Yeah they should have just made the sexy chick the protagonist.

It seems like impressions for NieR are very mixed. Gonna rent it anyway so it doesn't matter. I have a feeling that I would hate NieR though. From what I heard, there is a lot of variety to the gameplay. And while for a lot of gamers that is a good thing, for me that just means more oppourtunities to fuck a game up. If you've ever got to the Shinobu part in NMH2, you'll know what I mean. Sometimes it's better to do one thing and do that one thing well than to do a lot of things and do them poorly. I have a feeling that NieR may be a shitty jack of all trades game, master of none type of deal. But hey, if I rent it, I don't have much to lose.

Mario is a fucking hunk of man!!

Anyway, this is a great example of why S-E need to stop trying to make games for some elusive 'western gamer' and go back to focusing on making good games

Why are their only two options stereotypes that they think are required to be successful in either market?

Wierd! How much muscle has Mario packed on over the last 20 or so years to cater to western tastes?

Square just needs to find a middle ground. They don't need to be hulking piles of muscle but they don't have to be scrawny little metro sexuals either. And if you are going to do a western style manly man, I suggest they look at the man in my avatar as to how to do it right.

This is actully kind of ridiculous (not your post, i mean Sqaure). i mean Yatsumi Matsuno tried to make Basch the main character of FF12 and Square basically told him he couldnt. and instead we got Vaan and Penelo, who had nothing to do with the game.
 
My point is that they had a chance to do something innovate and different yet they chose not to. Square only have themselves to blame. at the same time i dont understand why Wada (could be Kitase) said the problem they have is the fans expectations, and that the FF team cant do something different because it wouldnt cater to the fans.

the problem is that they say things like that but when Matusno had the chance to appeal to a western auidence with a darker more realistic take on FF they didnt let him. what are peoples thoughts on this??

PS. Basch as the main character as FF12 wouldve been badass.

Lack of imagination by a bunch of soulless corporate marketing types who design according to demographics instead of any clear vision of what the game ought to be.

Even though NIER is not exactly an awesome game, the fact that SE wanted to make ANOTHER XBOX EXCLUSIVE game pisses me off. So the PS3 version only came as an afterthought.

They still screwed up their "Macho" guy because he looks dumb. Maybe add a beard and put a big scar across his eye or something.

Can't blame m for trying something new...

Hey, remember when they dumbed down games because they would be too hard for 'western' gamers...

Gotta love their view on the western audience, but is it justified...?