Lurker > plasmabeam

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Nominate Phantasy Star IV

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

I snagged Psychonauts for cheap over the summer. Yet another backlogged game I need to crack into.

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Snake5555555555 posted...

I absolutely adore it. It was my favorite in the series before DMC5 came out; the OST, amazing horror atmosphere, incredible enemy design, feature rich gameplay even by today's standards, it's a quick replay too so I'm always breaking it out.

Same here! Always thought 1 > 3

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Nanis23 posted...

Good thing Halo 1,2,3,ODST,Reach,4 and Infinite are available on PC now as well

I'm a console guy. Holding out for a miracle Switch release.


---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Never played because I never owned an Xbox

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

LinkMarioSamus posted...

It just feels really odd to me to see people here saying stuff like "story is not Zelda's strength".

I don't get it either. For me, story was always one of the major selling points for 3D Zeldas. I didn't like BotW because the story took too much of a backseat to the exploration.


---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Mario Sunshine would destroy Halo in the rematch

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

428: Shibuya Scramble - 9.18 (8 votes)

$7.49 on PSN right now? Guess I better buy it.

You guys have been killing my bank account with these ratings.

EDIT: I just read a spoiler-free review that compared the game to the TV series 24 (my all-time favorite show) with a mix of Zero Escape (my favorite game story). @Lightning_Strikes thank you for doing these topics. I look forward to them every day, and they have turned me on to some great stories.

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

8/10

Familiar story, but I loved the atmosphere, worldbuilding, and lore.

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Awesome to see your early success with Book 2!

Good luck against those sexy werewolves.

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Axl_Rose_85 posted...

Nominate Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly

Got halfway through this before my Fat PS3 died via YLOD. Gotta fire up Fatal Frame 2 again someday soon.

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Just got RE8 on Black Friday. Need to get around to playing it.

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Nominate Marvel's Spider-Man

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

KamikazePotato posted...

Super disagree with this. FF7R is a fundamentally different experience in many ways, and those differences are big.

Agreed. Saying FF7 and FF7R are the same is like saying the John Carpenter's Halloween and the Rob Zombie version are the same thing.

EDIT: Actually a better comparison would be the 1950s version of The Thing vs. John Carpenter's 1982 remake.

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

LinkMarioSamus posted...

A lot of the games from the 2015 contest released in 2012 or later will be hard-pressed to return to be fair. The Witcher 3 and Bloodborne are like the only two that have meaningfully gained in strength since then. Probably shouldn't expect high seeds for the likes of Metal Gear Solid 4, Twilight Princess, and Oblivion either in addition to Fallout 3.

Imagine a bracket with those games as 11-14 seeds going up against more recent hits. Some potential matchups off the top of my head...

(6) Metroid Dread vs. (11) MGS4
(5) Bloodborne vs. (12) Twilight Princess
(4) Hades vs. (13) Fallout 3
(3) Animal Crossing New Horizons vs. (14) Oblivion

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

OrangeCrush980 posted...

Was 2020 really that notable of a gaming year, or is that just due to you thinking nominators would give it a lot of recently bias? New Horizons takes the Animal Crossing slot, Hades makes it in, maybe some shooter like Doom Eternal makes it, and I don't know if anything else does? This site's initial reception to The Last of Us 2 was so negative, and Final Fantasy VII Remake being a remake either disqualifies it or many people would just nominate the original and call it a day.

Recency bias. The five you mentioned are locks if the nominations are held today. I'd call Ghost of Tsushima a lock as well. Then take your pick from 13 Sentinels, Cyberpunk, Ori WotW, and Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Hell, Miles Morales might even have a shot.

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Should be day 173

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

AxemRedRanger posted...

Since none of those 80s games (Mario 3 is 90s) made it into the 2015 contest besides Tetris, we should not expect to see any of them in future contests without special reason.

Forgot the NA release date was 1990

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

charmander6000 posted...

I realized that between 1990-2021 a 128 game bracket would have an average of four games per year. In a decade it'll be down to around three per year. I wonder if GameFAQs/other communities would ever consider a 256 game bracket. Like we could do one now and it wouldn't be that fodder-ific (less so than the two GotD contests we've had), but it would create a long contest...

Damn, that's gonna lead to a ton of snubs. Plus, you have to figure that 1998, 2017, and 2020 would nab around 7-10 bracket spots each. And we also have to factor in some 80s games that will sneak in (Mario 3, Zelda 1, Tetris, Mega Man 2, and maaaybe Mario 1, Duck Hunt, and Pac-Man).

So theoretically 1998, 2017, 2020, and the 80s could soak up a quarter of the bracket, leaving 96 slots open for the rest of the years between 1990 and 2021.

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Mac Arrowny posted...

The spirit of exploration in VIII is what gives it good atmosphere. It's fantastic in that respect.

Exactly. I'm normally not a fan of sunny, uppity settings, but VIII's island is pretty damn charming and has juuust enough mystery to keep things interesting.

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

charmander6000 posted...

I imagine nominations were split between "classic games I played as a kid" and "recent games I've played." Given GameFAQs' demographics we will see a larger portion of games from the SNES, the PS/N64 and maybe into the PS2/GC/Xbox eras and games released in the past few years.

My thoughts exactly. The standout classics and recent hits are what will dominate the nominations for the next contest. I expect the Wii/PS3/X360 era to struggle mightily next time around.


---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

KamikazePotato posted...

You basically just said that IX is better than or on par with VIII in ever way, but VIII is better?

Correct. IX has a much better story and a cool prison city, but the jump from VIII to IX was underwhelming IMO. I also didn't mention that the island environments in VIII are more endearing than those in IX. The prison city in IX is more restrictive and disrupts the game's flow.

You have to understand... VIII blew me away when I played it in 2018. IX, while great, felt like more of the same with less freedom.

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Axl_Rose_85 posted...

Ys VIII is such an overrated game. I went in expecting to be mindblown because everybody was saying it was so good and instead I just got a JRPG with not bad combat but bland as hell atmosphere and a snoozer of a story. Nothing special. I honestly think Memories of Celceta was more enjoyable than Ys VIII even though it was maybe more flawed overall.

I went in with minimal expectations and was blown away. While I agree with you on the story being dull, the gameplay was off-the-charts IMO.

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Great, but it pales in comparison to VIII.

IX has a much better story than VIII and an Arkham City-style world to explore with fun new abilities.

Combat and music are on par with VIII, but the law of diminishing returns is what hurts IX the most IMO. I'd recommend playing on Nightmare mode if you're a veteran of Ys VIII--it's really not that hard aside from a few boss battles.

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

5.5/10

I respect the effort to tell a story during a time when most games were pure gameplay, but aside from the twist near the end, there's not much here.

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Arti posted...

It's essentially a different game, since they made it into an action RPG instead of turn-based.

I hated it and don't think it's worth anyone's time.

SNES it is then. Thanks!

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

1. Metroid Dread
2. Ys IX: Monstrum Nox

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

How's the DS version?

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

TheArkOfTurus posted...

The series is connected, but 2 is a prequel, and 1 is painfully generic. Depends how much you care about playing things in release order.

Leonhart4 posted...

Just play Lufia II and you'll be fine

Axl_Rose_85 posted...

Lufia II

Fortress of Doom, I'd imagine has aged terribly because of how grindy it is and the ridiculous encounter rate (kinda like Mother and Dragon Quest II).

Thanks all!

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Nominate Koudelka

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Ah, Lufia, one of those 90s JRPG gems that I need to get to someday.

Stupid question, what's the best Lufia game to start with?

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

LeonhartFour posted...

Nominate Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA

Second this.

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

5/10

Not bad, but totally forgettable.

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

LeonhartFour posted...

7.5/10

I enjoy the concept of seeing the same story told from two different perspectives and how it shapes the way you perceive the story depending on who's telling it. It's cleverly done here, although it's a bit short and I wish there had been more depth to it.

Have you watched Rashoman? Great movie. Holds up well.

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Nominate Baten Kaitos

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Back-to-back sub-Zestiria results. Love it.

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Axl_Rose_85 posted...

I couldn't stomach more than 5 hours of this and it killed my interest in future installments completely.

I've rated games' stories based on less than 5 hours of play, but to each his own.

Haven't played Sticker Star, so I can't rate. But damn, it's cool to see Plumbers score less than a 2!

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

swordz9 posted...

Scarlet Nexus was $25 this year. Im sure it will hit $20 eventually, but probably wont go too much lower than that anytime soon

$20 is a lock, maybe even by the end of the year. I could see it hitting $15 within the next year because it's a niche title that got overshadowed by Arise.

Tales of Arise will probably not go lower than $20 physically.

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

ShatteredElysium posted...

Koudelka is $125 for the discs only? When did that happen? I feel like when I looked up my copy a while back it wasn't worth anything

$125 for the Koudelka discs was a STEAL. The discs alone go for $175-$200+ usually.

CIB Koudelka goes for $300+

Last year I almost won CIB Koudelka for about $140, but I didn't push my bid high enough because I'd just bought Suikoden V the week before for $90 (Sui5 goes for double that now).

If you own any old PS1/PS2/GCN games that haven't been remastered, they're probably worth at least $100+ CIB. Games like Koudelka (and Shadow Hearts 1-3) have no chance of being re-released anytime soon due to copyright ownership issues.

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Nominate Panzer Dragoon Saga

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Snake5555555555 posted...

10/10

It's the perfect goofy Hallmark romantic comedy of the video game world, mixed with an ambitious mind-bending twist mid-way through as narrators are literally swapped out over a meta battle of wits shattering the very reality of in-game events. The surreal imagery of still frame slide-show scenes truly make it an early work of avant-garde video game storytelling, with minimalistic actor feedback setting the stage for future visual novels to flaunt similar techniques. Telltale eats its heart out with fantastic choice-based gameplay, with delays between each interaction emphasizing the impact of each decision, as narrators berate you for your stupidity or success, wrinkling the fabric of the player-avatar relationship. A villain like Thresher perfectly commentates on the horrors of the male-dominated business world, as he shouts "Take your damn clothes off!" to Jane in a crisp encapsulation of these themes. I'm surprised at the low ratings here, this game has an excellent story!

Just kidding it's a 1

Hahah Snake you devil

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~

All are physical versions. All are new/sealed except Koudelka (used, eBay) and Astral Chain (which came in mint condition from GameStop):

Astral Chain Switch $27
Alan Wake PS4 $20
Control Ultimate Edition PS4 $20
Dragon Quest XI S PS4 $15
Hades PS4 $20
Koudelka (Discs only) $125
Outer Wilds Limited Run Edition PS4 $35
Resident Evil Village + Steelbook PS4 $20
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster PS4 $20
Tetris Effect PS4 $30

Proud of myself for not biting on Scarlet Nexus, Tales of Arise, or GotG, because I know they'll be cheaper in the future.

Still want Disco Elysium PS4 Physical, but not at $40.

---

~Jacksonville Jaguars~