Only 8% of Koei's sales come from outside of Japan

True, but Japan's population is a lot smaller than USA and Europe. A hit in Japan doesn't make as much money as a hit abroad

I don't know about you, but I've thoroughly enjoyed crushing the yellow turbian rebellion for the umpteenth time now!

fisheye mode FTW! Played that game drunk as hell on fisheye mode one time. That was a trip.

Uh, no? Most of their games are strategy games. Romance of the Three Kingdoms has more games than Dynasty Warriors, and that doesn't count in Kessen and Dynasty Tactics and things like Gitaroo-Man. I would say hack n slash is less than half.

I think one of the key points you're missing is that that game is bland as fuck. Bioshock did well because the environment was richly detailed and had character. Looking at Crystal Bearers and other Japanese RPG's game play makes me want to fall asleep just watching. The worlds are bland and have very little personality. Shin Megami Tensei is a notable exception to this. All Japanese developers could stand to learn a thing or two about crafting rich worlds from Atlus.

Not to mention Crystal Bearers is on the Wii which already drags down its ability to fully realize a developer's vision. And before you down vote me for speaking ill of the Wii, imagine Bioshock on the Wii. I thought so.

The Crystal Bearers is quite colorful, non-bland in its own way, but that's the fun of opinions. I associate bland generally with Western games by default, stuck in their constant attempts to render a darker and more sombre version of the real world, you seem to do so with Japanese games

And no, BioShock wouldn't have been significantly worse on Wii. Wii does atmosphere quite well, when developers properly apply it. Look to Silent Hill, or Metroid Prime 3. The problem with Wii is as much developer laziness as it is hardware.

It's not opinion it's fact. There are bland and completely reused textures in Crystal Bearers. I understand the vision the developer wants to go for but as far as I can see they have failed miserably. What Bioshock did well was create a world based in a past decade and put it undersea in a place away from the world. Your sickening generalizations of western game development aside, I think you'd enjoy Bioshock much more than Crystal Bearers if you truly looked at what was in front you.

Also one of the most intriguing atmospheric elements of Bioshock was the water and the undersea setting in general. I'd even go so far as to say that the idea of putting Bioshock on the Wii is laughable at best and woefully misguided at worst. Wii games should be focused on innovative control schemes (read:adding superfluous waggle effects)and on crafting engaging worlds without the aid of technology from the past 8 years (read:terribly uninviting graphics and using symbols over characters' heads instead of having them show real facial emotion).

You know whats Funny When Danny makes a generalization of Japanese games "it isn't opinion it is fact". When Mr Kahn gives an opinion on what he sees in western games it is a "sickening generalization of western games".

And that is why we can't have nice things. BUT before I get flamed. Lets see if I can't find some middle ground.

This is Gametrailer's review of Wet, stylized Western oriented game made by Bethesda

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/review-hd-wet/56255

The next is Muramasa Demon Blade review from gametrailers made by Vanillaware

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/review-hd-muramasa-the/55698?type=flv

see how each does style and color to enhance the game, then see why calling your opinion about japanese games '"fact" and calling another persons opinion about western games a "sicken generalization" FLAWED! Enjoy

So you're yet another anti-Wii troll, then?

Line's over there, my friend. You'll have to wait your turn.

Holy cats, we might have the dumbest Wii troll on Joystiq in some number of months here.

Erm...do you not know what gameplay is?
The Japanese are the ONLY ones who evolve gameplay continually. It's the western studios who are hellbent on turning games into interactive movies.
Granted, the Japanese, in particular with JRPGs (and Kojima lol), have a thing for long cut scenes... but that's irrelevant. The western studios are the ones who sacrifice and ignore gameplay mechanics in order to tell a better story.

Think about it...when was the last time there was ANY sort of significant evolution (or revolution) in a FPS? Halo and it's regenerative health and limited weapon capacity? Halo is now about 9 years old and frankly, that barely counts, IMO.

Meanwhile, the Japanese are the ones coming up with games like Viewtiful Joe, Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden, Resident Evil 4 (and 5, I suppose..), God Hand, No More Heroes, MadWorld, Klonoa, Zelda, Mario, Okami, Pikmin...

Compare that to something like, say, GTA. GTA is another game that people deal with because they love it for the story and overall experience, in spite of it's unpolished gameplay and, in particular, controls (which is one of the most crucial elements to gameplay, I'd say).

Heck, even when western studios make games in the same genre, the difference in gameplay and gameplay mechanics are night and day.
Compare everyone's favorite platformer made by a western studio, Psychonauts to ANY Japanese platformer. Personally, I hate Psychonauts. In part because it has terrible gameplay. Heap all the praise you want on the game and I'll actually agree with you (to an extent) from looking at it from an unbiased viewpoint. But the actual act of playing Psychonauts compared to, say, Mario?
It's night and day, dude.

Or compare Beyond Good & Evil to Zelda or Okami. All good games, but, like Psychonauts, BG&E isn't exactly getting praised for things like it's combat system or gameplay. Like Psychonauts, it gets it's praise based primarily on the strength of it's story telling and immersiveness.

There are some western studios that definitely understand the importance of gameplay and gameplay mechanics. Naughty Dog, Insomniac and (maybe still) Rare. But what those studios excel at more than anything is actually taking tired and true gameplay and polishing them up to perfection and maybe putting a slightly new spin on them. They aren't exactly reinventing the wheel, though.
The Japanese are much, much more likely to do that.

The reason the Japanese put SO much more emphasis on gameplay compared to western studios is in large part because of the continuing strength of the arcade culture in Japan. Arcade games HAVE to have strong gameplay and creative mechanics because they don't have much time to tell you some stupid, epic story. They're meant to keep you playing and continually popping in ¥100 or so every few minutes. The only way to do that is if it's damn fun to just play with, almost like a toy.
Western studios, especially today, are mostly people who came up making games on PC and have only in the last few years really started to transition to consoles. It's just a completely different mindset.

So yeah...that's my thesis on gameplay. I'd REALLY like to know more why you think the Japanese ignore gameplay when that completely does not square with reality, IMO.