Simply put, here's a list all about games, old or new, which bear the cultural hallmarks of Japan's socio-economic boom period from the turn of the '80s, later the Plaza Accord, up through the mid-'90s. Entries feature instances and/or combinations of the following tropes and stylings:

•Displays of middle-class wealth and/or privilege, with an emphasis on Western(-style) status symbols/conspicuous consumption as attainable by a majority of Japanese during the era
•Sublime cityscapes and/or fictional worlds in day or at night, from ornate historic or science-fantasy realms to iconic rows of sparkling office towers under starry skies, often featuring successful and attractive people/cast characters with scare vulnerable moments or framing
•Themes of (over-)confidence, aggression, more individual expression/self-reliance, and post-collapse feelings of security among characters and conveyed by the plots/framing they're involved with; also ties in to glamorization of high-school life and the transition to adulthood
•Telltale fashion and design elements popular on a local and global scale, ex. Memphis Group post-modern geometry, comically large shoulder-padded suits, rich color palettes lending an upper-end textile quality, stylized wireframe/computerized imagery and real-time manipulation like in video art, etc.
•Culture-crossing media mix of influences and previously highly regional aesthetics, reflecting the country's verve for importing ideas from East Asian neighbors and the affluent Global North they now belonged to, with creators utilizing Western backdrops as stand-ins for commentary on their new Japan
(ex. isekai fantasy, near-/far-future sci-fi, superhero/tokusatsu pulp)

The real-estate speculation bubble that occurred and later popped would catalyze the country's media landscape, from increasingly extravagant TV & anime to rapid yearly advances in video game production. Westernization of domestic pop media continued as it had started during the post-WWII occupation, through which local movements such as city pop, new wave, punk, idol fandom, and modern fantasy reached maturity. Right before the bubble popped—before the "lost decade" of economic and media stagnation felt the world over, countered by newfound prosperity in neighboring East Asian countries—Japan seemed like a shining mountain upon the Ring of Fire, that seductive illusion of American hegemony exporting stability and dominance to a foreign land. Mirroring the similarly consumerist, corporatist cohorts of Reagen-era yuppies, those entering adulthood from '85 through '95 would have engaged in excesses soon denounced, only for all of it to regain its luster through nostalgia.

All of this creates more than just one more set of aesthetics for us to gawk at. If you play specifically the Japanese games here from oldest to newest, and then what came after, you can sense a paradigm shift away from the above symptoms of global privilege and that fleeting imperviousness. New games made referencing these elements today may or may not display an understanding of the historic context lying underneath, but they're worth including here all the same to show the influence the bubble era had. I hope the list grows and can inform game creators inspired to iterate on these aesthetics to thoroughly grasp what they're evoking, not just slapping on a cool but superfluous visual style.

Feel free to suggest additions in the comments here or on the Backloggd Discord server in #lists. I'll be listing games roughly in release order. I'm open to arguments against including a game, too, if it doesn't fit the above criteria.

| Changelog |
February 15 2023: Initial list, did a lot of pruning beforehand to bring it down from ~180 games.
February 18 2023: Added almost half that amount, still trying to keep within theme.