Game of the Decade: 2010-2019 Contest Analysis Crew - Part 1

Hey everyone! The Contest Analysis Crew is back at it again, and this time, we’re going to write a lot of words about the second Game of the Decade Contest.

If you’re new here, the Contest Analysis Crew has been running strong since 2004. It’s a group of (self-proclaimed) contest experts that take a deep look at all of the matches in the Contest. We make predictions on who we think will win and how much percentage they’ll receive. It’s a lot of fun and-

???: Moltar...Moltar do you hear me?

Moltar: oh no is the usual crew parody story starting already?

???: Moltar, there is a critical ask that I have of you.

Moltar: Look, I was just hoping that I could take it easy for this Game of the Decade Contest. No crazy stories or adventures, and maybe just reminisce over the tales of the previous Contests. Like I was just looking back, and can you believe that I did an entire parody of Umineko 10 years ago? Crazy stuff. There was also a BioShock Infinite story that was pretty good, and then Monika from Doki Doki Literature Club took over the Crew and that was wild-

???: We don’t have time, Moltar. The fate of the world is at stake here. Humanity needs you to do this task. All we ask is that you help us reconnect GameFAQs.

Moltar: ………...wait is this a Death Stranding parody? I didn’t even understand that game how am I going to do this? Why would I even attempt to try?

???: The people are secluded, unable to make any physical contact with each other. Essential supplies are running low, and outside travel is far too dangerous for most to attempt.

Moltar: …..okay I’ll admit the timing for this is pretty surreal.

???: That’s why I’m asking you to deliver essential packages to priority facilities, and once you connect these facilities to the global network, GameFAQs will fully-

Moltar: Yeah yeah I know the drill. Just tell me where I need to go first.

???: Your first delivery will be to Leonhart in Square Knot City. Once you get there, you must recruit him to join the network.

Moltar: Alright cool, I just got one more question for you. Who are you?

???: You’ll find out when the title card drops.

Moltar: Alright I feel this is getting a little too meta now.

CREW STRANDING

EPISODE 1

“ALLEN”

Moltar: Ah, yeah I guess that makes sense.

Current Guest List: Send write-ups to mastermoltar@gmail.com

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild vs. The Outer Worlds - paulg
Halo: Reach vs. Life is Strange - spooky96
Final Fantasy XV vs. What Remains of Edith Finch - MetalmindStats
Hollow Knight vs. Tales of Berseria - Luster Soldier
Monster Hunter: World vs. Bravely Default: Flying Fairy - Kotetsu534
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice vs. Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch - SuperNiceDog
The Walking Dead: A Telltale Games Series vs. Bastion - tennisboy213
Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age vs. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC - Sniperdog117

Mass Effect 2 vs. Resident Evil 7: biohazard - paulg
Fallout 4 vs. VVVVVV - LMS
Borderlands 2 vs. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night - Sir Chris
Horizon Zero Dawn vs. Fortnite - Hbthebattle
Resident Evil 2 vs. Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair - t_kizzle
DOOM vs. INSIDE - Black Turtle
Fire Emblem: Awakening vs. Deus Ex: Human Revolution - TsunamiXXVIII
Bloodborne vs. Call of Duty: Black Ops - ctes

oh man

Guest as Conan O’Brien hell yes

Everyone learns the importance of my profession during this time

I actually got thanked for doing my job for the first time the other day

Round 1 – The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild vs. The Outer Worlds

Moltar’s Analysis

New Contest time! And what’s better than starting a Contest with some Zelda domination.

Spoilers BotW is the heavy heavy favorite to win this contest, barring some sort of rally. The only thing worth seeing here is how badly it will crush its competition. Outer Worlds more like Outta this Contest.

Moltar’s Bracket: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Moltar’s Prediction: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – 79%
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transience’s Analysis

Hey, it's a contest! It's a real weird feeling for a contest with COVID-19 shutting down life everywhere around me. Everything around me has been cancelled to the point that I've kind of shut down mentally as well. Hopefully it only takes me a day or two to get back into the spirit of picking Nintendo games to beat other games!

Speaking of Nintendo games, here's your contest winner barring a rally. Sorry to be anticlimactic, but that's just life with the biggest Zelda game of the last 20 years. I'm not convinced that it would 100% beat Majora's Mask just because it didn't come out during the site's glory years, but Breath of the Wild is probably further ahead of second place than any other entity in contest history. (Well, except for gimmicks like the Years or Rivalry brackets that everyone has since dropped out of their memory.)

Part of that is because Breath of the Wild is a killer game, but the other part is the competition. With other classic series' like Metal Gear, Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts dead or dying, Nintendo is the only company that makes games that feel like an event. It's too bad that FF7 Remake didn't come out last year because it might have been the only game with a puncher's chance of dealing with the Zelda/Smash/Mario triumverate.

Anyway, I'm getting way ahead of myself here: Outer Worlds had a moment there where it felt like it would claim the mantle that the Fallout series vacated after the disaster that was Fallout 76, but it just wasn't good enough to resonate with enough people to break through the malaise that we have for pretty much any new IP. It could have been an interesting pick in, say, the second match today, but against Breath of the Wild, it'll do well to get to 20%.Others may point to its decent showings in GOTY polls, but I don't really believe in it, especially since it was a best Xbox game poll against Sekiro which is largely seen as a Playstation game.

transience's prediction: Zelda: Breath of the Wild with 83.78%
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Leonhart’s Analysis

Man, it’s hard to believe we’re having Game of the Decade 2 when it doesn’t even feel like the original was all that long ago! There are some similarities and some differences between this contest and the last one. It’s similar in that we really have no feel for 75% of the games in the contest. As such, there will probably be several matches where there’s a pretty strong board consensus that we get wrong because we all tend to default to the majority opinion when we have no idea (so I apologize in advance for all the times my analysis topic will mislead you in this contest!). Allen also made the move to keep Nintendo out of certain regions of the bracket. In this case, it’s mostly the lower half of the bracket that’s free of the heavy hitters. In the first contest, it was Fallout 3’s division, and it was pretty fun overall, so I have high hopes for some of those divisions here, too.

As far as differences go, Allen didn’t go out of his way to put games from the same series in the same divisions like he did in the first Game of the Decade. Now we normally don’t like SFF stuff, but in a couple cases, it led to some really debatable and fun matches. Melee/Brawl is the most famous one, but we also had cool stuff like KH1 vs. KH2, although Shadow of the Colossus robbed us of seeing MGS2/MGS3/MGS4 facing off with each other! But for the most part, they were SFF duds, like FFX/FFIX and Halo 1/Halo 3, so we’re probably better off without it. But the biggest difference is that this contest has an overwhelming favorite in Breath of the Wild. The first contest was split between people picking FFX, Melee, Brawl, or Pokemon (and some people haven’t learned their lesson from the first contest, it seems…!). We haven’t even seen Breath of the Wild in a real contest poll and we’ve already anointed it the champion. We haven’t seen something like this in a long time.

We won’t really get a good idea of what Breath of the Wild is made of for quite a while because it’s got a fairly weak division overall, so as long as it isn’t drastically underperforming relative to expectations, there isn’t much to worry about for a while. The Outer Worlds is a game that came out in the same timeframe as a game called Outer Wilds. I’m not sure that was a good idea! Not that it really matters which game was here because Zelda would curbstomp it either way!

Leonhart’s Vote: Breath of the Wild

Leonhart’s Prediction: Breath of the Wild with 80.80%
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Kleenex’s Analysis

Hello Contestfolk! It feels like it's been such a long time since the last contest, but in reality it was only a little over a year ago since the end of CBX. This time around, instead of a bunch of known quantities getting beaten to a pulp by Zelda (RIP Squall), we have a bunch of unknown quantities getting ready to be beaten to a pulp by Zelda. Fun!

We’re starting things off with our presumptive champion in Breath of the Wild. I’m writing this before looking at Guru brackets or anything, but I have to imagine like 90% of us have BotW winning this thing, right? There aren’t too many other viable options, and BotW is still a beloved game by most, even 3 years after its release. Certainly, it won’t be stopped by The Outer Worlds, which is not, in fact, Outer Wilds, but instead the other game that came out last year around the same time.

How big does Zelda go here? GameFAQs tends to enjoy Fallout games to an extent, but The Outer Worlds doesn’t have the same clout or name recognition or really anything that makes me think it’ll do even slightly well here.

Kleenex’s Prediction: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild with 80.25%
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Guest’s Analysis - paulg

And the contest begins! No point in analyzing this match since it's a given that Zelda: Breath of the Wild is winning its division and is the favourite to win the whole contest outside of a notable rallied entrant. If it isn't clear to you why BotW is the likeliest contest winner, go and look up any GameFAQs contest we've ever had. The Zelda series has amassed 7 character battle victories, the rivalry rumble, the Best Series Ever, 1 Best Game Ever, (Best Year in Gaming if you count Ocarina of Time under 1998,) and the 00's Game of the Decade contest. That last one in particular made it clear that Zelda will always win these contests with the exception of outside interference. It's even gotten to the point where the (winner's bracket) final of the last contest was all-Zelda. The only entrants that stopped a Zelda-related entrant from winning a contest were Cloud (2003), Final Fantasy VII (2004), Sephiroth (Villains), L-Block (2007), Draven (2013), and Undertale (2015).

So yeah, expect Breath of the Wild to completely destroy its division, starting with The Outer Worlds.

Prediction: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - 82.04%
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Crew Consensus: Zelda’s breath is just too strong.

whew we finally made it to contest day

I have legitimately no idea when this thing starts

8 P.M. Eastern

oh awesome. I’ll believe it when I see it though!

it would be really bad if we actually got to contest day and Allen delayed the contest for a third time

I think it's going to happen this time...!

Round 1 – Halo: Reach vs. Life is Strange

Moltar’s Analysis

So my first thought was that Halo takes this easy with franchise + apathy votes, but then I looked at some old polls and gat dayum I don’t remember Halo falling off as hard as it did on GameFAQs.

Halo in 2010 got 39% on Fallout 3, which is interesting because Life is Strange also has a common opponent in Fallout 3! In 2015, LiS got 27% on it. Now if we look at the Halo series in 2015, both games looked awful. The original, which should be the strongest in the franchise, only got 56% on Minecraft before getting 22% on FF7. Halo 3 only got 32% on Last of Us. Now we’re 5 years removed from that, and Halo has pretty much fallen off the face of the Earth on GameFAQs. We’re talking about a non-mainline game that is likely weaker than the original Halo and Halo 3 in Halo: Reach and uhhh.

I mean I’m sticking with Halo here, but feel uneasy about it. The thing that I believe helps it here is that Halo isn’t up against a popular or mainstream game here, like FF, Last of Us, or Minecraft. Against anything with a known name and decent strength on GameFAQs, it falls apart, but Life is Strange ain’t that. The game looked bad against Fallout and Chloe looked bad against Lightning. Since LiS hasn’t proved itself in any poll on the site before and doesn’t have the name value that Halo does to voters, I’ll stick with old unreliable Halo here.

Moltar’s Bracket: Halo: Reach

Moltar’s Prediction: Halo: Reach – 53%

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transience’s Analysis

I spent a long time thinking about this match (and other 8/9 types of matches like this). Life is Strange is at least a well-known entity at this point on a website that cares a lot about narrative and atmospheric games. It isn't exactly super popular, but it's well-known enough to not be total trash. Halo, on the other hand, is certainly well-known but does anyone care about Reach? Reach isn't part of the main trilogy and exists in that space where people dumped Halo for other shooters like Call of Duty and Borderlands.

I give Life is Strange a great shot of pulling an upset, and honestly I'm not even sure it should be the underdog. But here's the main takeaway I'm running with for these weakling matchups: it's not about those games. The vast majority of the voters here will be spillover from people who are here to vote for Zelda and Final Fantasy. That neutral person voting for Breath of the Wild -- are they voting for Halo or Life is Strange? I would count on Halo there. So, I'll take Halo here - but with not much confidence.

transience's prediction: Halo: Reach with 54.95%

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Leonhart’s Analysis

I was a little confused when I saw Halo: Reach made the bracket at all, much less with an 8 seed. Then someone told me that it was released on Steam recently, so it makes sense. Despite the fact that Halo as a series has been up and down throughout contest history, I actually have a fairly good track record picking its matches (friendly reminder that I warned you all that Halo 3 would beat Mario Sunshine last time around!). Generally, when this site likes the Xbox, Halo and Master Chief do well, which was the case in the first Game of the Decade when the 360 was the top dog. However, GameFAQs never got on board with the Xbone, and we’ve seen Master Chief suffer for it in the years since. What does that mean for Reach’s chances here? I’m not totally sure. The Halo fanbase generally likes Reach, even if it probably wouldn’t be as strong as the first three.

Now we’ve seen Life is Strange on a couple of occasions. It was getting crushed by Fallout 3 before the Undertale rally helped it not lose by quite as much. Fallout 3 dropped from 81% to 72.5% by the end of the match. Then Chloe got quadrupled by Lightning in the last Character Battle, which is honestly kind of pathetic (and exactly what Chloe deserved imhotbqh). Life is Strange is a Board 8 game, but I don’t think it’s a GameFAQs game. As such, I think Halo wins this one, although we often see weird upsets with the second match of the contest. We saw it with Rock Band/Deus Ex in the first GOTD, and Life is Strange is exactly the type of fanbase who would come to the board complaining that it isn’t beating Halo by enough…!

Leonhart’s Vote: Life is Strange

Leonhart’s Prediction: Halo: Reach with 58.11%

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Kleenex’s Analysis

Boy this one feels bad. The only times we’ve seen Life is Strange, it got squished by Fallout 3, and Chloe got tripled by Lightning. And I can no longer keep up the charade - Lightning sucks (in GameFAQs contests). Now mind you, it’s not easy to bet on Halo. Halo also sucks (in GameFAQs contests). But this is one of those situations where I have to assume name recognition is enough to pull through here, because Life is Strange is basically worth nothing. And I hate it because it’s one of my favorite games of the last decade. So regrettably, I will be siding with Halo here and pulling hard for a good Crew Curse.

Kleenex’s Prediction: Halo: Reach with 61.75%

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Guest’s Analysis - spooky96

Ooh this could be an interesting match. For some reason I picked Life is Strange when I first saw the bracket, thinking 'Yeah, Halo sucks these days'. It won't be THAT surprising if it actually does end up winning, because Western/FPS games aren't worth much on GameFAQs. Still, seeing how weak indie games are, a big-franchise name should be more than enough to take care of something like Life is Strange. 27% on Fallout 3 isn't the worst performance ever, so I expect something like.. mid 30s to high 40s against Halo?

Halo: Reach with 57%

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Crew Consensus: Halo reaches for Round 2

Oh, the sweet scent of crew curse in the morning.

if anything I'd wager we undershot Halo just because we don't trust it

Life is Strange isn't this site's type of game

Oh I'm still picking Halo. Chole Price finished second to last in the stats in 2018. The burden of proof is on LiS to show it's not complete turbofodder.

I've never wanted a crew curse so badly

I think I would have gone with Life is Strange if it were closer to its release. LIS2 seems to have tanked that franchise somewhat.

this has a real second match curse feel to it though

so did people not like LIS2?

I think it was more apathy than dislike. I bought it when the first episode came out and still haven’t played it!

Yeah, I haven't really heard anyone talk about it good or bad.

Next thing you know tumblr rallies for Life is Strange.

Tag

LinkMarioSamus posted...

Next thing you know tumblr rallies for Life is Strange.

Tumblr is dead.

Wouldn't know.

I keep running into problems when doing my guest writeup.

Round 1 – Final Fantasy XV vs. What Remains of Edith Finch

Moltar’s Analysis

What remains of Edith Finch? Nothing after FFXV is done with it. The last time we saw a FFXV rep in a contest was Noctis getting embarrassed by a freaking glove. The game isn’t all that strong, but it’ll be near impossible for FFXV to choke that hard in this match as it should win this on name recognition alone.

Moltar’s Bracket: Final Fantasy XV

Moltar’s Prediction: Final Fantasy XV – 75%

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transience’s Analysis

I wish I could reseed this eightpack. Our 16 seed, Outer Worlds, would move into a more interesting matchup and we would feed Edith Finch to Calamity Ganon. Edith Finch is going to be real bad, and the only reason that I think it might do OK here is because FFXV is kind of a laughingstock of a game. It's not *weak* per se but it's so easily mockable and antivotable with dudes like Prompto or Gladiolus and the whole road trip aesthetic, not to mention the 10 year development cycle and the way that the game went through 2 years of patches and quality of life tweaks before development just got aborted in the middle of the procedure to make this a good game.

It'll do work on Edith Finch, sure, but it went toe to toe with a modern Pokemon game on GameFAQs. That's not great and it's a good thing that its path isn't really all that debatable because you could have entertained a lot of games upsetting it. Fire Emblem? New Vegas? Red Dead? There were any number of candidates and instead it just gets to beat up on an easy fourpack before getting blasted by Zelda.

transience's prediction: Final Fantasy XV with 77.59%

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Leonhart’s Analysis

Final Fantasy XV won Game of the Year in 2016, which sounds impressive on the surface until you realize that its competition was Uncharted 4 and Pokemon Sun/Moon, the latter of which didn’t even make the bracket. It would’ve been prime upset bait elsewhere in the bracket, but I think it’s got a fairly straightforward path that it can win on the brand name of Final Fantasy alone. I talked about Life is Strange as a game that isn’t really a GameFAQs type of game. What Remains of Edith Finch definitely qualifies even more so. I wouldn’t have any confidence in a walking simulator being anything other than bad fodder around here, even though I recently played the game and liked it! I’ll be curious to see how high FFXV can go here since I imagine it’ll have a decent amount of people anti-voting it.

Leonhart’s Vote: Final Fantasy XV

Leonhart’s Prediction: Final Fantasy XV with 72.15%

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Kleenex’s Analysis

Speaking of games that suck (in all contexts), we have Final Fantasy XV. Sure, it might have won Game of the Year on GameFAQs dot com back in 2016, but Noctis also lost to a freaking glove, and not in a particularly close bout. Reception of XV has been middling at best since it came out, and even after they added all the extra junk no one seems to care. Lucky for Noctis and crew, it’s up against something this site cares about even less - indie walking simulators. I suspect a lot of these round 1 matches are going to come down to name recognition, and this is no exception. Generic Final Fantasy Candidate is enough to take this down.

Kleenex’s Prediction: Final Fantasy XV with 65.25%

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Guest’s Analysis - MetalmindStats

I’ve been seeing lots of Oracle predictions expecting significant weakness from FF15, and a healthy degree of skepticism about such a divisive game’s potential in a contest where that will matter more than most is certainly warranted. There’s just one problem: Edith Finch really isn’t the game to expose FF15 here. It’s a straightforward, narrative-centered indie game on a site where even the biggest and most guide-suited of indies already struggle to garner attention. It’s also not universally beloved by those few who have played it; a small yet vocal minority derides “walking simulators” such as Edith Finch for (supposedly) being too short to justify their price and generally not proper video games.

On a mainstream Western gaming site such as IGN, Edith Finch winning outright in spite of its own backlash wouldn’t even be totally out of the question. However, this is JRPGFAQs we’re talking about, and Final Fantasy still carries a great amount of franchise power (plus an infinitely superior playrate) here. In fact, this match reminds me of Chloe Price vs. Lightning from 2018, which ended up as a near-tripling for the latter. The unexpected blowout there had minimal implications for the divisive modern FF entrant - it simply meant that the still somewhat polarizing indie entrant was turbofodder. FF15 should by all rights shoot for an even higher percentage against a game that’s almost certainly among the ten weakest in this field.

Prediction: Final Fantasy XV wins with 76.15%

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Crew Consensus: FFXV drives past Edith Finch

FF15 could go for like 85% here and I wouldn't even know what to think.

It would just mean Edith Finch will probably finish in the bottom 5 of the X-Stats.

Round 1 – Hollow Knight vs. Tales of Berseria

Moltar’s Analysis

Wish this match was a day later so I could see the results for Halo: Reach/Life is Strange before writing this!

The Tales series is more popular on GameFAQs, and Symphonia has proven itself in multiple contests. The problem here is that it’s the only Tales game that has shown strength on the website. I’m kind of getting Borderlands/Vesperia vibes from this match, except on a weaker-scale. In that match, Borderlands 55/45’d Vesperia.

Hollow Knight is fairly popular for an indie game, but most indie games don’t do well on GameFAQs. Still, I think it should be decent enough to win this match because I have very low expectations for non-Symphonia Tales games at this point.

Moltar’s Bracket: Hollow Knight

Moltar’s Prediction: Hollow Knight – 55%

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transience’s Analysis

I'm not Hollow Knight's biggest fan and I get kind of grumpy when people put it on a pedestal above superior indie darlings like Ori and the Blind Forest or Spelunky or countless others. Those games just can't hold a candle to Hollow Knight in a popularity contest though, a game that has really found its place over the last couple of years, especially once it made its way to Switch and became the preeminent indie title early in the Switch's lifetime when people were starving for good games on the platform. Hollow Knight, to the surprise of many, is kind of legit. It stands out amongst its indie brethren.

You know what *doesn't* stand out? Recent Tales games. Berseria is a full step down from something like Tales of the Abyss, which is another step down from Symphonia. We've seen how miserable Abyss's characters performed in this contest before and it's many years removed from even that.

I think some people approach this as random Tales game vs. indie game and just going with the trusted name, and sure, maybe there's something to that. I trust in Hollow Knight's annoying ability to generate a moderate amount of buzz, and if there's one thing I'll never back, it's these fifth tier Tales games that have no real following. I look for Hollow Knight to clean up here.

transience's prediction: Hollow Knight with 58.43%

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Leonhart’s Analysis

Yeah, I don’t know what to make of this one. Hollow Knight is a popular indie game, but it’s an indie game nonetheless. Tales of Symphonia is a B-list JRPG around these parts, but the rest of the series hasn’t done all that well. Still, Velvet Crowe did manage to win a match last contest (even if it was over James Sunderland), so I don’t think Tales of Berseria will be bottom feeding fodder, if nothing else. Just about every Tales fan I’ve seen loves the game, which is pretty rare for a Tales game!

Will that be enough to beat Hollow Knight? Who knows! I certainly don’t, but I’m rolling with Tales of Berseria anyway. In a bracket that’s littered with indie games, this is their first real test. If Hollow Knight can pull this one out, we might see some good success elsewhere in the bracket from similar games. If it gets rolled by Berseria (even an Ulti-style destruction), that probably spells bad things for indie games all over the bracket. I think it’ll keep it close enough though.

Leonhart’s Vote: Tales of Berseria

Leonhart’s Prediction: Tales of Berseria with 52.02%

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Kleenex’s Analysis

Alright, this one I think is interesting, and might put my name recognition thing to the test. Tales is obviously a known quantity around here, but it’s not actually that strong, outside of Symphonia. All other Tales stuff has flopped pretty tremendously, and even though Berseria is the best goddamn game in the series, the fact that it is Not Symphonia, means it probably falls in the trash heap with the rest.

Now, Hollow Knight isn’t exactly a ringer here either. It’s only been in two polls that I can see, and neither of them is particularly impressive. But despite that, I still perceive the game is relatively popular. I still see people talk about it and its expansions/sequels, it was incredibly well received, and I feel like it’s more well known than a few piddly GameFAQs polls would lead you to believe. I think there are a lot of places you could have put Hollow Knight in this bracket to have it fall on its face, but against Berseria? That seems like as good of a shot as any.

Kleenex’s Prediction: Hollow Knight with 59.50%

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Guest’s Analysis - Luster Soldier

The general opinion of this match is quite mixed, with a good number of people on both sides thinking that either game has a chance of winning this one. This really surprises me because Hollow Knight is already at a disadvantage for being an indie game. You have to view most indie games with a fair degree of skepticism until they can prove their strength. The concept of the indie glass ceiling is sure to be mentioned numerous times in match write-ups by different people over the course of this contest, and I just don't think Hollow Knight is one of those games. I would certainly pick Shovel Knight over Tales of Berseria, but not Hollow Knight.

Hollow Knight may have a seeding advantage, but seeding almost never matters in a contest with the exception of the 1 seeds and maybe 2 seeds to a lesser extent. In the 2017 GotY polls, Hollow Knight got more than quadrupled by Cuphead in the indie poll, so its strength is clearly way down from Cuphead to begin with. Tales of Berseria has the advantage of being more of a GameFAQs type game as a single player RPG. Even if most Tales games have generally ranged from mediocre to slightly above average, the RPG genre of the games is enough to get the GameFAQs crowd to play them and should have a playrate advantage for this reason.

Luster Soldier's Bracket: Tales of Berseria

Luster Soldier's Prediction: Tales of Berseria - 55.84%

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Crew Consensus: The first Crew split! Hollow Knight is the slight favorite to advance.

well it's good that we've got one match we're split on

Berseria is most likely the 2nd strongest game in the series. That's just what every fan says. "Best game since Symphonia" is a sentence I've read about 10 times since I came to know this game.

It's not 5th tier, and it's very likely stronger than Abyss.

Heck, Velvet finished ahead of Lloyd in the stats last contest.

stronger than abyss is a pretty low bar to clear

Oh no, the infamously tricky second match is the first crew curse risk of the contest? And oof, my FF15 prediction is really wedged in here.

I also have a few comments about some questionable statements in HK/Berseria write-ups:

Berseria is a full step down from something like Tales of the Abyss

Based on what, exactly? There's sadly not a lot of direct comparisons to be had, but Velvet in 2018 was ahead of even Lloyd Irving, let alone where Abyss characters have been in previous contests. Now obviously Berseria won't nearly measure up to nostalgia-fueled Symphonia, but it should be the second strongest Tales game at least based on the acclaim I've seen and heard, and how people have gradually soured on Vesperia.

it's these fifth tier Tales games that have no real following

Based on this, you'd think it was Xillia in this match rather than Berseria, the one Tales game this decade with a real following. I have some respect for HK's strength, actually, and I'd take it over something like Graces or Xillia, but people who aren't Tales fans actually care about Berseria to some extent.

In the 2017 GotY polls, Hollow Knight got more than quadrupled by Cuphead in the indie poll, so its strength is clearly way down from Cuphead to begin with.

Unlike Cuphead, HK's improved by leaps and bounds since then in both playrate and general popularity terms, in large parts thanks to its Switch port not being out then. I know seeds have little correlation with contest strength, but if nothing else, HK being a 4-seed to Cuphead's 8 should indicate that the former has closed most of the 2017 GotY gap between the two.

Master Moltar posted...

In the 2017 GotY polls, Hollow Knight got more than quadrupled by Cuphead in the indie poll,

I feel like that's not a good gauge though, Hollow Knight didn't actually break out until its Switch release in 2018 and subsequent PS4/XBone launches later that year. In 2017 it was PC exclusive, which spells death on this site.

MechanicalWall posted...

In 2017 it was PC exclusive, which spells death on this site.

No, it's not just about HK being PC-exclusive back then, because let's be honest, most of the people who had played Cuphead did so on PC. Also, games like StarCraft and Diablo II have shown a good deal of strength here despite being functional PC exclusives, and for a closer comparison, even more obscure games like Baldur's Gate II have had some strength.

I can defend my anti-Tales comments a little bit here. Abyss, for better or worse, was during those golden years when the Tales name meant something. Berseria is many years removed from when Tales was relevant. It's liked amongst the true believers but it's not something that crossed into the mainstream. I would sooner put it on the level of, I don't know, Shadow Hearts or something like that, than a notable Tales game. I don't think it even raises to the level of a Vesperia.

now, it can still win because who knows with Hollow Knight -- but I trust that name a little more than a post-post-post prime Tales game.

yeah I have no confidence in Tales whatsoever

but that was what I went with day 1 and couldn't find a real reason to change it

Tales of B about to win. Velvet TJF is all you need to know

win

you realize the match pic will probably be box art right

MetalmindStats posted...

No, it's not just about HK being PC-exclusive back then, because let's be honest, most of the people who had played Cuphead did so on PC. Also, games like StarCraft and Diablo II have shown a good deal of strength here despite being functional PC exclusives, and for a closer comparison, even more obscure games like Baldur's Gate II have had some strength.

It's not JUST about it being PC-exclusive back than, but it certainly hurt it and clearly did not get much recognition on this site until the Switch port came out.

crew looking good in the early going! get that uber board vote outta here

no perfect bracket for me this year

Wow, I guess I have to apologize for doubting your logic, transience. Berseria's the standout Tales game of this decade, but apparently that's not enough to make JRPGFAQs care about it. Also, there's no way FF15 escapes Round 2 unless Berseria can significantly cut HK's percentage here, right?

ez

next

Berseria is well liked among those who played it, but a lot of the Tales fanbase had given up on the series at that point.

yeah Berseria is a killer game, but tales just isn’t popular here. symphonia is the aberration, not abyss

Berseria needs to get at least 64% on Edith Finch in order for HK to beat FF15.

that's not even all that farfetched

The Mana Sword posted...

yeah Berseria is a killer game, but tales just isn’t popular here. symphonia is the aberration, not abyss

this is a good way to put it. I've never gotten over Jade Curtiss all these years later and will choose to doubt anything not Symphonia when given a chance.

Oh yeah, Symphonia is definitely the exception to the rule. I just didn't know what to make of indies in general here, and I couldn't really find a compelling reason to switch to Hollow Knight.