Lurker > Axl_Rose_85

FF7, 8, 9, Tactics, Suikoden II, since you already recommended MGS1 to them.

pjbasis posted...

I think there enough debate before the bracket came out but when it seemed to just be an indirect series contest it got boring real quick.

Exactly why we don't need a series contest or why it should be very low priority.

Gimmicky

Obvious outcomes

Waste of contest space

PostContestUlti posted...

I refuse to believe you people actually like Into the Spiderverse, Shadow of the Colossus, Umineko, and Snakes on a Plane as much as you say you do. You're smarter than this. Supposedly.

Spiderverse is all right but certainly very overrated and every time it is touted as the best Spider-Man movie or best anything around here, it never fails to make me laugh. For a while it really did feel like liking it was the 'cool' thing to do around here and it winning the best animated movie on the board only proved to be fucking cringeworthy and pretentious.

Shadow of the Colossus on the other hand is an amazing game and that is coming from a person who did not like ICO and generally hates "gaming-is-an-art" games. I can go on and on about exactly why but I'm in no mood to post a wall of text right now.
The point I'm getting to is, your opinions on SotC and Warcraft III are ridiculous and you certainly make it a point for it to be known every single chance you get. It just speaks to how hyperbole your statements are instead of justifying your claims.
If I'm not mistaken aren't you the one around here whose reviews on games are always either 10/10, perfect!!! Best game EVAR!!! RIP and TEAR or Determination etc etc or literal 0/10 trash, worst game ever made, worse than ET Superman 64 etc, etc. I wonder how long your list of worst games and best games ever are at this point.

Don't mistake me here, you are a good writer with entertaining material especially your PCAs after contests but man it is getting a little sad to see your outlook on things be exactly the same like it was for how many years now?

Managed 21st place on second chance if that counts.

Got close this contest. Was in top 10 for a while until Skyrim losing kicked me out permanently.

I did make Top 10 in CBIX but didnt finish on the leaderboard.

Got on the leaderboard in a few other contests as a different username way back then but never cracked Top 10 or finished on the leaderboard ever.

Bayonetta 2 had it just as bad if not worse by being put up against NieR: Automata of all things.

Xenoblade Chronicles > Xenogears > Xenoblade Chronicles 2 > Xenoblade Chronicles X > Xenosaga Episode III > Xenosaga Episode I > Xenosaga Episode II

Played all, beat all except stuff like Four Swords Adventure and Tri-Force Heroes

If we have Ocarina vs BotW tomorrow (which we absolutely should), I have a feeling BotW will outright beat OoT in a close match because it would have caught a bandwagon of sorts by now. The actual strength I feel BotW is still below it and Chrono Trigger and maybe even FF7.

And it absolutely deserves to beat OoT. BotW is legit game of the decade material and one of the best games ever made whereas OoT is a very good but incredibly overrated game masquerading as the best game ever which it is isnt anywhere close to being. This is coming from someone who loves the Legend of Zelda series and played Ocarina in its heyday.

banananor posted...

I dropped off at around black flag.

How has the series evolved, in your opinion?

I also dropped off after Black Flag.

The series has evolved into a WRPG with all its elements present from the games up to Black Flag but done worse due to it trying to be an RPG. For example stealth is out of the question in most areas because you are likely around or below the enemy's level and attempting a stealth kill only reduces about 50% of the enemy's health unless they are an archer or well below your level which alerts the whole area and then you are basically ganked by 6-10 enemies. This really detracts from what the game is actually supposed to be but to be fair it is not like those were perfect in previous entries by any means either,

To be fair to the game, I really did think this was the right kind of evolution for the series in the beginning but then its repetitve nature really starts to rear its ugly head and the game starts becoming a chore after a while. I'm glad I'm done with the game and I really don't look forward to Assassin's Creed games in the future unless they come up with a masterpiece.

ok but overall a disappointment I'd say.

Initially I had really strong impressions of the game and enjoyed what the game had to offer. It however did not take long for the game to feel like an unnecessarily padded out game just for the sake of making a long grindy RPG.

The story went absolutely nowhere for the vast majority of the first half of the game and then eventually after all that wild goose chase has very mind numbingly boring outcomes and predictable twists. Everything after a while in this game just felt ok with nothing being spectacular.

The Cultists and Atlantis quests had me intrigued in the beginning but had shockingly very underwhelming finishes for the amount of time you need to put in them. The fights with the mythical creatures felt spongy more than challenging just like how much of the game felt when you were underleveled. The main quest ending felt very forced and should have had way better choices leading to the consequences making more sense from the choices you are given. Apart from Alexios, I felt absolutely nothing for any of the other characters in Odyssey. They gave me very little reason to care.

The combat itself is an ok imitation of a clunky Dark Souls (to be fair which game's combat isn't trying to be Dark Souls these days?) with the essence of it being your level and equipment more than skill. If you are outdated, enemies are gonna take an eternity to kill but if you are on the same level or higher, you are absolutely gonna godstomp them. This made the game very grindy because after a while quests and even conquests don't give as much exp as you would like so I was forced to grind a few levels every now and then just so I keep up with the recommended level and don't face red skull mark quests.

Disappointing in the end because this really puts a damper on my expectations going back to finish some of the Assassin's Creed games I swore off after their quantity over quality method of annual releases. This really did have promise in the beginning though, I was pleasantly surprised Assassin's Creed being full on western RPG but this is how a western RPG is done mostly wrong than right especially when you compare it to something like The Witcher 3.

One of the best games of the decade

Ocarina of Time would be the most overrated game of all time but Breath of the Wild truly deserves all its accolades and winning this contest.

BotW > Smash Ultimate - 65%
Witcher 3 > Skyrim - 53%
BotW > Witcher 3 - 60%

Have Skyrim > Witcher 3 on main bracket so I expect myself to fall off the leaderboard day after tomorrow whereas I like my chances of staying on the second chance leaderboard unless Witcher 3 really obliterates Skyrim tomorrow.

Werent you the dude who claimed you were gonna win the contest?

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

Im really torn about Dark Souls vs Skyrim tomorrow. Really want Dark Souls to win since it is my favorite game of this decade (Persona 4 Golden does not count) but Skyrim winning could potentially put me in Top 10 on the leaderboard. That hasnt happened for me since Character Battle IX and it would be great. In the long run though it wont matter since I picked Skyrim over Witcher 3 and that is not looking good right now.

I consider Skyrim the probably heavy favorite tomorrow but I will be ok if my game of the decade is the one that ends my bracket for not having faith in it.

Also I hate myself for being disappointed seeing Xenoblade chipping away the percentages on Smash Ultimate just because I picked Smash to 61-49 it. I absolutely love the game and always wanted the best for it.

The kicker in all this is that my bracket is just a fun entry and I dont know why Im taking this so seriously. What the fuck is happening to me?

50 for the Mass Effect 2 match

49 for the Persona 5 match

My two best scores

so 1

Corrik7 posted...

Then it errors our and restarts from 0. Grrrr.

Geez. Why did I read this as mrgrgrr in my head?

Surely the 40% of people who voted yes has got to be trolling. Like I mean come on, this is not some random video game's board. I was actually being generous when I said Sword/Shield would get doubled and even Sun/Moon would get a pretty ugly beating.

G/S/C would have been a debatable match and I might have even leaned towards Skyrim losing with recent trends. R/B/Y would likely destroy the Skyrim of today.

Now anything other than those two and you are possibly looking at the best Pokemon can do right now, right here in this match.

Sword/Shield would have been doubled by NieR: Automata

Wow so uh turns out HGSS is almost equal to Mario Kart 8. I had an awful lot of faith in NieR: Automata and absolutely none in Mario Kart 8 pre-contest and those two were my biggest blunders in this contest

Also I feel guilt for not having more faith than I should in my beloved Dark Souls. I did pick it to get to the last 8 but did not fathom it even having a shot against Skyrim. If my bracket falls for that reason then Ill gladly accept it for not trusting one of my favorite games of all time as much as I should have.

This contest though for me is legendary for the fact that Dark Souls and Xenoblade Chronicles looked like absolute beasts that they deserve to be regardless of the results next round.

I might have to check out Origins after this if Im not burnt out by the end of the game.

Im liking the Souls inspired combat but coming right off of Nioh 2, the combat really feels like it is in slow motion lol.

Being a completionist absolutely sucks. I speak from experience because once upon a time Id make it a point to do everything that I can in a game regardless of how I feel about the game. It is fine with timeless classics and games I enjoy playing even if it has an obnoxious side quest here and there that has like 0 entertainment value. But games that you find a chore to play can make you absolutely miserable if you are making a point to do everything in it.

The moment I shed off that bad habit, I had infinitely better times with games good or bad. I dont even bother with platinum trophies in even games I really really enjoy now unless I just happen to get it while Im doing everything I wanted to do in the game.

Actually FFIV is a really good game especially for its time but I couldnt resist.

Anyway the last decade was glorious for gaming. Shame you are stuck in the past and cant experience the absolute joy the last decade of video games has given.

Almost always as long as I enjoy the game. If Im not enjoying a game very much, I make a beeline for the finish and usually never touch it again so in that particular case, no.

Big Bob posted...

Origins.

How is it in comparison?

And this really does feel like an evolution of the series than a complete 360 from a stealth open world game to an actual Western RPG style open world game. I was getting really tired of the games by Assassin's Creed III and Black Flag and then stuff like Rogue, Syndicate looking super uninspired made me swear off the series.

I like how the series has gone full RPG. Haven't played a game in the series in a long while and I am really digging this game so far (about 7 hours in).

When did Assassin's Creed become like this?

Final Fantasy

Come on Xenoblade. Hang on

Xenoblade winning likely puts me on the leaderboard whereas the other result spells the end for my bracket.

Nioh 2 beated!

My thoughts on the game as a whole

+ Most boss battles are very fun and dare I say on a whole the fights are better designed than the original
+ Good boss design (although I'd say the original bosses are far more iconic) and enemies are more varied but still not Dark Souls level by any means
+ More varied atmosphere but still a lot of reused assets and backgrounds from the original.
+ Burst counter adds a good spin to the combat but Yokai Shift is nerfed to the point where they are almost useless except for their Yokai form attacks
+ The final boss is a lot better this time

- Terrible level design and enemy placement in a lot of areas. They really went the Dark Souls II route here for cheap deaths and questionable structure for most areas and really comparing this to Dark Souls II is maybe an insult to that game in this regard.
- A lot of literal copy-paste material from the original not just for the player interface and menu but the missions themselves feel like deja-vus. Like everything that you did in Nioh 1 you are gonna do it here again with not even that much of a spin. Just felt like a very lazy tacked on effort.
- The game really feels more like a super long full-priced DLC than a sequel. To be fair, this game is a bit longer than the original (or maybe it's cause I died more here) but that really does not justify the 3 years they took to make a game that is almost exactly similar to the first with only a few QOL improvements but worse design in general
- If you thought the story presentation in Nioh 1 was bad, then guess what it is exactly the same here.

Overall I'd say it is maybe worth it just for the bosses alone but this is without a doubt the weakest Soulsborne game I've played. I don't know whether I'm supposed to play this some other way than my usual strictly melee build but I don't play Souls games any other way nor do I have to.

Well fun battle took me only about a 100 or so deaths to finally get the timing on his yokai form and finally beat this bugger.

I personally am finding this game harder than even Sekiro but for all the wrong reasons. I dont know if it is my build but Im doing chip damage whereas even the weak ass enemies are two-three shotting me left and right. Not to mention so many cheap deaths that you possibly cannot see coming without extensive trial and error.

I dont ever remember struggling with Nioh 1 past the first few areas.

Well. I think Ive hit my first true wall in the game. I literally spent over an hour fighting and dying against Shibata Katsuie last night.

Also I realized using a bow and arrow makes life so much easier when dealing with the hordes and hordes of enemies the game throws at you.

Yeah it does have improvements like
Xiahou Shake posted...

Also enjoying it a ton and I've generally heard Nioh 2 only improves on it!

This is exactly what I can't get over.

Nioh 1 has its BS moments and flaws like enemy variety and samey atmosphere but overall it was an absolute blast to play. I don't ever remember thinking the game had too many cheap BS areas at least in the main story.

Nioh 2 has improvements like more enemy variety and more varied atmosphere in comparison to the original but in turn it has terrible enemy placement and tons of maze-like areas where background looks the same and the feeling of familiarity (like Dark Souls) is absent.

Also a lot of the OP magic has been nerfed compared to the original whereas Enemies have more in the arsenal to make your life a living hell. Like there is literally an archer or gunner placed really high above in almost every single level since the 3rd or 4th mission to make it very difficult to fight the already unfair hordes of enemies that the game throws at you.

I'm finding the game exhausting to play. The only thing that keeps me going is that the boss battle have been fun so far.

Fucking small corridors with 3-4 enemies that can kill you in 2-3 hits is the worst offender and I really don't remember the first game being like this unless my memory of it is just foggy.

Is it just a terribly designed game or did I somehow get bad at the genre all of a sudden? (A die-hard soulsborne fan who also loved Nioh 1)

I mean Nioh 1 had some BS early game but I'm on the 9th mission in the game and never have I ever encountered such cheap bullshit enemy placement where it makes Dark Souls II feel like a paragon of level design and enemy placement.

I'm almost halfway done with the game and besides the boss fights I am not enjoying the game at all.

1. Persona 4 Golden
2. Dark Souls
3. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
4. Persona 5
5. Super Mario Odyssey
6. Xenoblade Chronicles
7. Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age
8. God of War (2018)
9. Mass Effect 2
10. Resident Evil 2 (2019)
11. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
12. The Last of Us
13. Portal 2
14. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
15. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
16. Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver

All games range from great to phenomenal to my outright favorites.

Even HG/SS is the remake of my favorite game from the series despite being last place by a huge margin in such a decorated list of games that define the generation.

That being said P4G and HG/SS has no business being in this contest

A somewhat good game but certainly not great. Some mechanics detracted too much of the gameplay which is an action game at its core like the usual Platinum games but I found this to be amongst the weakest from its developer.

Game becomes more fun after you beat it and do post-game but has a lot of issues like samey repetitive uninspired environments and a pretty bad storyline.

ninkendo posted...

a buster sword through the chest will be so much more painful

Oh god please no. Dont give Square any ideas.

I even told me wife Im falling in love with Aerith while playing this game and as much as I love the original story, yes I most definitely will.

Nostalgia is a powerful drug as they say and it got me bawling in a lot of scenes in remake with this one right here being mentioned, the most powerful one of them all. This right here made me feel like that 10 year old kid fascinated and blown away by the opening and the countless amount of times Ive replayed what quickly became and still is my favorite game of all time.

Without any spoilers, I enjoyed most of the changes that they have made to the story with some grievances here and there but still really look forward to part 2.

Xenoblade looking like a god slayer. It is almost breaking 60% on the pre-contest division favorite. Jesus Christ.

I would have taken P4 original in a match without thinking before but this has me thinking if forget Golden (which has no chance) but even the original would have beaten it in a match.

Im doing much better in comparison to the 2015 games contest where my bracket was a complete train wreck and the last character battle which was respectable but not anywhere close to the leaderboard.

Still not close to the leaderboard but if GTA and Xenoblade wins tomorrow I might have a shot.

How is board 8 doing with their bracket? I can see a couple of familiar names on the leaderboard.

Wow. Who would have thought Arkham City vs The Last of Us would end up being the toss-up match when Souls > TLOU was one of the heavily debated matches pre-contest. TLOU might not even get there with this turd-like performance of not being even able to double a blizzard game and by far the most hated one in its franchise

It is really hard to picture a scenario where BioShock Infinite doesnt beat Diablo III by at least 58%

Favorite games of all time (The GGOATs)
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VIII
Persona 4
Dark Souls

Tier just slightly below the GGOATS
Metal Gear Solid
Persona 5
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Super Mario Odyssey
Resident Evil 4
Final Fantasy X
Suikoden II
Xenoblade Chronicles

I call these my absolute 12. The best games Ive ever played out of over 1000 games I have beaten in my life.