To establish this ranking, Famitsu contacted no less than 181 people, including game creators, of course, but also personalities passionate about games including voice actors and VTubers. In principle, each participant communicated a top 5, thus assigning a certain number of points to each game according to their ranking. Famitsu then produced a final ranking which gives pride of place to memories, in particular due to the victory of the very nostalgic Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake, which wins this 2024 edition. The latter succeeds Marvel's Spider-Man (2018) , Death Stranding (2019), Ghost of Tsushima (2020), Resident Evil Village (2021), Elden Ring (2022) and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (2023).
« The big winner is the remake of the iconic 1988 RPG titled “Dragon Quest 3 : Soshite Densetsu e…”. Using HD-2D graphics, this remake has retained a nostalgic feel while attracting new players, including younger generations who were not yet born at the time of the original release. This game, more than 36 years after the release of the original version, continues to captivate many people, and this is once again proof of its power », Commented Hiroko Saka, editor-in-chief of the weekly.
Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake notably obtained the favors of Koji Igarashi (producer of Bloodstained at Artplay), who still reserved his first choice for Castlevania Dominus Collection, he who has long been the strong man of the Konami franchise. He is not the only self-centered creator in this selection since Naoki Yoshida had no qualms in voting for his Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail, without giving the slightest vote to the other games. Same thing for producer Masaaki Hayasaka, who voted for his own project. Yoshiaki Hirabayashi (producer of Dragon's Dogma 2 at Capcom), Takanari Ishiyama (director of Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo at Square Enix), Tomohiko Sho (producer of Dynasty Warriors Origins at Koei Tecmo), Seiji Aoki (producer of Virtua Fighter 5 REVO at Sega), Hiroyuki Sakamoto (producer of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth at Sega) or even Akihiro Hino (founder and president of Level-5), to name a few.
Number one in the hearts of Shun Nakamura (producer of Sonic Tekken 8 at Bandai Namco), Astro Bot is also cited in the top 5 of Yosuke Hayashi (producer of Rise of the Ronin at Koei Tecmo), Hyung-Tae Kim (director of Stellar Blade at Shift Up), Yoshinori Kitase (director of the Final Fantasy franchise), Naoki Hamaguchi ( director of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth) or even Keiichiro Toyama (creative director of Slitterhead, but above all former resident of Japan Studio).
Metaphor : ReFantasia is cited by Junzo Hosoi (producer of the Atelier games at Koei Tecmo), Hiroshi Takai (director of Final Fantasy 16 at Square Enix), Fumihiko Yasuda (director of Nioh at Koei Tecmo), Kazutaka Kodaka (creator of Danganronpa at Spike Chunsoft), Toshihiro Kondo (president of Falcom), Hiroshi Yoshimura (director of Code Vein at Bandai Namco) and Katsuhiro Harada (director of the Tekken franchise at Bandai Namco).
If Atlus RPGs seem to compete more and more strongly with Square Enix games, the expressions of mutual affection and respect between the two schools are very present. He also heir to a powerful nostalgia, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is thus celebrated by creators like Shinjiro Takata (producer of Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance) and Naoto Hiraoka (producer of Metaphor: ReFantazio). We also find this extraordinary remake from Ryosuke Horii (director of Yakuza: Like a Dragon at Sega) and other personalities already mentioned above, such as Hyung-Tae Kim (Stellar Blade) and Kenji Anabuki (Scarlet Nexus).
The victories of Marvel's Spider-Man in 2018 and Ghost of Tsushima in 2020 show that it is not necessary for a game to be developed in Japan to rank well or even win in these rankings. Chinese action-RPG Black Myth : Wukong thus finds its place in the top 5, in particular thanks to the votes of Shûichi Kawata (director of Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess at Capcom), Takayuki Nakayama (director of Street Fighter 6 at Capcom), Toshimichi Mori (producer of the franchise BlazBlue at Arc System Works), Kenichiro Takaki (director of Senran Kagura at Marvelous), Kazutoki Kono (director of the Ace Combat franchise) and Hironobu Sakaguchi (creator of Final Fantasy).
- Also read | Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D review by DocSavage
