Board 8 > Trdl's Top 50 Gaming Moments: The Rankings! (Unmarked Spoilers) (Writeups)

(+) Yeah! (+)

trdl23 posted...

Everyone knows where they were the moment Aeris died.

i don't.

maybe because i played it over 10 years after it was released >_>
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UltimaterializerX posted...

One thing you can't unsee once you notice it is the white materia's momentum changing as it bounces down. Makes no physical sense.

I just realized that when I watched it again before my writeup.
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xp1337 posted...

trdl23 posted...

Everyone knows where they were the moment Aeris died.

i don't.

maybe because i played it over 10 years after it was released >_>

Yeah, unfortunately, the scene loses a lot of its impact when you know what happens. It's not so much the JFK 9/11 moment as it is, "Luke, I am your father."

Tomorrow's my birthday, so probably nothing until Wednesday.
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It's better to give than receive, and the greatest gift of all is friendship, therefore you should do a write-up tomorrow. And wow, the Undertale moments are going to drop on us like a ton of bricks soon.
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And here I thought stacking them all in the Top 20 would be enough preparation!
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Birthday bump
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Happy birthday trdl!
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#14: Undertale -- ASGORE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xemlc6tU-O0

I got some very conflicted messages about the King of the Monsters. Toriel told me he'd kill me and take my soul. Papyrus told me he was a big fuzzy goofball. Undyne said he would be their hope to retake the surface. Alphys told me he was a nice guy, but that to leave, I would have to take HIS soul.

They were all correct.

When I entered New Home I still was expecting a villain with good publicity. Instead, I found a home preserved in history of happier days. A friendly note to meet him in the garden. A sweater for "Mr. Dad Guy." A wastepaper bin full of failed recipes to recreate his wife's cooking. A Santa outfit for Christmas in his kingdom. As usual with Undertale, it's the small details that make it a masterpiece.

The story of Asgore's loss of his children made me pity him, but I still didn't expect what was coming, even after Sans foreshadowed it. I found a sweet, jovial man enjoying his gardening and wondering how he could help -- until he saw me. And far from the excitement or thrill I would expect from a monster out for my soul, Asgore displayed only dread and regret for what was to come.

Once the battle begins, again, the sheer attention to detail is astonishing. Let me list a few:

- Watch his profile during the fight. He's so ashamed of what he's doing -- what he's done in the past -- that, unlike anyone else in the game, he can never look you in the eye.
- His options are exactly the same as during the fight with Toriel, his wife. Except Talk actually does something (guilts him further and lessens his will to fight unless you yourself are a killer) and the Mercy button is destroyed because he doesn't think he deserves Mercy. (And also because he is so resigned to this fate that there's no chance of getting him to back down)
- Eating the Butterscotch Pie, one-of-a-kind from Toriel at the start of the game, reminds him of his wife leaving him, further demoralizing him as he remembers what his actions have cost him.
- If he kills you (as he did me before I realized I had to FIGHT), your Talk option tells him how many times he's killed you. He's killed humans before and thus understands SAVE to some extent, so he solemnly acknowledges it, his grief growing as the number climbs until he's a pitiful wreck.
- He can only kill you if you get hit while at 1 HP; any would-be lethal damage against him just reduces you to 1. He hates what he's doing -- that he has to kill another child -- so much that he deliberately pulls his punches.

ASGORE, the music, is the work of a virtuoso as well. There's so much going on. It's regal, as befitting a king. It's solemn, as befitting the grim task before him. It's sorrowful, as befitting how much this man has lost. It has callbacks to Heartache, his wife's theme, aptly named for the hole in his life that she left. More than anything else, though, it's driven, for his first duty as a king is to uplift his people, so he cannot be deterred from his course.

Or so it seems. Again, he deliberately pulls his punches throughout the fight. Asgore could probably have destroyed me many times over if he were trying. There's a strong theory that he's deliberately sandbagging the fight so that he doesn't have to follow through on his promise of leading the fight against humanity and kill over and over again, and I buy it. As he explains after he's incapacitated, he was in an impossible situation. He had just lost both his "children" after trying to do the right thing. He was grieving and enraged. His people, whom he adores, were in despair and crying for vengeance. He just wanted to give his people hope, and it cost him everything he had left.

I wanted to spare him though. He had lost so much, and he was at his core a good man. Instead, I got an incredibly cruel hope spot right to the gut.

But that's another story.
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Did I seriously not list Asgore

kill me now I am a dumbass
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Just fyi. I would have loved to read this but the spoilers... = (
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Yeah, sorry Corrik, but the nature of the topic means it's spoiler central. Hopefully the next topic will be OK with black bars!
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#13: Metal Gear Solid 4 -- "We still have a score to settle."

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

Decades of plotting and spying. Gambits that spanned across the world at the highest and lowest levels. Guns, gadgets, camouflage, and cardboard boxes. Otaku, metal gears, and various Bosses. Patriots, cyborgs, nanomachines, psychics, and hypnosis. Over the course of a decade from when we first entered Shadow Moses, we encountered all of these and more in one striking, bizarre, and beautiful tale. And atop the vessels where it all finished, there are two people who are still searching for their final chapter. An Ocelot of Liquid, and a Solid Snake.

The stakes are gone now. They both have "won" in their own ways. The Patriots have succumbed. The rigged war economy has faltered. Freedom -- wonderful and terrible -- will prevail. But that doesn't matter yet.

"We still have a score to settle."

Everything has come to this. Two old men, each a proxy for another person, beating the hell out of each other on top of a ship in the middle of the ocean. Ridiculous. But at the same time, poignant.

I'll always remember my eyes going wide as the "brothers" inject each other to go on with their fight. From that exact point, we're treated to a glimpse of just how far we've come. From Shadow Moses to Soviet Russia and back again, a Snake and an Ocelot have fought with and against each other. Even in their final days, their combat is now a compulsion. They need it. It defines them.

And in the end, only they can understand each other. As his final act, Ocelot grins and shows Snake his respect the one way he knows. The same way he's always done it.

"You're pretty good."

A finale to remember.
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People rank MGS4 low on the metal gear totem pole and I really don't know what to tell them. It has its flaws, but its best moments may be the best in the franchise, flat out. That final fight, man...what can you even say about that?
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Save

More rankings tomorrow.
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#12: Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney -- "I would like to cross-examine the witness's pet parrot!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iszxu3s3Fy4

(Start at 6:38)

If you wanted me to summarize why I love Ace Attorney in one scene, this is it.

This embodies everything that makes the series great. Everything is stacked against Phoenix, so instead of resigning to an impossible situation, he decides to try something crazy. Everyone around him recognizes this is crazy, yet there isn't much they can do to argue it except "That's ridiculous." It's absolutely ridiculous, yet it's strangely compelling. After all, with stakes this high and in a situation this dire, what other option does he have?

Phoenix is wonderful because he's the anti-chessmaster. He has absolutely no idea what he's doing until he's doing it, but he's clever enough to just keep rolling with it. Even after insisting on cross-examining the parrot, he has no plan whatsoever, but his improvisation skills are off the chart. The banter and brainstorming back and forth between Phoenix and Maya during this scene cements why they're such a fantastic pair not just in gaming, but in fiction as a whole. Just keep everyone talking, keep pushing forward, and something will eventually fall into place.

Of course, the parrot can't testify, no matter how dramatically Phoenix demands it. And when he does come across a winning line of play, the whole situation becomes even more absurd -- von Karma rigged that, too. Von Karma not only considered that Phoenix would drag the parrot onto the witness stand but spent what had to be hours retraining the parrot to stifle him. Phoenix's sudden masterstroke unravels and he's sent scrambling yet again, grasping at just enough straws to form doubt in the judge's mind and keep him in the game. In the end, though, it works. I can only imagine the headlines the next day.

That combination of zaniness, hilarity, tension, and adrenaline is why I adore this series. I can't wait to pick up the latest one.
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#11: Bioshock -- A Man Chooses. A Slave Obeys.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG25S51qJQQ

Yep. Andrew Ryan, in three minutes of screen time, manages to be one of the most awesome adversaries ever.

I wondered for quite a while why Ryan chose to die instead of pacifying Jack instead. He had Jack helpless with the trigger words. Why would a man so determined to fulfill his own ambition that he built an entire underwater city give up right there? He certainly wasn't suicidal, or he wouldn't have had those defenses to start with. So why?

Simple, really. Ryan remained true to his principles. He knew everything he had built around him was crumbling. He knew he was in a war with Fontaine that he had no way of winning. On some level, I think he even realized that his objectivist paradise was doomed to begin with; that his very premise was fatally flawed, and that he was experiencing the aftermath. But even in that situation, he was always a man of action. Let the rest of the damn world react to him.

Soon, Ryan knew he was going to die, and when faced with his own son that had crafted into a weapon to end him, he had to make a decision. Would he survive a little while longer and kill or bind his own son, only for Fontaine to inevitably call them both to heel and die? Or would he choose to face his demise and reveal the truth to his son, giving Jack a snowball's chance of resisting, taking down Fontaine, and making it out alive?

That's an easy decision. Ryan was a man. And a man chooses.
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List recap:
50. Portal 2: The Turret Aria
49. Bioshock: First Big Daddy fight
48. Metal Gear Solid 3: "It's a blank!"
47. Final Fantasy IX: Beatrix fights
46. Transistor: "Who gets to go first?"
45. Metal Gear Solid 4: The Microwave Hall
44. Guild Wars 2: Tybalt's Sacrifice
43. Life is Strange: Nightmare Sequence
42. Call of Duty 4: Aftermath
41. Dark Souls: Ornstein and Smough
40. Final Fantasy 7: Cloud's Memories
39. Half-Life 2: We Don't Go to Ravenholm
38. Shadowrun Dragonfall: The Raid on Feuerstelle
37. No More Heroes: Sir Henry Fight
36. Bastion: The Last Voyage of Weeping Nellie
35. Metal Gear Solid 3: The Salute
34. Dark Corners of the Earth: Attack of the Fishmen
33. Valkyria Chronicles: The Megatank
32. Undertale: "I know what you did."
31. Persona 3: First "Date" with Elizabeth
30. MadWorld: Look Pimpin'!
29. Touhou 8 Imperishable Night: Reach for the Moon, Immortal Smoke
28. Metal Gear Rising Revengeance: Make America Great Again
27. Persona 4: "Then let's get equal!"
26. Portal: The Companion Cube
25. Bastion: Saving Zulf
24. Final Fantasy IX: "Why...? Why would you do such a thing?!"
23. Persona 3: Ikutsuki's Betrayal
22. Touhou 7 Perfect Cherry Blossom: Saigyou Ayakashi
21. Risk of Rain: Coalescence
20. Psychonauts: The Milkman Conspiracy
19. Batman Arkham Asylum: Scarecrow Sequences
18. Final Fantasy X: The Sending Ritual
17. World of Warcraft: Arthas
16. Devil May Cry 3: Vergil
15. Final Fantasy VII: End of Disc One
14. Undertale: ASGORE
13. Metal Gear Solid 4: "We still have a score to settle."
12. Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: "I would like to cross-examine the witness's pet parrot!"
11. Bioshock: A Man Chooses. A Slave Obeys.
10-1. ???

Leaderboard after 40!

Robazoid:
Starting total (6)
Scarecrow (1)
The Sending (3)
Parrot (1)
A Man Chooses (1)
=12

xp1337:
Starting total (8)
Arthas (1)
End of Disc One (1)
ASGORE (2)
A Score to Settle (1)
A Man Chooses (1)
=14

KanzarisKelshin:
Starting total (14)
The Milkman Conspiracy (1)
Scarecrow (3)
Vergil (1)
End of Disc One (1)
A Score to Settle (3)
Parrot (1)
A Man Chooses (1)
=25

ProfDEADPOOL:
Starting total (1)
Scarecrow (1)
=2

Snake5555555555:
Starting total (4)
Scarecrow (1)
The Sending (1)
Vergil (1)
End of Disc One (3)
A Score to Settle (3)
A Man Chooses (3)
=16

NFUN
Starting total (1)
=1
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Now we're sinking our teeth into some moments! Points flew everywhere in this block, with more than one person doubling their score. It makes sense; as we go higher, quite a few of these are universally accepted as awesome.

I'm shocked more people didn't get Vergil, though the types to predict in this topic aren't the types to have played DMC. I'm glad Andrew Ryan got his due! I didn't know how many people also liked the MGS4 finale, so I'm pumped you guys did pretty well there (or at least knew I would like it somehow). Scarecrow, too, is the best part of an amazing game. Bravi.

However, only one person getting ASGORE? When it's well known I'm a slobbering Undertale fanboy?! SHAMEFUL DISPLAY all around.

Snake comes out of nowhere and runs into second place! Turns out his predix preferred quality to quantity. Kanz still has a healthy lead, of course, but we have increased points at stake soon, so it could still change hands! Except for NFUN. Poor NFUN. Maybe you'll try on your predix next time... but I doubt it.

Will we see the elusive EXACT HIT? Will Kanz's choices completely bomb in the end? Will Roba have good taste in video games for once? Find out... in the TOP 10!
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trdl23 posted...

Will Roba have good taste in video games for once?

http://37.media.tumblr.com/aebd9368953eb5cbedb098e7f39b6c47/tumblr_naizuvh5oF1qbvl2io1_500.gif
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#10: Final Fantasy VI -- Kefka's Ascension / World of Ruin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oywecZc0kY

"Wait, what? I... I lost? Kefka won?" -- Trdl after witnessing this scene.

I'm a hero. I'm supposed to save the world from Gestahl and his empire. I'm supposed to beat the unbeatable, stop the unstoppable.

I'm supposed to be a hero. The bad guy isn't supposed to win. Especially the bad guy I never saw coming. But I should have seen it. All the signs were there. The little prick was psychotic, but not so far gone as to be stupid. His ambition should have been obvious.

Maybe I'm not a hero after all. I set up the pieces perfectly for him. How many died because of my recklessness? Because of my lack of foresight? The world itself is in tatters, and even once I "set it right," it never truly recovered. Kefka's final victory was the destruction of magic itself... but then again, maybe that's a good thing.

It means no more Kefkas.

I don't care what anyone says, Kefka is a better Joker than the Joker because he actually accomplishes what he sets out to do... and then becomes so bored that he just sits around killing people for the hell of it. He was a rabid dog chasing cars. He never considered what he'd do if he caught one.
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Probably not getting to this tonight.
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Kefka is the best Final Fantasy villain from what I've played so far, that's for sure. I really should've picked that moment but oh well, I limited myself to four per game in my guesses and the others I chose were all good too!
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Yeah, there were a few moments from FF6 that almost got on the list.
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Save

Why is being an adult so hard
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#9: Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations -- "In my world, the color red doesn't exist."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L40Ab7MJHq8

A grand finale for what might have been (and thankfully wasn't!) a truly amazing trilogy.

Von Karma and Gavin are usually the top two adversaries among fans (Edgeworth doesn't count) but I have always liked Godot. Despite his Geordi-style mask and his absolute obsession with coffee, he always felt the most "real" to me in a land of outlandish characters. There's always something more going on with him, and he mixes his playfulness with vitriol into a seamless blend. You could call it "Godot blend #102."

The mask he's wearing is symbolic -- he's the only recurring character we never get to look in the eye. He really does see the world differently than us, tinged in red. Red for the rage at Phoenix and his responsibility for Godot losing everything. Red for the blood he couldn't stop from shedding. Red for the passion he felt in trying to get vengeance through a petty proxy for his real sorrow. He can't see red in real life because his world is soaked in it.

Phoenix is at his best. He's braved fires, pitfalls, conniving mediums, murderous spirits, and his own suspicion in order to save the most important person in his life. Just one more barrier to punch through... and it all comes together. Godot sees it come together too.

And finally, Godot finds peace in defeat.

In his world, the color red once existed. It once consumed everything. No longer. Now that it's all over, the lawyer can cry, and even his blood can become tears.
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She really is, if for no other reason than how absolutely petty she is. I can't think of any character that has that level of spite and malice for everyone.
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Still no power...
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Electricity at 0%
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Tag
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UltimaterializerX posted...

trdl23 posted...

Still no power...

You stuck in that snowstorm?

Nah, we had a massive windstorm on Wednesday up here. 65 mph gusts knocked down a lot of trees and power lines.

The worst part is that three houses down, they've had power for 3 days. I get that electric grids are complicated, but wtf m8.
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trdl23 posted...

Von Karma and Gavin are usually the top two adversaries among fans

Wait, really?

Doesn't even matter which one that refers to, that is really surprising
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It's wrong

Nobody cares about the gavins

Edgeworth>Von Karma=>Godot>Blackquill>Franziska is how it goes, more or less, if we're only counting prosecutors
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Huh. Can't say I'm as hardcore an Ace Attorney fan as most of B8, but I thought people liked Klavier as the one gem of the mediocrity that is Apollo Justice.
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KanzarisKelshen posted...

Edgeworth>Von Karma=>Godot>Blackquill>Franziska

But Franziska is the best by far, this can't be right
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trdl23 posted...

Huh. Can't say I'm as hardcore an Ace Attorney fan as most of B8, but I thought people liked Klavier as the one gem of the mediocrity that is Apollo Justice.

It's more like he's the one gem of mediocrity in a sea of shit

he's OK but nothing special
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Robazoid posted...

KanzarisKelshen posted...

Edgeworth>Von Karma=>Godot>Blackquill>Franziska

But Franziska is the best by far, this can't be right

None of those are anything less than 'the best' so it's all good

All of those prosecutors are top tier
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#8: Final Fantasy IX -- You're Not Alone!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xqtQwC-hwM

Zidane is my favorite FF protagonist. I know that's pretty unpopular and might be due to Final Fantasy Syndrome, but I don't see it changing anytime soon. He's a different kind of guy than the Clouds, Squalls, and Terras of this world. He's not one to brood. He's a cheery, swashbuckling rogue with a twinkle in his eye.

That complete break from his usual character makes this scene especially powerful.

You're Not Alone is the best demonstration of how depression really feels to someone outgoing and extroverted. It's not something most people can really understand because, externally, it looks like he's just being a jackass. Inside, though, every cutting word and insult is internalized and validated. The facade of confidence and bravado crumbles, and deep down, he always knew that was just a shell. That really, his confidence was an exercise in smoke and mirrors. He feels toxic to everyone around him, and every time people try to bring him up, he wants to push them away. That's why he's so snappy and bullheaded -- if he can convince them to just go, they'll be better off. All he does is make things worse. It's a painful place to be, and frankly, he seems to be dead set on going out in a "blaze of glory" that's really just self-destructive nonsense.

Granted, learning you're a genetically engineered superweapon meant to destroy the entire world you know and that your friends are from will do that to you, but as the intro shows, the seeds were already there.

It takes an awful lot to help someone that deep in a depression. It's not something one person can bear alone, no matter how much Zidane wants to. The title is kind of a misnomer; Zidane knows he's not alone the whole time. The trick is that he has to convince himself that he doesn't want to be alone in the future. And when he's presented with people who still need and want his help... when he realizes people want to help him because he's valuable, and he knows he can still do good... it starts to lift.

I'm not a genetically engineered superweapon (as far as I know!), but I know that feeling quite well. This scene will never stop resonating with me.
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Zidane is my favorite FF protagonist. I know that's pretty unpopular

uhhhhhhh
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KanzarisKelshen posted...

Zidane is my favorite FF protagonist. I know that's pretty unpopular

uhhhhhhh

?
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Zidane is a very popular lead >_>

Unless you're like, polling Japan, I think, he's pretty well regarded!
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I have literally never met anyone else whose favorite is Zidane.

Not one.
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if you ask the board you'll suddenly find that to change
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I just don't believe you.

Tidus and Cloud are the most typical "tops." Sometimes Squall. Every once in a while you get a joker like Roba who prefers Lightning.

Never Zidane.
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I'm all about the Bartz
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