LogFAQs > #939591171

Headliner Analysis continued:

From DQ, lets transition to the opposite end of the spectrum in every way possible. From bright and cartoony we move to gritty and mature, from suddenly legitimizing an eightpack to suddenly delegitimizing one. God of War was another 2 seed, one that some thought had potential to upset Witcher in Division 5. And you know, while the idea of Witcher not even making Quarters was completely laughable to me, it wasnt the dumbest idea in the universe. This game has some real hype behind it, and is a respected title even amongst people who havent played it. Personally you know those Sequelitis videos Egoraptor used to make back when he actually tried making substantial content? I wanna make one of those for God of War. Thats all Ill say for now.

No need to prolong the first two rounds, this is definitely a place to conserve some words. The Talos Principle was an easy target for fodderization, and fodderize it GoW did, to the tune of 85%. Next was the winner of a decent upset, Nioh, which God of War put 75% on. True story: if you hold Binding of Isaac constant and assume no weird action game SFF, GoW is stronger than Witcher was in 2015, which was pretty decent even back then. Nowhere near where it is now though, and any chance at the upset died here.

That chance was super dead in the next round. If you ask me, New Vegas > God of War was a better upset pick than God of War > Witcher even pre-contest, but GoW did manage to snatch a nice 55-45 win. Unfortunately for it, Witcher was putting 60% on Mario in the adjacent match, and there was no way to argue New Vegas was ANY better than Galaxy, let alone significantly stronger. Not with a Nintendo renaissance and Bethesda backlash.

This still didnt prepare us for Division Finals. In my guest crew write-up, I said that I figured God of War was probably stronger than Galaxy but might suffer some minor SFF, so I pegged Witcher to get 58%. Imagine my surprise, then, when Witcher jumped out to a 65% lead when the match started. Well hey, there was probably a fair bit of bracket voting from people scared that God of War might threaten to win. The numbers would normalize eventually! except they didnt. Witcher stayed here for the entire match, which was some crazy shit. God of War looked really good for the entire contest, so for it to almost get doubled here meant that Witcher was on a different planet.

This is where people coined the term Western SFF; you dont even need to be in the same genre anymore, you just need to be made in the same hemisphere and share some basic gameplay concepts and SFF kicks in (Poland is in the Eastern hemisphere too lmao)! Same people that said I was nuts for claiming Platinum SFF might be a thing, mind. I personally think Witcher only scored 2 or 3 extra points here max, not the 7 or 8% people were postulating at the time. Whatever the case, while God of War had a great showing for most of the contest, it was the opposite of DQ even at the end; while Dragon Quests best match was arguably its loss, God of War was humiliated on its way out.

And speaking of getting humiliated on your way out Smash was the easy pick for #2 in the bracket before the contest started. Even I believed it. Everyone is Here, dammit! Its the biggest fighting game EVER! And its the only game Ive tried playing at a competitive level, though honestly this quarantine has really sapped my motivation. If you wanna blame a perceived Smash underperformance on something, blame it on Nintendos apocalyptically bad netcode. And I do mean apocalyptically; it takes a whole new level of trash for Evo to disclude what was formerly its biggest draw in history. Maybe its not surprising that in an environment where people can only play online, the game only had like one match where it really wowed anyone. Still, unlike a lot of the 1 and 2 seeds, Smash actually had some games in its eightpack that were pretty damn good, so it was never gonna score some easy layups like Witcher vs Mass Effect. Or Skyrim vs Journey. Or Zelda vs anything.

I wont reiterate the Smash/Mario dichotomy going on in Division 3, or how weird their Round 1 matches looked. Smash had a much more interesting Round 2, where for the first time like, ever, a Nintendo game got to SFF a Zelda title. Goes to show you how insane Zelda is on this site when it takes the biggest and greatest Smash game ever to pull a win over a portable Zelda title. Still, 64% on A Link Between Worlds is noteworthy, a landmark moment in Nintendo hierarchy history. Zelda would be back for revenge, of course >.>

Next was an almost identical percentage on Spider-Man. Yes, both Smash and Mario matched their Round 2 and Round 3 percentages almost perfectly. Considering Spider-Man is essentially carrying the superhero game torch for the Batman Arkham games, its hardly any surprise that its a pretty damn legit game. Its what a lot of people wanted, really: a current gen Spider-Man game where they can casually web around the city, with the production values a Marvel property deserves. Too bad even the normal stealth missions are kinda boring and out of place, let alone the developers deciding that what this genre REALLY needed was for people to be able to play as normal human beings that ate shit the second an enemy spotted them.

Still, no match for the brothers of Smashing. Again, I wont reiterate the dynamics of the Mario-Smash Division Finals; despite Smash never FEELING like it was doing as well as Mario, it won very comfortably in the end. Maybe its hierarchy, maybe the answer really is yes, Spider-Man is that much stronger than Devil May Cry. I dont see why not, honestly.

But yes, the Mario match was the only time Smash looked really good. I dont know what the consensus is on its Quarterfinals, but I honestly thought it looked really bad against Xenoblade. 59% in Quarters sounds good, but considering Smash is a huge source of Xenoblades popularity, you would think the SFF hammer would come down strong here. If there WAS SFF, its hard to take Smash that seriously anymore. I mean its going to be a powerhouse no matter what, but its not as far above this field as Brawl was above the 2010 field. If there wasnt SFF, that means Xenoblade has broken away from being that game Shulk is in, which is weird considering it still hasnt gotten that big, easily accessible release, at least not at time of writing.

Not like any of these deliberations would matter, of course. Allen made sure we wouldnt get an all Nintendo final, which meant that the Zelda vs Smash rematch would happen in semis. Rematch both for the A Link Between Worlds match earlier in this bracket, but also for the Majoras Mask vs Brawl match in 2010. Its hard to believe that once upon a time, MM only beat Brawl by half a percent. Now? Breath of the Wild absolutely DECIMATED Ultimate. 32% in the semifinals? How are you gonna fight through the entire bracket just to get more than doubled? SFF or not, I thought this was a really ugly showing, and made it very clear that Witcher was the #2 in bracket, not Smash. And honestly? I wish we got a bonus poll for 3rd place. I wouldnt be terribly surprised if Smash choked against Skyrim.

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