LogFAQs > #939491914

Snubs Analysis:

This year was so good in fact, that even at 21 entries, I still didnt have to think that hard about snubs. Believe it or not, there still managed to be a LOT; the eight I have arent even close.

PUBG HAS to be the biggest snub of the contest, period, at least in terms of sheer sales, stature, and influence, if not in GameFAQs-iness. Unfortunately, despite selling tens of millions of copies and ushering in the era of the battle royale genre, it ended up obsoleted pretty damn quickly. Its funny to think that for a short while, Fortnite was considered the hipster pick, but the tables were turned in a matter of months, and PUBG became the go-to for people who pretended that they were too good or too mature for Fortnite. Im too old to be engrossed in the politics of the situation, but Id done a fair bit of substitute teaching around this time, and Fortnite vs PUBG felt like the Nintendo vs SEGA of this generation of kids, with an equally obvious winner once the dust had settled.

Another obvious snub, this one more GameFAQs specific: Metroid. How the first quality Metroid game in a literal decade (more, even, if like me, you dont actually think much of Primes sequels) failed to get a spot in this contest is absolutely baffling, and I can only chalk this up to the 3DS already being on the way out by the time the game was released. You know how I refer to GameFAQs as ZeldaMarioSmashAndSometimesMetroidAndPokemonFAQs, and NOT NintendoFAQs? Well, that Sometimes is the operative word here.

A little less obvious was Destiny 2. Now, the original game is turbofodder. It got tripled by fucking Stardew Valley. But maybe Im out of the loop on this one, but surely Destiny 2 is the game of choice for people who enjoy that shit? Was this not a case of the more recent game obsoleting its predecessor? I remember there was a point in time where Best Buy was literally giving away Destiny 2 with a lot of different pre-orders. I received a free copy of the game myself, one that I never even bothered to pick up lol. No way was I going to touch it, and clearly it had 0 resale value if they were literally throwing copies away.

There were a couple of points in time in the Stats topic where we would spitball which indie games were clearly snubbed, and you know one game I think we all forgot about? Hellblade: Senuas Sacrifice. Seems weird to forget about a game that good and relatively high-profile, though I suppose Microsofts purchase of Ninja Theory clouded the fact that the game was in fact technically an indie when released. It cleaned up at the Game Awards that year, and its sequels trailer was shown right alongside the SeXs reveal, which I assume means Microsoft is propping it up as a big deal.

One indie game we did NOT forget about whatsoever was Doki Doki Literature Club. Its literally free and can be run on a potato, its playrate must be through the roof! I suppose by 2020 the games memes have worn people down to the point where its received Undertale style backlash, but Monika making it into the 2018 Character contest and then her game not showing up here is kinda weird.

Same goes for Hat Kid. The character isnt remotely what sells A Hat in Time, and I would think her game would be marginally stronger than she was, even after embarrassing Squall. It being one of the few major Kickstarter projects to actually deliver should have net it some respect points, but I guess not.

Prey and Gravity Rush 2 are two games with big cult followings that I thought might have been able to swing enough noms to get their games in. Christ, Prey fans are the kind who are keen to remind you of the games existence and how its SUCH an underappreciated gem every five nanoseconds. I remember when I had the patience to browse ResetERA, there would be like five threads on the front page whining that not enough people were talking about the game, completely oblivious of the irony. Thought it was only just OK personally, with one of the worst endgames of all fucking time.

Bust Analysis:

It feels weird to have a game that made Round 3 marked as a bust, when in 2016 making Round 3 was the absolute highlight of the year. If you read my post directly above this analysis you might be confused, because I claimed that I prioritize deep runs over x-stat value; sometimes, there are underperfomances (relative to expectations) that are too obvious for me to just let pass by. Such is the bountiful nature of 2017, where you can take a game that almost made top 20 in the x-stats for granted. This is also the most I told you so set of busts of the entire analysis, so I hope you can tolerate a small dose of smug =D

But let me start with the more clear-cut case. Tales of Berseria vs Hollow Knight was marked as a complete and utter tossup, with a lot of smart people taking Tales on the assumption that it being an RPG with a decent brand would help it pull through. Ive dunked on these experts a few times at this point for often playing too much by the rules and numbers and failing to take note of where the discourse is at, and this had to have been one of their worst misses, at least as far as a one-point match was concerned. 63%, Round 1, Day 1 of the contest in Hollow Knights favor. With 52-48s, 55-45s, even sub 60% results, you might still be able argue that the debates were worth having. But NOT when one game breaks 60. At that point one side was clearly wrong, and was always wrong. This match was THE origin of Indie Fear, all because people refused to believe that Hollow Knight in and of itself could have won that match that hard without some extra transient factor at play.

And I can tell you why I was so baffled not only by the people who thought Hollow Knight would lose, but by the subsequent knee jerk reaction that every indie was to be feared. As far as indie games go, Hollow Knight is a big deal, with the $15 Switch release shadowdropped at E3 immeasurably boosting it. Yah it somehow ended at 7th place in terms of indie games this contest, but Ill still argue that it would have done notably better against Zelda than FFXV did. Tales of Berseria, meanwhile, does indeed have a brand name a brand name that hasnt done shit on this website outside of one game. While Berseria is certainly the most well-received one since Vesperia, thats damning with faint, faint praise. In terms of production values and market presence, the Tales series at this point is like a hair or two above the aforementioned mass-produced garbage from NIS and GUST and Compile Heart.

Speaking of JRPGs that people had overrated in the bracket making period and early in the contest Nier Automata! Im not putting Nier here JUST because it lost to Pokemon, but because for all the hype surrounding it being a potential godslayer, with some arguing that it could topple SKYRIM (a very small vocal minority, but vocal they were), it really didnt end up being all that. A very good midcarder, yes, but hardly the near-elite some people were propping it up as.

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