Board 8 > 50k Japanese gamers choose their favorite games

(+) Yeah! (+)

Kirby Air Ride making this list at 76 makes it all the more inexcusable that we never got a sequel

Suikoden 1 > Suikoden 2

Ok I stand corrected

Some of that is kind of shocking actually. Never knew Japan took a liking to Minecraft or undertale.
And Street Fighter is so low.

Undertale and Minecraft being big in Japan have been well-known for a while. Minecraft is Minecraft, and Sans literally got into Smash Bros!

KamikazePotato posted...

The only non-Japan-developed games on the list are:

66. Ghost of Tsushima
59. Dead by Daylight
30. Apex Legends
20. Minecraft
13. UNDERTALE

Xtlm posted...

Some of that is kind of shocking actually. Never knew Japan took a liking to Minecraft or undertale.
And Street Fighter is so low.

they're not as big but they are still big and 2 of the most actively streamed multiplayer and singleplayer games respectively

speaking of, dead by daylight and apex are probably the top 2 most streamed currently and tsushima's like maybe top 20 too

Both Apex and Minecraft have very large Vtuber communities, too.

anyway i'm a little surprised to see nobunaga's ambition make the list, and... that one specifically? ok

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Both Apex and Minecraft have very large Vtuber communities, too.

that too (tbh, the vtuber scene is like, two thirds of the japanese streaming scene now anyway and i'm being generous to the remainder here purely because i'm watching rta in japan currently)

KamikazePotato posted...

From what I understand, Japan didn't like Mother 3 much for whatever reason.

that makes it extra fucked up that they wont let us have it

hey Japan well take it off your hands

StealThisSheen posted...

Yeah, but pretty much nobody cares about the story in Pokemon games. Which is sad, and a product of the series literally never having even a decent story, but it is what it is.

I get my story fill out of Mystery Dungeon. They need to make more of those.

Pokemon Sun/Moon had a popular story when it first came out. But, a few years later the online Pokemon community decided they hated that story as well.

I watched this on TV last night.

When they showed gameplay footage...
It was like the person had never played the game before.
And it was always at the very start of the game.

Super Mario Kart, especially, was horrendous driving!

Undertale is very popular here.
The Elementary kids love it!

Sidenote, during the show, there was a panel of about 20, who would talk about the games and make predictions.
A real mix of young and old, male and female.

And one person's prediction for #1 was Seaman!

Team Rocket Elite posted...

Pokemon Sun/Moon had a popular story when it first came out. But, a few years later the online Pokemon community decided they hated that story as well.

To be fair, I don't think they liked the actual story as much as they liked the idea that it didn't follow the "8 gyms" structure. But then they kinda realized it was basically the same thing, but even less interesting.

OH YA FFXI LOVE

Great game

I always got the impression people actually liked the story with Lillie and Nebby and not just because it deviated from the 8 gyms formula. Like to the point where there were complaints about USUM making the story worse.

KamikazePotato posted...

The only non-Japan-developed games on the list are:

66. Ghost of Tsushima
59. Dead by Daylight
30. Apex Legends
20. Minecraft
13. UNDERTALE

Congratulations to Toby Fox.

Tetris

People liked Sun & Moon because of Lusamine, and now it feels like people like Lusamine in spite of Sun & Moon.

She was pretty raw.

Sun and Moon had the weird Ultrabeast stuff too and some other stuff going on that was at least... strange? Not necessarily good, but sort of different.

Buzzwole is the best pokemon they've ever made.

KommunistKoala posted...

Tetris

I don't know if they specified a version of Tetris, but the two most popular versions of the game for the GB and the NES were both developed by Nintendo R&D1

When they were showing gameplay of Tetris... it was of Tetris 99 on Switch.
But they didn't actually say it was that version. Just Tetris in general.

Why yes, the Japanese people should love Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy war, as I am one of the major antagonist on that game. w

Some people do like Suikoden better than Suikoden 2, but I suspect some people also choose it to represent the series as a whole.

Upon seeing this my list, my first thought was - "I knew Board 8 was mostly from Japan!"

It's occurring to me that this aggregate list of 50k people somehow has less diversity in franchises and genres than my own personal top 100 list

Like, they somehow have 10 different Pokemon games in their list and I only have 9 Zelda games and 9 Mario games on my list. What the hell

Wouldn't you expect that though? Making it the 100 most popular games means more franchise stuff. Mostly wipes out indie stuff, too.

Probably the weirdest thing to me about the list is how low MH is. Rise didn't even make it despite the crap ton of Switch games on here.

Yeah but I'd also expect a group of people to have more diverse tastes than me, one person

Paratroopa1 posted...

Yeah but I'd also expect a group of people to have more diverse tastes than me, one person

we've got 20 years of contests that suggest this isn't the case

Paratroopa1 posted...

Yeah but I'd also expect a group of people to have more diverse tastes than me, one person

right but the only things that can actually make the list are the games that all those diversely tasted people can agree on

like all 50,000 people may have had wildly different lists, but that just means theres a few thousand games that got like 17 votes

MoogleKupo141 posted...

right but the only things that can actually make the list are the games that all those diversely tasted people can agree on

like all 50,000 people may have had wildly different lists, but that just means theres a few thousand games that got like 17 votes

Yeah, this. It actually makes sense that a group would have a less diverse list than a single person, since everything said single person listed it going to make their list, obviously, whereas only the top X things that the group of people agreed on most will make that list.

I mean, I guess? But this list is like, impressively one-note

Like, there isn't any specific reason why the top 100 games everyone agrees on would nearly all be one genre, it just happened to be on this list

I genuinely don't think a western-derived list would be this narrow, I really don't

Wouldn't it be like 5 FIFAs, 5 NFLs, 5 NBAs, 10 CoDs, and so on?

Raka_Putra posted...

Wouldn't it be like 5 FIFAs, 5 NFLs, 5 NBAs, 10 CoDs, and so on?

no, it would not

Thanks!

• 10. Super Mario Bros. 3
• 9. Final Fantasy X
• 8. Chrono Trigger
• 7. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
• 6. Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation
• 5. Splatoon 2
• 4. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
• 3. Final Fantasy VII
• 2. Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride
• 1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Action/Adventure
RPG
Whatever animal crossing is
Shooter
Fighter
Platformer

That's 6 genres in 10 games. That doesn't seem that one note. I'm guessing your saying that RPGs are overrepresented, but they are the most story driven and thus generate the most emotional connection so it's no surprise they'll be ranked higher on a most favorite list on average how I see it. Casual gamers would avoid that line of thinking but they probably aren't filling out these surveys

_stingers_ posted...

That's 6 genres in 10 games.

Right, but also like... 5 RPGs from 1988-2001 in 10 games, too

I counted 60 games of the 100 that are RPGs of some stripe - of course, there's a TON of diversity in those 60 games (it would be hilarious of me to suggest that Bloodborne and Earthbound share a lot of commonalities), and I have to give credit where credit's due to the enormous amount of great games that the FF/DQ series happens to have, but there reeeeally isn't that wide a range of games on this list

Mind you, I'm not even trying to make some kind of a cynical point here, I don't really care that Japan loves RPGs so much, I love a lot of them too - I'm just sort of amazed at how redundant this list gets with the Pokemon titles

Oh didn't we use to have a Board 8's Top 100 games list?

https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Board_8%27s_Top_100_Games

Apparently the last one was in 2012...or at least so the Wiki says.

Admittedly the top 10 of the most recent board 8 list is not a spectacular look but I do think it gets more diverse after that

Has it really been that long since we've decided to make an aggregate best games list?

Huge DQ/FF war going on here. Did FF finally catch up?

That was the last time Holy Excalibur did one. I feel like one has been done in the last few years, but I can't remember who did it.

Paratroopa1 posted...

Like, there isn't any specific reason why the top 100 games everyone agrees on would nearly all be one genre, it just happened to be on this list

I genuinely don't think a western-derived list would be this narrow, I really don't

i think youre probably right about this, because were generally more open to Japanese games than Japanese players are to Western games

The order within the list isnt ideal, but its always great to see so many DQ games on Japanese lists!

(VI and VII are the best, of course...!)

Leonhart4 posted...

That was the last time Holy Excalibur did one. I feel like one has been done in the last few years, but I can't remember who did it.

IIRC one happened like last year and Persona 4 won

edit: found it. Tazzy ran it in 2019 and P4 did indeed win

LordoftheMorons posted...

The order within the list isnt ideal, but its always great to see so many DQ games on Japanese lists!

(VI and VII are the best, of course...!)

A fellow VI fan! Huzzah!