Lurker > Lightning Strikes

Yuri_LowelI posted...

PW spirit of justice

Great game but no way. there were lots of major well received (some even better so) releases after that.

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Inspired by mention of the Wii swansong in the stats topic.

Credentials for each:

Samus Returns - Arguably the last completely new, major first party exclusive.
Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon - Last Pokemon game on the system, last million+ seller.
WarioWare Gold - The last new first party game.
Persona Q2 - The last "major" new game.
Epic Yarn - The last first party release.

WarioWare Gold imho

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Well, this is the actual Wii swansong:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWy1utqHD0s

(Okay it's probably actually Mario Party 9 but who cares about that game).

LeonhartFour posted...

Maybe! Sometimes the hype is worth more than the actual release.

But it looks like P4G is safe. Wish I hadn't backed down from picking it here because I was afraid it'd suffer from being a port!

I assume you mean safe this round! But yes sadly this is it for my bracket, cursed by doubting Xenoblade, one of my favourite games.

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SuperNiceDog posted...

Xenoblade is it a good game? I've never played it, and I picked it in my bracket

One of the best RPGs ever, I believe the second best reviewed JRPG of the last 20 years behind Persona 5. Its terrific, and thats s popular opinion!


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The thing about Xenoblade is though, its doing this before Definitive Edition comes out. After it does it should be even stronger.

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So has Xenoblade!

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I dont think Persona 5 is s lock by any means, and the only ones Id say seems likely is God of War. Well see on Mass Effect 2 also.

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Xenoblade stronger than Bloodborne and RE2 Chronicles

Xenoblade top ten game in the bracket Chronicles

DoctorJimmy133 posted...

It really amazes me that we're seeing so much movement from a match of two critically-acclaimed Nintendo RPGs.

Europe loves Xenoblade.

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I actually meant OG FF7! It was a significantly westernised game at the time.

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shane15 posted...

The only reason FF fell off is because they tried making it more western imo.

Worked for FF7 tho

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KamikazePotato posted...

The last decade of FF has been atrocious. If that's your barometer then the standards of this conversation are much lower than I expected.

The conversation started as discussing why FF fell off while Zelda and Nintendo stayed strong, hence the comparison.

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KamikazePotato posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ds/932377-the-legend-of-zelda-phantom-hourglass

Looking at the user score of this and the metacritic page, I'd say it's a fairly popular opinion. Although it would be more accurate to say no one cares about the handheld Zeldas.

Thats still notably better than most of the last decade of FF! Like thats still fine as a low point.

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Because its a very good game!

Believe it or not hating on the DS Zeldas is not a popular opinion!

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pjbasis posted...

Basically every FF game can say the same thing but people still accept a dark age for those!

This is actually wrong.

https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/final-fantasy-xiv-online
https://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-3/lightning-returns-final-fantasy-xiii

Thats a numbered entry and a main console game. Both were financial and critical failures. Meanwhile, Zeldas low point:

https://www.metacritic.com/game/ds/the-legend-of-zelda-spirit-tracks

Still a really good, well received game!

KamikazePotato posted...

Ocarina, Majora, Wind Waker, and Twilight Princes are all Top 20 games in terms of contest strength, and they came out during 1998-2006. In comparison, the time period of 2007-2016 is a barren wasteland for Zelda. You didn't see another true game of note (A Link Between Worlds is strong but not THAT strong) until Breath of the Wild.

Because there was only one console release in that time.

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raptor36000 posted...

This is a stretch. Both skyward sword and link between worlds were very well received critically and LBW was well recd. by the fanbase (unlike skyward sword). We also got OoT3d and Majora3d which were complete remakes as well. All of these games are also well rated on metacritic and sold very well.

Yep, exactly this. Zeldas low points are not low. Final Fantasy on the other hand had original XIV and Lightning Returns nearly kill the series.

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3>1>V, though 2 is close.

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Leonhart4 posted...

I mean, it went 50/50 with Melee and only got 52% on TP! Fallout 3 did well on it, too. There were 5-10 games that could've gotten 45%+ on Brawl and Melee in 2010, and there's probably the same amount this time for Ultimate.

There are probably more games that can actually beat it though.

Yeah I meant the latter, the winner of Brawl/Melee was never under threat until the final even though the likes of TP and Fallout 3 were not far off it. However this time Smash could end up as low as fifth with no rallies.

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Ultimate now may well be stronger than Brawl then. However, this time its crowded at the top while Brawl just had to worry about FFX and rallied MM.

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They announced Zero Mission at that E3! That was really it though. At least the Wii U years saw some excellent software output even though the sales weren't great.

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Actually you know what was perhaps the weakest era for Nintendo

2003-2004. Post first-year Gamecube, pre-DS, when the GBA was literally carrying the entire company like the 3DS was 2013-2015.

And what happens in that era on here? FF/Square dominance other than E3 2004-boosted Link.

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LeonhartFour posted...

excuse me the Villains Contest was the 5th contest

Haha, you got me, I knew that would come up. Of course, Sephiroth wins the Sephiroth contest but when you look elsewhere within it...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/2004-triforce-division-round-1-kuja-vs-master-hand

swordz9 posted...

Even if FF wasnt trending downward LoZ seems to keep getting stronger and stronger here even when it also puts out titles that werent exactly beloved

Not beloved in the broader context of the franchise maybe. ut we're still talking about critically acclaimed games that people like and sell millions of copies. There has never been a Zelda Dark Age. I don't think anybody here will say you can point to a period of Zelda and say it compares to 2007-2014 FF in terms of decline from the peak.

However, with that said, it is worth mentioning that the weakest stretch for Nintendo while the site has been a thing (2011-2015) saw barely any contests, two of which got rally shenaniganed (one of these being threeways) and the other was the Rivalry Rumble. So we never really got to see what a declined Nintendo could look like. Link did slightly underperform on Cloud in 2010 when we were starting to see that turn, but we never saw it in full swing.

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Also, y'know, FF hasn't been top dog since literally the third contest. So by "early", you mean REALLY early.

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Yuri_LowelI posted...

Heres the thing about smash. Is it a super popular game? Sure. Is it a GOTD or even. GOTY type gsme? Not even close. There is a reason is struggled against what is a weak franchise in God of war in goty poll. GOd of war was a bonified GOTY contender. Smash was just smash and had the nintendo fanbase pulling for it

This used to be true but not any more. Back in the day Smash was the Nintendo fanservice thing that was well received but not taken seriously as a GOTY contender. This is part of why on this very website, Melee got doubled by FFX and lost to GTA3 in the 2001 GOTY polls and the original had next to no presence. Brawl was Nintendo's most hyped game ever (and fastest selling) to that point and got a 93 on Metacritic yet struggled with a somewhat divisive PS3 exclusive before the PS3 even managed to make a comeback. And we all know what happened in the first GotD.

However, the narrative has shifted a lot. SSB4 won a ton of GotY awards (to contrast, GameFAQs was literally the only notable award Brawl won and Melee didn't win any), and Ultimate got several despite its December release disqualifying it at a lot of outlets. It even got a TGA nomination in 2019 for the first time in series history. That is significant as that is effectively sourced from a panel of major outlets so it's a good look at the way the industry is leaning. So Smash definitely has proper GotY/GotD cred in a way it didn't ten years ago. Does it have more than Mario Odyssey? Probably not.

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FFDragon posted...

I'm doubling down on yesterday being the most unfun a GameFAQs contest match has been since 2002.

Between the over two hour delay to the rallies and turning everything into Who's Line where the votes are made up and the games don't matter. I'm somehow still salty. And things even fell on my side in the end.

Especially now that RE2 only won because people were pushing it for their brackets or something.

This will be my last post complaining about it. I just want it noted in the permanent archive.

On the bright side, it was no Link/Shepard/Draven, and unlike that match you can't reasonably point to the downtime as the reason the result turned out the way it did because the trends were static. The board was in control, nobody was invading or being rude to Allen, it's unlikely to affect the match after, the results were legit, and we are all in pretty high spirits. Let's keep that in mind! Sorry it was rough for you though, I was rooting for RE for ya.

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At the start of Chapter 18 now, hopefully I will be able to finish it tonight. However before I do I have to say, that Jenova fight was fantastic, the way the music subtly quotes from the theme before kicking into the full original melody was beautiful.

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Lets not forget the potential for SFF between Odyssey and Shovel Knight of course.

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I just wanted to add, the image of impaled Crash in place of Zolom with Did Sephiroth do this? - A+

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That was fantastic, great job. As a minor minor clarification, SotN did not hit 1 million copies sold in its original release - the honour of the first Castlevania to do so would go to Circle of the Moon (in only a month) boosted by the GBA launch, a year before that contest.

This was an amazing video, I would love to see more if you ever wanted go.

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BlAcK TuRtLe posted...

There are like 3 switch games, is that a surprise?

...Well thats a take.

I am starting to wonder if BT lives in an alternate world where nothing has changed in the last three years.

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KamikazePotato posted...

I'm glad the Registered User bonus did its job for the first time ever, but considering Bloodborne might win if you remove it and the rallies I'm still kind of eeeeh on it

It also did for Shovel Knight no? Obviously Yacht Club helped there.

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Yeah its over. It would take some 00s era Chrono Trigger BS for Bloodborne to win here.

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Oops voted season 3 by mistake, meant to vote for 2.

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FFDragon posted...

Something like:
Resident Evil 2 (2015g) VS Bloodborne (2015g)
--Resident Evil 2 has a strength of 23.93.
--Bloodborne has a strength of 21.24.
Resident Evil 2 wins with 55.62% of the vote!

It was closer than that before the rally. Like 52-48. 56% and the rally probably wouldnt be enough. It makes sense that Bloodborne would get stronger as well, it was really new in 2015.

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Also they put out a Brain Age game four months ago. Its alive. That and Rhythm Heaven should be C tier.

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Animal Crossing is absolutely in the AAA tier now. New Horizons just posted the third biggest Nintendo launch ever in the US (behind only Brawl and Ultimate), biggest Switch launch in the UK, and possibly the biggest launch for any game in Japan depending on digital. Its enormous.

I would also push Donkey Kong and Pikmin up one. Donkey Kong gets stuff, just not main games, and is a big seller. Pikmin sells well and had a game less than three years ago, as well as 4 being in development (for five years...).

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Out of the box, Switch. It actually looks better on the small screen, and the same as PS4 on the big screen. It believe fixes some of the bugs too. However, it does have a nee bug (also in the Xbox One version) where a couple of FMV->real time transitions go black for half a second. Very minor but I dont know if they ever fixed it.

However if you want to mess around with mods, PC. The PC port lacks some of the features added in the PS4 version (which the Switch version has).

You cant really go wrong, they are all good versions. It is funny that perhaps the best version of FF7 is not only on Nintendo, but on cartridge (the cartridge version also has FF8 no less).

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That's the biggest lead for either in over two hours.

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It's a tie!

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I don't have a problem with the fourways, they just outstayed their welcome a bit. Some classic matches and moments, and much more fun to predict than the three ways. Also GotD followed a 1v1 Character Battle.

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RE2 back in the lead.

What a contest. Up there with the first GotD!

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This match

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Knock knock open up the door it's real

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There is a distinct possibility of me being scuppered by a Tetsuya Takahashi game with a last minute "rally" if Xenoblade does that to GTA haha. Lightning would strike twice.

Nah but I think azuarc will take it as Xenoblade just looks too good. I'm fairly bullish on GTAV's strength based on everything we've seen but Xenoblade has looked fantastic so far. I'll still be voting for it since it's one of my games of the decade too!

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WarThaNemesis2 posted...

Want another sad one?

Cecil hasn't ever won a contest match, true, but I believe Tidus' last win in a match was the day after Cecil's contest debut.

Lmao

He did get through to round two in both fourways though.

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AxemRedRanger posted...

What happened 12 years ago?

I looked all set to win the guru after a string of correct Kirby picks and a round 3 Mewtwo pick that was the biggest surprise of the contest, I just needed Vincent to come second in the quarterfinals ahead of Crono, which would be a ticket to the finals for whoever won as the following semifinal was a Nintendo SFF-fest with Link, Mario, and Samus (wait a minute...). This was of course following on from Vincent getting effectively the same result on Crono the year before.

So the match happens, its tight between Vincent and Crono but by the end of it Crono looks spent, Vincent is 200 votes ahead with 50 minutes to go, it is effectively all over. Then Crono starts getting massive updates out of nowhere, significantly better than Link was getting at the same time, and worth over 60% on Samus despite the fact that she was easily winning the match. There were I believe no known new rallies to explain this. Crono takes second place with five minutes left in the match and gets through to the semifinals then finals, eliminating me. It was extremely suspicious, and even Cronos supporters basically admitted it was unlikely to be legit - CT had a history in this regard at this time. We also never got a statement on the legitimacy of this result.

The one bit of solace was Snake coming in second in the finals as I had Cloud - but if Vincent had been there it is possible that Cloud would have come in second place as he only needed 1.4% and Im sure hed do better with Vincent there than Crono - in fact I used that logic when making my bracket!

Basically there were blatant CT shenanigans that killed my only legit shot at the guru... until now!

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So I can win the guru, if GTA can win a clutch match.

How poetic. Either way I should at least get a nice placement and I have the best shot since I was robbed 12 years ago.

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Big RE2 cut. You love to see it.

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Bloodborne is much more of an action game than Dark Souls, though less than Sekiro. You do not block or tank attacks like you can in Dark Souls, instead you dodge attacks, and attack enemies to recover your health. The movement is faster and there is less equipment, though there is more variety in the weapon types. It is a much more offensive game, but still definitely a Souls-type RPG as opposed to Sekiro which skirts the line.

Regarding the cosmic horror elements, that only appears in the second half of the game, while the first half is pure gothic horror - Werewolves are everywhere, Yharnam is clearly Victorian London, and the likes of Dracula and Frankenstein are clear inspirations. When it shifts to Lovecraft it is probably the best representation of Lovecraft in games since it actually implements it into the mechanics.

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Bloodborne does seem to be doing better with the Europe vote but not everywhere by any means. It is also winning in Canada so America waking up might not save RE2.

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Well, I upvoted the RE2 rally. We may as well do the same!

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