I finally bought a 360 -- we had a used Elite at my store, so yeah -- specifically for the purpose of playing Mass Effect, which was a fairly incredible game. Glad I got the chance to play it twice over.

Blue Dragon, on the other hand, is okay. I don't know how else to describe it. You've got an ocean-sized talent pool leading the project, and all it does is turn up okay? The game's pacing is hitting an extreme slow point for me, and I'm already about 10 hours into it. There just isn't anything that screams (or screamed, since it was released earlier in the year) "I need to buy a system for Blue Dragon." Pretty sure the Japanese felt that way too.

Now, I always enjoy giving props to Level 5 wherever I can. Mistwalker's big reception into the developer market was almost entirely due to the names behind the studio, Sakaguchi, Uematsu and Toriyama. Level 5, on the other hand, just came out and showed the industry their product, which was the original Dark Cloud. Wasn't highly received, but it wasn't a bad shot at a first-gen game on a new platform.

The ever-awesome (personal op) Dark Cloud 2 came out though, and while still sort of under the radar, it impressed the right people -- Square Enix, Sony, even Nintendo -- to fund them. You've gotta be a damn impressive studio for Enix to trust the majority of development for their biggest selling series to, and Dragon Quest VIII came out as a superbly made game.

I really enjoyed Rogue Galaxy as well. It clearly showed Level 5's talent as a developer. Mistwalker, on the other hand, just hasn't done that yet. Like you said, Django, BD came out to average reviews, and furthermore it was released on a system that was not well-versed in JRPGs.

On another note, why was Ace Combat 6 of all things Microsoft's big break in Japan? If any game would've been it, I'd have thought Blue Dragon or Mass Effect.

You forgot Ayako Kawasumi. Also note that Eternal Sonata had a fixed camera system and an extremely restrictive path, which allows the developers to get by with less close-up detail. Blue Dragon also had amazing depth-of-field which even a game like Halo 3 couldn't quite emulate.

I don't get all the fawning over Mass Effect. It's a solid game, sure, but I've played the exact same thing before. I think it was called Knights of the Old Republic. On a similar note, Lost Odyssey isn't impressing me because a PC game called Planescape: Torment already explored the same premise 8 year ago, and did it to absolute perfection.

Because it was done by the same developers. That's actually one of the reasons I'm enjoying it so well, is because the system used in KOTOR has been polished and refined upon. Its almost like playing KOTOR 3, only in an original game universe, which IMO is better since most Star Wars games lately have been subpar at best.

Maybe the Japanese thought "What if we did our take on Planescape"? I haven't played it so I don't know (Lost Odyssey). Although I probably should play through Planescape again, as its been many years now.

Personally, I wouldn't even consider it a rehash. BioWare has a very specific "feel" to their games. Mass Effect is no exception.