Slashdot Mirror
Japan's Top 100 Games
Next Generation has a piece with the Top 100 Games of All Time, as voted by the nation of Japan. From the article: "1. Final Fantasy X (2001) 2. Final Fantasy VII (1997) 3. Dragon Quest III (1988) 4. Dragon Quest VIII (2004) 5. Machi (1998) 6. Final Fantasy IV (1991) 7. Tactics Ogre (1995) 8. Final Fantasy III (1990) 9. Dragon Quest VII (2000) 10. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998)"
* my favorite isn't on the list, so it can't be "right"!
* the list is biased toward older / newer / console / PC / handheld / RPG / arcade / puzzle games!
* the list doesn't mean anything, lists like this never do (of course they don't)
* oh man, I completely forgot that game, that was fun.
Lists like that are compiled regularly. It's hardly news, but hey, if it reminds you of a game you haven't played in years or lets you know of a gem you'd never have known about otherwise...
They're not that good. Not good enough to crowd out games like Civilization, Ultima 7, Wing Commander, Doom, Quake, Half-Life, and Privateer, all ground-breaking games for their times. A time period which the Top 10 list spans.
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
That's pathetic. Not a single FPS on the list? Only two PC games that I can see (Wizardry and SimCity?) Only a two sports games I noticed (Gran Tourismo 4 Super Family Fun Baseball Pro Gold Happy or whatever.) Do they sell video game consoles over there as "RPG Machines?" or something?
Comment of the year
Of course, you have to keep in mind that this a "player's choice" poll, not a list composed by critics or game developers, so it's not surprising to see so much fanboy influence. Still, it leads me to believe that Famitsu readers must be completely out of their gourd to be so utterly in love with menu-driven third person, turn-based RPG combat and cliched storylines to the exclusive of almost anything else.
I don't know that it's an age problem necessarily, but I'm sure Famitsu's market is a fairly limited demographic.
If the readers of say, PC Gamer (in the US) were to be polled with the same question, their list would likely be dominated by FPSes and strategy games, probably ignoring less "hardcore" games like The Sims. Likewise, if you were to survey the readers of a European Nintendo mag, they'd probably favor Nintendo games over any others.
This isn't a case of ballot stuffing; it's just a matter of demographics... the people who read Famitsu tend to favor traditional, Japanese RPGs. In reality, there are Yu-Gi-Oh games that have outsold some of those top-ranking FF titles, so clearly this list isn't a very accurate representation of game popularity.
I think this list gets better recognition and merit than the typical lists compiled by 1Up, Gamespy, or GameSpot due to the fact that this is data is a reflection of a market that isn't the English-speaking Western market that we're a part of.
Just take a look at that list. Most of the games listed are role-playing games and/or games developed by Japanese developers. This data tells us numerous things about the electronic gaming market in Japan and certainly reflects attudinal differences between us and them. They don't like action games as much as we do, they certainly don't like first person shooters as much as we do, a market loyalty or dynasty appears to exist with Japanese developers as they do with foreign developers, and they really seem to like their RPGs.
It certainly explains why the X-Box 360 or PC gaming, both having strong Western predilections, isn't doing as well in Japan as they are across the Pacific...
Hentai RPGs have zero gameplay. Most of them don't even care if you can't read Japanese, just keep clicking until you see the scene you want. If they'd put more work into it, they could easily sell an English version.
You say that like it's a bad thing.
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.