LogFAQs > #939591140

Bust Analysis continued:

Theres another indie game that came out this year, however, that actually did disappoint people. A LOT of people. At 37.78%, Rayman Legends beating Celeste had the third lowest prediction rate of Round 1, only behind the massive Octopath > Undertale and Bastion > Walking dead upsets. And this wasnt just a casual bracket buster, Celeste was the favorite on the board as well. You might think it strange that this little 2D platformer was such a big favorite against another little 2D platformer, and maybe in retrospect this match should have been debated more than it actually was, but come on. This is the first time weve even seen a Rayman game in bracket, while the character only showed up in two character battles and was promptly fodderized in both. Such a long running franchise never showing up in a games contest would naturally lead us to believe that no one on this site gave a damn about the series. Meanwhile, Celeste has MAJOR indie darling credit, and the fact it rode in on a 4 seed would lead us to believe that the hype was real.

Turns out the people who nominated it to that high a seed were also the only people who fckin voted for it. Celeste actually spent quite a few hours with a slim lead, but apparently the British love them some Rayman, because that lead was snatched away from it overnight, and Celeste never caught up again. Rayman won the match with more than 200 votes to spare, so we werent even permitted to watch a cool fight. This is one of those matches where I legitimately have no explanation for what happened. Rayman Legends is seven years old, and unless youre Mario, platformers dont have a long shelf life in terms of relevance. Celeste was a big deal as far as platformers go and came out fairly recently; I would have pegged it as a contender for top 5 in terms of indies, when depending on how you count, it turned out to be barely in the top 10. Celeste won in America with almost 53% of the vote, so it could be that theres some Europe-Rayman relationship that I dont know about.

Headliner Analysis:

True story: I always put the Headliners in the year banners, and I originally had Monster Hunter up there alongside Smash and God of War, not even remembering that this year produced THREE games that made it to Division Finals and beyond. 2011 and 2017 are the only years that share this feat. Unfortunately for me, Smash is the only one of these games I REALLY like, and Dragon Quest is one of like 3 games in bracket that I actively dislike. But as tempted as I am to go on an Ulti-style diatribe, Ill keep my opinions of DQ and GoW to myself. These write-ups are already nightmarishly long, for Gods sake.

But hey, these Headliner analyses are supposed to celebrate games and their runs, and props where theyre due, DQXI is the only JRPG alongside Persona and Xenoblade this decade to REALLY leave an impression on people (not really counting Nier as a traditional JRPG here). People have been crying out for a big budget game that championed the sensibilities of SNES and PS1 era JRPGs, and no matter what I think about the game, DQ unquestionably filled that niche. If P5 is the sleek, sexy, new-school anime-y game, DQ is the quaint, down-to-earth, old-school anime-y one; I mean it literally looks like Dragon Ball, courtesy of Akira Toriyama and his five faces and hairdos.

Funnily enough, Dragon Quest started its run by trampling all over one of the JRPG series that did manage to gather a small cult audience, Trails in the Sky SC, much to the horror of the saavy B8 members who wanted Trails to do well. I clearly remember a lot of people claiming DQ was a beast because it broke 80 here, but really, I think they were only saying that because it was the second day of the contest and Zelda was the only game wed seen go that high so far. Not only was this a JRPG SFF beatdown, but B8 has some of the only people that even know wtf Trails in the Sky is. Cold Steel would almost certainly have done better here.

Much like how Mario Odyssey got to smack down the winners of debatable matches, DQXI adopted a similar role in its half of the bracket. Bastion did well to beat Walking Dead when no one thought it would, but its not like it was doing anything more than that. Honestly, the 28% it got here was kinda impressive, and not really in a way that embarrassed DQXI. Breaking 70 in Round 2 is what you wanna see in a 2 seed, and solidified it as the favorite against Monster Hunter, a fellow 2018 release.

The eventual 53% result was kind of a let down for the people that were hyping DQ as a game that would have won a bunch of other divisions, especially since it started the match at like 60%. But honestly, its an impressive result if you think about it. MH World is fckin HUUUUUUGE. Its apparently Capcoms best-selling game ever, and finally gave the series AAA status outside Japan. Its boards are routinely some of the busiest ones on our very site. Hell, I usually hate those sorts of grind-y ass games, and I still gave it a go. Was even enjoying myself up until the point where it was clear that I had hit a wall that could only be overcome by grinding. Took it as an invitation to bounce before I spent the rest of my life killing the same three dinosaurs while praying they would give me the drops I needed.

Still, the assumption up until this point was that the bottom half of Division 1 was kinda rickety, with a bunch of seemingly weak JRPGs and games that didnt seem like big GameFAQs crowd-pleasers. DQ struggling a bit meant that no one was ready to be impressed by it in Division Finals. Hell, some people thought it would barely do any better than FFXV did against BotW! So imagine our surprise when Dragon Quest spends most of the match above 30%. Remember, nothing had even broken 20 on Zelda, and here was DQ doing a whole 10% better. There were huge arguments over what exactly this might mean for the contest going forward, but ultimately, all it meant was that BotWs half of the Division was fucking trash, while the Sekiro-MH fourpack was much better than expected. Ultimately, DQs best match was its loss, where it single-handedly legitimized its half of the Division.

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