You know, I guess I just have a bias towards trusting the Japanese with games rather than the Americans. My first system was an Atari 2600 II and it was ok but I compared it to the NES at that time , and then later I saw atari release the "Jaguar". My patriotism for american game developers was at an all time low. Im not one of these "Otaku" people that collects everything japanese and tries to speak Japanese and do everything Japanese while at the same time not knowing jack shit about my own ancestral culture. I just think American games in general suck, granted there are exceptions, but you get what I mean.
I thought about reasons why this is, my theory is this:
I have a suspicion that the average american game developement worker does not work as hard as the average Japanese one. I could be wrong, but the impression I get is that he more than likely sits in a dirty office from 9 to 5 with crumpled up arby's wrappers around him and extra large soda cups, he is at least 40lbs overweight and is pre-occupied with all kinds of stupid shit.
Now from what Ive heard about the Japanese, is that they stay up all night on crank, they are smoking cigarettes in the game development office and working out every last detail of a game, they aren't intimidated by their wives or girlfriends and ignore any complaints about them not coming home and working too late (assuming they complain at all), because she knows that if the game hits big and she leaves, there will be some other 19 year old japanese girl to take her place and get the spoils. When the crank wears off, they often get a cot and sleep right in the office so they don't even have to go home.
I could be wrong, but hey, its just a theory.