LogFAQs > #936990346

Round 1 Batman: Arkham City vs. Xenoblade Chronicles 2

Moltars Analysis

Man XC2s only other poll before this one is the 2017 GotY poll when it got killed by BotW and Odyssey, feels bad man.

It should do alright here, and if this was the original Xenoblade against Batman, this might actually be a close match. Its sequel is weaker though, and I think itll fall short of Batman. Weve already seen Arkham City in the past and know its legit. Its hard to say if Batman: AC is still relevant today, because the latter games kind of came and went.

On the other hand, Xenoblade is a series that has gone up in stock since 2015. Im guessing that Batman is probably a little weaker now, but XC2 wont be strong enough to challenge it.

Moltars Bracket: Batman: Arkham City

Moltars Prediction: Batman: Arkham City 60%

____________________________________________________________________________

transiences Analysis

This match is interesting. Xenoblade 2 is really hard to gauge because it was in a killer poll with both Breath of the Wild and Mario Odyssey, maybe the top 2 games of the decade. People seem to like XB2 a lot as it was the big RPG on the Switch early in its life. It might still be the biggest RPG on Switch? It's almost definitely more popular than Octopath, but it's obscured by those two big games. Also, it sucks.

Arkham City has done well for us in the past. It got 40% on MMX in 2015 and did pretty well in its GOTY poll way back when, easily beating both Portal 2 and Dark Souls. (Oh how times change.) Have the Arkham games aged well? I get the feeling that while people remember Asylum really fondly (it got 41% on eventual GOTD1 semifinalist Fallout 3), City's a little forgotten. They released two more Arkham games after City and neither were particularly well received. I also have this weird take that Spider-Man took the superhero mantle and kind of left Arkham behind.

It's not nearly enough to have Arkham City lose to Xenoblade 2, mind you. That game is pure Nintendo and a lot of people played it but it would take a shocking decline for City to fall here. I'm interested to see how this one goes because other third person action games of its type, like Assassin's Creed, haven't really impressed too much. Arkham City should be in another class from Xenoblade 2, but you never know!

transience's prediction: Batman: Arkham City with 63.41%

____________________________________________________________________________

Leonharts Analysis

We saw Arkham City in 2015, where it got 60/40d by Mega Man X in the first round. That performance looked kinda shaky until MMX went and put up 45% on Final Fantasy X in the next round, so in retrospect, it ended up looking fine overall. Arkham Asylum went on a pretty deep run in the original Game of the Decade in a fairly average division, and Arkham City is set up to win a couple matches here as well. Xenoblade 2 is probably one of the stronger low seeds in the contest, but its still going to be a far cry from the popularity of the original. I think it will hold up fairly well, but I cant see it winning.

Leonharts Vote: Batman: Arkham City

Leonharts Prediction: Batman: Arkham City with 63.98%

____________________________________________________________________________

Kleenexs Analysis

You know...Im not sure about this one. We saw Arkham City in 2015 and it did...okay against Mega Man X...I guess? Its still hard for me to really consider any of the Batman games all that strong, it just doesnt feel like a GameFAQs thing, you know? XB2 is also sort of impossible to figure out. The only polls its ever been in had it buried behind Breath of the Wild and Odyssey. Xenoblade 1 did fairly well in its first round match, but XB2 is not even close to as highly regarded as that one it. Still, this feels like the kind of match I could see XB2 having a shot in. Im not bold enough to take it, but at least if Im wrong I can be like hey I at least considered it and save face.

Kleenexs Prediction: Batman: Arkham City with 56.25%

____________________________________________________________________________

Guests Analysis MechanicalWall

I've heard whispers of an upset in this match, and while I don't think it's impossible, I'm certainly not taking it here.

I think it mostly boils down to Flowchart logic of 'well XB2 is a Nintendo JRPG so it can take a Western game', and Xenoblade 1 definitely put in some work in its match, but that's stripping a LOT of context. XB2 ended up selling pretty well, but it didn't make the most of its pedigree. I like the game a lot, but even to this day people talk about it as that booby waifuized version of a classic that runs at PS1 resolution in handheld mode. It's simultaneously fanservice-y, but not actually very accessible with its million billion menus and micromanaging; I would think that if you were going for sex appeal with the weeb crowd, you'd dumb down the gameplay a tad to not scare off the people just there to gawk at Pyra and Mythra. I can see the logic of Xenoblade: Definitive Edition's announcement boosting the series brand a bit, but I also think a lot of people are gonna be like, 'Well now that we have the original on Switch we don't have to bother with the weird sequel'. I dunno that's kind of a stretch but I've seen people express that sentiment. Oh and despite being a brand new Nintendo game with a fresh new cast, no Smash boost. That sucks.

On the other side is the gosh dang Batman. Through direct extrapolation with its Megaman X match, Batman would get 35% on FFX; avoiding a doubling from FFX ain't bad at all in this contest, where even the top half of the bracket would get murdered by the '90s and PS2 era. 2015 x-stats actually have Batman beating XC1 but uh, yah lol x-stats, especially 2015 ones. Anyway, the Arkham games have their fingerprints on a LOT of high-profile games throughout this gen, as for a while every game and their mother were copy pasting that blend of stealth and combat (especially the combat) before they realized they could rip off Dark Souls instead. Mind, some games STILL rip off Arkham almost wholesale, most notably Spiderman 2018. It certainly has a better claim to the 'Game of the Decade' title than Xenoblade 2 does, without mentioning that on the whole it's just a more respected title.

Like I said, there's room for a very silly upset, but Batman losing as the 3 seed here is just too embarrassing for me to entertain. It SHOULD have the sauce to get to Round 3 before respectfully bowing out to The Last of Us. Similar to the Portal 2 v Tomb Raider match, Xenoblade 2 should have enough strength and brand clout to not