Is anyone else thinking that David Bowie would make an awesome character in an RPG?

He already was one.

Well played, that is a scary resemblance :P

Because Gears of War is so much better than their games, right? Japanese games have ALWAYS been better than western ones... until gen 7.

There are two problems that hurt Japan and are the reason for this:

1) It's not an inabilty to evolve, it's more of an inability to put out quality games like before. Infinite Undiscovery should have had more work on many of its aspects, especially optimization and writing. The Last Remnant is a great game buried beneath technical flaws because it was rushed. DMC 4 is not up to par with DMC 3, for example. The method is the same - the execution is worse. Why would anyone have any interest in your product if it's bad?

2) A shift in the tastes of today's (western) gamers: like the article said, they (the gamers) prefer to be bald marines instead of frail emotional dudes. Nothing can be done about it... it's a lot like the shift from simple games that you play for fun, not for storyline (the NES and to a lesser degree SNES method) to cinematic-experience games, The PS1 way and on. This shift, however, is to cinematic HD experiences. Gamers want explosions, blood, gore, cursing, strong focus on realism and graphics, action... more than ever before - because you couldn't do it on earlier technology... and now you can, and it just hooks gamers up, changing their tastes. All of those aspects are not the strong point of Japanese developers... so naturally interest is lost. Many Japanese devs are moving to the Wii and the handhelds - the desires of that audience are much more varied and there is room for more types of games. Development costs are also far lower, allowing them to do what they always do best - gameplay above graphics.

IMO, those are the reasons. No "inability to evolve" bullcrap.

P.S: The article talks about WPRG's being the best games in the RPG genre this gen. Obviously, the guy hasn't played VC, ToV and isn't anticipating SO 4 :)

EA are not kings of anything.

And it's true. If the Japanese want games to do well in the West, they have to aim them at Western audiences, like Capcom did with RE4.

Capcom is adapting but is it something positive i mean sure RE 5 is gonna be awesome but i think the overall experience will be a lot less than RE 4

Well the article is correct in places & wrong in others.

I'm scared. Most Rol posts you have to think 'oh, it's a Rol post, I dont trust him, he actually means the exact opposite'

This one actually made sense, and I don't think it was sarcasm

or am I being tricked by the intricacies of Rol's superior intellect?

Do you guys even know why those male character are androgynous? It's to appeal to Japanese gamers(especially girls). It's as simple as that.

Also, the problem is that they are still using dated development methods and control schemes, even though MGS4 took the step in the right direction. BTW, the best Japanese games can hold their own against the best Western games. Look at Super Mario Galaxy, Metal Gear Solid 4 and many of the other current gen Japanese developed games that have excellent reviews. You shouldn't say that ALL Japanese games are lesser than Westen games. It's not like Western developers have their problems. They sometimes listen too much to what gamers in their native countries want. Taking risks in game development is what kept the game industry from getting stale yet many Western developers are just as venerable in making by-the-books First and Third person shooters as the Japanese are in making by-the-books JRPGs.

The problem is that (I fear) Japanese consumers, not developers have caused the J-devs to keep on re-hashing specific cliches, and re-treading the same ground over, and over, and over again. Whereas the West has enough diversity in their gaming preferences to allow any genre to evolve.

A good example would be Japan's 2 biggest series - Pokemon and Dragon Quest. Guess what? DQ3 plays exactly like DQ8. Pokemon Red plays like Pokemon Platinum.

Compare that with the changes that EA has made over the decades (think Might & Magic 1 versus Might & Magic: Dark Messiah)....Big difference.

And guess which games are immensely popular in the West, from Japan? Games that typically evolved. Resident Evil evolved from #1 to #5 (I haven't liked most changes, FYI), but the fact is it still sells very well, and I anticipate RE5 to be one of the best selling in the West.

Japanese developers are in a tough spot: Ignore their home userbase to put out a West-friendly game like Metal Gear Solid (fortunately MGS4 sold awesome in Japan), or make a game that caters to Japanese fans (like Dragon Quest Swords), but bombs everywhere else. It's a difficult situation, and I don't blame Japanese developers for changing, when their home consumers show they don't want it.