[quote name='Waterhouse']Guy said the artbook hadn't come in yet after rifling through the goody drawer. This particular gamestop has never screwed me out of a preorder item, but still people talking on the internet about getting multiple copies makes me worry.

it, I'm just going to relax and wait until it comes out.[/quote]
There's still time to pre-order at Amazon.com!
[quote name='SDC']We're on the internet. Nobody here is a hit at parties.[/quote]
I am, but I don't talk much about video games; even when I encounter another gamer, I am usually disappointed by their lack of knowledge or passion for anything decent ("I'm level bazzillion on CoD! I'd PWN yoU!"), so I content myself to make political jokes and put things in drunk people's laps.
[quote name='BlueSwim']
I love Japan's game companies, but I wish they would pay attention to what other countries are doing with game develepment.[/quote]
I don't know, man; I think it's a lot more complicated than that. The smaller publishers are spending their time on PSP/DS games that we'll never see here. We'd likely really enjoy them. Just because they can't all afford to make Western-style racers and shooters doesn't mean they're lagging behind. I think even we're rather lagging behind, technology over innovation.
I think Japan will surprise us, but it won't be because they're trying to pander to a western market. Part of the problem is that 360 and PS3 had not been selling so well in Japan, but PSP and DS were selling like crazy, so most publishers took their development over to that side of things.
Atlus, on the other hand, is likely one of the companies that we would suggest has fallen behind. We'd accuse them of rehashing the same, 1990s RPG conventions. I, of course, don't agree with that, but then again, Atlus is pretty much under the radar when it comes to what we westerners like to yammer about, for the most part.
[quote name='SDC']American companies (or at least non-Japanese companies) are churning out just as much bare-bones stuff as Japan. The Imagine series from Ubisoft started last year and must be well over 20 titles by now.[/quote]
I'd probably have a lot more interest in what the Japanese companies are "churning out," honestly, because it's weird, quirky RPGs. I read about so much cool stuff in the TGS reports on DS, like the Wizard of Oz psycho RPG, that will never be released here. We're lucky we got The World Ends with You, which totally tanked in Japan (who knows why--Square Enix is on strange ground lately) but was a rousing success for some reason in Europe and the States.
I think this whole "Japan has fallen behind" thing has gotten out of control to the point where it's almost sabotaging Japanese companies. It's just this strange idea that we've all decided to believe. But heck, maybe it's exactly the punch Japanese companies need. I just hope they don't become too western. I have never been a huge fan of western games, at least not the mainstream stuff, and the hardest thing for me this generation has been the lack of fun, weird Japanese stuff, which has always been my mainstay.
I think the 360, which is basically a PC in a box, gaining market share in the States is partly to blame. The West already knows how to program for PC, so it's only a few steps over to do 360. Japan, on the other hand, knows consoles, not PC, and their 360 stuff, at least what's been released here, has not been very interesting, even to me.
So you'd think they'd be great on the PS3, and I'm still hoping (anticipating, really) that this will happen, that the PS3 will absorb that niche that the PS2 always had, the quirky, Japanese side of things, but lack of sales thus far in Japan for the PS3 has hurt things. That's changing now, as PS3s (and even 360s) are finally selling. Hopefully White Knight Story will sell more PS3s and get people going. The last thing they need to do is make more western games. For every Dead Rising, which was a good success, there will be two Last Remnants and Infinite Undiscoveries, and whatever you might think of them as games (I will probably play them both eventually), the are not selling well.
The lack of big, leading Square Enix efforts on PS3 really hurts, and Dragon Quest IX being on the DS really damages things as well. I think it's just slowed the whole console generation down, so if anything, that's where Japan is lagging behind. They just aren't at the point yet where they're ready to develop what we're looking for. We need more Valkyria Chronicles and Folklore and things like that.
Wii Sports is part of the problem, whatever you might think of it, but that hits a totally different demographic than us anyway. There's a whole fuss lately about I guess the "softcore" in Japan. There's a lot of money to be made there, but the focus will probably shift again.
[quote name='BlueSwim']
3. When I said that about other countries, I meant games like GTAIV, Halo, any of Bioware's games. Stuff like that. I sure as hell don't take the Imagine series seriously!:lol:[/quote]
That kind of stuff has just never done well in Japan anyway, and so to imply that they are behind because they aren't making games like that is, I think, erroneous. They'll find their own niche, as they always have, but it won't be by trying to ape western development.
Take heart, my friends and fellow gamers! The glory days of this generation for Japanese development are yet to come, but they're on the way. P4 is a harbinger of good things to come, and if it sells well, and the reviews continue to be so positive, amazing things can truly happen because of it!
And finally...
[quote name='GuardianE']I believe he has credit because he's been flipping.

Half.com doesn't work for that.[/quote]
Eh, flipping? What is this of which you speak? A technique I am untrained in?
Sorry this is so long! Just caught me at a weird, yacky moment, I guess. I have a paper I'm writing for class that I'm only half done with; I should have been saving my yacky for that!