Results of Famitsu Poll: Action-Adventure Game Top 20 [June 2017]

The results of the recent Famitsu Online Poll for the category of Best Action-Adventure Game have just been published in the Weekly Famitsu magazine.

The poll questions were in Japanese but was open to anybody, and votes could be made for any game on any type of hardware. Polls are being run for a total of 11 categories, with the Action-Adventure Game category being the most fitting for the Shenmue games.

I don't think it is giving away too much to reveal that Shenmue has rated superbly!

I picked up a copy from my local convenience store today and have translated the most interesting parts, so let's look at the detailed results to see exactly how high a rank Shenmue reached.

Also watch for the bonus surprise at the end!

Age & Gender Stats

Before looking at the results themselves, here are some quick statistics on the participants. There was a relatively strong turnout of female voters. As might be expected, the most prevalent ages were 20s and 30s. 

Breakdown of participating voters

Breakdown by Release Year & Company

The top 20 ranked games gathered 1380 votes in total and the following pie charts illustrate their distribution by year of release and company.

Breakdown for the top 20 games

Without further ado, let's move on to view the results!

Best Action-Adventure Game: Ranks 20 to 11

Ranks 20 through to 11 are as follows:

20th to 11th places

No appearance from Shenmue so far... Let's continue on to the Top Ten!

Best Action-Adventure Game: Ranks 10 to 1

10th to 1st places

Boom, a fantastic result for Shenmue! Shenmue II placed 6th, just behind Yakuza 4, and the first game in the Shenmue series placed second. 

And that is not all: Famitsu have also gathered some comments below from some of the original Shenmue team members (my translations).

A Message from Megumi Yasu

Megumi Yasu

Megumi Yasu is an actress and celebrity who played the Japanese voice of Nozomi Harasaki in the original Shenmue. However in recent years there has been practically nothing reported about her in the media.

So it is quite a treat that Famitsu have been able to publish this message from her in response to Shenmue's great poll results. (Perhaps this may indicate she will be available to voice Nozomi in Japanese for Shenmue III - even if the extent of Nozomi's appearance in the game is only a telephone call or two with Ryo).

Here is her message:

"Congratulations on placing second! I was responsible for the voice of the heroine Nozomi Harasaki. At the time I was in my teens with no acting experience, and I'm sure everyone on the staff had their hearts in their mouths... (^_^;) I attended a lot of promotional events with [Ryo's Japanese actor] Mr. Matsukaze and it was my first voice acting job, but it was really fun and it was a valuable experience. I'm a fan of Shenmue myself, so I will continue to support it as one of the fans."

A Message from Masaya Matsukaze

Masaya Matsukaze,
looking rather young.

Masaya Matsukaze is an actor / voice actor and continues to be very active with work on several projects. He of course voiced Ryo Hazuki in the Japanese versions of the first two Shenmue games as well as performing all his actions for motion capture, and his participation in Shenmue III has already been confirmed.

His message is as follows:

"I'm so proud that Shenmue has stayed in everyone's hearts even after all this time. When I recall making this world-first game, with the staff united around Mr. Suzuki and looking at the world, even now it brings back a thrill to my chest. Currently, the new game is being earnestly worked on. I'm sure it will again be a game that gets everyone talking, so don't miss it!"

A Message from Yu Suzuki

Famitsu even managed to obtain a word from the busy head of YS Net himself, Yu Suzuki:

"I'm surprised that a game made more than 15 years ago could have the honor of being chosen for second place. I'm truly grateful that "Shenmue Chapter One: Yokosuka" was selected from among the numerous other titles. We're hard at work on the upcoming sequel, Shenmue III, which will also be full of that Shenmue feeling: a sense of nostalgia, a depiction of the everyday, and so on. Thank you as ever for your support.

Thank you

If you are one of the ones who contributed a vote for Shenmue in this poll then a sincere thank you for your part in helping to boost Shenmue in the public eye!

Translations by Switch at phantomriverstone.com
Source: Weekly Famitsu magazine No. 1487, June 15th 2017 edition.

Become a Patron!