If Japanese developers could take certain play mechanics from the west and retain everything else that Japanese games are known for (storytelling, creativity, difficulty, 'weirdness'), they'll be just fine. Dragon's Dogma, Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Vanquish, and Binary Domain are good examples of blending western mechanics and presentation with Japanese qualities together.

Poor you, that was cute. I like your humble attitude.

And yes, get Dragon's Dogma. Immediately.

Hmm... I understand your point about not being identifiably Japanese (all games in the 80's were like that) but how can you say that about JRPGs? Do you really think that about JRPGs? I haven't seen any JRPG of which I think anything other than "this is very Japanese". (I don't count Dragon's Dogma and Dark Souls as JRPGs)

Japan comes up with the most over-the-top games imaginable. Who else could of come up with catherine, Devil May Cry, Street Fighter and they even invented QTE.

Watching Japan descend into a moe-induced dementia makes me sad, but games like Ninja Gaiden III show that trying to westernize isn't good, either. Japanese developers should focus on making neither good Japanese games nor good Western games, but just good games. Period. Like they used to before they got all weirdly insecure.

Yeah I guess Vanquish is very Japanese. I don't have the competence to judge that properly. I just had the impression it was aimed towards the Western market with that US marine stuff, but I guess that's only a thing on the surface.

I just know it's a super-awesome game, yes, both in its presentation and its gameplay mechanics.

Really i was thinking of every Final Fantasy up through possibly 8 or 9, i mean, yes, all the Japanese elements are there, but the root of it is as much Dungeons and Dragons as anything identifiably Japanese. It used to be JRPGs and WRPGs were just RPGs, and frankly, i want that era back. Or look at Xenoblade, vaguely MMO-ish in its combat structure and with as much emphasis on loot as on leveling up, with the anime aesthetics dialed back a bit.

Badgenome expressed my sentiment well enough too. It's a problem in Japan that isn't limited to video games, but to all "enthusiast" media, everything there is getting sucked into a "moe" black hole. A small, vocal segment of the market demands moe, so anime producers and game producers moe-up their content, pleasing the vocal base (who goes to unhealthy lengths to be able to buy lots of their product) and alienating the mainstream, which becomes a self-fulfilling cycle pulling things inward (and, simultaneously, away from foreign marketability).

I agree with him that Japanese people should open up more to Western games, but I still don't want Japanese games and developers to change. Western gamers need to open up more to Japanese games as well. The MGS games have a perfect balance of East and West in my opinion, they're absolute masterpieces.

Which Japenese IP's were developed in the West this gen?

Diversity is the spice of life, or in the case the Spice of Gaming.

If everything becomes Westernized, or "mass marketed" it will shrink the creative pool. The same happened in the early life of Consoles (and the early life of PC gaming in the West) where we might have had different genres, but they all still had that same feel to them (Japanese, Western, just plain bad, etc).

When a game creator takes a long running series (or even a long running game type that they are associated with) and changes its identity, the game just does not feel "right". Not really sure how else to put it.

I equate it to Square and Chrono. If Chrono Cross would have been called "Radical Dreamers" its reception would have been much better.

Why try to make your game "Westernized" or "Mass Marketed" or hell even "Japanese" just try to make a GOOD FUCKING GAME.