The POW Block says: "Oh Japan, why have you fallen so far? You saved the home video game market after we westerners screwed it up with the Atari. You created the first real console war amongst yourselves between Nintendo and Sega. Westerners didn’t even have a real entry into the console war until the Xbox, so how is it that everyone seems to think you’ve lost your touch by the next generation?"
Japan really has been falling behind. I feel like the El Shaddai reviews are speaking to this as well.
I think part of the problem is that the majority of Japanese game developers are trying to cater more towards westerners and moving away from traditional game play we have to come to know and love from Japanese games from past generations.
I still prefer japanese games more than west ..sure, there are some exceptions, but not many..
I blame it on the rise of FPS games. They are messing everything up.
Funnily enough I was thinking about Capcom. Thinking back to their earlier games, Capcom came out with so many amazing games:
Strider
Willow
Final Fight
Alien Vs. Predator
Ghosts 'n' Goblins
UN Squadron
Commando
Black Tiger
I could probably list like another 50 I grew up loving. Shame considering the rep they used to have and the rep they have now due to releasing 'Street Fighter 76 - Hyper Turbo Arcade Ex Plus ++ Revision 2.1.0 Edition' and then a week later releasing DLC for it. :/