It's weird, for me I find the business side of the dedicated devices to be much more interesting than what's going on in mobile... seems that Japanese mobile devs have settled into a formula that usually works - the F2P with IAP gatcha model, daily quests and incentives to log in every day. The same few games have been dominating the list for years, and games tied to an existing IP also do pretty well. But seeing how different companies who are normally strong on dedicated devices and bigger-budget titles cope with the loss of marketshare is more interesting:
-Companies looking toward Asia
-Companies looking toward Europe (which seemed to get the shaft from Japan for a long while)
-Companies looking inward, laser-focusing on otaku who still reliably spend money
-Companies realizing that, after a generation of the western press chastizing their games, there are actually a bunch of people over here who appreciate what Japan brings to the table in terms of game design and unique storylines/environmental design
-Companies discovering the PC and releasing their backlog of games on there.
-SE making more smaller budget RPGs and playing more to their core strengths in hope of stimulating console sales for their big-budget releases.
-Konami nearly completely bailing out from the marketplace.
-SNK dropping Pachinko and returning to console games
Actually I think this is a good opportunity for me to elaborate a bit.
It's true that the service business model for mobile is quite static and games tend to use slight variations or obvious next steps.
By the same token, my feeling is that most of the things you listed above are obvious next steps as well.
Condensing it down, we have:
1.) Double down on the tastes of your existing market.
2.) Expand to new platforms and geographies.
3.) Make the products where you feel you have an existing competitive advantage.
4.) Exit any markets where you feel you are no longer competitive and focus on those where you think you are (Konami and SNK are opposite sides of the same coin here).
So, with the core business strategy feeling similarly familiar to me between the two, I tend to focus on the most interesting products or corporate initiatives instead.
To start, I'll list out a few examples of what I feel interesting dedicated devices games from Japan look like, and some that aren't.
Final Fantasy XV: This is a game that tries to take a long successful but fading RPG series and remake it in the image of the West (as an open world action RPG) while trying to retain some of the brand's identity. Seeing whether that runs aground with cultural conflicts (in one or more regions) and first-time-in-a-new-genre game design problems or actually succeeds strikes me as quite interesting.
Metal Gear Solid V: This case is pretty similar to Final Fantasy XV, except that the material is a bit more inherently workable globally. Hooking in lots of open world mechanics, progression systems, and online functionality that feels like both a natural extension of the IP and a notably on point release for current global trends was interesting to see unfold, and its success made strong statements about the potential to launch a truly AAA Japanese game and have it succeed (sans the part where the company imploded and exited the market, but that didn't feel 100% related to the product they delivered versus the situation and direction of the company).
Monster Hunter Stories: There aren't a lot of people making new successful series targeted at children, and this is an area Capcom has notably struggled in. Here we see them trying to leverage a new business for themselves by tackling a new genre and age group with a currently very successful IP. They also seem to be spending a solid amount of money on development and the surrounding promotional/transmedia efforts. The difference between selling 300K or 800K here means a lot to both Capcom and other companies who might try to do the same, but have similarly struggled to follow in Level 5's footsteps thus far.
Splatoon: This was a case of a Japanese company that's been seen as perennially behind the time when it comes to core gaming manage to launch a competitive third person shooter (both in the genre and product senses) with a strong service model that retained their corporate identity, added new innovations to the genre, and also launched the first successful E10+ shooter in existence. It also accomplished all this despite being made by less experienced/younger staff and being in a genre that's completed dominated by the West. It's strong overperformance speaks volumes about how well Nintendo has managed to adapt in the past few years, and their potential to do so in the future.
However, I feel this type of stuff is few and far between. Much more often we either see a scenario like Persona 5 (growing brand + lots of money + strong but expected iteration = more sales, shocking!), a scenario like Tales (relatively unambitious changes + middling budget + constant output = declining sales), or a scenario like Star Ocean (let's revive this thing that died off, give it a low budget, and have it pretty much be like before = it didn't sell very much).
With mobile, I feel that we actually see the types of products being released change very frequently, even if each of them is molded to the business model that dominates the medium. We've went from barely interactive clicker games to puzzle titles, to action RPGs, to synchronous multiplayer games, to even having lite-MMOs like Final Fantasy Grandmasters all within the course of about four years. Production values have seen significant changes, as has the degree of similarity and scope between mobile titles and dedicated devices games. Due to the comparatively low cost and growing nature of that market, we get to see unusual attempt after unusual attempt try to go out and succeed, sometimes where others have failed before, and then try to glean why things failed and why things worked.
To demo some of this evolution, back in 2011, the best performing Final Fantasy mobile game was Airship Brigade, which worked like every other tap-to-win "card battler" ever.
In 2016, it's Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius, which includes a CG opening, lots of ingame cutscenes, a battle system with tactical ability usage/healing/status effects/MP management (and yes, an auto button for trash mobs), explorable towns with shops and lots of NPCs to talk to and sidequests to pick up, and explorable maps with random encounters and items/chests to collect hidden throughout:
https://youtu.be/R6BedDSvC_0?t=55
I feel the process of figuring out the market and getting all these kinds of ideas to work where products like Chaos Rings failed has been the most interesting and dynamic part of the Japanese industry over the past few years.
so far 3DS is over PS4. Doesn't matter by how much, is head.