I don't know what happened to Japanese game devs when it comes to graphics. Gameplay wise and art-wise, they are still up there, but a lot of their games look a gen behind. Korean developers are really stepping it up in terms of graphical technology...
I'd appreciate any context somebody could lend me, but if I remember correctly, Korea (and China, in a separate but similar take on the topic) has been investing heavily in CG production, first as a nation of farm-out studios for Hollywood and Silicon Valley media productions and later some of those offices have spun off into home-grown production studios of their own.
An old but notable example:
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/tech/2021/07/693_59177.html?RD
So it's a little bit like when Japan was the animation workhorse of the world, silently producing GI Joe and Transformers and so many of America's favorite cartoons. Or how when videogames were booming in the early 80s, Japan was the development studio for a lot of franchises and ports, and those studios eventually found their own footing once there was money in that part of the economy (also, Nintendo and SEGA were positioned to build up the console space back when Atari crashed.) Both places are a bit of a Bubble Economy (both Korea and China are also bubbling from low wages for workers making the economy easy to speculate and exploit, both at home and abroad,) and both have placed a premium on be a major player in different computer technology markets.
We're bringing the ‘Let’s Start Unreal’ educational series to cities all across Korea this September. Find out what's in store for Daejeon, Gwangju, Jeonju, Daegu and Busan.
www.unrealengine.com
(2016 event, one of a number of Epic Games Korea programs)
Korea now has a talent pool of workers skilled in technology such as Unreal Engine, and after years of doing grunt work for American and European studios in film and TV and games, they're ready to start putting their country on the map with original productions... maybe. One of the downsides of this sped-up version of a Bubble Economy is that it's questionable if its art world in Korea was able to really establish itself while the tech/economy boomed (I'm comparing Korea to Japan, which had the Manga and Anime and even videogame RPG markets bubbling underneath and at home so that original creatives had exciting new material once the tech was advanced and the economy was flush, whereas Korea doesn't have much unique identity in entertainment art... unfair statement?) Korea does have some success cases in games (MapleStory, Lineage, Ragnarok Online, DJMax,) but there's not great evidence that the business has fostered a community of up-and-coming game design geniuses the way that the Japanese game market was overflowing with interesting titles before the floodgates even opened in the SNES and PS1 period for original Japanese game projects to be demanded by an international otaku audience. Mikami, Kojima, Sakaguchi, guys like that were all getting reps in before the big game started. Who is the first great Korean game designer, inspiring the next gen to follow in his footsteps? Not sure if there is one yet (if ever there will be one on that level; maybe Korea will just be known for volume and technical/visual polish rather than evolution? Project Eve and DokeV look nice, but will their designers make a mark in history, or just maybe sell a lot of copies?)
So, you see a lot of derivative work from Korean studios, because they have lots and lots of people who know how to make things that are popular, but it was not a national priority to foster the innovators to gain the experience for sitting down to imagine a bright future using those skilled people to do something brand new. Maybe, maybe not... it'd be tough to stand out, but we may eventually see great designers rise up in Korea as the economy hits its stride and pops out more original titles, if/when that blooms.
And as a side-note, what happened to Japan? They went the other way, building their own technology systems and working mostly on national products instead of taking jobs for international work. Square tried to build its own engine for years (mostly unsuccessfully), while Capcom and Bandai Namco and even Nintendo tested the waters of popular engines but still pushed for their own tech in an attempt to remain independent. And their audience has turned inward, producing a
large number of niche titles that often don't even get exported to the rest of the world. The reasons for Japan's dwindling status in gaming is manifold and not something I'm an expert on, but my takeaway is that Korea (and China) have been putting in the work to shag balls for the bigwigs and is now in a position to try out for the majors, whereas Japan has been trying to start a game of its own and it has not popped off.