I think it's fairly safe to say that most Japanese male character designs fall a bit on the fabulous side of the fence. Not everyone likes that kind of thing, and their preferences can have an impact on one's sales. As such, publishers sometimes need to do a little massaging when it comes to marketing products that come from other cultures.

That said, I don't think that Ghostlight, European publisher for SRPG Agarest Senki (renamed Agarest: Generations of War) needed to go this far in search of common cultural ground. It reminds me of the bad old days of localization, when all traces of Japanese influence were to be scrubbed from the product, or at least the marketing materials. 

In any case, Ghostlight did the smart thing, and asked fans to vote on the final design, and end result was more indicative of the game's content, if less univerally marketable. Aksys, the North American publisher, seems to be more knowledgable of its target audience, having chosen to go download-only, nixing English voice acting, and using this image as their teaser site header.

Hit the gallery for full-size pictures, as well as some prototype designs from when Aksys itself was considering a retail release.