GameFAQs Contests

spooky96 posted...

ctesjbuvf posted...

A survey means absolutely nothing for the outcome really. People are just really fast to be all over stuff such as "FFVII has fallen". And a good bunch of people just follow the majority to decide their matches.

Shepard could win, but there's no way FFVII has fallen so much and Mass Effect has been boosted so much that this match with 100% accuracy.

Of course it means nothing, you mentioning it wasn't very clever of you either. It just simply shows a few people's thoughts as to who'd win. Of course this doesn't secure Shepard's victory in the actual contest. I just posted to show that most people on this board think Aerith won't make it.

Sorry not bashing you at all, may have sounded a little harsh though >_>

The point of my post was more in the latter part really. People claiming that Shepard wins isn't up for debate are too confident with no reason to. Aeris was clearly stronger last contest, and there's no way that FFVII has fallen so much and ME has boosted so much, that the match isn't even up for debate. People have nowhere to get that from, so it just comes off as being cocky.
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*2, *8,070,446 Kuroko no Basket
*3, *6,495,240 Naruto

Mass Effect stats and discussion
maybe we should move this to XIII AND JEFF AND FFD AND LEON RANK MASS EFFECT SQUADMATES! THE BEST TOPIC ON THE BOARD GUYS GO CHECK IT OUT
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/66210980
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XIII_rocks, the cream of XIII fanboyism.

Aerith wasn't clearly stronger last contest. She did about as well as she should have based on 2007, really.
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"I couldn't stand a day without a past or future. I need to live each moment to keep fighting here and now."

Also it's not a matter of whether people liked ME3 or not here. It's a matter of whether people liked Shepard or not. Don't really see a lot of complaints for how Shepard was portrayed in ME3, for all the complaining the game gets.

Best game in the series, by the way.
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"I couldn't stand a day without a past or future. I need to live each moment to keep fighting here and now."

Well, considering that Shepard is the literal avatar of the series, I don't think it would be too out there for him to be tied to how the series is viewed. We've seen it a bunch of times before. I don't think he's going to be super weak now or anything, but Aeris should be getting more consideration than she is in that match considering she got 42% on Auron. Not sure if Shepard would do that.
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

LeonhartFour posted...

Also it's not a matter of whether people liked ME3 or not here. It's a matter of whether people liked Shepard or not. Don't really see a lot of complaints for how Shepard was portrayed in ME3, for all the complaining the game gets.

Best game in the series, by the way.

the biggest complaint was that people were forced to do things that "their" shepard wouldn't do, that's why people hated the ending it forced them to choose A/B/C which the devs specifically said they wouldn't do prior to the game's release .
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That's not why people hated the ending.

At least it's not a major reason.
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"I couldn't stand a day without a past or future. I need to live each moment to keep fighting here and now."

KamikazePotato posted...

but Aeris should be getting more consideration than she is in that match considering she got 42% on Auron. Not sure if Shepard would do that.

From what I see, Final Fantasy 7 gets bonus votes against any other title in the series. If this is true that 42% might be exaggerated just a teensy bit. I could see Shepard putting even 40% on Auron and still have the strength to (barely) beat Aeris.
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Wii Fit Trainer MASTER RACE

Well, everybody I know who has played ME has also played FF7.

I'm sticking with Aeris.
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This is a fantasy based on reality.
~DChemist~

But we can't know Shepard's strength and we don't know how much FFVII has fallen, so people should'be too sure about anything. That's the bottom line.
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*2, *8,070,446 Kuroko no Basket
*3, *6,495,240 Naruto

One thing in Shepard's favour is that it's a day match, for what that's worth.

Edit: Actually, seems like it's a night match. Am I right in thinking the first match of R2 should take place in the day?
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We are living our lives
Abound with so much information

Shepard is weak. What is his best match? losing 61-39 to Piakchu? and that was just a month after Mass Effect 2's almost Halo-like hype, and the game was loved by everyone.

What does he have now? no hype as ME3 is over a year and a half old and to top it off it was not nearly as acclaimed as ME2. Aerith should win and comfortably too.
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Kotetsu534 posted...

One thing in Shepard's favour is that it's a day match, for what that's worth.

Edit: Actually, seems like it's a night match. Am I right in thinking the first match of R2 should take place in the day?

I'm pretty sure the first match of round 2 will be a day match.`
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Yeah, the match should be a night match. That's how it is when there's an uneven number of matches each round.
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*3, *6,495,240 Naruto

abdou posted...

Shepard is weak. What is his best match? losing 61-39 to Piakchu? and that was just a month after Mass Effect 2's almost Halo-like hype, and the game was loved by everyone.

What does he have now? no hype as ME3 is over a year and a half old and to top it off it was not nearly as acclaimed as ME2. Aerith should win and comfortably too.

That was the same contest where Kratos failed to benefit from God of War III hype. Either Kratos and Shepard are about to drop like a rock, or the former will be just as strong as he's always been while the latter should logically have nowhere to go but up now that Mass Effect is a popular series on this site.

There is one character who I feel benefited from a hype train in 2010, however. Goes by the name of Samus.
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Currently Playing - Super Metroid, MGS4, Brawl, FFVII, Wind Waker, RE4, SOTC

abdou posted...

Shepard is weak. What is his best match? losing 61-39 to Piakchu? and that was just a month after Mass Effect 2's almost Halo-like hype, and the game was loved by everyone.

What does he have now? no hype as ME3 is over a year and a half old and to top it off it was not nearly as acclaimed as ME2. Aerith should win and comfortably too.

I assure you, Shep is much stronger now. Now, with every ME game having been sold for under $10 each for a long time now means he has much higher of a playrate as opposed to the time shortly after ME2's release, and ME3's poor reception doesn't hurt him. He's the avatar of the player, and all the ME3 hatred is centered around the ending/Bioware; everyone who played ME3 still loves Shep. Sure, he would be more powerful if the ending wasn't awful, but he's still going to garner much more popularity than before.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3EAmdg3xls

It's a bit hard to measure Kratos in 2010, for all we know he could be about equal to Bowser.

Sure he looked pretty bad against Tails, but most of the 15 seeds looked pretty good (Simon Belmont, Spy)
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Also no one is saying Shepard won't be stronger, but even if he didn't drop from the hype train in 2010 (again it was Halo 3-like) he'd still either need quite the boost from ME3 or hope Aerith takes quite the stumble. At best Shepard is only going to win in a close match, nowhere near an "ulti blowout."
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I'm going over my bracket with a fine toothcomb and the one character that I'm wondering about is Dante. His last game, from earlier this year, was pretty much crapped upon by DMC fans and even DMC4 before that wasn't received too hotly. What impact does that have on the guy, I'm wondering.

I have him winning over Laharl/Raz but in Round 2 I got him against Squirtle/Ridley (yeah, taking risks with Pokemon because historically they always broke my bracket) and now I'm wondering what his chances there are. I'm figuring Squirtle is going to be a dark horse bracket breaker.
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In Oz; cruel is the usual punishment.

As long as he doesn't get match pics from that game, he should be okay. If he gets a DmC pic, all bets are off.
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"I couldn't stand a day without a past or future. I need to live each moment to keep fighting here and now."

Azp2k32 posted...

abdou posted...

Shepard is weak. What is his best match? losing 61-39 to Piakchu? and that was just a month after Mass Effect 2's almost Halo-like hype, and the game was loved by everyone.

What does he have now? no hype as ME3 is over a year and a half old and to top it off it was not nearly as acclaimed as ME2. Aerith should win and comfortably too.

I assure you, Shep is much stronger now. Now, with every ME game having been sold for under $10 each for a long time now means he has much higher of a playrate as opposed to the time shortly after ME2's release, and ME3's poor reception doesn't hurt him. He's the avatar of the player, and all the ME3 hatred is centered around the ending/Bioware; everyone who played ME3 still loves Shep. Sure, he would be more powerful if the ending wasn't awful, but he's still going to garner much more popularity than before.

Important to remember ME wasn't on PS3 back then, too.

Is the new DmC really going to weaken him? Critics love it, and most of the hate I've seen from the game is just complaints about his new look (and of course people are going to complain, they always do). I wonder how many of the haters have actually played the game.
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Currently playing: Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask, Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale, The Last of Us

Well, the point is even if they haven't played it, hardcore Dante fans will not vote for that picture, so it will hurt him.
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"I couldn't stand a day without a past or future. I need to live each moment to keep fighting here and now."

The possibility of a DmC pic, especially second round, scares the crap out of me. I would argue that such a pic is unfair, as the character description describes Dante as half human, meaning that a DmC pic would be a pic of a different character. At least sprite pics of Snake/BBoss are of the same character. I suppose we can just hope it doesn't happen, because there is no other way to be really sure.

I will not make a DmC pic

i cannot promise nobody else will

just don't complain about the possibility and give people ideas
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~Zen

Well, if they're officially totally different characters, you can make a legit appeal to Bacon if he ever does pick one and get him to change it.
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"I couldn't stand a day without a past or future. I need to live each moment to keep fighting here and now."

The thing about Dante is that I can't see him pulling out a close match as he always seems to choke in clutch situations, so if Squirtle is a decent midcarder or above, and I don't see why not, I'd rather have the Pokemon.

And mind you, I'm taking Zelda > Charizard and Crono > Pikachu > Magus, so I'm not exactly Pokefearing either.
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Squirtle would have to be more than a decent midcarder to beat Dante. He'd have to be around Pikachu level to have a shot, really.

At least where Pikachu's been in past contests. There's no telling where Pokemon is now.
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"I couldn't stand a day without a past or future. I need to live each moment to keep fighting here and now."

Azp2k32 posted...

and ME3's poor reception doesn't hurt him

It certainly could. Word of mouth and hype, both could and bad, can and have influenced contests before. Kratos, who has been compared to Shepard in the last few posts, is probably weaker now than he was five years ago despite God of War III (and its enormous ad campaign), other releases, price cuts across the board, the God of War I/II collection on PS2, and at least one God of War-inspired PS3 bundle. Why? Because nothing since God of War II has gotten tremendous word-of-mouth as an outstanding, must-own gaming experience. Even though Kratos has more games available to more people at lower prices, I doubt he'll be any stronger than he was the last few contests. In fact, I'm expecting him to be weaker.

When Shepard scored 39% against Pikachu, Mass Effect 2 had already been available for a month after a rather robust ad campaign (similar to the one Kratos received around the time he was facing Charizard). Word of mouth had already spread about the game - that it was a major improvement over the original and a must-own for any 360 owner. Stuff like that helps even if a voter hasn't played the game. Now here we are over three years later - Shepard's story is over (there is no more hype, really not much to look forward to as far as Mass Effect goes), and it ended on a down note. Mass Effect 3, the odds-on favorite to win GotY here, lost to both Borderlands 2 and Xenoblade. That ain't good, and I consider it a bit of a precursor for Shepard's own performance this contest. I mean, he'll easily crush in R1, but against Aeris in a night match? ME3 simply garnered too much bad press and attracted the ire of too many gamers for me to take that risk.

I don't think the characters are as tightly tied to the strength of the game as a lot of people think, Shepard basically being the "avatar for the people" or not.

I mean, what's Dante's strongest game on this site? Whatever it is, it doesn't have much of it. What's Ryu's strongest game? It's not that strong, whatever it is.

It's very possible for a character to garner strength independent of their game, even if said game is not that strong.
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"I couldn't stand a day without a past or future. I need to live each moment to keep fighting here and now."

Sure, but Dante's design helps prodigiously (it's never been discussed, but his status as the first big "PS2 character" may also help) and Ryu is practically the face of an entire genre. Shepard is an RPG character, and one with a variable appearance at that. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any RPG characters that are noticeably stronger than their games.

If Mega Man and X are now considered different characters (which they should have been all along, but whatever), shouldn't Dante and DINO/Donte be considered different characters as well? The contest describes classic Dante. Using a DmC pick would not only be unfair but inaccurate.
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Shepard has a variable appearance but he has an iconic look that he'll get in every picture, unless we end up getting a FemShep pic. Recognizability is not an issue for Male Shepard in any way.
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"I couldn't stand a day without a past or future. I need to live each moment to keep fighting here and now."

Yeah it's unfair. I'm betting on Squirtle but may make a classic Dante pic for the match just in case. It all really depends on the third entrant, anyway. If it's Zidane, I like Squirtle's chances. If Ridley somehow pulls through, Dante should have it.

But RPG characters are tied to their games more than characters from practically any other genre. If the next Street Fighter bombs, Ryu probably won't fluctuate much. This DmC may end up hurting Dante, but that's more because of the horrible character redesign than the actual quality of the game. But an RPG as big as Mass Effect 3? If the voting base really does see it as a disappointment, that actually can hurt Shep.

Also, it's hard to gauge the strength of characters relative to their games, but I'd argue Squall comes close to FFVIII in this regard. Granted, he's had some outside help with his big roles in KH1 and 2, but still, it's doable.

And I think ME being on PS3 will help Shepard out now, ME3's underwhelming performance in GOTY notwithstanding.
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"I couldn't stand a day without a past or future. I need to live each moment to keep fighting here and now."

But I don't think ME3's perceived disappointment is really tied that closely to Shepard. I mean, sure, it'll probably have some residual effect, but he's not really the one who takes the heat for ME3's problems.
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"I couldn't stand a day without a past or future. I need to live each moment to keep fighting here and now."

Plus, I think there's a possibility of ME3 going out on such a high note with the Citadel DLC will help to counterbalance any sort of backlash Shepard got since Citadel's reception was overwhelmingly positive. If that's the final lasting impression Shepard gets to leave on gamers, it's a good one.
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"I couldn't stand a day without a past or future. I need to live each moment to keep fighting here and now."

Shepard being hurt by ME3's reception is certainly possible.

I mean, people who haven't played an Mass Effect game and all they know if Mass Effect 3 'sucked' and that Shepard is that Mass Effect guy might vote for whatever else.
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Well, I think that sort of demographic is pretty negligible in the grand scheme of things. If people don't know any of the characters, they'll vote for their bracket. If they don't have a bracket, they'll vote based on something else like the pic or they just won't vote.
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"I couldn't stand a day without a past or future. I need to live each moment to keep fighting here and now."

Well, yes.

But "I know Mass Effect 3 SUCKED" means a significant portion of the people who haven't played any of the games might go "Well, ok, which of these other 2 look cooler?"
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RIP Paul Bearer. Ohhhh nooooo. :(

Eh, I wouldn't consider it significant.

But are the "Mass Effect 3 sucked" people going to outnumber the "Final Fantasy VII sucks I ain't votin' for that" people?
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"I couldn't stand a day without a past or future. I need to live each moment to keep fighting here and now."

No way anyone who doesn't play Mass Effect is going to care about the ME3's reputation.
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SuperNiceDog - 1, pjbasis - 0

The Owner of FF9 posted...

If Mega Man and X are now considered different characters (which they should have been all along, but whatever), shouldn't Dante and DINO/Donte be considered different characters as well? The contest describes classic Dante. Using a DmC pick would not only be unfair but inaccurate.

Already talked about this a while ago. Both Megaman and MMX take place in the same universe, MMX takes place in the future and it was speculated that MMX's an entirely different robot.

As for Dante/Donte, Lara Croft/Rebooted Lara Croft, don't know why but somehow Bacon does see alternate/rebooted version as the same entity.

I'm not too into MM lore, but I was under the impression X was a completely separate creation from the original Mega Man.

There's no reason to think rebooted characters are the same otherwise. Hell, each individual Link is a different guy but no one's going to argue that they should be different entrants.

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SuperNiceDog - 1, pjbasis - 0

As for Dante vs Squirtle, quite confident in classic Dante to pull it off. Pretty sure Dante and pre-bandwagoned Charizard were identical in strength back in 2010.

Mega Man X's official name is X, he's never actually called Mega Man, as far as I can recall.

I assume Dante/DmC Dante are both still called Dante, same with the iterations of Lara.

And I'd have more faith in Dante over Squirtle if he didn't always find a way to lose close matches, regardless of how strong his opponent is. If it's somewhere in the neighborhood of his strength, he'll lose.
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RIP Paul Bearer. Ohhhh nooooo. :(

He's called Mega Man X in X2. The english translation, anyway (but not in the original script!)
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I'd also argue that given how much they whored out DR. WILY MADE ZERO GUYZ that if X were Mega Man, they'd have done it by now.
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RIP Paul Bearer. Ohhhh nooooo. :(

so... anyone else even considering Gordon over Leon? i haven't seen one mention of it despite Gordon's higher stat value in 2010.
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