Good point about FFXII. Once I think about it, it was under development long enough where WoW probably didn't influence it much. The game reminded me a lot of WoW, though. Not so much Everquest or earlier MMOs, though I didn't play Dark Age of Camelot or some of those other pre-WoW MMOs. My only experience is with WoW, SWG, and EQ.

MGS, though, looks a lot like Splinter Cell now. I can't think of a pre-SC game that used those controls, though there could have been a game or two that did. It's been awhile and my memory is kinda fuzzy.

NP Rocketpig, I can understand where you got that idea, I probably wouldn't have thought anything wrong with the argument if I hadn't wasted far too much of my life playing FFXI. Once MGS4 comes out maybe I'll play that and Splinter Cell, to see if I can notice the similarities you are.
On the note of sequels being mostly what Japanese Devs do, I think that's a cultural difference, looking at some sales it seems like new series might have a harder time in Japan than other regions. That's certainly not an excuse, but it might be a factor in the decision.

I forgot to mention that I did play FFXI a bit. Two of my friends had subscriptions to that for awhile.

I agree that a lot of it seems to be cultural. I have heard developers talk about the Japanese disdain for open-ended gaming and free-for-all worlds, which would explain their avoidance of sandbox and open-style RPGs. I was also surprised to hear a rep from Capcom talk about how the Japanese hate to die in-game and dislike hard games in general. It's quite the opposite of what I expected to hear. There are several big differences in likes and dislikes that separates the west from the east when it comes to gaming (excluding Korea, they seem to enjoy more western tastes). The control scheme of MGS & RE, which I absolutely despised pre-MGS4 & RE4, also makes sense when you factor in the Japanese taste in shooters. The controls were cumbersome, unintuitive, and felt completely outdated. It is nice to see that changing now.

It's just a shame that so many of the advancements that I appreciate in gaming over the past ten years have come out of the west while Japan seems pretty happy to keep their so many of their traditional franchises, well, traditional.

If you like FPS games on consoles...

Well, that's not entirely fair... Mass Effect is a very good game (though buggy), Viva Pinata is a great new take on the sim genre, GTA IV looks spectacular, and there are a bevy of PC developers putting out some pretty cool shit (Left4Dead, The Orange Box, Spore, The Witcher, etc.).

Sorry Rocketpig but I completely disagree on the originality of Western devs... let's look at the RPG genre for example.

You sited Mass Effect, KOTOR, and Oblivion.

KOTOR was great, but it's a 5 year old game. Mass Effect is derivative of KOTOR, Oblivion is completely derivative of Morrowind (but with worse gameplay). A real Western advancement in the RPG genre hasn't been made in years... especially when we look at settings. Medieval world of demons and magic (directly ripped off of Lord of The Rings 90% of the time) or Sci-fi world (directly ripped off of Star Wars 100% of the time). The slight exception to this rule would be the Fallout franchise, but let's face it: Bethesda is currently working on raping that franchise beyond recognition. \

If you look at the Final Fantasy Franchise alone they have gone from medieval to steampunk to sci-fi to whatever the hell FFX was. Star Ocean did Sci-Fi far before Western RPG devs (and far better IMO). JRPGs can also be based in mythology, even ancient Western mythology (Odin Sphere, Valkyrie Profile) and plots range from characters guided by Guardian Spirits (Baten Kaitos), to playing as a sexy super-human android (Xensoaga). Themes range from enslaving superpowered animals to do your bidding (Pokemon), to time travel (Chrono Trigger).

The genres simply don't compare in diversity of themes and styles. That said, Western devs certainly have their strong suits... but it's not in RPGs.

Except the only change made for RE4 was the camera.  The controls were still exactly the same.  Up/down = forward/backwards and left/right = turn.  R = aim, A (GC controls) = fire.  Same controls in RE1, same controls in RE4.  The difference is that it was a fixed camera in RE1, and an OTS camera in RE4.  Hardly a "ripoff" of Splinter Cell's controls.  Going by your logic, Splinter Cell ripped off of RE1.

As for MGS4, I haven't played the game, so I won't comment on it.  But it seems to be an extension of the controls introduced in MGS3, and the camera system used in Subsistance.  I also always felt that the controls in the MGS series allowed more freedom than Splinter Cell, which used a lot of context sensitive actions.  Even if the controls require you to have 10 fingers on each hand.

Also, I would argue that western developers seem to just evolve (which is a good thing), while eastern developers take bigger risks when it comes to radical new gameplay.  I do agree that there is a lot of stagnation when it comes to franchises, but I feel it applies to both sides equally.  I mean really, what do COD4 or Halo 3, 2 of the highest selling games this generation, do that's new or unique?  They are just damn fun games, and highly polished.  But they don't bring anything new to the table.  On the flip side, in recent years, we've had games like Okami, Katamari Damacy, Echochrome, Patapon, Locoroco and others come out of Japan.

@Naznatips 

But you are talking about diversity in story Naz, where he was talking about diversity in gameplay. Sure all of those games had completely different stories, but none of them really openned up gameplay like Rocketpig seems to enjoy. Personally I do not like open world games particularly more than linear games, but for someone that likes open world more I can definitely understand how he sees Japan as the land of old fogy gameplay.

I played the Witcher, and believe me it was nothing special. Seemed cool at first, but it was downhill pretty quick from the first hour or so in the game.  

Again though you're right, there are things that Western devs are doing very well.  The sim genre is getting some great attention (though I prefer what Marvelous is doing with Harvest Moon and King's Story).  Western devs are amazing with RTSs and MMOs (although TBS I'd still give to Japan).  As I already said, the shooter genre is doing great, but as long as Valve is around that's to be expected.

You say no real advancement has been made in 5 years... I disagree. The complete openness of Oblivion (to a fault IMO) and the cinematic nature & dialogue trees of Mass Effect added very different twists to the genre. Besides, you can't expect radical changes a la KOTOR to happen every year. It may be five years since KOTOR released, but when was the last time a JRPG radically altered gameplay style that much? 10 years? 15? Longer?

And you can pick on the storylines of WRPGs; I won't disagree with you. But stories don't greatly alter the overall gameplay. It's just a different story but the rest of the game progresses as it always has. Differing worlds and art styles are nice and all but when it comes to core gameplay mechanics, they really don't matter at all. I'm talking about real progression of the genre, not a few new shiny bells and whistles with a different style slapped on the top of it. And in that regard, JRPGs have been horribly stagnant since the transition to 3D. I still like many of the games and play them but I'm not expecting anything radically new when I purchase a JRPG nowadays. I expect it to be extremely formulaic and linear, just as those games were 12 years ago.