make Segunda Beach a lot more interesting..... as the (German Pack) neighborhood is about to be built, and Sir Geoffrey Partridge is still debating whether to enter a partnership with the Myrtle-Lopezs to build his (British Pack) neighborhood, or team-up with one of.the Myrtle-Lopez's Verde Beach rivals to buy separate parcels and turn ( my favorite name for it is Albion) into its own British-style city, a rival Verde Beach mover and shaker teamed-up with some Asian investors and bought a large chunk of eastern Segunda Bay as the future site of Eastgate, an Asian-inspired city ( comprising of Japan Pack, and I'm sure there will be a Korea and China/Taiwan Pack coming soon). 2. When the American regional and/or architectural style packs come out, do you think that another Verde Beach big shot will start his or her own "All-American" city in Segunda Bay?

[@PockyFiend]

3. BTW, when are you going to give the Segunda Beach neighborhoods their names?

[@Noct31]

Dang, I was really hoping for high-density commercial with this pack. I wanted some of those iconic neon-covered buildings that just scream urban Tokyo and Osaka.

[@Project2457official]

Agreed though the pack still touches on a lot of good aesthetics, I just really don’t like the current high density commercial, residential and office buildings. It feels like they lacks plazas, surface area or inversely a tight dense feel. Too much parking or small greenspace surface patches especially

[@Noct31]

@Project2457official 💯

[@gwalla]

In the one hand, the buildings do look like ones you'd see all over the place in Japan. On the other, outside of the residential (tile roofs!) and a few services (like the schools), there's very little that is particularly *characteristic* of Japan. "It could be used in any city" is both good and bad. Two things that are conspicuous by their absence are public transit assets and parks. Japan is chock full of rail especially, light and heavy, and train stations are frequently distinctive. Even smaller train stations typically include or are attached to a commercial complex of some kind. And parks could have provided some more regional color, like a small Shinto shrine tucked between buildings. I'm also surprised the props don't include vending machines, because it's not a Japanese street if you can't buy some canned coffee. Honestly I was hoping that this pack would introduce new roadway themes, since Japanese streets do have their own style (especially the ubiquitous 1- or 2-lane lane shared-space alleys, found nearly everywhere). I knew that was a pipe dream though.

[@Lildizzle420]

how can you have a japanese pack with out neon

[@gwalla]

@@Lildizzle420 This pack is pretty clearly not meant to represent the densest parts of Tokyo. But still, even suburban areas have at least one gaudy as hell pachinko parlor generating an obscene amount of noise pollution

[@Phoenix84]

I think space is going to be a big factor. Don't forget the upcoming DLC Bridges and Ports will also play into this, in addition to the Modern Architecture and Urban Promenades packs.

[@JeanLanderAgor]

Thank you so much for making the PDF Region Pack guides! I have been trying to look for guides online for all the region packs and your guide is such a lifesaver! Hope you also create guides for the UK , French, and German packs...if it's not asking for too much hehe BTW I've been a follower of your channel since CIties Skylines 1 and I really appreciate all the videos you've been doing, though I may not respect the topography all the time, I admire the dedication AND PATIENCE you have when you do landscaping!

[@CityPlannerPlays]

France is up, but still working on Germany and the UK. Will post the odds, it just images, when I have them all done.

[@dandomine]

You know what's missing? The Japanese row houses and row commercial buildings that make most of the built fabric in small towns in Japan. I guess we'll have to wait a little until the asset editor is ready. I also feel that they lost an opportunity leaving upgrades out for many of the services assets. I don't know what constraints they had to work with, but I was hoping for some buildings with a more distinct vibe to them, like the assets Koma, Ryuichi, Nob and Tokachi made for CS1. Gotta start somewhere though and this is pretty great already!

[@dandomine]

I wonder if they'll be able to import those CS1 assets without too much of a fuss!

[@AzuriteFaLc0n]

I spent a few weeks travelling Japan earlier this year and it blows my mind how absolutely 0 buildings provide parking! Yet the country has some of the largest car and motorcycle culture while the streets in even downtown Tokyo are never busy any time of day. I really hope Amtrak takes advantage of the 30B the got last year and makes a decent railway system.

[@crimsonhawk52]

I was watching a Korean cooking squid-game-type show on netflix and a popular American chef (Korean ancestry) got far in the competition, rediscovering his roots and his heritage. I think it'd be cool if a native Japanese-American architect in Bend is commissioned to redesign part of Bend, or maybe a new neighborhood, even if the people there aren't also all Japanese-American. Different story than the Japanese immigrant area of Verde Beach

[@tearizgaming4131]

@cityplannerplays - I'm not sure if its intended, but when talking about the roofing at 8:20 timestamp, it actually appears to be wrinkles in the roofing material. I'm an architect and we actually use a product called TPO on flat roofs a lot in the States - I can't speak to the global market though. Its a thick membrane (usually white) that has flexibility and rolls out on a roof. The flexibility and different accessories paired with it allow you to go up parapet walls, over any mechanical or plumbing roof penetrations, etc. Again, not sure if this is intended in the pack but certainly a detail I appreciate that caught my eye!

[@tearizgaming4131]

Also, for what its worth, having white roofing like this, especially in an urban area is actually a bit of an environmental gain. With typical shingles or layered up tar roofing, the dark colors absorb so much heat from the sunlight and in combination with black asphalt roadways, this all contributes to something called Urban Heat Island Effect. So again, appreciating that aspect of this pack a lot! From a realism perspective, we never see our cities from the sky except for online satellite maps or flying in an aircraft ha!

[@smoothice]

For the educational buildings that have the weird fence effect. The fences are colored and look like the fence netting that's used at sports parks and might have problems with rendering, maybe a color change or possibly a coding adjustment.

[@Baulderstone1]

I was just thinking the other day that I would love to have a way to zone for commercial without parking lots. I'm glad this pack provides somewhat of a solution there.

[@Violant3]

i miss some really narrow plots, in japan mainly in bigger cities, homes don't have that much space in their lots, it's just the house, a tiny parking space and that's it, no front yards, no backyards, and homes are really close together

[@northernsky2020]

I feel the buildings are a little bit old-fashioned maybe in 80's. Of course, we still see such type of buildings in streets, but large cities and their suburbs are changing rapidly. The police headquarter looks like the one in Yokohama city (Kanagawa Prefectural Police HQ) by the way.

[@danielphalen4973]

The Japenese communications tower would be a good piece to add to an Airport! Looks like a little weather station/extra communications shed!

[@hyperforxguy2210]

Love the asset guide! Paradox needs to add a vanilla way to display what sizes apply to the zones.

[@rhel373]

Yes! More low and mid density stuff! And quite modern looking too! This will fit in so many builds!

[@corntaco]

these medium residential assets were *exactly* what i was hoping for in this release. not sure why people wouldn't like the white-a ton of mid rise building is US are also just white and i feel like it's been a gap in the currently available assets. obviously the french assets are mostly white, but they're also extremely niche-these japanese assets are much more generic. also, SO happy to have some new commercial buildings. i really don't like most of the low density commercial assets available until now.

[@davetuttle3380]

I could see the radio mast being used for a radio/news station building. I know in Richmond, VA theres a CBS station building with a huge radio mast behind it. May be a good use if only for the aesthetic

[@anrikurisuto4432]

Finally a pack I really love. Those schools... just peak japanese schools! And those low rent buildings, as anime as it gets!

[@Rengray2]

Phil, when you did the "blending in" test with low density residential your complaint was about the sandy lot texture. Remember that this texture disappears when the buildings level up, so while it does (negatively) stand out in a city - it would eventually all be replaced with grass.

[@CityPlannerPlays]

Good point. But that presumes you level them at to 5. Below that they are sand or the forestry texture. Not a huge deal, but I think they look best alone or mixed in with other non-low density assets

[@Rengray2]

@@CityPlannerPlays Patience is a virtue, Phil. It's not one of MY virtues but it is, indeed, a virtue. 😀 I hear you though. It's not ideal to have everything at level 5 - need to make space for all income levels! Likely that these would fit better in tropical or beach-y cities.

[@Greattdane99]

8:12 - Those roofs look like TPO. It's a common material we use in the USA on buildings that have no pitch. It's always bugged me that the game has no multi family units with TPO because of how many buildings I've built with it. Glad to finally see it in the game.

[@arthurl5280]

It's great that many of these buildings will fit into non Japanese cities. I was thinking it might be one to skip but will now look to use. Thank you for working the pack through - very helpful as always!

[@NikkyElso]

I love that he went with lower density buildings for this pack. The workshop is going to be filled with high density buildings for Japanese cities but this is a niche that wouldn't otherwise get filled.

[@foamyesque]

The engineering and practical constraints tend to make mid-rise and larger buildings all over the world look similar, unless it's some kind of prestige 'I want to look unique' project.

[@th3phoenix]

Rooves should be painted white, for climate control and climate change reasons, so I see the white rooves as a positive feature. Playing sim games, I try to improve on reality if possible, not directly replicate reality as it exists.

[@Jarethenator]

The more of these packs come out, the more I think we're seeing a bit of a blessing and a curse situation. The blessing is that every pack can pretty much always provide assets that will fit into most contexts for the setting of the cities where regardless of the region of origin, you can pretty much see the buildings mostly fitting in anywhere...The curse is that, despite the pack's names, you really never get the feeling that you're actually able to represent those regions; and, if I want to really emphasize things, the deeper curse is that I'm not sure they have plans to do followups on any of these packs so this'll just be what we get. This was a thing that popped up in CS1 too. It's not unique to CS2. Sometimes the packs meant to represent a whole region/nation just cover one aspect of said region, but the pack is titled as if it represents all aspects...and we never get another pack to fill in the gaps. And that's really what the problems are: gaps. What we get is an excellent collection of assets that do achieve the goal of representing the respective region, in this case Japan. Still, when you title a pack as a "Japan" or "France" region pack, you're casting a net over more than just the suburbs or just the urban areas or just the countrysides. You're titling it in a way to depict the whole, but expecting a content creator to churn out that much stuff in a packagable form is just not reasonable. This is why I say this is not really so much on the creators of the packs, but more something to do with how CO roadmaps/plans the scopes for these releases. I get the impression that these packs have this "well, mods will fill in the rest" thought behind them," which I also got from CS1 with some packs but to a lesser extent overall. Overall, realistically, Idk how many people are setting out to exclusively build a city set in any one of these regions, and none of these places are a monolith where everything looks the same. Still, I have a hard time believing you could buy this pack or any of the others and convincingly recreate the region that bares its name without extensive modding, and those that _are_ trying to achieve that goal are going to have to accept this limitation. For everyone else, it is a good boost to the pool of assets that can be used pretty much anywhere. I think if we really want to see these regions fully represented, we would need multiple regional pack levels. ie a "Japanese Highrise," "French Countryside," "American Suburb," "New York Skyline," etc type pack is allowed to let the creator focus more on one uniform aspect of a region or a region within a region, as opposed to trying to it all of the greatest hits within a wider scope all while still being generic enough that the pack can appeal to the most members of the player base. Like I said...blessing and a curse.

[@CityPlannerPlays]

You completely nail it. My sentiments exactly!

[@heartlessgaming2250]

For the elementary and high school, you could always use better bulldozer to remove the fence and get rid of the LOD issues.

[@BHPOfficial]

No parks or temples is really odd to me. No sakuras, no Tori gates, seems like glaring omissions

[@dan4logic500]

I love the buildings, we finally have some sanitation and waste assets. I was personally hoping to see more Tokyo inspired buildings because I really want to have a part of town that has a touch of cyberpunk kind of feel.

[@ryanz486]

The medium apartments could work really well for an N/A build so I like those. Also I'm really hoping the N/A packs have low density housing. I'm holding off on a new N/A city until those drop as I don't want to rely on the UK houses.

[@gazzamuso]

The chapter caption for the sponsorship saying "Raycon3:10 - How to Get Ass..." on console is a great touch 😆

[@HoneyBeeNarcissist]

Not only do these region packs not add in any parks, streets or transportation assets, they also don't add in any themed billboards or ads. It's incredibly silly to make a French, German or Japanese city where all the signs are in English. I would've loved the option for Japan or France themed signage to give your city a bit more detail. I suppose I've been spoiled by the modding scene in Cities 1, but these region packs are shaping up to be a huge disappointment.

[@Lildizzle420]

I agree, if everything is generic it defeats the purpose of having a region pack.

[@shushyshushy6762]

17:53 That's a very odd bug with the schools fencing/nets... Though idk if it's exactly and LOD issue considering that the fencing around the High School at the farther end nearest the University that doesn't have fencing is totally fine, but the fencing that is between the Elementary/Middle School and the High School is bugging, so it might just be because you have both the schools next to each other so it's throwing the game off. Or it could just be the Elementary School is bugged and if it's next to the High School it will bug out what ever part of the High School is closer to the Elementary/Middle School.

[@joshuawiggins3891]

another awesome pack still waiting for the park theam parks and zoos pack and as always thanks for the great content and thanks for letting everyone know about the free play weekend for CS2 loved it cant wait to get it and stream some awesome builds, hope you have a happy holiday