Board 8 > How would they do in a contest? Day 644 ft Typhlosion, Croconaw, Alena (DQ4)

(+) 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 643:

Estelle (Tales of Vesperia) is Low Fodder
Unown (Pokemon) is Low Fodder
Terry (Dragon Quest VI) is Low Fodder

Here is today's trio to rank:

Typhlosion (Pokemon)
Croconaw (Pokemon)
Alena (Dragon Quest IV)

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Typhlosion: Mid Fodder - I think there's a huge falloff between the Gen. 1 and Gen. 2 starters, especially when comparing final forms given the lack of boxart representation among other things. I might just be biased because I've personally never gotten Typhlosion's appeal, though.

Croconaw: Low Fodder - A not-so-well-liked middle evolution in a popular starter line; definitely a tier below Typhlosion, hence my vote.

Alena: Low Fodder - I don't think DQIV is sufficiently widely-played to boost any of its (non-Hero) party members beyond that here.

Nominate Darth Vader for re-ranking. While Star Wars is still quite the pop-cultural force in the Western world, Vader's potential isn't as high as his franchise given that he's not the main protagonist and is only sort of its symbol. Also, the notion that a character without truly big-deal video game appearances can match such pedigreed icons as Sora and Dante here strikes me as questionable.

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agree with metalmind's ratings. The final form Johto starters lacking box art status is kind of significant, and Croconaw is a pretty unpopular middle form. I almost want to give Alena mid based on being in Fortune Street, but yeah, the early DQ games probably don't have the playrate to support that.

I'll go ahead and third re-ranking Robin. They're pretty popular as far as player avatar characters go and are in Smash, but the fodder line we put them at a -very- long time ago is probably too much. I could see them being better than Chrom, but they're definitely less popular than Lucina.

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Agreed with halfsilver for the three.

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Day 645 is up: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/79384614

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