While I don't personally consider it an Action RPG, we could also add Zelda (and Zelda-like games)...

Last gen...

He is right, check any game outside of Final Fantasy and KH, there are very few who sold over 500K in the west.

Pokemon isn't in the same category, because desipte it having similar gameplay, it had an extremly hyped anime (one of the first hyped animes in the west), movies (plenty of pepole heard about the games after the anime),  and it's an experience that is 100% non-story focused, but multiplayer focused, based on meeting and playing with other pepole.

Pokemon's game actually launched alongside it's anime in America, though only in syndication (it wasn't actually picked up by a major network until a year later, well after the Pokeboom started).  It was one of the earlier examples of gaming "cross-pollination", or using various media to launch a new IP. The movies all came later here though.  Strange that you'd try to discount Pokemon success due to external forces, when Kingdom Hearts mass appeal is based almost entirely off well established Disney licenses. ;)

Also, I don't see how (non)story focus & multiplayer really changes anything? Hell, I could argue multiplayer RPGs actually come closer to the genre's D&D/dice roll roots than something like FF or KH.

I didn't discount Pokemon's success, I said it is selling for different reason than FF.

You are right mostly right, though, FF7 sold a lot because of the massive marketing push (wasn't it the most expensive marketing push for a game ever, at the time?), and because of looking superior, graphically, and KH probably 95% of it's copies due to the brand associated.

I do think, however, that after the first games for each iteration (7 in the case for FF), Pokemon and FF/KH kept on selling for different reasons.

Strickly speaking from a sales point of view, JRPGs haven't been popular in America.  The only ones which have been consistently are Final Fantasy, Pokemon and the Mario RPG franchises.

To say an entire genre is popular, you would have to say more than 3 games are popular.  So for the most part, he's right.  Does this mean JRPGs as a 'whole' are 'dying' because they aren't selling 5 million in the west?  Of course not.  In fact, many JRPGs have done better this gen than previous gens.  Look at Dragon Quest, Persona, SMT and Monster Hunter.

Jrpg's are asocial games. The most people who play games are people with not that many time in their hands and who prefer to play games with others. With Xbox live we have the best example while it even cost money people find it worthy because it give the chance to play with others/friends.

Pokemon and Monster Hunter beg to differ.  Hell, even Dragon Quest has "gone social" this gen.

As well as the entire Crystal Chronicles series (except for Crystal Bearers) and White Knight Chronicles.

And Secret of Mana.  Hell, even the old Final Fantasy games used to let you play the battles in multiplayer.

Yeah mikami is right... every other JRPG has struggled to have the penetration in the states that they enjoy in japan with the exception of Pokemon and Final Fantasy. As to the bioware idiot if he actually played some JRPG he would see they do have innovations, Valkyria Chronicles comes to mind but Persona as always been edgie, 30 minute hero is another, vagrant story, final fantasy 12's gambit system... but i guess when innovation means ripping D D rule sets and adding tons of dialogue trees what can be said... all of this smells of xenophobic paranoia to me... funny how there's all this doom for the jp's but most of those companies pulled a profit while the west were happy to reduce their losses... and last time i checked the charts are dominated by JP games, even though they all stem from nintendo, i guess they are too big to be considered Japanese o.O

I thinks it's partially because of the younger generation of gamers. I've never liked JRPGs, but that's just my personal preference, as I like games that require skill and strategy, and most JRPGs seem to only require strategy. I also find their stories to be too linear and restrictive for a Role-playing game (emphasis on the role-playing). The only JRPG I've ever like (outside of Pokemon) is Yakuza 3, and it may not even classify as a JRPG at all. That being said, I can see the appeal.

Now the meat of my argument is this: Younger gamers aren't patient enough. 

They don't want to sit through some long cutscene or use a battle-system that requires thought, they just want to play GTA and kill some bitches, or play CoD and call the other team bitches. Half the time, if a game isn't multiplayer, they don't even look at it. This isn't only happening with JRPGs, it's already happened with adventure games and "hard-core" computer (aka "western") RPGs. In fact, it seems that every genre is being dumbed down in some way. It's not a matter of JRPGs not evolving, it's that everything else is devolving.

/rant.