than the game's protagonist, Cloud Strife. GameTrailers ranked her at the top of their list of "babes who are out of your league" in 2010. Heath Hooker of GameZone ranked Aerith as fifth on his 2012 top list of Final Fantasy characters and wrote she "has become an icon in not only the Final Fantasy series, but also in video game history." Aerith's reception has not been completely uncritical. In a This American Life episode, titled "Save the Girl", reporter Lina Misitzis described the character as one-dimensional and lacking in personality. She and Kotaku writer Mike Fahey conclude that had the character been anything other than a pretty girl she would have needed much more development in order to elicit an emotional response from the player. Aerith's romantic relationship with Cloud was also praised though some sites noted there were arguments between fans about whether or not Tifa was more suitable to be Cloud's love interest. In a retrospective, Polygon analyzed several arguments fans have made about Cloud's preferred partner and how each side misrepresents the other's chosen heroine. Polygon concludes that there is no winning couple as, after killing Sephiroth, Cloud has a vision of Aerith when Tifa tries to help him and the duo agrees to meet her again. In contrast to this, Aerith's relationship with Zack Fair was noted to be a more impactful based on her role in Crisis Core. The character's traits in the remake were praised by Siliconera due to how caring she is and how developed she becomes across the narrative. Despite criticizing for not doing wrong things that balance her, Siliconera still enjoyed the scene where she volunteers for Don Corneo. Nevertheless, the site enjoyed how enigmatic she is for the way she interacts with the members from the cast. In 2010, Famitsu readers voted Aerith as the 24th best video game character. In 2013, Aerith was voted the second favorite female Final Fantasy character in an official poll by Square Enix. That same year, Complex ranked her as the seventh greatest Final Fantasy character of all time. In 2020, the Japanese broadcaster NHK concluded their global but Japan-focused poll for all Final Fantasy titles. Among characters Aerith ranked in third place, behind a first place Cloud and a second place Yuna from Final Fantasy X. Thus making Aerith the second most popular female and Final Fantasy VII character respectively. Death Aerith's