Board 8 > ~*Ultimaterializer's Post-Contest Analysis!*~

(+) Yeah! (+)

FFDragon posted...

Just remember that Ulti is tsundere with games.

Tsunderes are pretty popular with the online anime crowd.

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Division 8 Round 1: (3)Pokmon HeartGold / SoulSilver Version vs (14)Night in the Woods

(3)Pokemon HGSS - 19898 [81.96%]
(14)Night in the Woods - 4379 [18.04%]
Total Votes - 24277
Prediction Percentage - 91.81%

Some indie games looked okay in this contest. Most did not. Night in the Woods was one of the many, many happy-to-be-here low seed indie games that existed entirely to make the heavy hitter look good. Pokemon HGSS is one of the games I don't feel should have been allowed in this bracket at all, but now that it was here it was time to watch it work.

And work it did. Any doubt that this game wouldn't be a true proxy for Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal was put to bed immediately upon the game scoring an 82% blowout. I get that no one knows what Night in the Woods is, but that's still a very impressive start. It also put Skyrim on notice, because Skyrim had a crack in the armor. If you go into a match against Pokemon off of your A game, it's likely you lose. We already long since knew Pokemon would win the board vote in that eventual duel, but this match showed that it could go either way.

And no, NieR honks, that game never stood a chance. We'll get to that in round 3.

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Just two more matches for a Hearthstone rant?

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also part of why FFXIV sucked so hard at launch, they ignored all the suggestions from Alpha and Beta testers.

I did both and there were lots of problems with the game and everyone hated it. They ignored every single feedback given and did what they wanted to do.

The game now looks a lot more like what was suggested by the testers. Seems like a great MMO. Just MMO's by nature require such an insane amount of game play to be the best so yeah. Life ruiners. 100% will never play one again.

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I've always hated the idea of "Hey this game gets consistently fun... when you get max level. Just 50+ hours!"

50+ hours for the game to be consistently fun? Hell fucking no.

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I'm surprised that Ulti didn't write on how telling things are when HG/SS is the sole Pokmon game on the bracket, with absolutely no games from Generation 5-8, along with his personal thoughts on the Pokmon games themselves.

Considering Uncharted 4 ended up on the top third of the x-stats, I don't think it was particularly weak compared to the rest of the field? Mario Kart 8 was just shockingly strong.

"Ergo, Uncharted 4 can't win any contest matches anymore." is blatantly false. It would've comfortably advanced against every other 13 seed and beat a lot of higher seeded games.

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Nintendogs posted...

I'm surprised that Ulti didn't write on how telling things are when HG/SS is the sole Pokmon game on the bracket, with absolutely no games from Generation 5-8, along with his personal thoughts on the Pokmon games themselves.

I like the Pokemon games, bro, and I said multiple times so far that Go, Sword, and Shield should have gotten in.

I just don't have any attachment to any game after generation 3.

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Surskit posted...

Considering Uncharted 4 ended up on the top third of the x-stats, I don't think it was particularly weak compared to the rest of the field? Mario Kart 8 was just shockingly strong.

"Ergo, Uncharted 4 can't win any contest matches anymore." is blatantly false. It would've comfortably advanced against every other 13 seed and beat a lot of higher seeded games.

Fair, but top third in a fodder contest doesn't mean much. I'll add this point to the wiki though, good stuff.

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I'm surprised Cadence of Hyrule wasn't at least worth mentioning in Necrodancer's match. It's pretty much the reason Necrodancer made it in, and if there's a soft series cap, it makes sense why the game without the Zelda tie in made it in instead.

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NowItsAngeTime posted...

I've always hated the idea of "Hey this game gets consistently fun... when you get max level. Just 50+ hours!"

50+ hours for the game to be consistently fun? Hell fucking no.

XIV doesn't take endgame to get fun. It has a weak starting story, but everything afterward is very very good and worth the ride. That's kind of what distinguishes it from WoW -- the story is worth a good goddamn so it functions perfectly as a single-player experience for the most part.

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I jumped on board XIV a few months back and can vouch for what Kanz is saying here. The reboot of XIV is where Squeenix has been hiding the good Final Fantasy all this time.

Thankfully, the next update should squeeze that weak starting story down to something more manageable for anyone so people can get to The Good Stuff that much faster without missing any of the setup the initial story provides.

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I have no idea what Cadence of Hyrule is.

Division 8 Round 1: (6)Celeste vs (11)Rayman Legends

(6)Celeste - 12027 [49.55%]
(11)Rayman Legends - 12244 [50.45%]
Total Votes - 24721
Prediction Percentage - 37.78%

Figures the best match of round one would be a one point affair between indie fodder versus mainstream fodder, but them's the breaks! This match was anyone's guess, and though Rayman had made contests before, he always performed like a total bottom-feeder. Celeste has almost no past polling to draw from, and she performed horribly in the few polls she was in. We all knew she would be weak, but we picked her because it's very difficult to be weaker than Rayman -- kind of like a Celeste winning by default kind of a deal. It was a measly one point match either way, so even though the match was ''awesome'', it didn't really matter at the end of the day.

"But Ulti, Azuarc only beat JONALEON1 by one point you scrub!"

JONA got this match right. Azuarc did not. I rest my case. Azuarc won this contest because he picked Dark Souls to beat The Last of Us. JONA did not. That was the main difference. Don't worry, we'll get to it.

A few times in this PCA, I've mentioned the indie match trend, where they start off hot and then fall off a cliff as the match progresses. It came to an ugly head in this match. After Celeste took the early bracket votes, Rayman evened it up with the first update.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9Uw97lOOlk

It was a sign of things to come, though Celeste was able to rebound from the bad start. Despite Rayman's best efforts at stalling, Celeste was able to build up a lead of 200 after two hours. Rayman fought back rather valiantly and stalled her out for a few hours, but not before Celeste built up a 300 vote lead by midnight. It's like we were back in the F5 days!

Overnight, however, is when Rayman made his move. He did a wonderful job stalling things out for a few hours before making his comeback move, largely with the help of Europe. Before getting into the rest of the commentary, there's a small thing I'd like to mention here. As far as I can tell, Europe really doesn't like indie gaming. The entire reason these games fall off after hot starts is because Europe never votes for them. I don't know the reason for this, but maybe one of our friends from across the pond can enlighten us.

Once the European vote kicked in (and it was the European Board 8 users cheering ''hard'' for Rayman, so I guess he has a following over there), Rayman started coming back hard. That 300 vote lead Celeste had was below 100 in a couple hours overnight, and it looked as if Rayman would run away with this thing. When the sun began to rise on America and the morning vote kicked in, it was.... Celeste who started going up. So it looked like Celeste, who won North America going away, would be able to hold Rayman off and win this match.

'''NOT SO FAST, MY FRIEND!!'''

It was a short-lived bump for Celeste, who was never able to stretch a lead out past 100. Rayman recovered nicely, despite not having support from North America at all. Europe was carrying this dude hard. Rayman was able to get the match down to even around 8 am, and after one final push where Celeste desperately tried to shake this guy off the mountain, it was not to be. Rayman kept the match tied all morning, and finally started making his move after lunch time. He got the lead, but it stayed under 50 votes for hours and hours. Once it got over 50, it stayed in the 50-100 range all the way until the evening.

That's when the avalanche knocked Celeste, not Rayman, off the mountain. He would ultimately win the match by 200 votes, which was a very sad, yet fitting end for Celeste in this contest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDVM9KED46Q

She never could find that golden strawberry. Sucks, too, because I ''really'' wanted her to win. Rayman was never my thing, but I harbor no ill will at all toward his fanbase. I know you guys have been waiting for a match like this for your boy for awhile, and it's frankly very impressive that Rayman won entirely on the back of Europe carrying him over the finish line.

Typically after going through a barn-burner like this I have a big writeup on what does this mean and where do we go from here. Sadly, this match meant nothing beyond a cute one point upset. Congrats Rayman, you finally made it into round 2, and your reward is one a one way ticket to getting your ass whooped by Pokemon.

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PostContestUlti posted...

I have no idea what Cadence of Hyrule is.

They basically reskined Necrodancer with Zelda characters and released it on the Switch.

https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/cadence-of-hyrule-crypt-of-the-necrodancer-featuring-the-legend-of-zelda-switch/

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Europeans hate indie games because they remind them too much of Mega Man, duh
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https://i.imgur.com/I5YXhPC.png

Ulti, I know you like tracking how many views these things get, I started putting imgur images into the OP because they have a view counter the updates every few hours. I recommend throwing this image or something you come up with into your Part 2 topic so you can see how many clicks you get

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Celeste was a microcosm for all indie games in the contest: have a amazing first impression, and then collapse and fall apart as time goes on, leading Ulti to say "Some indies looked okay, most did not."

Also noted is that this match caused the last zero bracket to fail, as it got a point for picking Celeste to lose.

*gets popcorn ready for next writeup*

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ZenOfThunder posted...

Ulti, I know you like tracking how many views these things get, I started putting imgur images into the OP because they have a view counter the updates every few hours. I recommend throwing this image or something you come up with into your Part 2 topic so you can see how many clicks you get

I honestly don't care how many clicks I get. I care how many clicks the wiki itself gets.

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Division 8 Round 1: (7)Divinity: Original Sin II vs (10)Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

(7)Divinity: The Contest Savior II - 16804 [69.22%]
(10)Trash - 7471 [30.76%]
Total Votes - 24275
Prediction Percentage - 58.63%

I'm not going to lie. I was low key worried Hearthstone might win this match because of this poll: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/5748-best-of-2014-pc

In that poll, the original Divinity only beat Hearthstone by 350 votes despite Diablo 3 and World of Warcraft both having representation in that poll. I thought a straight 1v1 match with all the side stuff removed could give Hearthstone a chance, regardless of what the stats say in 2015.

Thankfully, Divinity saved this contest and all of our lives by having none of it. I don't know what these Divinity games even are, but I bought Original Sin 2 and I will love every second of it on general principle. The reason for this is because Hearthstone is, with no debate whatsoever, the worst game ever made under any medium. Ever. It's so bad that there is practically no second place.

If you want an esoteric analysis of Blizzard themselves, it's all right here: https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/(14)D.Va_vs_(11)Fox_McCloud_2018

No need to go on another rant to rehash it all, and Blizzard screws up so routinely that I've been able to update that page every month with new information. You want Blitzchung, Warcraft 3 Reforged, and the entire Hong Kong debacle? It's all in there. Among much, much more.

I'll stick to Hearthstone alone in this one, and I noticed that a lot of people don't know what Hearthstone is or why people hate it so much. Allow me to explain. Hearthstone pretends to be a card game. You get a mana crystal each turn, and you use that mana to play cards. Some cards are minions. Some are spells. You play cards, bash minions into each other, and eventually one hero's life goes to zero. That's how the game is advertised.

What Hearthstone ''actually'' is is the very essence of what's discussed in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNjI03CGkb4

It's the very essence of U.S. Patent #9,789,406: https://kotaku.com/activision-patents-matchmaking-that-encourages-players-1819630937

Hearthstone is in no way a video game, because ''all'' player skill is removed from ever factoring into any result. The only thing that ever affects any result in Hearthstone is RNG, and that is manipulated to encourage microtransactions and addictive player behavior. No decision you make ever matters in what happens on screen. No result is ever honest. It's a card game with every single skill option removed. All matchups are random, all draws are random, most of the targeting is random, a lot of the damage is random, the card generation effects are random, the discovery is random, and ''all results'' are random. All of it. That, by itself, makes it the worst game ever made, because in every other game ever made, actions taken by the player has ''some'' effect on the result. Not in Hearthstone. Every game plays out like those European board games where players are playing against the game itself, not against each other, and at any point the game can just tell anyone "you lose". The fact that anyone on this planet defends this garbage is beyond me, but they exist.

On top of that, it's a card game that pretends to be competitive while offering zero skill options. There are no sideboards, no rematches, no card bans, no class ladder bans, no tournaments, nothing. Just RNG and nothing else. ''Every other game ever made'' is better than this on that fact alone, and there is no defending it. If you across someone who thinks player skill is in any way relevant in Hearthstone, you are dealing with a complete and total idiot. I would rather spend time with ''anyone else'' over someone who thinks Hearthstone is skill-based, because the game is factually not skill-based. Period.

"But Ulti!" a defender of this trash will exclaim, "At the highest level every decision matters and blah blah reeeeeeeeeeee!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_gtd6WQ4eQ&t=5750s

Fuck off. Hearthstone is not skill-based and it's specifically designed not to be. End of story. Go away.

Original Sin 2 is in the mail en route to my route as I type this all up. I for one cannot wait for it to get here. I will play it, I will love it, and I will cherish it for preventing the worst game ever made under any medium from winning a contest match.

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I like when the game thinks for me.

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for the record, Celeste is the name of the mountain, not the main character
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th3l3fty posted...

for the record, Celeste is the name of the mountain, not the main character

JFC WHO APPROVED THESE SPOILERS

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KanzarisKelshen posted...

XIV doesn't take endgame to get fun. It has a weak starting story, but everything afterward is very very good and worth the ride. That's kind of what distinguishes it from WoW -- the story is worth a good goddamn so it functions perfectly as a single-player experience for the most part.

I played till like level 15-20

It was slightly more fun than WoW but not by much

The story was kinda better... but not by much

Once again if I play that much for a story AND gameplay to be good AND I have to pay a monthly fee for it.

No thanks.

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And I only got that far playing with friends

If I had to do that boring repetitive shit all by myself

I'd have quit by level 5

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Gosh, the way you write about Hearthstone reminds me of competitive Pokmon; too much RNG involved yet tries to pass itself off as a serious competitive game. At least Mario Kart doesn't make a mistake like that.

Anyways, I look forward to your Nomura rants Ulti, I expect they should arrive soon.

Well, I appreciate that you gave it a shot, Ange. I understand that style of gameplay isn't for everyone.

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Trust me, MMOs in theory I want to like. i kinda liked Runescape back in the day since the idea of just relaxing seeing other people, playing with friends, PvP, PvE, and just doing whatever you want to level up was a fun idea

If MMOs didnt charge per month, take forever to get all your good abilities, filled with boring ass quests, big ass maps you have to traverse with or without quick travel, and "story" thats stuck reading small texts of dialogue or quest descriptions (outside SWTOR and ff14 kinda)

Id probs like them more.

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Division 8 Round 1: (2)NieR: Automata vs (15)Bayonetta 2

(2)NieR: Automata - 16604 [68.41%]
(15)Bayonetta 2 - 7668 [31.59%]
Total Votes - 24272
Prediction Percentage - 81.32%

The Bayonetta games got screwed this contest. Bayonetta 1 drew a Zelda game, and Bayonetta 2 was a Wii U exclusive for some dumb reason. It also ran into the worst possible opponent it could have seen. I know other games would have beaten Bayonetta 2 worse than Nier did here, but come on.

This is what Bayonetta is known for:

http://assets1.ignimgs.com/2018/02/05/img-1024-1517812625059_1280w.jpg

This is what 2B is known for:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icOGQTYtyoU

Of course Bayonetta 2 was going to lose. This match is the contest version of a once beautiful girl pushing 40 and now having to watch the pretty new 20-something steal all of her shine. Let this be a lesson, ladies. Don't spend your 20s whoring around. Us men have every advantage in dating after 30, because we have nothing but time. You don't ;)

By the way, this is no defense of 2B or that freakshow fanbase. Just wait until we get to the Pokemon HGSS match, my gosh.

I always enjoy when round one ends on a dud match, because I like doing a small retrospective here. Round 1 of this contest was garbage. An 11, a 13, and a 14 seed won. There were no other major seeding upsets and less than five matches out of the 64 were good. The matches would get better later, but round one was blowout city.

People also ''massively'' overhyped all of these indie games. Some absurd number like 95 of them made the field, but only Hollow Knight, Bastion, Minecraft, Shovel Knight, Cuphead, Ori and the Blind Forest, and Stardew Valley won their matches. Seven sounds like a big number, but not when there are 64 games in round 2. Only one of these games would end up in round 3 and that required a developer rally, too. I have no problem with indie games, but the hype around them is just ridiculous.

Star of the Round had to be Mario Odyssey or Xenoblade Chronicles. Those two meant business. Turd of the Round goes to Dragon Age: Inquisition and Hearthstone. Inquisition wasn't the biggest black eye of the entire contest like Fire Emblem was, but in round one it qualifies. Hearthstone was given a fairly winnable match and performed like the trash it is.

On to round 2!

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By the way, 64 writeups in 5 days is an insane pace. Don't say I never do nice things for you people!

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Yeah, that's 12.8 write-ups a day on average!

Looking forward to the Round 2 insights!

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Just for sticking it to China, I will never bring myself to hating Ulti. There is nothing I hate more than the Chinese regime. The silver lining is that Blizzard caused such a shitstorm and brought attention to Chinas abuses to gamers who normally dont care.

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So what you're saying is, NieR: Automata/Bayonetta 2 was the GameFAQs version of "All About Eve"? I can dig that interpretation. Allen was quite the scamp with some of these R1 setups lmao

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PostContestUlti posted...

Of course Bayonetta 2 was going to lose. This match is the contest version of a once beautiful girl pushing 40 and now having to watch the pretty new 20-something steal all of her shine. Let this be a lesson, ladies. Don't spend your 20s whoring around. Us men have every advantage in dating after 30, because we have nothing but time. You don't ;)

extreme boomer energy

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the big dawg

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PostContestUlti posted...

Some indie games looked okay in this contest. Most did not. Stardew Valley, however, arguably looked better than any other indie game in all of round one. If I'm not mistaken, it scored the biggest blowout of all the round one indie performances, which is rather impressive given all the fodder in this field. I get that its opponent was Destiny, which is quite possibly the most hated game in the history of this web site, but still. An indie title going 71-29 over a AAA main line game is a crazy result, no matter what the big name game is. This was reminiscent of Florida Gulf Coast destroying Georgetown. The game was as unknown as could be when it first came out, but now look at it.

Minecraft actually had the biggest blowout for an indie game in round 1. Despite Microsoft buying out the rights to Minecraft from the original developer, it technically started out as an indie game.
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NowItsAngeTime posted...

I played till like level 15-20

It was slightly more fun than WoW but not by much

The story was kinda better... but not by much

Once again if I play that much for a story AND gameplay to be good AND I have to pay a monthly fee for it.

No thanks.

You quit after like two hours? That's kinda harsh, but eh. I understand not liking the start. XIV unfortunately really does have a weak beginning. It's just that the combination of how long the good times last once you get to them, plus how strong they are, makes it a great value proposition. But if you can't get to that point...yeah, it wouldn't be worth the investment.

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Bayo 2 is also on Switch, to be fair! But all those years being stuck on Wii U certainly didn't do it any favors

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KanzarisKelshen posted...

You quit after like two hours? That's kinda harsh, but eh. I understand not liking the start. XIV unfortunately really does have a weak beginning. It's just that the combination of how long the good times last once you get to them, plus how strong they are, makes it a great value proposition. But if you can't get to that point...yeah, it wouldn't be worth the investment.

I was getting used to the game so getting to level 15-20 felt more more like 5-10 hours

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PostContestUlti posted...

Of course Bayonetta 2 was going to lose. This match is the contest version of a once beautiful girl pushing 40 and now having to watch the pretty new 20-something steal all of her shine. Let this be a lesson, ladies. Don't spend your 20s whoring around. Us men have every advantage in dating after 30, because we have nothing but time. You don't ;)

As a male who is single and...approaching that point, would you mind elaborating on the advantages here? <_<

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NowItsAngeTime posted...

I was getting used to the game so getting to level 15-20 felt more more like 5-10 hours

That's fair, yeah. It takes a bit to adjust to it.

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PrinceOfKoopas posted...

As a male who is single and...approaching that point, would you mind elaborating on the advantages here? <_<

I assumed he was referring to the men don't lose too many points in looks with age (depending on the person and taste some could argue some men gain attractiveness when they're older).

And then there's the classic "older guy dates attractive girl because guy has money/resources"

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Im still years away from 30 but have never dated anyone. Yeah there will be advantages but Id rather start sooner than later...

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but you're such a handsome boy!!

2012!!!!!!

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I cant wait for my account to reach 10 years old. Finally can change that stupid name I made as a kid

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dude i made ZenOfThunder when I was literally like 13 and I will love it forever

embrace the handsomeboy2012. love it, own it

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And before I forget...

While Black Flag isn't the worst in the series, it's far from the best. Sailing endlessly gets old after awhile, but thankfully the rest of the game kinda balances it out.

Unity and Rogue were the mainline trash titles. You could even make that argument for AC1 cause that was a damn chore to play and it hasn't aged well. Best in the series are 2, Odyssey, and Origins.

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WarThaNemesis2 posted...

holy shit a Lunar Dragon Song reference

I am mostly glad I am not the only one who went 'Lunar? On DS? That has to be good!'

Oh man, yeah, that was something else. My copy just outright lost the ability to save at one point, so I basically had to keep my DS on continuously until I beat the damn thing. What a shitstorm.

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wtf is up with blizzard these days.

It's like a never-ending trainwreck. I get the appeal of Hearthstone but virtual card games never interested me much. Can't blame Ulti for hating something so luck-based. It's like Blizzard makes addictions instead of games. And I actually have some attachment to the stupid company because I've beaten all six single-player campaigns of StarCraft I and have fairly fond memories of it.

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