Play the Digital Devil Saga games by Atlus... and SE is not representative of the Japanese gaming industry.

Well most of japanese games are shit. Only the better ones could get a global release.

And also because their culture is not very open minded, and most of them can't speak English.

Better atmosphere, art style, gameplay.. everything is just vastly superior to anything japan can offer. Of course there are some good games coming from japan, but those are the ones who are made mostly to the western gamer.

The Western competitors for better atmosphere, IMO, are only Bioshock and Metroid Prime. Art style..? take Valkyria Chronicles for a spin, mate. That's art direction and art style for you. Among others...

The good games coming out of Japan are mixed. DMC appeals both to the Japanese and the Westerners. Same for MGS. But there are lots of good games coming out of Japan that appeal primarily for the Japanese gamer. Valkyria Chronicles, Tales of Vesperia, the upcoming Star Ocean, Okami... that's just scratching the surface of this gen.

Funny, I always get annoyed by the atmosphere of most japanese games. Isn't metroid prime a japanese game? :p

Valkyria chronicles is a prime example of a game which art style sucks. I can't stand that anime style.

I wouldn't talk about sense of taste if I was wearing a green tank-top had Gears of War avatar .

Prime? developed by Texan Retro Studios.. with weakest sales - in Japan and strongest - in the US. Plus, it's an FPS/Adventure, 2 genres really popular with the western crowd.

Btw, what I meant by VC artstyle was how it's graphics are rendered (painting-like), and the setting - post WWI Europe (well, Europa). It's done very originally and beautifully.

we aren't seeing breakthrough successes in Japan with western games but there is certainly a crowd that buys them. Many Japanese games are bombing in Japan as well. Fable 2, Fallout 3, Call of Duty 4, Oblivion, Halo 3, Gears of War 1/2, GTA4, Resistance 1/2, motorstorm, LBP all had at least 70k in sales in Japan on 1 platform.

Japanese gamers like the games with swords, blades,magic,demons and that kind of childish crap. Western people like shooters, aliens, blood, war, and that kind of highschool bullshit. Diffrent tastes

the question is pretty to answer. people are unique so inturn they like different things. If we all liked the same thing it would be a pretty boring world. I wonder what the breakdown in percentage wise it would be in the amount of western games japanese gamers buy compared to the amount of japanes games westerners buy. I bet they would be pretty equal to one another. on another note games don't have to be super realistic to be good games I myself would rather play series such has Grandia, Suikoden, and Wild Arms. Every game has its own merits has well has it own followers, and every studio whether inside of Japan or Outside of Japan is capable of making really good games and really bad games at the same time