I always chalked it up to a difference in cultures and a slight respect to role playing.

Western developers take no issue with creating a cutscene where your character goes all Kratos on someone for not watching where they're going and rips their head off. Then proceeds to shove said head into the unmentionables of a chimera. Then sets said chimera on fire. Then puts the fire out with ones own excrement.

Japanese developers, however, seem to take a mire polite route to what they put your character through, as they don't want to seem presumptuous about what kind if person your character is.