Board 8 > How would they do in a contest? Day 218 ft Makoto Niijima, Sabin Figaro, Claude

(+) 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

If you feel that a character has been over or under-ranked, or if a new development has come up that would affect their contest strength, you may nominate them for a re-ranking. You may nominate one character per day for this, and 3 votes are needed to get them on the slate. One character with 3 votes will come up for re-ranking today.

Re-ranking Nomination List: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1V6dx-tu-FD1rCxbX69eQwEzE7x1F6nNRNFochYHu1dc/edit?usp=sharing

Results from Day 217:

Goose (Untitled Goose Game) is Mid Fodder
Sam Porter Bridges (Death Stranding) is Low Fodder
Kasumi (Dead or Alive) is Mid Fodder

Here is today's trio to rank:

Sabin Figaro (Final Fantasy VI)
Claude (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)
Makoto Niijima (Persona 5)

Today's Re-Ranking is:

Charles Barkley (Shut Up and Jam)

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Sabin: Mid Fodder. Has-been from an old game. Despite being one of the more recognizable party members, he's never made a bracket. I don't think that's particularly encouraging.

Claude: High Fodder. While FE:3H lost to RE2 in its match yesterday, there's really no character that, in my mind, has stood out from that game quite yet. I haven't played it, so I don't know ANYTHING about the cast. This is the kind of game where you've either played it and know the characters or have never played it and don't know a thing.

Makoto: Mid Fodder. The Persona fans adore her, and that will get her enough votes to trump any Low Fodder. But Joker's performance was... far less than encouraging (though that was before both Joker and Claire got their massive 2019 boosts, of Smash and a full-fledged remake, respectively), and I don't think she can beat anyone above that. If you haven't played P5, chances are the only character you know is Joker.

Charles Barkley: Mid Fodder. People who watch basketball know him, and know him well. People who don't might recognize him from an advert or two, but those ads usually run during basketball games (the ones with Samuel L. Jackson and Spike Lee) and they're unlikely to remember his name. Does he appear in NBA 2K at all? If so, that could make him High Fodder, but probably not. Mid Fodder still sounds right
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Sabin Figaro (Final Fantasy VI) - High fodder

FFVI's large cast and the way its story is structured is going to prevent any of them from being particularly great but I think the Figaro brothers have enough story and gameplay time and are from a strong enough game to manage high fodder.

Claude (Fire Emblem: Three Houses) - High fodder

Wouldn't hope for much better from a modern JRPG of probably only decent strength, especially with the way the game seems to divide up the faction leaders.

Makoto Niijima (Persona 5) - Mid fodder

I'd expect a strength drop from where Joker seemed to be.

Charles Barkley - Low fodder

Michael Jordan is a ridiculous icon from our youths and I think that keeps him out of the basement but Barkley's not quite on his level and I don't think gamefaqs cares much about basketball at this point.

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Nominate:
Toadette (Mario)
Ho-Oh (Pokemon)
Dawn (Pokemon)
Suicune (Pokemon)
CD-i Link (Link: The Faces of Evil)
Daenerys Targaryen (Game of Thrones)
Dark Pit (Kid Icarus: Uprising)
Fa Mulan (Disneys Mulan)
Faris Scherwiz (Final Fantasy V)
I-Block (Tetris)

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Sabin: Mid Fodder - My understanding is that he's not quite as well-liked/remembered as Edgar, and anything above High Fodder would be a major stretch for the latter.

Claude: Mid Fodder - There's only so high an ensemble cast member from a game like this can climb, as Primrose proved in 2018. Three Houses > Octopath Traveler for sure, but I'm still not overly confident he'll amount to much.

Makoto: Low Fodder - I could see Mid Fodder, too, but Joker's 2018 match paints a discouraging picture of the strength of Persona 5's supporting cast members.

Barkley: Low Fodder - I expect him to get more strength from Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden than anything else here, which is a problem considering how cult that game is.

Nominate Lee Everett and Meat Boy for ranking. Also, nominate Morgana (Persona 5) for re-ranking due to what I wrote about Makoto above, as well as that he's somewhat divisive even among the P5 fanbase, which is a problem for a supporting character from a non-top-tier JRPG.

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Re-rank Morgana

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Agree with Mid for Sabin and Claude based on metalmind's reasoning. Also agree with Low Fodder for Barkley (he'd be in consideration for law fodder without Shut Up and Jam).

However I disagree with the low rankings for Makoto on the basis that I don't think Joker's performance in CBX is very representative of the character strength of Persona 5. It is somewhat of a tired argument, but the fact that he appeared without his Joker costume and with the unofficial name of Ren Amamiya hurt him quite a bit I think.

I will give Makoto High Fodder. I think it is very telling that most fans of P5 actually like Makoto; most non-main Persona characters cap out at mid fodder due to divisive opinions among the fanbase, but Makoto doesn't have to worry about that. She's also #1 waifu and has a lot of memorable moments in the game.

That said Morgana IS divisive, so nominate him for re-ranking.

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Day 219 is up: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78331097

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