SE's heart is in the wrong place. I mean it's a part of anything J (Jpop, rock, rap, anime, games etc) to have overly emo characters, female looking male characters or whatever. If you play enough JRPG's and watch enough anime and read enough manga, sometimes you need an alternative. An Auron (FFX) or two to contrast a Tidus.

I can understand where SE is coming from, but If the lead already looks a certain way, keep it. Nobody wants to see a Sylvester Stallone lead character get raped by a penguin (these scenarios happen in Jap mediums all the time). That's just weird.

Perhaps with the emergence of games like BioShock and other western rpg's that have a darker edge, the japenese feel the need to compensate. It's weird though, I've seen friends of mine switch alliances from JRPG's to western ones thanks to Bioshock, jade empire and KOTOR. All of a sudden JRPG's are too emo, too light hearted, not dark enough etc. Come on, weren't you like 21 when you were playing Star Ocean Second Story?