elnino - I think the issue is that most western reviewers are just too tired of traditional JRPGs to ever really review them favorably (unlike Japanese reviewers).
Everyone will clamor "but Persona 3!" - yet that was Atlus's first SMT game in years to come to the west, and was very different.
The worst tragedy is the fact that Eternal Sonata got a much higher score than either thus far (about 82.5% on GR) - which leads me to believe they never, ever play the game all the way through. ES, despite being great the first 5 hours, gets repetitive, and the story at the end is a joke.
So anymore, unless it's radically different (like Persona 3), or has Square Enix backing, it typically doesn't do well. A similar game such as Final Fantasy X can score in the upper 80s, but LO struggles to get to the 80s. Is that fair for a game that is equal in most areas as FFX?
Back from the dead, I'm afraid.
