Lurker > Lightning Strikes

It is difficult to define true underacheivers because so many who are often suggested ran into overacheivers. This is why Shepard is my #1. I basically agree with the overacheiver list but would add Bowser.

As for underacheivers:

#1 Shepard
#2 Vincent
#3 Fox
#4 L-Block
#5 Gordon
HMs: Draven, Dragonborn, Squall
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Going off of 2010, Alucard is not actually overperforming that much, only about 2%. Of course Red is likely stronger than he appeared in 2010 too.

Zelda's overperformance is gigantic. She beat Squall by 4% more than post Brawl announcement Snake, the same Snake that beat Sonic and Mega Man and got 47% on Samus. Vivi actually underperformed 2013 as expected, though he did look great. However, DK made up percentage on him which means that DK must have overperformed by more than Vivi did. Tifa is about where she has been. She looks good because the vast majority of FF has weakened a good deal.

Overperformance wise:

Zelda>Alucard>DK>Tifa>Vivi, and there are others who likely belong in that ranking like Bowser. He certainly looked better than Vivi.
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I also thought Bowser would take it, but then checked my bracket and have Kirby. Whaaa
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Regarding Abby and God of War, she had her reservations (mainly about the story) but still said it was her game of the year so far, before RDR2 and Obra Dinn came out.

Yuri_LowelI posted...

LapisLazuli posted...

Everything about how last year's list came together was about people giving up and wanting to go home. Definitely felt like the least satisfying top 10 to date.

More so because of the consensus of PUBG being 1 when noone really put any effort into saying why. Brad didn't like BOTW and Abby hated Nier.

I love Nier and felt that winning would have been a great thing but It was hilarious how much they prise Mario Odyssey yet it barely finished top 5.

You're thinking of Jeff. Brad said BOTW was "easily one of the best games ever made!". Them not going for Odyssey was weird because it was the best ranking games on their collective top ten lists, it would have been a far better and more agreed choice than PUBG. With everything that has happened with that game since and their own feelings, this is the only time I can ever think where I feel they got the wrong winner, not just one I didn't agree with.
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Alex basically said he won't. Abby likes God of War too much to be a total stonewall. Brad will filibuster like he's never filibustered before.

Could Into the Breach take it actually?
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Day 28, Match 3 - Sephiroth vs. Amaterasu
(1) Sephiroth: 61.37% - (5) Amaterasu: 38.63%

What happened?: Sephiroth again slightly underperforms 2013 and significantly underperforms 2010. This looked very bad for him early on as he struggled to get over 60%, but he did start to look better as the match went on, especially as the Tifa rallies started to fly.

what could this mean?: Sure, he's not lost his Noble Nine cred by any means, but the slow weakening of Sephiroth has continued. It is worth noting that he beat Amaterasu by a lot less than Zelda beat Squall, which really highlights Zelda's new power.

Day 28, Match 4 - Ryu vs. KOS-MOS
(3) Ryu: 65.07% - (10) KOS-MOS: 34.93%

What happened?: Another expected Ryu beatdown. It was very stable as well, only moving about 0.7% after the first four hours. The only thing to note really is that KOS-MOS did beat both Lloyd and Shepard as I had thought would happen.

What could this mean?: Ryu very slightly overperformed 2013 projections here but not by much, and both he and KOS-MOS are probably a bit stronger based on their past matches. This was his third very strong performance in a row. No, he's not going to beat Sephiroth (most likely), but he could make it a hell of a match or at least look bad for Sephiroth. It wouldn't surprise me to see Ryu break 45% there.

Glad that there was only one crazy match today!
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Day 28, Match 1 - Luigi vs. Tails
(1) Luigi: 69.65% - (13) Tails: 30.35%

What happened?: Not much to report here, this was a quite standard beatdown with the likely assistance of SFF. The only really noticeable trend was that as the rallies started to fly in the next match I'll write about, Tails gained a fair bit of percentage. For Mega Man X, this makes sense. For Tifa, this is hilarious.

What could this mean?: Not much to take from this, Luigi looked great here and could easily take the next round still, but with SFF likely we can't get a solid reading of his strength.

Day 28, Match 2 - Tifa Lockheart vs. Mega Man X
(3) Tifa: 50.18% - (2) X: 49.82%

What happened?: This was absolutely crazy, and the most exciting match of the contest by far, one of the best of all time. X got ahead to a small but significant lead of about 52%, more or less what was to be expected of him. At his peak X led by nearly 500 votes, which had been called by many an unbreachable barrier. However, as the night went on Tifa started to make significant gains, eventually leading by almost 200 votes. Then things get crazy. X starts to cut, slowly whittling away Tifa's lead. This is in part due to a reasonably successful rally on r/MegaMan. After many stalls and a comeback lasting hours, X takes the lead, and starts to get ahead by over 80 votes. Judging from their late match trends, it looked like X had Tifa dead to rights. Then the counter rallies begin, first on r/FinalFantasy and then, hilariously, on various hentai subreddits. Things went back and forth as rallies flew furiously, and in the end Tifa got a lead and started to pull ahead in the last several updates. Nonetheless this was still one of the closest matches of all time. With big rallies on both sides (X had the biggest single rally by far but Tifa had numbers on her side) this match did seem to be relatively even and fair, although that's not getting into the Peru shenanigans I am not qualified to talk about here. I just wish the contestant I'm supporting wins in a close match one of these days, that's pretty rare.

What could this mean?: Not much we can draw from this other than small rallies still being a thing, helped by the fact that these two were separated by only two votes (in X's favour) in the users' votes. The two rallies seemed ultimately even based on that breakdown, and thus it's safe to assume that in real strength these two are neck and neck. All those rallies only brought in about 1000 extra votes so it wasn't a matchbreaker by any means. The match against Luigi is still a tossup. As for Tifa herself, she is clearly very strong, though actually underperformed her projections, but this is more due to screwy stats for Tifa and X than any real sign of decline, she is stable.
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Dream Daddy also had the backing of Vinny, and using a "mathematical" formula would have been number 11 so was not far off its actual placement. Number 9 ranked Tekken 7 meanwhile would have been nowhere close, yet mysteriously gets no whiners. BT please do not crap up this topic with that nonsense.

ninkendo posted...

I can see it

I'm still loving Red Dead 2, but it's not 2010 GotY/GotG like RDR1 was

The characters and story is better than any Rockstar game has ever been especially the writing but it sometimes comes at the expense of playability because Rockstar wants you to completely experience their piece of art

I agree. I have two main issues with it so far. The first is that the mission design is frustrating in that there are far too many shootouts - I enjoy the slower paced stealthy missions and other stuff but for some reason they almost always seem to turn into shootouts which is needlessly repetitive, not every mission needs a gunfight and RDR1 was not like this. The second is that they have all these amazing systems I have no real desire to interact with more than I have to. I do love the game but I don't think it will be an all timer for me for these reasons.
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Yeah I would just like to say, I am not an anti-rallying stalwart by any means, but I did express some frustration with certain users in the last topic - this was aimed largely at ExTha, I'm not going to lie. The man has been excoriating rallies in general all contest, and when it comes to a result he wants he's rallying himself. I am not with BT in the firm anti-rally camp by any means, but ExTha was being ridiculous.
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Whoa, Dan turning on Red Dead. It sounds like he's not loving it at all any more. "I don't like Red Dead Redemption 2". Looks like God of War is the new front runner. I can only see Brad opposing it over Red Dead heavily at this point (not sure what Jason thinks about Red Dead). Abby will favour Red Dead but also really liked God of War so I think she won't go hard on it.

Even Alex, who loved Red Dead, said he is considering other games for GotY, like Into the Breach (which will definitely be top 5).
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Day 27, Match 3 - Geralt vs. Bayonetta
(1) Geralt: 50.88% - (4) Bayonetta: 49.12%

What happened?: Witcher vs. Witch. This was a hell of a match, one of the best of the contest. Geralt was just ahead at the freeze despite losing the board vote. However, Bayonetta sprung to a surprise early lead that seemed fairly substantial. Additionally, despite Geralt coming back from near defeat against Simon to win comfortably, she had not only built a bigger lead, but the European vote was split down the middle rather than heavily favouring Geralt. It looked like he wouldn't do it, and it took him substantially longer to start making significant gains on Bayonetta than against Simon. Eventually he started to cut though, and over hours he slowly retook the lead before again going on to win with a bigger vote lead than Bayonetta ever got.

What could this mean?: Well first and foremost, Geralt is the new Comeback King, in the mold of Frog. He looked good here, and it's great to see a modern, western character do so well. He and 2B are two brand new characters who look like straight up high midcarders and that's great. Is Geralt the strongest western character? He may well exceed Sub-Zero against Auron for sure, but is he stronger than Kratos as well? Hard to say. I hope he does well against Auron, perhaps even pull an upset, but I'm not expecting it.

Day 27, Match 4 - Auron vs. Sub-Zero
(3) Auron: 56.71% - (10) Sub-Zero: 43.29%

What happened?: Finally a boring, straight-forward match! Auron won this fairly comfortably after some worry Sub_Zero might pull off the upset. In the end he won by a bigger margin than against Vincent, but worse than he has done in two contests before this. Sub-Zero climbed a bit as the match went on but not enough to get really close.

What could this mean?: Auron hasn't crashed to Earth like say, Vincent, but he has weakened, by about 3% against Sub-Zero (which looked very steady over all previous contests). Additionally Sub-Zero may well be stronger than Vincent due to possible SFF shenanigans. Auron very likely wins the division, but I do hope that Geralt pulls off the upset.
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Day 27, Match 1 - Squall Leonheart vs. Zelda
(1) Squall: 36.68% - (4) Zelda: 63.32%

What happened?: The most hilarious result of the contest by far. We've seen close matches seem less close as they draw near then turn into easy wins, but this was ridiculous! Squall has historically been a little bit ahead of Zelda, but Nintendo and Zelda boosting was expected to put Zelda over, and their matches up to this point made her look a good bit better. Then it was close during the board vote, then less close, and less close, and less close. It didn't stop after the Power Hour either, Zelda got over 64% after and was winning multiple updates with over 70% of the vote. Everybody expected the beatdown to calm down in accordance with the trends we have seen, but it did not really. The decline was less than 1%, and the match was as close to a doubling as it was to being 60/40.

What could this mean?: Sure, Final Fantasy has looked a good bit weaker with a couple of exceptions. However, the story here is Zelda. Her previous two performances had been rationalised by AC/MGS collapses but this doesn't seem like that. She is absolutely on that Noble Nine level.She beat Squall substantially worse than post-Brawl announcement Snake did. I also don't think it's the proxy factor some here have suggested either - we have seen her in the bracket without Link twice before and she didn't do this. She is just a monster now plain and simple.

Day 27, Match 2 - Fox McCloud vs. Aerith Gainsborough
(11) Fox: 47.3% - (15) Aerith: 52.7%

What happened?: Fox was the favourite going into this and did not get it done. It looked like it might be close early on, and Aerith never truly pulled away, but Fox actually underperformed his 2010 and 2013 stats here, which has almost never happened for Nintendo this contest. This is compounded by Aerith not looking good against Nintendo twice in a row.

What could this mean?: Going off of Aerith's two previous performances and Fox's match with Jill, I think Fox has dropped. This runs counter to everything else that has been going on with Nintendo this contest. Why? Well, the answer is his series. Nintendo characters boost from Smash Bros. for sure, but the only character who truly gets all his strength from there is Captain Falcon. Fox is a Star Fox character first and foremost, and that series is reeling from Star Fox Zero being the latest in a string of disappointing games going back years and years. That series is less popular now, with Zero reestablishing it as the worst Nintendo franchise. While every other Nintendo character has had franchise revitilisations, Fox's has just gotten worse.
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Yup though we've never really had a good read on her strength.

Day 26, Match 3 - 2B vs. Bowser
(1) 2B: 41.81% - (4) Bowser: 58.19%

What happened?: A pleasant surprise performance for 2B, looking really good here and not too far from Charizard. She also did better with GameFAQs users, one of very few characters to beat Nintendo in this regard (and one of the biggest Nintendo beneficiaries at that). She was also more frontloaded which is rare.

What could this mean?: That 2B is legit, which I had expected. She did about as well as Big Daddy on Ness, who was legit, and Ness is probably better now. So it just follows that she would be good as well. This doesn't reflect poorly on Bowser at all I think, 2B beats Phoenix without much trouble.

Day 26, Match 4 - Phoenix Wright vs. Kirby
(3) Phoenix Wright: 31.69% - (2) Kirby: 68.31%

What happened?: Wanna see Phoenix Wright lose the board vote? Put him up against Kirby. Phoenix did still do better in the board vote than the rest of the match though, quickly dropping to below a doubling. He did do better with users than non-users, but only by about 1% this time which is much lower. In the end he was not that far off of Isaac.

What could this mean?: Honestly this was kind of a disappointing showing for Phoenix. He should be ahead of Isaac by more than that. I do think it owes to the same factor that led his registered user boost to be smaller this time - Kirby is one of those few characters who inspires the same kind of frothing loyalty that Phoenix Wright does. This bodes quite well for Kirby against Bowser. It will be close but I think he will have the GameFAQs boost on his side.
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Whatever the outcome this match is definitely going to be an all-timer.

Top 5 this contest for me are this, Geralt vs. Bayonetta, Zelda vs. Squall, Amaterasu vs. Draven and Shepard vs. King K. Rool.
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In the interest of fairness, r/megamanx does not have a thread. It's a small sub but that also makes it more visible.
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OFool posted...

What a match.

Is there 1h15m to go or 2h15m

1h15.

The relationship this board has with rallies infuriates me. Yeah now you like them...
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This is both hilarious and maddening.

How we put up with ExTha I'll never know. I just hope he learns his lesson and never tries to contest gatekeep or go off about rallies again, but he probably won't.
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They already said they have nothing new to show, hence no PSX. And E3 has been getting less and less important.

This is still a blunder though, as it is giving Microsoft and Nintendo 100% of the presence there. Would it not make more sense to do what Nintendo did in 2016, i.e. show up but no press conference?
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LiquidOshawott posted...

Wow I thought Tifa was getting the Russia support but it was actually X who was getting the Peruvians to vote from him!

These country wars that started with Geralt rallying Poland have gotten out of hand

To be serious, Geralt dominating in Poland is no surprise, what with the whole franchise being Polish and all.
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Though yes, if X's victory is Peruvian, that would be a shame.
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Let's all appreciate the irony (and, frankly, hypocrisy) of ExTha rallying Tifa.
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I am a European X voter. Mega Man X is awesome. As a character he is great, he has far more to him than regular Mega Man, who is just a mascot (albeit a very likable one - there is nothing wrong with mascot characters). It always disappointed me that classic Mega Man, including the X series, never caught on in Europe which is weird because they all came out here. I don't think it's right of ExTha to just dismiss X's character development, part of what the X series did to distinguish itself from the main series was have much more developed story and characters. There's a reason that Zero is so much stronger than any non-Mega Man characters, including Proto Man, for instance. I'm not saying it's high art but it's all very enjoyable and was impressive for that kind of game at that time.
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X cut!

He gon' give it to ya
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Dan taping Alex to a chair.
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Day 26, Match 1 - Pokemon Trainer Red vs. Big Boss
(9) Red: 52.18% - (4) Big Boss: 47.82%

What happened?: A lot of the hallmarks of this contest. A debated match that gets less debated over time, then looks close for a bit but then isn't. Big Boss ended up just over 1% behind Sora in the end.

What could this mean?: Big Boss didn't look too bad here after all, and I am definitely a sceptic of the effect of that picture. Then again, Red has a big challenge nect round so we'll see how strong he really is then.

Day 26, Match 2 - Alucard vs. Kefka
(3) Alucard: 59.44% - (4) Kefka: 40.56%

What happened?: A repeat of Alucard's great showing against Yuna. Except there where Alucard started big and dropped here he started small and increased. The end result was very very similar.

What could this mean?: Look for consistency in Kefka at your peril, but this was another stellar showing for Alucard. He looks like a division winner here, though I do think both of his great performances in the last two rounds have a bit of an asterisk next to them. Yuna didn't look very good and Kefka is Kefka. Also Peach looks legit now, potentially number 3 in the division.
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Auron is actually underperforming here, Ng. Historically Auron has done 59-60% on Sub-Zero on several separate occasions (and this held for the 2010 and 2013 stats) so he's dropped a fair bit. Not as much as his contemporaries though.

The only FF characters who have definitely 100% not dropped are Vivi and Terra.
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INTERWEBUSER posted...

KanzarisKelshen posted...

It's hard to overstate just how well received Odyssey was. It's the best selling Switch game (IIRC), a strong goty candidate, and just in general is considered to have taken the mario formula to a new level. It's no guarantee that the big drop from 2013 will be reversed, but if anything can do it, that game can.

A "strong goty candidate" that won no major goty awards

Yes it did? Who is the arbitrator of what counts as major?
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Kefka lost because...

Alucard: It doesn't matter why I won, what matters is my Plan.
Kefka: Was winning the match part of your plan?
Alucard: Of course!
Kefka: Well you got yourself a match against Red. What's the next step in your master plan?
Alucard: Winning this division! WITH NO SURVIVORS!
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The Owner of FF9 posted...

Lightning Strikes posted...

KanzarisKelshen posted...

WhiteLens posted...

Kanz is just sad that the waifus are beating the husbandos this time around.

And Auron, because SOMEONE has to win a match between 2 husbandos.

I voted for bayonetta, that's not really a problem

It's specifically Squall's match. It really kills my enjoyment because I always loved the fact my favorite FF protagonist was very strong even if he wasn't the strongest. It made me happy to know he could always make some noise (before getting fed to Snake, forever, because...I don't know why, really). But this hurts because it indicates a downward spiral that is not reversible. Characters are not like sports teams, they don't have down years followed by rebounds - they weaken and weaken and weaken unless a very good and respected new game comes out to make them strong. And that's not going to happen for Squall because Final Fantasy is not that kind of franchise, so I have no reasonable way of clinging to hope that things will get better. It's a very bitter pill, really. Even if Mario (my other big beloved character) got the most unreal boost ever out of mario odyssey and scored 48% on Link, it wouldn't compensate the fact I know Squall's super finished now.

KamikazePotato posted...

Undertale is probably the only contest I've ever been able to enjoy on a 'fan' level, simply because something I actually like won for once.

I liked Draven winning just because I was involved with it, but Undertale making something happen was a very happy moment for me because that game literally helped me fix a years-old broken friendship. I guess the other shoe had to drop sometime, maybe?

Of course FF characters get new games, as well as rereleases. Squall has had a ton of appearances since FFVIII and I think those keeping the games and the characters relevant is part of why they have stayed strong. Lately though, honestly, Square has been a wreck. That company is in an absolute state right now, the worst since 2001, and I think it has reflected on their characters here.

I agree, but wait, what happened in 2001? I feel like Square was going strong til FFXIII.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51nENSUpbQL.jpg
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KanzarisKelshen posted...

WhiteLens posted...

Kanz is just sad that the waifus are beating the husbandos this time around.

And Auron, because SOMEONE has to win a match between 2 husbandos.

I voted for bayonetta, that's not really a problem

It's specifically Squall's match. It really kills my enjoyment because I always loved the fact my favorite FF protagonist was very strong even if he wasn't the strongest. It made me happy to know he could always make some noise (before getting fed to Snake, forever, because...I don't know why, really). But this hurts because it indicates a downward spiral that is not reversible. Characters are not like sports teams, they don't have down years followed by rebounds - they weaken and weaken and weaken unless a very good and respected new game comes out to make them strong. And that's not going to happen for Squall because Final Fantasy is not that kind of franchise, so I have no reasonable way of clinging to hope that things will get better. It's a very bitter pill, really. Even if Mario (my other big beloved character) got the most unreal boost ever out of mario odyssey and scored 48% on Link, it wouldn't compensate the fact I know Squall's super finished now.

KamikazePotato posted...

Undertale is probably the only contest I've ever been able to enjoy on a 'fan' level, simply because something I actually like won for once.

I liked Draven winning just because I was involved with it, but Undertale making something happen was a very happy moment for me because that game literally helped me fix a years-old broken friendship. I guess the other shoe had to drop sometime, maybe?

Of course FF characters get new games, as well as rereleases. Squall has had a ton of appearances since FFVIII and I think those keeping the games and the characters relevant is part of why they have stayed strong. Lately though, honestly, Square has been a wreck. That company is in an absolute state right now, the worst since 2001, and I think it has reflected on their characters here.
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KamikazePotato posted...

Undertale is probably the only contest I've ever been able to enjoy on a 'fan' level, simply because something I actually like won for once.

Let us never forget the key difference between Draven and Undertale. Undertale was a fantastic game getting rallied out of sincere love, Draven was a toxic community invasion. Also Undertale won fair and square while there was nothing fair about that site outage.
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My contest ennui moment was all the way back in 2008 when a last minute Crono "rally" pushed him over Vincent, costing me a potential guru win (granted, this depends on Cloud beating Snake in that circumstance, but I think it would have happened).Since then I' just along for the ride. This is one of the greatest results.
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To be fair The Boss looks waaaaay better after Zelda just annihilating Squall like this. And if I told you pre-contest, "Big Boss gets 49% on Sora" you would probably go "yep sounds right to me". So I think MGS looking bad is not yet certain.
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Gah, curse me for not proofreading that. And double curse GameFAQs' time limit on edits. Thanks very much for letting me know.
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Day 25, Match 3 - Zero vs. Wario
(1) Zero: 60.25% - (13) Wario: 39.75%

What happened?: This was a bit of a surprise. Zero is projected to usually do more like a doubling or even 70% on Wario. During the board vote that's what it looked like it would be. But then Wario kept making percentage gains and kept bringing it closer and closer, altogether leading to a pretty respectable 40% showing for Wario. Wario is definitely another silent star of this contest - his wins haven't been flashy, but he has been quietly having his best showing ever.

What could this mean?: In the context of Wario's previous appearances this makes a bit more sense. Wario has never been able to escape some sort of nasty SFF situation until now. I think we're just now seeing how strong he actually is, a decent to high midcarder. Also Noctis keeps seeming weaker which is hilarious - barely ahead of Primrose. Does he even beat her? Probably not given that those that overlap would likely prefer Primrose to BlandyMcProtagonist. Noctis is definitely the big loser of the contest so far.

Day 25, Match 4 - Yoshi vs. Pikachu
(3) Yoshi: 45.2% - (7) Pikachu: 54.8%

What happened?: Another once debated match that became more of a foregone conclusion as the contest raged on. Yoshi did keep it close early on but that stopped with the board vote, and not even Yoshi could win over Pikachu's incredible GameFAQs vote. In the end this was a 55/45 win for Pikachu and if you can do that to Yoshi you're elite - if we want to go way back 2006 Snake (the first really great Snake showing) only did 57%. The geographical trends for this one were a bit strange too - Yoshi won in most of continental Europe (and Ireland), which surprised me.

What could this mean?: Pikachu's a monster and will win the division with no problem. Not much else to say by this point.
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Depending on how she does against Ryu (who has looked really damn good himself) KOS-MOS may well be a low-key star of this contest. Also I mucked up the days for three of those last batch lols.

Day 25, Match 1 - Dante vs. Ganondorf
(1) Dante: 43.6% - (4) Ganondorf: 56.4%

What happened?: And now we resume our regularly scheduled Ganondorf performance. This became less and less surprising as we saw more of Zelda and Ryu. These two have been nearly consistently neck-and-neck in the stats, and a lot of people were thinking DMC5 hype (which certainly seems to be a thing) would push Dante over the top here. Then round one happened and Ganondorf became an easy favourite. THEN round 2 happened and it was back to being tight again... But I guess not. Ganondorf jumped ahead early and never looked back, only losing about 1.5% over the course of the match.

What could this mean?: Ganondorf looked like a true elite here, his best showing in a very long time if not ever. Dante looked really good for two straight rounds, at least doing what he was supposed to, so for Ganondorf to overperform by 6%, that's quite significant. It also raises the question, how strong is Chun-Li? Luster pointed out that she has been steadily rising in SF character polls, and Ryu has looked fantastic. I guess she's just really good after all (our data on her is quite limited to be fair).

Day 25, Match 1 - Vivi vs. Donkey Kong
(3) Vivi: 54.98% - (10) Donkey Kong: 45.02%

What happened?: The dream is dead. These two had met twice before, with Vivi winning with 56.47% and 56.29% two years apart. This match had some hype behind it thanks to DK's incredible performance against Leon, and was close during the board vote before settling into a relatively firm lead for Vivi. DK did make up 1.3% over their last match though, which is something.

What could this mean?: Vivi has looked like an elite for a while now and was just too far out of Dong's reach. DK making up that 1.3% probably hints at an even bigger boost for DK since Vivi is almost certainly stronger than in 2010 as well (no idea why that happened). Though I will say that DK may well have been siphoning a bit of Nintendo support from Leon, making him look even better in round 2. DK is a choker no more regardless. Vivi still has a shot at taking the division, although Ganondorf certainly looks like the favourite. We just have to assume that Dante wouldn't choke to DK too!
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Vlado posted...

Lightning Strikes posted...

MGS3 is my favourite MGS by a long distance. It's also just one game and the lowest selling numbered game in the series to boot. And he doesn't even get called "Big Boss" until the very end. It's a bit like saying that MGS4 Old Snake should be the only Solid Snake used. Big Boss should be given a fair representation of the character.

lmfao, imagine trying to cook up some roundabout logic about why Big Boss shouldn't have a normal picture used to hide the simple fact you want him to lose this match.

I voted for Big Boss lol, and have stated elsewhere that this is an expected performance him (~49% on Sora) that kind of questions the relevance of the old man pic.

hombad46 posted...

Lightning Strikes posted...

MGS3 is my favourite MGS by a long distance. It's also just one game and the lowest selling numbered game in the series to boot. And he doesn't even get called "Big Boss" until the very end. It's a bit like saying that MGS4 Old Snake should be the only Solid Snake used. Big Boss should be given a fair representation of the character.

Well there's also Peace Walker and Portable Ops. I think it's perfectly fair to give him an appearance fitting his playable appearances instead of just his appearances as a side character. And I still say Ground Zeroes is the way to go as it's different enough from Solid Snake.

I can't really recall PO but PW isn't Naked Snake. IIRC he just goes by Big Boss or plain "Snake" for most of the game, though they do call him "Vic Snake" at one point which is... silly. His design in that game is pretty distinctive from the 3 design, though it did always strike me as kind of funny that he looks so different between PW and GZ given that the two are set like a month apart.

I agree that Ground Zeroes is the best way to go. But I think they are all good if they are easily identifiable as Big Boss.
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Hell yeah Celeste.

I am by no means an esportsman, but if OG doesn't win best esports team that's a robbery.

But mainly hell yeah Celeste.
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MGS3 is my favourite MGS by a long distance. It's also just one game and the lowest selling numbered game in the series to boot. And he doesn't even get called "Big Boss" until the very end. It's a bit like saying that MGS4 Old Snake should be the only Solid Snake used. Big Boss should be given a fair representation of the character.
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pjbasis posted...

When he's a playable character that's how he's portrayed.

Most people who want to nominate him imagine that portrayal.

Naked Snake is only in 3. Big Boss is playable in another four games after that too you know.

Anyway, my general rule with Big Boss is if it has an eyepatch it's fair game. Early MGS3 Naked Snake is not really recognisable as Big Boss at all.
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LeonhartFour posted...

Lightning Strikes posted...

If you are wondering, 2010 Big Boss, who had no pic shenanigans, gets 46.7% on Sora.

this is also an extremely favorable number for Sora because it's derived through Charizard

it's also incorrect because Big Boss gets 52.26% based on that number

Fair point on the Charizard thing. The latter though, not according to the lol x-stats calculator. I'm assuming that is adjusted. In either case Big Boss does look about normal.

UltimaterializerX posted...

Lightning Strikes posted...

I mean if anything this result just says to me that the pic isn't important and Crash is just legit, Big Boss looks normal. It's not 2006 any more, people know who Big Boss here. If anything Naked Snake would have been a misleading pic, should have split the difference and gone with PW/V Big Boss.

Edit: If you are wondering, 2010 Big Boss, who had no pic shenanigans, gets 46.7% on Sora. Right now Big Boss is looking like 49.4% on Sora. The picture does not matter.

We say this, but something like 35-40% of voters in any poll on any forum openly admit that the match picture matters to them when voting.

Oh it matters a bit, but it's not like Big Boss's picture is terrible or unrecognisable. The thing is, in 2005-2007, Big Boss had only really appeared in MGS (I.e. not the MSX games) as "Naked Snake", never an old man or any other form. That is now no longer the case. In fact, the eyepatchless MGS3 version posted in this topic appears in half a game while Big Boss is in eight Metal Gear games. Not exactly a fair representation. Again I support using PW/MGSV pics as they are both recognisable as Big Boss and not an old man. it's not "Naked Snake" though.
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I mean if anything this result just says to me that the pic isn't important and Crash is just legit, Big Boss looks normal. It's not 2006 any more, people know who Big Boss here. If anything Naked Snake would have been a misleading pic, should have split the difference and gone with PW/V Big Boss.

Edit: If you are wondering, 2010 Big Boss, who had no pic shenanigans, gets 46.7% on Sora. Right now Big Boss is looking like 49.4% on Sora. The picture does not matter.
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Day 23, Match 3 - Ryu vs. Commander Shepard
(3) Ryu: 66.55% - (6) Shepard: 33.45%

What happened?: The beat down we all knew was coming. Before this contest Shepard would have come very close to Ryu, and here he got doubled. As good as Street Fighter has looked this contest, Shepard has clearly had a near-Gordon level drop.

What could this mean?: Just that Shepard might top Gordon for the biggest drop of the contest. Western characters are getting a lot of flack, but Lara didn't drop, Kratos got stronger, Geralt looks good. The truth is here have just been a lot of Western franchises that have just dropped the ball lately and weakened severely as a result.

Day 23, Match 4 - KOS-MOS vs. Aqua
(10) KOS-MOS: 57.38% - (2) Aqua: 42.62%

What happened?: Aqua disappointed a bit here, looking worse than Ellie. KOS-MOS also looked very frontloaded again, declining from over 60% at the start. She also did very well in Europe which is novel but significant.

What could this mean?: Aqua's not bad but I think KOS-MOS has looked her best in some time. I do legitimately think Xenoblade 2 is a big part of that, she has almost Nintendo-like trends and Xenoblade's good in Europe while Xenosaga is not. I think she will outperform both Lloyd and Shepard against Ryu next round.
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Day 24, Match 1 - Sephiroth vs. Captain Falcon
(1) Sephiorth: 64.93% - (9) Falcon: 35.07%

What happened?: Other than the pretty hilarious board vote, this was a pretty standard match. Sephiroth looked bad early on but quickly rose to normal levels. In the end this performance was exactly where it was projected to have been.

What could this mean? Best case scenario for Seph he hasn't fallen from 2013 and might even have risen very slightly! Of course, unlike basically every other Nintendo character Captain Falcon has been precisely nowhere so I wouldn't expect much of a boost - we've already seen different characters boost to different levels. So all in all this was a standard performance for Sephiroth, Ryu is the real test.

Day 23, Match 2 - Amaterasu vs. Lara Croft
(5) Amaterasu: 54.91% - (4) Lara: 45.09%

What happened?: Not much! Amaterasu had a big lead early on but slowly lost it (a pretty big 4% drop) over the first four hours, and eventually the match settled on a fairly standard 55/45 split. This match too was exactly where the stats projected it to be.

What could this mean?: Also not much! The only thing I can really say is that Lara definitely looks to have retained her 2013 strength, good showing for her. Otherwise fairly Ho-hum.
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