Phil Fish's most basted with red sauce pills moment.
He was right, Japan's video game scene, from around 2002 to maybe 2011, did indeed suck, and they were getting absolutely blown away by an endless tidal wave of burgerclap perfection. Shit, even stupid ass gay Ubisoft was making better games, even Japanese devs knew it (then again one of those devs was perennial (perineal/anal) faggot and woke leftist piss fetishist Hideo "if you kill your enemies they win" Pissjima).
For every great Japanese game made in that decade, there are 10 western games that are just as good or superior. Call of Duty 1, 2, 4 (not 3), United Offensive, MW2, Halo 1 and Reach (2 and 3 were okay, whole different topic), Half-Life 2 and all of its episodes, Left 4 Dead 1 and 2, Team Fortress 2, Portal, Beyond Good and Evil, Star Wars KOTOR 1 and 2, the Mass Effect series (even 3?), Castle Crashers, Just Cause 1 and 2, Battlefield 3 and 4, Battlefield Bad Company 1 and 2, Sin Episodes (its 1 whole entire episode), Star Trek Elite Force 2 (better than the Halo games because it had tricorders), Saints Row 2 and 3, GTA 3, Vice City, San Andreas, Red Dead Redemption, Vanquish (sorry nips, this game is ours now), Fallout 3 and I guess maybe New Vegas more like Troon Vegas, Far Cry 3 and especially the massively underrated Far Cry 4, Call of Juarez Gunslinger, Assassin's Creed 1 and 2, Bioshock 1 and 2, Oblivion, Skyrim, the Batman Arkham games, Brutal Legend, the Guitar Hero/Rock Band games, Deus Ex, the original God of War games, Burnout 3 (the best car game yet to exist), Fable (you can kill your fucking wife as opposed to gay Silent Hill 2 where you're trying to find her), Gears of War (chainsaw women in the nuts), the Metroid Prime games (they are American), and of course Spiderman 2, and double of course Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, a game that provides you with a big titted foid that you can endlessly abuse psychologically and physically with zero consequences (I made her change her appearance a hundred times in a row before fully draining her of blood and slamming her face first into my flatscreen, NO masquerade violation haha take that ya lousy broad).
That's just off the top of my head, I know there's more. Not Fez or Braid though, those games were gay and stupid (also there ain't no point to them).
Meanwhile, the best JRPG of that era was and still is Half Minute Hero. All other JRPGs of the 2000s are just inferior versions of Half Minute Hero with the same gameplay but gayer and a million times slower and more butt ass boring faggotry with gay environmentalist and "killing people is actually le bad" storytelling. The only actual good stories in Japanese games at the time were the Resident Evil games and Ace Combat (I didn't play Silent Hill 2 because it is a fridening game and I don't like being fridened). MGS2 and 3 are for dumb gay retarded queers and monetized youtube essayists with silver play buttons, oh wait all of those things are redundant.
Japan only started making a comeback after inventing rollslop with Dark Souls, which is a westaboo game anyway, you're welcome Japan. The best game in that series is Elden Ring because I can just summon other people in to fight all the bosses for me while I sit back and sip on a refreshing La Croyx.