Board 8 > How would they do in a contest? Day 124 ft The Dog, Locke Cole, Dart Feld

(+) 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 there is a compelling reason for both characters to be linked (either co-starring in a game ala Banjo & Kazooie, or always appearing together like Callie & Marie from Splatoon).

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 - LAW Fodder, 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.

Note that LAW Fodder is meant to be a tier reserved for the weakest possible characters to put into a contest. A character will only be placed there if at least 3/4ths of the voters for that day agree on the LAW Fodder rating, and no ratings above Low Fodder are given. If either of those conditions are not met, the character will not be eligible for the LAW Fodder tier.

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 123:

Sailor Moon/Usagi Tsukino (Sailor Moon) is Mid Fodder
Princess Leia Organa (Star Wars) is Fodder Line
Greninja (Pokmon) is Fodder Line

Here is today's trio to rank:

Dart Feld (The Legend of Dragoon)
The Dog (Duck Hunt)
Locke Cole (Final Fantasy VI)
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Dart Feld: Low Fodder. Who?

Dog: Mid Fodder. Everyone knows who he is, thanks to Smash, but I don't see why most people in this day and age have reason to care. There's some nostalgia for older users but I don't think it'll be enough for him. He lost big-time to Ryu, L-Block, and Meta-Knight in his one appearance in 2008 - and the L-Block hype train didn't start until AFTER the result of that match. I don't see any justification for anything but Mid Fodder. He can't be Low Fodder because he's in Smash, which gives him an edge against anyone people won't recognize, but he can't be anything higher than that.

Locke: Mid Fodder. He's been in a contest ONCE, and not until 2013. And this was despite him coming in third in an FF6 poll in 2002. Shows how much people care. In that once match, he lost to Ness but beat a joke character nobody cares about anymore (CATS), so I don't think he has a prayer. He's stronger than Dog, but not by much.
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Dart "I didn't get to be Playstation All Stars Battle Royale DLC but fucking Emmett Graves did" Feld is Low Fodder
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The Legend of Dragoon isn't as forgotten as people seem to think, at least on GameFAQs. It looked good in the recent one-hit wonder poll, and it saw a respectable loss to Uncharted 2 in GotD. Since this is JRPGFAQs we're talking about, I'm going to bet that Dart isn't too much weaker than his game, so Mid Fodder is my vote.

Also, PSASBR has nothing to do with anything. Starhawk had a brand-new game six months before its release, thus Emmett's inclusion, whereas Sony hasn't bothered to do anything with Legend of Dragoon since 2000.

BlueCrystalTear posted...

He lost big-time to Ryu, L-Block, and Meta-Knight in his one appearance in 2008 - and the L-Block hype train didn't start until AFTER the result of that match.

Actually, the L-Block hype train was in full force since at least that Sonic/Squall/Snake match in 2007. Many people thought a repeat victory in 2008 was a done deal, or at least awfully likely. Indeed, L-Block had high midcarder-level strength all throughout 2008, and with Meta Knight to suck up the Nintendo votes alongside L's joke votes and Ryu's old-school icon cachet, it left The Dog in a hopeless position.

Anyways, in this era of dead jokes, I don't disagree with Mid Fodder for The Dog.

As for Locke, he (barely) avoided being 60-40'd by Ness back in 2013, and I think we can all agree Ness is a Low Midcarder. With FF6 entrants generally looking better recently than they ever have before, I think Locke will retain his High Fodder strength from 2013.
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Low Fodder for Dart. There is definitely a fanbase for LoD on Gfaqs, but it seems to be pretty small nowadays - seemingly around the level of Skies of Arcadia going by a recent PoTD. The fact that he has never made a contest speaks pretty strongly too.

High Fodder (barely) for the Dog. Everyone will know him from Duck Hunt and smash, though he isn't especially popular in the latter. I think voters will be split between liking and hating him due to his trolly persona. But I think that fact that he is, well, a dog will help him lean towards the positive side.

Honestly, I say Fodder Line for Locke. He did not look that good in CB9, but it's hard to really place his result from the contest since Ness, who beat Locke, ran into an SFF beatdown from Luigi in R2. Since then Locke appeared in a Dissidia game, giving him some actual good pics to use in a contest. Plus Terra looked better than she ever has in CBX, so I think Locke could look good too.

nominate: Goose (Untitled Goose Game)
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oh wait I got my years mixed up. L-Block won in 2007, not 2008 whoops

my bad
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also change my Locke vote to High Fodder
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The Dog is called Duck Hunt, fyi for whoever nominated it....

Dart Feld (The Legend of Dragoon) - mid-fodder
The Dog (Duck Hunt) - high fodder... I wonder if Smash did anything for it?
Locke Cole (Final Fantasy VI) - high fodder, even if Kefka didn't look particularly great last contest.
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Haste_2 posted...

The Dog is called Duck Hunt, fyi for whoever nominated it....

I could be missing something, but I'm pretty sure Duck Hunt is only the name of the combination dog-and-duck character of Smash 4 and Smash Ultimate. I guess you could say the dog should be called Duck Hunt Dog in that case, though it was billed as The Dog in its only contest appearance, in 2008.

Nominations:
Adolf Hitler
Ash Ketchum
Demogorgon
Donald Trump
Goemon
Goose (Untitled Goose Game)
Incineroar
Jimmy Hopkins
John Lennon
The New Kid (South Park: The Stick of Truth)
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Dart would probably be around Vyse's level at best, and Vyse looked pretty darn bad in his last contest appearance.

Nominate:

Mr. Freeze (DC Comics)
Elise (Sonic '06)
Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Marvel)
Susan Storm/Invisible Woman (Marvel)
Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic (Marvel)
Ben Grimm/The Thing (Marvel)
James T. Kirk (Star Trek)
Spock (Star Trek)
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Nominate Incineroar

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Dart Feld (The Legend of Dragoon) - Mid fodder

His game has decent strength; it narrowly being stronger than Skies of Arcadia like in the recent poll is actually supported by GotD x-stats. So unless we get evidence to the contrary I'll assume he's not low fodder.

The Dog (Duck Hunt) - Mid fodder

Locke Cole (Final Fantasy VI) - Fodder line

He's kind of borderline High Fodder/Fodder line unless you think Ness SFFed him. About equal to Celes sounds right to me so I'll go fodder line.

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nominations:

The New Kid (South Park: The Stick of Truth)
Princess Elise (Sonic The Hedgehog 2006)
Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Marvel)
Susan Storm/Invisible Woman (Marvel)
Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic (Marvel)
Ben Grimm/The Thing (Marvel)
James T. Kirk (Star Trek)
Spock (Star Trek)
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Dart Feld - Low Fodder. We've seen this kind of thing before, right? With Estelle, with Noctis and, to a lesser extent, Issac. Merely being the star of a JRPG doesn't guarantee votes, even on JRPGFAQs. It sold a hair over one million units nearly two decades ago, and neither the game itself, nor the character are particularly memorable , especially in comparison to the tons of amazing RPGs the PS1 had. (I say that, but watch me now go ahead and nominate a bunch of nobody JRPG characters lol.)

The Dog - Fodder Line. He stars in a famous and best selling game (10 million plus units.) "That damn dog who laughs at you" was an early video game community meme (damn near every video game web comic from the 2000s has that one where the main character gripes about it, or even gets violent toward the dog. More then a few Youtubers have done that routine also, including the Nerd. He also has two Smash appearances under his belt, and on the main roster to boot! If he gets his famous sprite (you know the one), he could beat the likes of Master Hand I'm sure (don't tell me he can't!)

Locke Cole - Fodder Line. He is a deuteragonist/tritagonist of a popular, classic Final Fantasy game, so there is a limit to how wear he could be. This looks to me to be about it. He is prominent and memorable in the game, and the game is beloved. I think the ensemble cast hurts him, and clearly coming out pre-Playstation does, but surely he isn't that much weaker than, say, Issac.

Nominate:
Lufia (Lufia/Estpolis Denki)
Jin (Torna: The Golden Country)
Terry (Contact)
Rex & Pyra (Xenoblade 2)
Mario & Luigi (Mario & Luigi series. pour one out for AlphaDream)
Metal Mario (Super Smash Bros, Mario Kart, and Mario Sports series)
Toon Link (Zelda series)
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AdamantRock posted...

Pyra/Mythra (Xenoblade 2)
Mario & Luigi (Mario & Luigi series. pour one out for AlphaDream)

Pyra was already rated a while back, but Mythra was nominated separately, so I added your vote there

I had rejected a nomination for Mario & Luigi in the past, but I've changed my requirements for a duo nom since then, so I will allow them now.

Day 125 is up: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78059079
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