Best Final Fantasy Japan Vote

Recently, Japan's national broadcasting organisation NHK hosted a number of Final Fantasy polls, asking fans to vote on their favourite game, characters, bosses, and music. Almost half a million votes were cast, and some of the results are... Well, some of them are reasonable, but others are questionable at best.

Indeed, Japan reckons Final Fantasy X is the greatest entry in Square Enix's long running series. Now look, we love Final Fantasy X -- even if some parts of it have aged really, really badly -- but we'd never even think about calling it the best of the bunch. We all know Final Fantasy IX is the one to beat (obviously).

Anyway, here are the top ten Final Fantasy games according to the poll:

  1. Final Fantasy X
  2. Final Fantasy VII
  3. Final Fantasy VI
  4. Final Fantasy IX
  5. Final Fantasy XIV
  6. Final Fantasy V
  7. Final Fantasy VIII
  8. Final Fantasy IV
  9. Final Fantasy XI
  10. Final Fantasy XV

Final Fantasy XII -- a masterpiece in our eyes, and we'll never be convinced otherwise -- is all the way down in 15th place, while the eternally divisive Final Fantasy XIII enters just ahead of Vaan and the gang in 14th.

Meanwhile, here are the top ten Final Fantasy characters according to the poll:

  1. Cloud (Final Fantasy VII)
  2. Yuna (Final Fantasy X)
  3. Aerith (Final Fantasy VII)
  4. Vivi (Final Fantasy IX)
  5. Zidane (Final Fantasy IX)
  6. Emet-Selk (Final Fantasy XIV)
  7. Tidus (Final Fantasy X)
  8. Lightning (Final Fantasy XIII)
  9. Tifa (Final Fantasy VII)
  10. Zack (Final Fantasy VII)

That's a whole lot of Final Fantasy VII, isn't it? Even Zack managed to make the top ten, with Sephiroth just behind him in 11th place.

As for bosses, Knights of the Round (Final Fantasy VII) tops the charts, while the immensely atmospheric At Zanarkand (Final Fantasy X) was voted best music track.

Interesting stuff, but do you agree with the results? Give us your obviously correct opinion in the comments section below.

[source nhk.or.jp]