Board 8 > How would they do in a contest? Day 16 ft Banjo-Kazooie, Balthier, Big the Cat

(+) Yeah! (+)

This is a topic to rate the contest strength of potential newcomers in the current contest environment.

I will pick the characters to rate and discuss for each day from user nominations - whoever the 3 most nominated characters are at that time. If there are more than 3 I will pick randomly. You can nominate any number of characters at any time, but you cannot nominate the same character twice.

All characters who were present in the 2018 Character Battle will NOT be eligible. Otherwise you can nominate any character that has appeared in video games; even comic book characters. This will exclude real-life athletes who have only appeared in long running sports series, however I will accept those who have their own games such as Shaq. I will accept nominations for iconic gaming duos too, if both members of said duo are named in the title of a game (Banjo-Kazooie, Sam & Max Hit the Road, etc).

Each day will have a separate topic, and nominations will carry over. As far as actually rating the character's contest strength; I ask that users rank a characters potential strength with one of the following qualifiers - Low Fodder, Mid Fodder, High Fodder, Fodder Line, Low Midcarder, Midcarder, High Midcarder, Near Elite, Elite, LAW Tier (capable of beating Link). I will average all the ratings given to a character to come up with their final ranking. I have included a highlighted entrant from Character Battle X on each tier of the strength rankings below, to provide a baseline for each.

Current Character Strength Rankings: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1P1AIhHywBiLd6VAMZMNEGX-HW2td8u1D0Iw_tzHsORw/edit?usp=sharing

Nomination List: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-KnSBDzppzPK5Ug1zmx8_x0bG4tqFDMPPH2k8J3s8sk/edit?usp=sharing

Results from Day 15:

Inkling (Splatoon) is Fodder Line
Leonardo (TMNT) is Fodder Line
Dracula (Castlevania) is a Midcarder

Here is today's trio to rank:

Banjo & Kazooie (Banjo-Kazooie)
Balthier Bunansa (Final Fantasy XII)
Big the Cat (Sonic series)
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Big the Cat, the character that even Sonic Team usually forgets
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Banjo & Kazooie: fodder line
Balthier: fodder line
Big: mid fodder
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LordoftheMorons posted...

Banjo & Kazooie: fodder line
Balthier: fodder line
Big: mid fodder

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Nominate:
Erdrick/Hero (DQ3)
Felix (Golden Sun)
Cappy (Super Mario Odyssey)
Kangaskhan (Pokemon)
Chloe Frazer (Uncharted series)
Shrek (there are a thousand Shrek games do I need to specify?)
Spongebob Squarepants (see above)

Some of these may have been done, I haven't checked this every day.
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Ha, that's some timing for BK. I still don't see them being very strong though. Maybe if they got a new game/remake.

Banjo & Kazooie: fodder line
Balthier: high fodder
Big the Cat: low fodder
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LordoftheMorons posted...

Banjo & Kazooie: fodder line
Balthier: fodder line
Big: mid fodder

Agree with rankings here.

Banjo & Kazooie is interesting. Banjo appeared several times by himself and looked no better than high fodder. Together B & K move up to the Fodder Line boosted by a smash appearance. They could even potentially move to low midcarder if the nostalgia for the N64 games is strong enough.

Balthier barely hangs onto the fodder line imo, with Zodiac Age just a few years old.

For Big the Cat, mid fodder is the best he can hope for. He's a joke of a character who is only liked ironically, and meme rallies are largely extinct in contests. He's at least well-known, which keeps him out of low fodder range.
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Banjo & Kazooie (Banjo-Kazooie) -Low Midcarder.

Banjo was probably high fodder in 2013; I think Missingno. LFF and him being the third wheel to the hype Tidus/Missingno. battle made him look a little worse than he should have. BK the game looked pretty good in 2015, the site's general trends are probably help for them, and now they're in Smash. I can see them looking decent now, considering what Smash has done for a lot of other characters once thought hopeless.

Balthier Bunansa (Final Fantasy XII) - Mid Fodder.

Luigi almost tripled him in 2013 and he didn't get into 2018. I don't think people care much anymore and considering this guy made his debut by losing to Ada Wong twice I'm not sure they ever cared much in the first place.

Big the Cat (Sonic series) - Low Fodder

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/2511-aeon-division-round-1-yuna-vs-roll
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/2509-triforce-division-round-1-kos-mos-vs-amy-rose

don't underestimate just how bad a reasonably well known character can be when nobody likes them!
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Banjo & Kazooie: Midcarder - Banjo-Kazooie already looked solid in 2015, and then we saw similar platformer mascots like Crash and DK outperform in 2018. On top of that, these two now have Smash (what happy timing!). In light of all that, I don't think it's much of a stretch to say that they're as strong as Crash, a character whose games are relatively less beloved.

Balthier Bunansa: Fodder Line - FF12 looked solid in 2015, and its reputation has generally improved over time, on top of a well-received remaster. Balthier's strength should track nicely with his game, given that he's its most fondly remembered aspect, to the point where even FF12 haters like him.

Big the Cat: Mid Fodder - He's arguably the video game king of memes, and people increasingly unironically like Modern Sonic. I think that would allow him to transcend his joke character curse to an extent.

Nominations:
Barret Wallace (Final Fantasy VII)
Captain America (Marvel Comics)
Dio Brando (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)
Doom Slayer (Doom)
Erdrick (Dragon Quest)
Godzilla (Godzilla games)
Paddle (Pong)
Rise Kujikawa (Persona 4)
Shrek (Shrek)
Urdnot Wrex (Mass Effect)

These will be my last nominations for a while, unless I think of (or someone else nominates) something particularly compelling.
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I appreciate the amount of nominations you've put in for this. I have a huge list of potential nominations so we won't run out of characters anytime soon. You can always put in seconds to other noms

nominations:

Erdrick/Hero (Dragon Quest)
Rise Kujikawa (Persona 4)
Spongebob Squarepants
Bowser Jr. (Mario series)
Lulu (Final Fantasy X)
Captain Commando (Captain Commando)
Cynthia (Pokemon)
The Avatar (Ultima)
Lavos (Chrono Trigger)
Goro Akechi (Persona 5)
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Day 17 is up: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/77785575

Regarding the result on Banjo & Kazooie, I decided to change my rating to Low Midcarder which is why they moved up from Fodder Line.
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