Originally Posted by Moriendor
[…]That's just a guess, of course, but I don't think/hope I'm too far off .

Actually JE was the game Bio wanted to make for a long time, it wasnt at all MS's idea. And although Asian-themed, it's not at all a clone of JRPGs, it very much resembles in its story and character relations Bio's past games, like KotOR and BG2.