Cool that makes sense.  I actually liked DDS as much or better than Nocturne because its story kept me interested.  You are right though about Persona 4.  It was really cool how they integrated a murder mystery into the main plot but I didn't like how much easier it was.  I guess it was because alot of people complain about the single dungeon design?  Gamers these days don't like challenges as much.  Although I don't know why.  I am really concerned that Nintendo is putting a way to fast forward past harder sections in new Mario games.  So kids are going to grow up learning that if you face something difficult you can just skip it?  Strange concept to me.

@Silentmac

That bothers me as well. Our generation grew up with games like Contra, Ghouls and Goblins, Kid Icarus, Ninja Gaiden, Shinobi and others of the such who really gave you a huge challenge but where very satisfying when you beat those games. Nowadays it seems that most companies are trying to simplify things to the utmost that they can, and NSMBWII is going to be a case study in that aspect of gaming IMO.
The demo play that actually skips parts forward is scaring the hell out of me, because if it works, the other companies are going to start using similar mechanics, and we will be left with games that can be played by a blind monkey while peeling off a banana and scratching his butt.

The reason why games were hard back then was because they were trying to compensate for the fact that they were also very short.  Games can be longer now so less difficulty is needed.

Yeah except NSMB Wii will be a short game.  I don't think dumbing down games has anything to do with the length.  Moreso, that younger gamers tend to give up if something is frustrating.  It took me like 50 trys to beat the Bunker level in Little Big Planet.  That is one of the reasons why I actually like it a bit more than Super Mario Galaxy, even though I recognize that SMG is the better designed game.  It was just so satisfying to finally beat that level, it reminded me of beating the underwater level in TMNT when I was a kid.  Sometimes it is very satisfying to beat something after great difficulty.  Thats why I usually start games on Hard mode these days if it is an option and I was shocked when I had my ass handed to me on hard mode when I played The Conduit recently...I hope what we see in the future is games getting more difficult if they are going to put in a way to skip the harder parts.

@Riachu

Yes, most action games that were hard, were also really short, but RPG in those days were also just as hard. The original Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy II, Crystallis, Fanaxadiu (misspell?), those were really long games, and really really hard, like goblin killing you in one hit, hard xD

Also i've just remembered about Battletoads, that game was hellishly difficulty and really really long, it had more than 12 stages, each with 2 or 3 parts.

The most recent game that I remember to be just as hard was, IMO, MGS4 in Big Boss difficulty.

To be fair there has been some real stinkers in the Final Fantasy series.  Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, Cyrstal Chronicles, x-2,12, and to an extent 8 were all pretty bad.  Final Fantasy definitley deserved to be somewhere in the top 5 for sure, maybe 1st.  If we had gotten a few more Chrono games of the same quality Chrono would win hands down for me as Chrono Trigger is among my favorite 3 games of all time and Chrono Cross is in my top 15.  But since there were only 2 main Chrono games I can see an agrugment as to why Final Fantasy might be ahead of it.  I have not played any of the Persona games yet so I can not comment on whether or not it deserves to be number 1.  For me I would say Final Fantasy, Chrono, and Mario rpg games are the top 3 rpg series.

Your entitled to your own opinion, but I think it should of been number 1.

@rapsuperstar, well obviously Final Fantasy has some bad games (it's mostly all the spin off games that sucked), but all the main series games are pure gold. The story in pretty much every Final Fantasy game is nothing short of being epic (ecluding FFXII, I didn't like the story but I found it was really fun to play, I clocked over 150 hours in that game, the only other FF game I put that much hours into was FFVII).

@Gilgamesh

Wow, with that playtime we're you gunning for Danjuro or Yagryu Darkblade in FFXII? I found my first Danjuro at 123 hours, and Yagryu at 162. I had a good bombshell chain going on, but at 65 chain, I accidentally turned on Basch's gambits and he killed an Aeronite T_T Had to start everything again, 5 hours of chaining gone to waste.

^Damn that sucks

I don't think I got either one, I just did all the clan battles, abunch of side quest, leveled up everyone a lot and got a few rare weapons. I just stopped after I finished the clan battles.

So, according to the results...

VGChartz is full of SMT fanboyz and Kingdom Hearts haterz CONFIRMED!!! LOL

I'm still upset that I totally forgot about Super Mario RPG/Paper Mario series, which is honestly one of my fav game series of all time, but having Ys place 9th was a nice consolation prize... if only they'll make a new game in the series instead of rehashing book I and II for the umpteenth time. Ark of Napishtim on PS2 kicked all kinds of ass!