Wall Street Journal technology reporter Takashi Mochizuki recently asked followers to submit in a Twitter poll what they feel is the best RPG series to represent Japan, and we got some interesting results.
「今の日本を代表する国民的RPGシリーズと言えば」。
— Takashi Mochizuki (@mochi_wsj) August 14, 2017
The poll that has 2,277 votes has the Dragon Quest series at 54% in first place, Pokémon with 31% for second place, Final Fantasy with 9% for third, and Shin Megami Tensei with 6% for fourth.
With a vast majority of the votes going to the top-2 of Dragon Quest and Pokémon, a second poll was made available to see which of the two gets more votes:
「日本を代表する国民的RPGゲームのフランチャイズといえば」。上位２つが圧倒的なのでこちらも改めて。
— Takashi Mochizuki (@mochi_wsj) August 15, 2017
The poll which had 485 votes went 58% in favor of Dragon Quest and 42% for Pokémon. With the recent release of Dragon Quest XI, it makes sense as to why Dragon Quest came out on top.
Mochizuki also has an English poll going on that asks Western followers to vote for what they feel is the best Japan-born still-active RPG franchise:
The best Japan-born still-active RPG franchise, in your opinion, is
— Takashi Mochizuki (@mochi_wsj) August 14, 2017
While Dragon Quest and Pokémon was more or less a given to come out on top in Japan, the reporter expressed his surprise to see Dragon Quest come out on top over Final Fantasy with Western fans. As for The Legend of Zelda coming out on top, Mochizuki suggests there might be a bit of a bias with a good number of his followers from the West being Nintendo fans.
