Lurker > KamikazePotato

I'm glad you're getting to experience Naoki Urasawa's works. Legitimately the best anime/manga writer of all time.

Definitely recommend 20th Century Boys, although it's even longer. Haven't read his latest work (Billy Bat) but I've heard mostly good things about it as well.

You can find counterexamples for every general trend. Adam Jensen's voice sound nothing like a normal human being despite that being his VA's natural voice. That doesn't mean Adam Jensen is an example of the average person.

Now imagine a Japanese person playing Deus Ex with English VA and thinking we all sound like that. That's how a shocking number of anime fans view voices in anime.

I think Elden Ring would be a contender. Maybe Dark Souls 1, now that it's gotten more popular here.

I never said the voice actress was an inherently bad VA. I'm sure she was told to sound like that. But...

GranzonEx posted...

Any of the other 50 veteran waifu VAs would still voice Rem in the same exact way if the original VA had to be replaced.

This is not a good thing, lol.

Only reason I can think of is they don't want to set a precedent for expelling representatives? In case it turns on them in the future?

GranzonEx posted...

I have never heard anyone say Rem's Japanese voice was bad. That's the original, how the author and anime director envisioned the character. I didn't like ReZero but there's no way any of the voice acting is bad.

That was my personal opinion I was sharing. Also, based on this comment and your previous posts in a topic, you seem to be extremely focused on respecting the original form of a work no matter what. That isn't something I care nearly as much about. A creator's original vision can suck, regardless of what the culture is.

They don't represent all anime fans.

I would say they represent, if not the majority, then a very large minority. My experiences are hardly limited to a few people I know IRL. Go on any piece of social media. Go on the anime board on GameFAQs. 'Dubs suck' is the default mindset. You can try to excuse that by saying it's just people being online, but it's still people expressing their opinions, just without a filter or need to be polite.

This topic is one of the only reasonable discussions I've ever seen about sub/dubs.

I'm lucky in that most games I consider to be underplayed eventually blow up later on. Nier is the biggest example. Disco Elysium as well.

Thorn posted...

31 Dems vote to not expel (15 present)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/19793258.png

My personal gold standard dub is Black Lagoon. Funnily enough, it was the only show that the guy I quoted actually tolerated watching dubbed lol

Despite my earlier complaint, Re:Zero also has a strong dub overall. Rem does sound good when she's allowed to sound like a person. JoJo also has a great dub that captures the high energy-insanity of the original. Could list some others but yeah, there's good offerings out there.

Thorn posted...

how many of these are still on the board's top 10 if we reran this? 3? 4? 10?

I think 3/4 games holding the line sounds about right. Although rather than the other games dropping, it'd be more that we've also discovered new favorites since then. The world of gaming is much bigger than it was a decade ago. Competition is tougher.

#7: Umineko no Naku Koro ni (PC), by KamikazePotato

Hell yeah

Mobilezoid posted...

Interesting, thank you. I certainly don't have anything against people watching dubs (unless it's a bad dub for a good show and people say the show sucks because the dub sucks (yes I'm still bitter about AICO)). There are just a lot of anime quirks that I think would feel wrong coming from an English speaker. Stuff like how they sometimes go "Mm" when answering a question "yes", and theres no lip flap there so it's not like the dub can just say "yes" instead. "Mm" has a very different meaning from an English speaker! Plus there are all the stock phrases like itadakimasu. I've probably seen that translated a hundred different ways over the years, but it doesn't matter what the subs say because I hear it and know what it means. I'd miss little things like that in a dub, I think.

But hey, as long as dub watchers enjoy the anime, that's all that matters! Manga readers probably think I'm crazy too for basically never reading manga.

See this is an attitude I can completely appreciate. Much better than "all dubs voice actors are just shitty youtubers", which is a direct line from my personal experiences!

Dubs can suffer from trying to be too like the original. One example is Re:Zero's dub, which has Rem's voice actress try to copy the excessively quiet and soft-spoken Japanese voice. It didn't sound good in the original and it sounded even less natural in English.

pyresword posted...

I was always under the impression that Japan more often does group voice recording sessions instead of everyone recording their lines separately, which if true definitely matters I think.

I can buy that Japanese VA is better on average due to certain reasons (not having to worry about lips flaps, group recording sessions, overall more training) but it's the all-or-nothing attitude among anime fans that is so pervasive which really annoys me.

Maniac64 posted...

I mean I enjoy a good dub and have no issue watching them, but so often the quality of acting is just worse.

Is it really, though? I think the issue is that unless you're a native Japanese speaker - as in you grew up in Japan - people aren't going to be good at judging how good a voice is.

It's very telling is that I've never seen a pure sub watcher ever admit that Japanese VA for any show is bad. That would imply that all Japanese VA is good, which is fundamentally impossible. It's far more likely that western people just can't tell the difference. It's gets even worse when those people equate anime voices to what Japanese people actually sound like - when that couldn't be farther from the truth. Anime voices are often extremely exaggerated compared to what real people speak like, especially the female waifu voices.

Like, it's perfectly fine if people prefer subs. Maybe it just sounds better to them. However, I think there are definite reasons it might sound better that people often ignore in favor of elitism/purism. The disconnect of language not only hide poor voice acting, but it papers over the corny-ass dialogue a lot of anime has. I dare anyone here to say a friendship speech in English and make it sound good.

(If you can't tell, I've met multiple real-life people who have soured me on this topic.)

So for the next round, one game (#80) will actually be several games lumped together. I did this in a couple instances where I didn't feel like separating games that were too intrinsically linked together in my mind. I'll always make note of it, they're always in the same series, and if you guess any one game in that grouping, it'll count as a success.

Round 3 Hints:

71. Probably the most obscure game on my list. Developed by Kitty Horrorshow. I discovered it through Two Best Friends Play.

72. Not the only Tactics Ogre game I care about, but the only one to make the list.

73. A Visual Novel time loop murder mystery. Wait, that doesn't actually narrow it down? Uh...I had a playthrough topic for it recently.

74. If you guess this wrong, then you've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?

75. A multiplayer indie game about thieves. The Mole is my favorite class.

76. Unlike #77, public perception has not turned on this game. It remains many people's favorite game on the Citadel.

77. After winning a large number of GotY awards, public perception (and its developer's cratering reputation) has mostly turned on this game.

78. An indie game where you live out each family member's last moments.

79. A PS1 Square game with a highly questionable translation.

80. A duology about an older sister and a younger brother trying to escape the raw hand they've been dealt.

Leonhart4 posted...

I still think TP is great!

From what I've seen, it's a bit of a silent majority. If you hold a poll among the general public, TP still ranks highly. It's just not the game diehards and youtubers like to talk about, which is WW. Wind Waker fans have been trying to make up for the original 'Celda' stigma ever since it came out. They already won that battle a while back, but the sentiment remains.

Personally, I can respect Friends as a touchstone of pop culture, but it was never for me. I'm usually not big on TV shows that adhere to a status quo for very long periods of time. Seinfeld is an exception, and even then I'm not as big on it, and I didn't watch nearly as many episodes as other people.

90. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
This game really seems like it's been abandoned by the hardcore Zelda fanbase. At least that's how it feels using my sample size of Board 8! I've always really liked TP, though. The standout point is definitely the stellar dungeons, as I like-to-love all of them, but it does everything else right for me as well. The writing is solid, Midna is a great side character, and the atmosphere of the twilight zones is very cool. Also a big fan of the art style it might be my favorite in the series. The game doesn't have as expansive of an open world as its predecessors, but that didn't bother me.

89. Alan Wake
Just played this recently. Alan Wakes is an example of how execution of a concept can elevate it to something that's greater than the sum of its parts. The combat is serviceable but repetitive, the characters aren't particularly deep, and the story is intentionally cliche...but the way its narrative is told gives it a stellar atmosphere from start to finish. Which I suppose is fitting for a game about stories influencing reality. There's just a sense of artistry and panache to it that most other games are lacking. Despite the dated early-2010s gameplay, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Alan Wake, and I'm looking forward to trying the sequel soon.

88. Dragon Quest VIII
Dragon Quest XI is probably better, but this one has the nostalgia edge (and a much better soundtrack). Dragon Quest VIII is just a very solid DQ game overall. Charming art style, dialogue, characters, and the traditional gameplay which basically feels like comfort food at this point. It lacks the highs that my absolutely favorite games in the series have, but if you were to pick a random PS2 JRPG to play, you could do far worse.

87. Rayman 2: The Great Escape
Back when everyone was going crazy for all the 3D platformers that Super Mario 64 inspired...I didn't really take to them. Genre just isn't my thing. Rayman 2 was the exception. I still believe it has some of the best platformer level design I've played, with stages feeling like actual linear challenges instead of collectathon playboxes. The core movement and abilities are strong, and there's also tons of unique obstacles and setpieces, so nothing ever gets old. The bizarre atmosphere adds to it as well, as the plot expertly straddles the line between whimsical and dark.

86. Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor
I adored this game when it came out. It's less special to me now that 14 years have passed (oh god), but my memories of it are still strong. Devil Survivor, more than anything else, has an excellent atmosphere. It really delivers on the title everything is on a timer, characters can die permanently if you don't pay attention to them, and if you screw up badly enough, you're locked out of every reasonably good ending. The strategy-game combat and team building aspects are also fun, but it's the tense situations, combined with a very well-paced narrative, that really sold me. It also kept the anime weirdness to a relative minimum, which made the atmosphere believable.

85. Ever17
Ever17 is the biggest mindfuck in the universe when you first play it. Especially if it gets you at a young age when you haven't seen other similar plotlines. That final twist and the way it's crafted is fantastic, and it clearly went on to inspire other games in the genre, although for my money Ever17 still did it best. Unfortunately, Ever17 goes SO hard on setting up that one single twist that the rest of the game kinda suffers to prop it up. The pacing is poor even by VN standards. It's one of those stories I'm very glad to have experienced, but I'm definitely never playing it again.

84. Suikoden V
I crave a remaster of this game with quality of life fixes. Personally, it has one of my favorite gaming stories of all time. It's not a super unique story, but it's very well-told, and I highly enjoyed it from start to finish. Fantasy family drama is my jam. But as my hint mentioned...this game really hates the player's time. Random encounters are extremely frequent and have long loading times. Even when I played it back in the day, with lower standards, I could barely tolerate this issue until I got an item that literally turns off random encounters. A Suikoden V with snappy gameplay like Suikoden II is probably 40+ spots higher on this list.

83. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
There's no legitimate reason for someone to play this over Skyrim these days, but I actually enjoyed (unmodded, vanilla) Oblivion more. Mostly because it was my introduction into the genre of expansive WRPGs. This game felt alive in a way few have since then. It also had just enough janky silliness to keep things interesting over a long period. I mentioned Acrobatics in my hint, and real talk, it contributed to some core gaming memories. Slowly leveling up your jump height until I was able to circumvent level design in inventive ways felt super freeform and rewarding.

82. Dark Souls 2
Dark Souls 2 has a bunch of issues. Its combat is the worst in the series, with questionable hitboxes and enemies that auto-track you to an absurd degree. The level design doesn't have as many standout areas, with there being too many that feel like filler. The Adaptability stat was a terrible idea. Enemies dying permanently was also a terrible idea. 'Lesser than the sum of its parts' is a good description. It's still got some good ideas, though, and it's still From Software. I'd take black sheep From Software over 99% of gaming.

Although, as a hint, this isn't actually my least-favorite game in the Souls series.

81. Fallout 4
Everything that people gripe about in regards to Fallout 4 is a legitimate complaint. The main story writing is sub-par. It doesn't let you build your main character's personal narrative. Defending settlements is tedious. The world just feels shallow.

I also enjoyed the heck out of it. This is the only Fallout game where combat is actually fun. Running around the wasteland and poking my head into whatever I find is at its best here. The level-up system is also significantly improved, making it easier to customize your gameplay style the way you want.

Yeah, I never finished the main story, but what else is new when it comes to Bethesda? Full disclosure, I did install a decent number of mods to improve the experience, but it probably makes the Top 100 even without mod support...unlike a certain other game that will be appearing later.

AxemRedRanger posted...

119. Fallout 3
Feels a bit shallow compared to what came after, but that first playthrough has incredible exploration.

There's been one or two answers that were games already appearing on this list!

changmas posted...

i'm 6/10 on both halves so far so at least i'm consistent!

You tied for 2nd place this time! Which doesn't win you money, but at least you have...a sense of pride and accomplishment?

Round 2 Results

--

15 people submitted guesses.
The most common score was 5 / 10.
The average score was 5 / 10. Exactly. Look at the symmetry!

--

Hint:
81. While I really like this Fallout game, it's partially because of mods

Answers:
Fallout 4 8
Fallout: New Vegas 7

The majority wins by a hair. While you could've picked several different Fallout games here (surprised no one went for 3), I think 4 makes the most sense as a hint, because it's the one people generally cite as having issues that mods can help paper over. Granted, the majority almost got this wrong, so maybe the hint wasn't as clear as I assumed!

--

Hint:
82. Turns out the black sheep of an all-time series is still really good

Answers:
Super Mario Sunshine 2

Everything else with 1 guess:
Ace Attorney: Justice for All
Dark Souls 2
Drakengard
Final Fantasy VIII
Final Fantasy XII
Final Fantasy XIII
Mass Effect 1
Mass Effect 3
Metal Gear Solid 2
Metal Gear Solid 4
Metal Gear Solid V
Zelda 2
Zelda: Skyward Sword

An absolute free-for-all of answers. Unsurprising, considering the very open-ended nature of the hint. I would've felt a bit bad if none of you got it, but thankfully, one person landed bullseye.

--

Hint:
83. Leveling up Acrobatics was the most fun part, and it sucks that they removed it in the sequel

Answers:
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion 14

Pure knowledge check with a 100% success rate (among those who guessed). I don't think there's any other games it could have applied to, either, so there was little risk of a false positive.

--

Hint:
84. Obscene encounter rate until you get the Champion's Rune, but still a great story

Answers:
Suikoden II 6
Suikoden IV 5
Suikoden V 2
Suikoden III 1

Was genuinely caught off-guard by the answers here. I never played IV, so there could have been a false positive there, but in my mind II and III had perfectly acceptable encounter rates (well, III was pushing it sometimes).

--

Hint:
85. A Visual Novel that won the Absolute Best Game Ever contest I ran like...12 years ago

Answers:
Ever17 4
Umineko no Naku Koro ni 4
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations 2
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney 1
Hotel Dusk: Room 215 1
Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc 1
Stein's Gate 1
Fate/Stay Night 1

Absolute Best Game Ever was a contest I held where only people who'd played both games could vote. The finals ended up being Ever17 vs. Silent Hill 2. You really had to know your obscure B8 history to get this one, but even so, a handful of you got it. Shoutout to the one person who included their reasoning for choosing Ever17, saying: "Surely this is too low for Umineko?" An astute observation!

--

Hint:
86. A Shin Megami Tensei sub-series game with a bad sequel

Answers:
Devil Survivor 8
Soul Hackers 3
Persona 3 1
Digital Sevil Saga 1
Persona Q 1
Persona 1 1

Slightly higher success rate than I expected, especially considering the sequel I dislike has plenty of fans.

--

Hint:
87. Rayman: The Only One I Care About

Answers:
Rayman Legends 8
Rayman Origins 5
Rayman 2: The Great Escape 2

In this question, you could have chosen one of the extremely highly-rated modern Rayman games that temporarily revitalized the brand. Or you could have chosen the N64 game that time has largely forgotten. This being GameFAQs...there was only one right choice.

(Note: this will not apply in many cases. I actually like a lot of modern games, and Rayman 2 is one of the few N64 games on this list.)

--

Hint:
88. A JRPG where the fan-accepted name for the main character is 'Guv'

Answers:
Dragon Quest VIII 15

Easy peasy. Considering the curveballs some other hints threw, there had to be a couple gimmes.

--

Hint:
89. The closest you'll get to playing as Stephen King

Answers:
Alan Wake 14

I meant this hint to be straightforward...and it was! Glad there wasn't some game I wasn't aware of to create false positives. Was fully expecting something like, I don't know, Stephen King Simulator to crop up.

--

Hint:
90. A Zelda game that the casuals seem to appreciate more than the diehards

Answers:
Twilight Princess 6
Breath of the Wild 4
Skyward Sword 2
Wind Waker 2
Tears of the Kingdom 1

Twilight Princess and Breath of the Wild were the clear choices from the hint. And maybe Tears of the Kingdom, but I haven't played that one yet.

--

With all that said...the winner of Round 2 is AxemRedRanger, with a score of 8 / 10! The next-highest score was a 6 / 10, which two people achieved.

I'll post actual writeups for these games a bit later, then post the Hints for Round 3 a little after that.

4-way Chief brings back memories.

OG Cloud isn't edgy, but he definitely is in Kingdom Hearts and Advent Children, and those were the two major sources of his post-FF7 strength. I think it's fair to lump him in with the edgy crowd that fell off once we collectively grew past our teenage years.

One benefit of FF7 Remake is that I think it reminded people of what the characters they love (or used to love) were actually like.

Cloud barely beating Mario in 2018 was considered an impressive result. That match used to be a 62-38.

WhiteLens posted...

I wonder how many people here saying subs would use Chinese or Korean voices if those were the original voices in their animation or games, even with the option of a Japanese dub.

Genshin Impact has proven that they just stick with the Japanese dub even if they're someone who touts the virtues of 'hearing something in its original language'.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

followed by AICO, a show where the dub was so horrendous, so unbelievably awful, that they erased the original dub from the platform and redid it.

Oh I didn't hear about this. That's hilarious.

Dubs have advanced to the point where they're the better experience on average I think. Like unless you're a weeb, solid voice acting in your language is going to be more enjoyable than subs.

With that said, some stinker dubs still slip through every now and then. I tried watching Parasyte dubbed and it was brutal.

I know this is the anime topic, but Monster is probably slightly better as a manga due to better pacing. Anime still a good adaptation but yeah.

TeamRocketElite posted...

I thought I was giving Tifa a lot of credit before the contest... then I failed to predict Tifa over Sephiroth anyways. >_>

I mean me too. That result is still ridiculous even if that year's results indicated it was possible. It went against two decades of conventional contest wisdom.

I also pushed Tifa pretty hard in the contest pre-season. Those big analysis topics I made tended to have some effect - even if I led people astray as often as I helped them!

Hmm...

Mewtwo>Ganondorf is a bit wild considering that match already happened and it wasn't close

Chainsaw Man was probably their baby until it underperformed lol

Also, JJK S3 and Chainsaw Man S2 could be animated on powerpoints and I'd enjoy that more than the current MAPPA crunch devouring its animators alive

Watching the shonen anime hype cycle is really weird from an outsider's perspective. It's like the same thing every time. 2-3 seasons of love, then like clockwork, people turn on it as the cracks starts to show.

Hey, I had Tifa in my bracket! I also don't blame people for Pokefear, whether it's based on fraudulent results or otherwise. That lightning always strikes somewhere in the bracket.

2013 Mewtwo was hard to get past.

Up to 11 guesses for Round 2. I'll leave it open for another 24 hours.

Smiling Squall was perfect. Silly enough to be memorable, but not so silly that it flipped the match result.

Glad to hear Pluto is a good adaptation. That wasn't what I was expecting after what was presumably some development hell.

Up

I give Cid Telamon a 1/10 so Vivi can be on top again

Fran - 6
Jessie - 4

I actually considered the potential Koudelka confusion a few hours after posting the hints, but it was too late to change it, and most people were getting it right anyway.

Less submissions this time, so people's chances of winning have only gone up! Also, Kenri, PM me your email when you have the chance so I can send your prize.

Hmm

TheKnightOfNee posted...

I never knew that Phoenix Wright attack was a sneeze, lol. I never played as him, so the hundreds of times I saw it, I guess I just saw it as him... doing something? I dunno.

It's definitely memorable to someone who played as him! Fun moveset. If only he was actually like...good, then we'd be in business.

Hmm...would he?

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/7351-division-2-final-zero-vs-pikachu

That year, Pikachu=MM=Crono (essentially).

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/7375-loser-bracket-round-2-crono-vs-bowser
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/7350-division-1-final-ganondorf-vs-vivi

Depends on how you think Ganondorf vs. Bowser goes.

Round 2 Hints:

81. While I really like this Fallout game, it's partially because of mods
82. Turns out the black sheep of an all-time series is still really good
83. Leveling up Acrobatics was the most fun part, and it sucks that they removed it in the sequel
84. Obscene encounter rate until you get the Champion's Rune, but still a great story
85. A Visual Novel that won the Absolute Best Game Ever contest I ran like...12 years ago
86. A Shin Megami Tensei sub-series game with a bad sequel
87. Rayman: The Only One I Care About
88. A JRPG where the fan-accepted name for the main character is 'Guv'
89. The closest you'll get to playing as Stephen King
90. A Zelda game that the casuals seem to appreciate more than the diehards

Same deal as before!

Cyan - 6
Freya - 6.5

Freya is a lot of lost potential.

100. The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
I beat this game in two days. Easily has the best gameplay out of the 2D Zeldas. It was very fun, and the writing was somehow charming. Lorule? Really? Sure, Nintendo, I'll bite.

99. Shadow Hearts
A PS1 game stuck on the PS2. Shadow Hearts' biggest issue is the slow battle pacing, was a problem even on release and a bigger problem nowadays. If you can get past that, though, the creepy/silly/dramatic atmosphere is wholly unique to any other game, including other games in its own series. Yuri Hyuga also remains one of the best JRPG main characters, and he's at his best in Shadow Hearts 1.

98. Eternal Darkness: Sanitys Requiem
Extremely unique when it came out. Less unique now that a bunch of other games have copied and iterated upon the sanity mechanic, meaning creepy hallucinations just don't hit as hard anymore. Still, what Eternal Darkness has over those games is how it's experienced through multiple generations of a single family. Watching the story evolve over the centuries leading you to unlock new things in the present-day is something so cool it's a shame more games haven't copied this aspect as well.

97. Until Dawn
Take a bunch of cheesy horror tropes, stick them in a blender, than add actual production values. The hint I gave is basically just the game. Until Dawn hits a sweet spot of fun scenarios and likable characters that few other horror media has. There's no real gameplay outside of QTEs, but I'm fine with that.

96. One Shot
Undertale before Undertale was Undertale. One Shot is a 2-D indie game that prioritizes vibes over gameplay loops. It's essentially a point-and-click adventure game without the pointing or the clicking. How much you get immersed in the writing and world will define your experience with this game. As for me, while I was mixed on the final act story content, I did get extremely invested in the main character. It made a certain decision stunlock me for like ten minutes straight as I stared at the screen, unsure of what to do. Very few decisions in gaming have done that to me. If all of that sounds vague...then I've written this right. Spoilers would ruin One Shot.

95. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
What could I say about this game that others haven't? While I was never as big on OoT as most, it's still a monumental achievement in gaming. Aside from reputation and influence, what makes it hold up to this day is the atmosphere. OoT flawlessly executes its transition from 'generic adventure' to 'oh shit I fucked up'. The dungeons also remain memorable the best examples from future games don't do a much better job than the very first 3D outing, which is kinda crazy.

94. Killer7
There's never been another game like Killer7. You can break it down into keywords like 'rail shooter' and 'horror' but that doesn't do the experience justice. It's a complete head trip from start to finish. While there's a story in there, the game is very much focused on making you FEEL a specific way, and it's all the better for it. Some of the characters and scenes live rent-free in my head to this day.

93. Dragon Quest XI
Dragon Quest for the modern era. It's easy to see why this one did better in the west compared to the rest of the series; great HD graphics, great voice acting, charming writing, and overall high production values. The sub-par soundtrack holds it back...as does the third act, which I dislike conceptually for spoiler reasons and ended up not doing.

92. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
I love stealth-based immersive sims, and Human Revolution absolutely nails that aspect. The gameplay, while more straightforward than some of its contemporaries, is very polished and very fun. There's nothing quite like watching a patrol route for several minutes, picking out a point of failure, knocking out a guard, dragging their unconscious body to a corner, then salivating at how many new possibilities your expertly-timed maneuver has opened up. Where Human Revolution falters is in the writing, which while not bad and is honestly better than most western games doesn't meet the standards of Deus Ex 1.

91. Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
My fondest fighting game memories are with this game. It came out while I was in college, and I made some good friends by bonding over MVC3. We started by playing matches in the public common room, then got the game for ourselves because we liked it for ourselves. It hit that sweet spot of us getting good enough at the game for it to be interesting, but not so good that we touch-of-death'd each other constantly. Then the Ultimate version came out and it just continued the fun by introducing Phoenix freaking Wright. Best moments were when me and my friend played Amaterasu so similarly that we used a super on the exact same frame, making us both swear off the character, and also when I told my friend I was going to do a button check and used the time to collect all three pieces of Phoenix Wright's evidence.