Never heard of Dark Soul.

Bioware belives all of CoD players are rpg lovers who don't realise it yet :D After all their online character levels up :D

And WTF is Blue Dragon doing in poll instead of huge series like Fallout (well i guess it can go into Elder scrolls) or Kotor ?

I meant to say Demon's Souls. But Dark Souls is  the sequel. You probably never heard of it because the game is only for hardcore ps3 gamers who are hardcore.

Well your poll is kinda meaningless with a mix of game series and only individual games for some (oblivion)....

anyways
As a series: FF followed by Breath of Fire.

As individual games: FFVI, Chrono, Secret of Mana.
For WRPG.. Fallout (the old one), Diablo, Dragon age

mass effect is an RPG lol? i chose pokemon. but if fallout was on the list i would choose that instead

1. Final Fantasy VI

2. Chrono Trigger

3. Xenogears

4. Final Fantasy IX

5. Skies of Arcadia

6. Final Fantasy IV DS

7. Tales of Symphonia

8. Pokemon Black/White

9. The World Ends With You

10. Grandia

innovative FF ???????? really not attacking your game of choice here I'm playing FF13 right now...... but honnestly I haven't seen a JRPG beeing fundamentaly innovative for a while (the good ones I mean) yeah the world and art direction might be different in JRPG but 99% of the time you have the same basic old school set of characters.... with the basic same set of emotion and personal struggle..... most of them are based on shonen manga type which is a shame... JRPG could have so much more to offer if those dumb ass DEVS had some balls.... and japanese people stop buying there crap.... and for that matters jap culture fans around the world too....

tired of the endrogin, virgin, hero, smartass, weakling etc combo....  I've followed jap anime and jrpg for over 20 years.... and jrpg are so limited and stuck into one side of that deep and amazing culture that is saddening.....

my fav in that list is ME because I thought that stuff was really new and refreshing well executed beside the clipping and popping.... but KOTOR is probably my next one..... elder scroll is from pure RPG point of view but not really well executed IMO and I haven't try witcher yet but looks great.... now FF always a good time.... but it's more like going to your favorite fast food to me.... you know what to expect you like it but I also know there is way better out there.... but right now I want that.....

I think it depends how you look at it, technically it IS the same series so there will always be some similarities between games, I think the characters similraities is actually one of he series most endearing features, because it highlights the subtleties that really differntiate their personalities (and forces the devs to actually put subtleties into the characters, something lacking in so many western gaming characters). If you look at the likes of Vanille, Rikku, Selphie etc they are all based on the same archetype but they are all very different characters that demonstrate very different themes & story aspects in the games. The likes of Selphie & Yuffie are extraneous characters to add mood while rikku demonstrates one of the FF10 stories most interesting concepts and in FF13 Vanille holds the story together & is arguably the 'main character' (though these days there is no real main character in FF's anymore which is also great, another great push forward for storytelling of all types, main characters can shoehorn a story in a certian direction something terible, having multiple leads is so much better imo).

Plus the game mechanics are very different FF9 bears very little resemblence mechanically to FF12 which bears very little resemblance to FF13. Its a much bigger jump mechanically than say NWN to Dragon age or Kotor to Mass effect.

I think at the end of the day its one of those things that could be argued till the end of time and it all comes down to personal preference and perception (i'm a perception (psychology) researcher an on lunch break right now so really dont want to get into perception based arguments on my time off). At the end of the day this is my opinion base off an amalgamation of what I know and have read (in total, not just in relation to FF) as what you know and read is different you will no doubt see it much differently. I'm not saying my view is "absolutely right & the only way" or anything so audacious, Its just my view. Plus I am not a huge hardcore gamer or anything so your gaming knowledge may far exceed mine. That and I hate space and guns stories so mass effect & star wars is really not for me (so our tastes are no doubt vastly different) 

and kudos on the Japan interest, I love the country and culture so much, used to teach there and was going to live there next year but just got engaged so that plans out the window at the moment, really value my friends from Japan, ther outlook is so interesting and I am very lucky to know them, they are always a blast and so different to my english speaking friends. having both groups is great!

I did an explanation but my f***ing browser crashed.

Anyway, it's Final Fantasy.

I normally get upset at those posts, but that was just too damn funny!!!!

Anyway, out of those in the poll, Final Fantasy, but my all time favorite RPG is by far Chrono Trigger.