Annualizing Etrian Odyssey, as they seem to be doing, seems like a weird decision, but I thought the same thing about Assassin's Creed.
Makes sense, considering it's a super long game (50+ for main quest, add another 20 to 30 for post game), it presents itself as a value to consumers, but at the same time, it's gotta be super cheap and easy for them to crank these out. I haven't played the Japanese ones, but in the Western releases there's no voice acting, no cutscenes, and the graphics are not super fancy.
Which is not to say these games aren't awesome. They are.