Yes, that and the scope of western games are much larger than what I remember playing from Japanese developers. They were all typically concise and generally linear games, which is the complete opposite of the trends today with western developers. I wish they'd not try to copy the style and stick to what they were good at because I didn't mind preset characters, stories, plots, or whatever. I know I reference them way too often, but From Software has been the only Japanese team that I can think of that has captured the feel of western games without losing what makes Japanese games so great.
Edit - Kojima's MGS5 and, possibly, Nintendo with the new open world Zelda are notable exceptions.