22,000 Japanese fans can’t be wrong?

Thankfully, the Japanese website has very helpfully printed a graph in both Japanese and English, so it’s no problem to take a quick look. The results – for the most part – aren’t too shocking, but they do help to illustrate the differences between Japanese and Western tastes.

Anyone with a passing knowledge of gaming in Japan won’t be surprised that Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest are topping the list. That’s despite the fact we don’t know anything at all – no titles, no screenshots, no features – for either of the titles, other than their existence. Such is the love in Nippon for Square Enix’s big RPG franchises.

That fourth title down – the one in Japanese only – is Legend of Zelda, just pipped to the bronze medal by Metal Gear – not bad for a pair of remakes. That’s followed by key hardcore offerings Mario Kart and Resident Evil Revelations. Atlus are rising stars, with three of their RPG titles making the list next. Add in Kingdom Hearts and Paper Mario, and that makes a whopping seven out of fifteen titles on the list. If you count Zelda as half an RPG, that means fifty percent of the list is composed of role-playing games – not exactly a shocker.

Two Mecha franchises – Super Robot and Gundam fill in two of the  remaining slots, along with a final remake – Starfox 64 3D – squeezing in at the bottom of the chart.

Of course, it’s also worth noting that this is a list compiled from the readers of a hardcore gaming website; it only represents potential sales in a specific demographic. Nintendogs and Brain Training will sell millions of units in Japan; just not to these guys. And yes, the word guys is deliberate; the average age of the pollsters is 28 years old, and 94% of them are male.

Do you agree with Japanese gamers picks? Is Final Fantasy that exciting, or are other titles piquing your interest?

Source: 4Gamer via Siliconera