Quote Originally Posted by ReynTime View Post
I have to disagree with the apologists using "it's a japanese game aimed at japanese fans" as excuse for this.
A lot of japanese RPGs have playable "Beastly" male (or female) characters. Just to name a few:
Final Fantasy X, IX, VI too if you count Mog. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance series. Breath of Fire I~IV (heck Garr is arguably the 2nd most popular playable character in III). Chrono Cross. The Mana series. Phantasy Star IV. Shining Force I~III. The Shining series in general.
Perhaps I'm missing something here, but I'm not certain premade defined characters in a jrpg are comparable player created characters in an MMO. I'm not quite sure what you're going for there.