Sorry to drag us back to the JRPG/WRPG argument, but I think it's basically the same divide you see every time genre comes up. Some people define genre as being very literal, i.e., "the rhythms work like this, the guy sings in this key, etc.," while others define genre as a sum of all parts, from the feel and artistic intent to the actual history and scene something is a part of.
So half the time we're just not talking about the same thing. From my perspective, the Breath of Death/Cthulhu/Penny Arcade games are definitely JRPGs. Much like Dragon's Dogma is a Japanese take on a WRPG. They're specifically tapping into a heritage that isn't from their own countries.
Dark Souls is its own thing, much like King's Field was its own thing. There's nothing specifically western or eastern about those games (I often think of early Zelda and Ultima Underworld, yet neither of those really encapsulate what the Souls games are), they sort of exist in their own bubble. Most of FROM's games seem like they ignore their contemporaries as a rule.
