[Images: Platinum Games | Atlus | Platinum Games]
Gamers in Japan love RPGs. But which ones are their favourites? Weekly Famitsu set out to answer that question in a recent poll.
Between June 22 and June 28, the magazine asked 2,295 readers for the RPGs they liked best. Out of those who replied, 56 per cent were men and 43 per cent were women (1 per cent did not list either). Nine per cent were in their teens, 36 per cent in their 20s, 37 per cent in their 30s, 16 per cent in their 40s, 1 per cent in their 50s, and another 1 per cent did not give their age.
As with the previous polls (here and here, for example), each person was allowed to vote for up to three titles (though people could only vote for one or two if they wanted). Famitsu then calculated these votes as “points.”
20. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (PS4/Xbox One/PC) – 72 points
19. Final Fantasy VIII (PlayStation/PC) – 74 points
18. Final Fantasy IX (PlayStation/PC/iOS/Android) – 75 points
17. Mother 2 (SNES) – 78 points
16. Final Fantasy VI (SNES/PlayStation/GBA/iOS/Android) – 81 points
15. Dragon Quest IV (NES/PlayStation/DS/iOS/Android) – 82 points
14. Persona 5: The Golden (Vita) – 90 points
13. Xenogears (PlayStation) – 91 points
12. Final Fantasy X (PS2/PS3/PS4/Vita/PC) – 100 points
11. Xenoblade (Wii/3DS) – 104 points
10. Final Fantasy XV (PS4/Xbox One) – 110 points
9. Persona 3 (PS2/PSP) – 131 points
8. Nier Replicant (PS3) – 151 points
7. Suikoden II (PlayStation) – 155 points
6. Dragon Quest V (SNES/PS2/DS/iOS/Android) – 165 points
5. Final Fantasy VII (PlayStation/PC/PS4/iOS/Android) – 169 points
4. Nier: Automata (PS4/PC) – 177 points
3. Chrono Trigger (SNES/PlayStation/DS/Mobile/iOS/Android) – 194 points
2. Dragon Quest III (NES/SNES/GBC/Mobile/iOS/Android) – 218 points
1. Persona 5 (PS3/PS4) – 256 points
What about you? What’s your favourite RPG?
Comments
7 responses to “Poll: Japan’s Favourite Role-Playing Games”
Some odd results in there, but I guess to be expected with such a small sample? I’d expect a lot of the high scorers to be recent titles but some solid old school entries high up too.
Loved Nier but way too high for me (& sure some would question whether it’s even an rpg!) & never in a hundred million years would I put FFX above 6, 7, 8 or 9! Odd that there’s not a Zelda title to be seen anywhere? I guess another that you could technically question on genre but still?
You could ask me for my personal 5 daily and they’d probably change, but in no particular order I’d go;
FFIX (just beating out 6)
OoT (Realise age is fast catching up)
Dragon Age: Origins (Toss up between this & Baldurs Gate 2)
Persona 4
Dark Souls (Another series notable by it’s absence)
FFX (no. 12) was below FFVII (no. 5). But agreed that Nier is oddly high and strange absence of Zelda. FFXV beating out FFVI is strange, too, considering the majority (if only slightly) of the respondents were in their 30s so I thought nostalgia would win out.
Nice to see Suikoden II still makes the top 10 and even beats out the latest final fantasy.
Generally a really nice list. Can’t help but wonder if Nier Replicant got so many votes due to Automata doing so damn well though. Also:
Gonna assume that’s meant to be 4.
The list is just as boring as you would expect from Japan, it is rare for titles developed outside of Japan to ever become popular within the region. Worse yet their RPGs are really predictable and stale.
I’m guessing you hard played any of these to know most on the list are true classics
You can be a classic for some yet boring for others. There are a couple of ok older games in there, but as I said; it is rare for titles developed outside of Japan to ever become popular within the region, this shows in a lack of western titles that I think are objectively better than some of these games.
So as I said, proof that Japan is a stale region for game development.
Of those, I have only played The Witcher which is a great game so I am glad to see it on the list. But my son is on his third playthrough of Persona 5 so I can see why it is #1.