Submissions received from xNinjaOfChaosx and MrSmartGuy.
There's been some confusion in the PMs about which series of games are going to be grouped together and which aren't, which is valid because it's been really hard for me to pin down how to handle this. Right now I've settled on:
Grouping Together: Trails in the Sky 1 + 2 Blazblue 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + Blazblue (as a whole) Utawarerumono 1 + 2 + Utawarerumono (as a whole) Umineko Question Arc + Umineko Answer Arc + Umineko (as a whole) Persona 4 + Persona 4 Golden Persona 5 + Persona 5 Royal
So if someone votes for 'Umineko Question Arc' and someone else voted for 'Umineko', in the final total, they'll be combined into one entity. If someone votes for multiple entrants in the 'series' at the same time, I'll just take the highest vote and ignore the rest. It gives a bit of an advantage to games like these, but I think it's more fair than the alternative. If an entrant makes the final list, I'll also give a breakdown of how people voted for each 'series'.
These entries will NOT be grouped together: Metal Gear Solid games Ace Attorney games Life if Strange + 2 + Beyond the Storm The Walking Dead Season 1 + 2 + 3 Trails in the Sky 3 (separate from 1 + 2, this was suggested to me by multiple people)
Their stories are much more self-contained (yes, even Metal Gear) and can have very different fans even within their general fanbase so I'm comfortable with splitting them up.
If you disagree with any of this, feel free to let me know! This isn't a precise science.
What's the metric for which games get grouped together? Some of the Ace Attorney subseries can probably merge, especially DGS1 and DGS2 which are part 1 and part 2 of a larger story. Though idk if either of them are getting any votes, since I'm not sure if the English fan translation of the games are out yet.
There's probably a case of merging at least some of the Zero Escape games as well, especially VLR and ZTD, since VLR is just the prologue of ZTD. Though people seem to hate ZTD so much that perhaps it's for the best to keep them separate.
And I'm assuming Persona 3 and Higurashi are getting the Persona 4/5 and Umineko treatment?