http://gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=87251

"...We had to ask ourselves an important question: Were we setting out on an expedition to create art house cinema for a select few, or a Hollywood bubblegum blockbuster? We opted for big screen popcorn entertainment with high quality production values. Some may criticize our choice, but to us it made perfect sense that on a system built for everyone, we should exclude no one on our wild ride.” - Eric Nofsinger, High Voltage

I'm guessing they wanted to make it mass market friendly.

I'm guessing they only watched Michael Bay summer blockbusters....

Final Fantasy never has to resort to generic art styles to be a multi million seller as well as BioShock.

Personally, the "generic" look doesn't bother me. Artsy fartsy stuff is beginning to become the new generic anyway ;p

It's their first big game in a long, long time. It's natural that they didn't want to particularly alienate anyone.

Final Fantasy sales rests mostly on the hype of it's name alone and a well known developer. Because it's a Final Fantasy, people anticipate it a lot.

Bioshock on the other hand rests on a very good gamplay and atmosphere, not on the franchise. But rested on Platforms that are "natural" for FPS (Xbox 360 and PC, PS3 later on). So the developers have very good examples to know what works well and what not.

On the Wii, the Conduit does not have the advantage as Final Fantasy. And even though there are FPS games on Nintendo's console, the is little to learn in terms of what makes a FPS really successful and what not. The games might have sold well, but not well enough to be the case of study. Will a much engrossing story attract many players? The answer is we do not know on the Wii no matter how much we wish for the answer, the sales determine the result.

I see the conduit to be a "safe bet" on FPS, focusing on making great controls and graphic effects that many thought not possible. Leaving the other components on the safe side the many can enjoy. So many things were played safe in order to save up.

If The Conduit sells more than any other FPS on the wii, and I mean much more. Then HVS will use the feedback to make the sequel better based on the user feedback on whet they didn't put too much effort.

I understand that, it's there big game, they want it to appeal to more people.

yea

GENERIC?!

its  one of the most evolving series ever, never have the same story, characters, music, and gameplay.

And yet, they have a huge collection of RPG clichés as many generic RPGs.