@Noname: Vice City and San Andreas are each above 400k in Japan. Not as big as in the west, but then again, the games are heavily influenced by culture. Japan has certain level of cencorship and i'm not quite sure do japanese find it funny, for example, how Elvis has left the building after you've shot a group of buddhists (does VC and/or SA have it in them?).

The notion that Japanese designers are superior to western developers is stupid. Both have developers that are crap/amazing and both have widely emotional artistic games/derivative boring talentless games. Early western RPG's had a HUGE influence on jprgs (games like ultima) I mean most of the remaining ultima online players are from japan.

Why do western games not appeal? Different countries like different genres and the Japanese have always been very good at accommodating their own tastes. Many of the big genres in the west simply haven't hit the big time there yet but that doesn't mean they wont. Look at the 360 its best selling games are firly jrpg and then secondly western rpg's. Yes the 360 is insignificant in Japan but games like oblivion fallout and fable and doing a lot better then people thought they would. Valve for example made a half-life 2 arcade game for Japan to try and create interest in FPS's over there. Its a very interesting strategy as they're going through the arcades and trying to create interest that way.

@soriku black and grey can be extremely artistic, look at citizen kane for example. Or Mad World (yes its a japanese game) if I must mention a game. The predominant art style in the west may have a limited colour pallete compared to the more anime based flavour of Japanese games but it doesn't really make it any more or less artistic just different. Its all about how you apply said colour pallete. Personal taste is not the most valid form of opinion when discussing things.

I like oranges. They taste so much better than apples. ?

Er...not really...?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non_sequitur_(logic)

Soriku, your post is making zero sense, so level with me:

how many 'shrooms have you taken today? And why didn't you share?!

Yeah, I had to retract that one already. My mistake! Bad example! (And a self-defeating one at that!)

@Noname: It wasn't bad in the sense, that San Andreas sold something like 3% of its sales in Japan, when Final Fantasy X tracks above 30%.
But, GTA is pretty new IP in Japan.

The original grand theft auto was released in Japan so its hardly a new IP. But its obviously younger then final fantasy.

Those games do ok in Japan, but they would do better if the main character was a ditzy 14 year old female.

I like Japanese games...i'm just pointing out the facts though.

It frustrates me that there is such a big difference between Western and Japanese taste in games.

I don't understand the Japanese.

In the 80's the Japanese made all the best games (the Arcades).

But nowadays it's all shit except for Resident Evil and Zelda (and an ICO or a Lost Planet every now and then).

But it feels just weird that the Japanese gamers aren't craving for FPS-games including online shooters, RTS, WRPGs, action, adventure - well basically everything that is good.

Yes, better gameplay. Really. I might try tales if it comes to EU some day. Not holding my breath anymore for that though.

Aren't most japanese games the same anime-stuff with annoying colors? Some artstyle?! ToV looks awful, it is even worse than blue dragon.

None I can think of but that's not really fair.  The Western market is a lot bigger than the Japanese market so it makes more sense, even for Japan developers to making Western esque games.