Contest Stats and Discussion - Part 1373

I don't know...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/5189-character-battle-ix-division-6-round-1-pikachu-vs-lloyd-vs

He wasn't lighting up the charts on his most recent outing, and that was 10 years ago.

Yeah, but Gordon and Balthier have only gotten worse since 2008, too.

Big Daddy probably doesn't beat Scorpion still, but second place could be doable.

_SecretSquirrel posted...

I think GLaDOS has to at least take second. This match was Portal 1 only GLaDOS at this point, who had recognizability issues to the point where later match pictures had Cores instead of her actual look, and I don't she would be regressing that far even with Portal being a dormant series.

Portal too has all the reason to decrease in strength though. Didn't it already look not very convincing in 15? GLaDOS was way weaker than Vincent in 18 for sure.

Portal 2 looked pretty good in GotD2

I didn't really look it up I just seem to recall it losing a match where it was the favorite and Wheatley too in 2013.

Portal got doubled by Melee and Portal 2 lost to Sonic 2 in 2015, which didn't look too good. Wheatley lost to Crash in 2013, but in hindsight, that's not as bad of a loss as it originally looked.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/8971-15-years-later-have-you-ever-played-portal

The series has a 60% playrate, which is a solid number for something like that.

Oh I just now noticed you said GotD2, yeah that I recall. Though a few titles generally accepted as strong games of the decade generally looked good that year, so I'm not sure. GlaDOS didn't look too great in 2018, I don't think I'd feel good about not picking Falco for second.

But I did originally just say I'd expect the match (except Wander in last) to be debated and I guess it would indeed.

Maybe we'd go from Big Daddy LFFing Gordon from beating Scorpion for first to Gordon LFFing Big Daddy from getting second over Balthier!

Yeah, I think Scorpion > Gordon > the rest holds, but with Scorpion being way above the field this time. Gordon definitely looked like s*** in 2018, but lemme just put it this way, could I see Bowser wrecking Balthier and Big Daddy the same way that year? You better believe it.

Or a different way of thinking about this is that we are basing Gordon off a bad match he had in 2018, but at least he was popular enough to show up. The same can't be said for either of these two chumps.

I had totally forgotten whether Scorpion was even in the 2018 contest. He got doubled by Pikachu, which is a big step above Gordon getting tripled by Bowser, so yeah, he should have no problem winning again.

Scorpion was stronger than those three in 2013 and he's the only one who I would expect to have done anything but fallen off a cliff since then. and tbh I wouldn't be surprised if he was a good bit stronger than in 2013.

This should be a fun POTD

I wonder how close SMBW would have gotten to winning GameFAQs GotY if TotK didn't come out this year.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/3256-division-4-round-1-amaterasu-crono-frank-kaim

also remember that brief period when Lost Odyssey was Heroic Mario's favorite game of the week?

TeamRocketElite posted...

I wonder how close SMBW would have gotten to winning GameFAQs GotY if TotK didn't come out this year.

Would certainly be interesting to see if it could beat FFXVI.

I don't expect much from FF16. Probably slightly stronger than FF15.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/9234-at-the-halfway-mark-whats-your-pick-for-the-best-game-of

It did better against Tears than 15 did against Breath! Beating RE4 isn't too bad either, since I'd definitely take RE4 Remake over FF15...

KamikazePotato posted...

I don't expect much from FF16. Probably slightly stronger than FF15.

I'd be kinda surprised if that was the best it could manage.

was FF16 a bit hit? I'm not as into the gaming scene as I was when 15 came out but I remember that game was big in the cultural zeitgeist. I saw a lot of people talking about it and despite not playing it myself I know all of the playable character's names

for 16 I didn't have any friends playing it and outside of this board I didn't see a lot of discussion. I do not even know what the main character looks like

FFXV was a big deal because it took a decade to come out

FFXVI is going to be hampered for a while because it's PS5 exclusive, but I think it'll be cleanly ahead of FFXV

Clive vs Master Hand

Who wins?

FFXV got itself into the gaming conversation fairly well but that conversation went poorly for the game!

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/8011-division-1-semifinal-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-vs-final
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/8027-division-1-final-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-vs-dragon-quest-xi

Master Hand beats Clive easily, but Master Hand also beats every Final Fantasy character made after 2001.

Edit: And as for XVI vs. XV, by the time XVI is no longer hampered by being a PS5 exclusive (and being hampered by being modern Final Fantasy), it'll be even more hampered by being old news.

Yeah, I guess there's the risk of Rebirth knocking it out of public consciousness, but I think it'll have legs and do well over time

XVI was better received than XV, but did not sell nearly as well (even accounting for the exclusivity). Also, its reception was better but not the knock-it-out-of-the-park it needed to be, with the conversation souring after time. I’m not entirely sure it makes top five of the year when all’s said and done.

Well, FFXV is secretly one of the best selling games in the series

It's not Rebirth hurting XVI I'm worried about, it's that modern JRPGs aren't worth much here anymore (WRPGs have taken over in terms of RPG dominance), and Final Fantasy isn't the top modern JRPG series.

My hot take time here: Final Fantasy XVI's lunch has already been eaten by Baldur's Gate of all things.

I don’t think it’s necessarily that modern JRPGs aren’t worth much so much as it is that the big JRPG series have declined. However, Persona and Xenoblade have risen.

So the question now is is Final Fantasy even a top 5 series on here any more?

I have a hard time thinking there are five series that would beat FF in a second Series Contest. FFVI-FFX are all still plenty popular, even if they've declined some from their heyday.

You could confidently take Zelda and Mario, but anything else? I'd consider Pokemon, but that's pretty much it.

LightningStrikes posted...

I don’t think it’s necessarily that modern JRPGs aren’t worth much so much as it is that the big JRPG series have declined. However, Persona and Xenoblade have risen.

So the question now is is Final Fantasy even a top 5 series on here any more?

Let's not go crazy, it's 4th behind Zelda, Mario, and Pokemon at worst. I guess I could see an argument for Smash too, but that's a hard sell.

Smash Bros.

If you want a real wildcard, I wonder how far Fallout would go.

It certainly doesn't help that the entire sub-Smash tier, your Metroids, Metal Gears, Mega Mans etc. have all also been irrelevant for the last decade plus, and no amount of SNES Boost(!) will fix the gap.

LightningStrikes posted...

Smash Bros.

If you want a real wildcard, I wonder how far Fallout would go.

If we're talking about series that are nowhere near as strong as they used to be, Smash is in the conversation (and it still got whipped by FF in 2006 anyway).

Fallout isn't touching FF on the strength of 3, 4, and New Vegas.

GameFAQs still likes the older FF games so the series should still be strong even if it might be strange for someone to say they are a fan of a series despite not liking it very much for like 20 years.

Leonhart4 posted...

If we're talking about series that are nowhere near as strong as they used to be, Smash is in the conversation (and it still got whipped by FF in 2006 anyway).

Fallout isn't touching FF on the strength of 3, 4, and New Vegas.

I feel very confident Smash beats everything it would have last time (except Pokemon), and also very confident it loses to everything it would have last time (on natural strength).

Yeah, I don't think Smash has dropped enough to lose to Sonic or anything, but it certainly hasn't jumped up a level either. It basically occupies the second tier all by itself.

...Mario Kart vs. Metal Gear, who ya got?

Has Smash’s popularity decreased? Ultimate was extremely well received.

As for Fallout I don’t think it would win but I think it’s probably top 10. A new Fallout is absolutely worth more than a new Final Fantasy however!

Also it's so wild to think that virtually every powerful series has been in decline over the last decade...except Zelda, who keeps putting out bangers. It's crazy how it keeps widening the gap between it and everything else.

I mean, I guess Mario isn't in decline either, but it isn't on the rise.

LightningStrikes posted...

Has Smash’s popularity decreased? Ultimate was extremely well received.

As for Fallout I don’t think it would win but I think it’s probably top 10. A new Fallout is absolutely worth more than a new Final Fantasy however!

Compared to 2006 when we were in the height of Smash hype? Yeah, I'd say so. 2006-2009 is probably as strong as the series will ever be. It's still plenty strong, but it'll never be that again.

I would say it’s more half-and-half. Zelda, Mario, Resident Evil, Mario Kart, Pokemon (relative to 2006), Kirby, Elder Scrolls, Street Fighter, Castlevania, Fire Emblem, Smash go up, a bunch that didn’t make the last contest go up, the rest go down.

LightningStrikes posted...

Has Smash’s popularity decreased? Ultimate was extremely well received.

As for Fallout I don’t think it would win but I think it’s probably top 10. A new Fallout is absolutely worth more than a new Final Fantasy however!

It was a lot easier to get a bunch of friends together for a Smash party when we were younger. I imagine most would say that SSBU is the better game compared to SSBB. But, the opportunities to really take advantage of this aren't as available. I've wanted to see how SSBB would do in a contest for a while but it just isn't able to get the nomination support anymore.

Leonhart4 posted...

Also it's so wild to think that virtually every powerful series has been in decline over the last decade...except Zelda, who keeps putting out bangers. It's crazy how it keeps widening the gap between it and everything else.

I mean, I guess Mario isn't in decline either, but it isn't on the rise.

I hate to be sales figures guy, but part of it is sales figures, and how disproportionally strong Zelda was prior to Breath of the Wild to its sales.

Even the biggest modern Final Fantasy doesn't outpace peak Final Fantasy sales by much, if at all.

Meanwhile Breath of the Wild outsold the entire first release 3D Zelda library combined, which already had the strongest game on the site and the strongest game of the 2000s.

Also Smash had two games in 2006. That was definitely held against it.

I don't agree those all go up. Like I said, Smash in particular isn't more popular now than it was in 2006.

Also I don't know that people actually cared about the two game thing. That was just something we speculated.

I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree but I’d be surprised if Smash had gotten weaker. Like sure the DOJO hype was fun but how much did that actually cut through? And to join War in the “not to be a sales figures person but…”, Ultimate had the biggest opening sales for an exclusive ever when it came out (a record I believe TOTK now holds), the hype was absolutely there for it, we just weren’t talking about it as much.

Smash is still plenty popular. I'm not saying it's not. I just don't think it's any more popular now than it was then. We all still buy Smash games like we all still buy Mario Kart games. That doesn't mean we still love it like we used to when we were younger.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/7473-best-of-2018-game-of-the-year-final-final-vote

Like I get these things don't translate perfectly to contests, but this isn't super impressive considering what we saw from GoW in GotD2.

But also if you ask people which is the better game between Melee and Ultimate, most even on this boomer-ass website would say Ultimate. Case in point!

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/8438-what-is-the-best-all-time-super-smash-bros-game