LogFAQs > #914574825

7.



The single greatest mistake that has ever been made by our contest overlords is division by era. Spring 2004 has a good argument for being the greatest contest we ever had, but it would have been unquestionably the greatest contest ever if we had a truly random bracket instead of very clear matchups like Zelda/Donkey Kong or whatever.

I bring this up because FF7 vs. Ocarina of Time was the extremely obvious final to this contest, and it happened in round 4. Division Final: Final Fantasy VII vs. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of time. Come on. I've heard people say that this was an obvious result and I completely disagree. FF7 was what everyone picked in their bracket because Cloud won the previous contest and because gamefaqs is FF7 heaven. But it wasn't obvious, not during the contest. I brought up the all-Zelda final four in the Wind Waker writeup. It's not like people forgot that FF7 was in the contest. Ocarina was killing games. So was FF7, of course. The bracket was stacked getting here (again, due to division by era and poor bracket placement). Let's run down the results coming in:

FF7:

86% on Suikoden 2
80% on Xenogears
71% on Metal Gear Solid

Ocarina:

86% on Fallout 2
76% on Mario 64
73% on Goldeneye

Ocarina is no slouch here. Most people saw the MGS result and figured the contest was over, but Goldeneye was super underrated. Remember, a year later we did that List thing is Goldeneye was #7, MGS #8. These are all wonky results because FF7 likely SFF'd MGS, but look at what Ocarina did to Mario 64 and Goldeneye. Those are killer numbers.

This match was pretty evenly split in Oracle too: the consensus was FF7 with 51%, with 40 picks for FF7 and 18 for Ocarina. Everyone expected a super close matchup here. I completely reject anyone who says that this match was obvious.

Anyway, this match ended up being a bit of a snoozer when compared to other matches in the top 25. Importance doesn't equal drama. It didn't get as many votes as you would expect -- if I remember right, I think there was something with a redesign and poll placement having shifted during that? This should be the biggest vote total of all time.

This match spelled the end of Zelda for best game ever. In 5 days, Zelda went from 11-0 to 11-4. It's crazy how fast the Zelda hype train derailed. I might complain about bracket placement in 2004, but it sure made for some incredible drama and buildup. FF7 would go on to blitz Melee so bad that it made division 128 seem trivial, and then put down Chrono Trigger with ease in the final.

FF7 winning here validated a lot - people picking FF7 on The List, picking Cloud to win the 2004 character battle, picking FF to win the series contest, the 2009 game contest -- you can go on. A lot of bad picks have come from undying faith in FF7. I've always wondered at what point Ocarina overtook FF7 -- I believe it's somewhere around 2006, but you can make an argument for 2005 as well with the Nintendo boost. The people who live forever on the boards back FF7 pretty strong but the overall site has certainly shifted that way since 05. It's a fun thought exercise.

I'll end with a fun story: I was reading the popular gaming forum Resetera a couple of weeks ago, and someone randomly made an FF7 vs. Ocarina poll. I don't usually vote in twitter polls or other gaming forum polls, because who cares, but I instantly clicked on it and voted Final Fantasy VII because that's just what I do. These two games will duel until the end of time and I will vote for FF7 every time. (Ocarina won 66%-34%. Because Ocarina wins this poll literally everywhere. Except for gamefaqs, in 2004.)
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xyzzy