LogFAQs > #939438687

Headliner Analysis:

Do not misunderstand, Dark Souls III and DOOM are only both headliners because I needed to fill a two game quota, and much like my HGSS/Galaxy dilemma, I really had no justification for including one without the other, because both their cases are equally flimsy. As for FFXV, its here because it was literally the only game this year to make it past Round 2, even though it did so in the most humiliating way possible.

So lets try to unpack this mess. I guess Ill start with DkSIII because its probably the most huh? entry here. Well, if you dont remember, no one expected shit from this game. It was a clear third-string in the Dark Souls/Bloodborne/Dark Souls III Souls-like trio (just like it is in wider Internet culture), expected to job to New Vegas in unceremonious fashion.

The first round of this fourpack, however, started making people sweat a bit. When the match STARTED, Dark Souls was actually doing almost as well on Dishonored as New Vegas was on the Stanley Parable, a funny little game that no one seems to remember. While Dishonored isnt worth much either, its at least a game with a bit of a brand and a strong cult following, and so these results started whispers of a Round 2 upset. Unfortunately for Dark Souls, the numbers started to normalize over the course of the day, with Dishonored climbing and Stanley Parable falling. Still, it was enough to cast doubt on the DkS/Fallout duel.

And what a duel it was! for like ten minutes. Dark Souls looked alright in defeat, but the 54-46 indicated that this did not end up being the explosive match we were hoping for. At the end of the day, it would only really serve as foreshadowing for how well Bloodborne and Dark Souls I would hold up in Round 3 and beyond; if even the worst of three did pretty good, the other two had a bright future ahead of them.

DOOMs Round 1 hype was even more deafening. Imagine being in the midst of the Indie Fear arc of the contest. Imagine seeing how BotW, the obvious contender for the GotD title, broke 85% in Round 1. Now, imagine then watching DOOM, a game no one was expecting much out of, put down 86% on its opponent, fellow 2016-mate INSIDE. People went bananas when this match happened, and DOOM went from being on no ones radar to suddenly being a contender for Quarterfinals. Eternals successful launch and the subsequent meme storm occurring just before this contest started were credited for what seemed to be a highly dominant performance from the 2016 title, and as such, its Round 2 match with RE2 was considered a complete tossup (a common theme for RE2s run, thinking about it now).

AND 58-42 for RE2. No pomp, no circumstance, just a stomping from the original favorite of this match. This was the point where two things were beginning to crystallize: one, the massive blowouts wed seen all throughout Round 1 didnt mean squat, and two, indie games werent powerful for the mere fact that they were indie games. Sounds ridiculous to read, Im sure, but as Ive touched on many times at this point, at this point in time people were giving undue credit to every game that didnt happen to have a big-time publisher, and it never wasnt weird.

Speaking of which, lets move to a game that was on Ground Zero of the Indie Fear arc. People werent 100% sure what to think of FFXV; it won our personal 2016 GotY poll, and it DOES have Final Fantasy in its title, though that brand has only been getting more and more tarnished on this site as the years roll by. On the other hand, FFXV was yet another bead on the string of embarrassments Square was threading (though I personally like it well enough), and its not like it was going to do shit with BotW breathing down its neck.

FFXV was there on day one of the contest, working over Edith Finch with a nice tripling. Or, what looked like a nice tripling. As this was the very first day and expectations were still up in the air, with no one knowing whether we were going to see blowouts at all outside of BotW, we all looked at that and figured, eh, that looks fine. Nothing to be worried about. This was one of those matches that only started looking bad as the contest progressed; as we watched games like DOOM, Mario Galaxy 2, and God of War put much bigger numbers on games just as obscure as Edith Finch, something became clear: FFXV SUCKED.

As we approached Round 2, there was more and more chatter surrounding its match with Hollow Knight, which had impressed a lot of people in Round 1 (people who clearly were not aware of the games clout, natch). And UNLIKE the other Round 2 matches Ive touched on so far, this one was actually worth the hype, starting the second round of the contest with a bang. Amazingly, Hollow Knight actually led for about half an hour, and despite FFXV being the bracket favorite, a lot of people on B8 were celebrating the potential upset. Even if they hadnt played Hollow Knight, they were treating it as the face to FFXVs heel.

But FFXV caught one of the luckiest breaks of the contest. The delays hurt some games and helped others; The Last of Us, for example, was clearly hurt, but this Round 2 match just happened to be occurring literally the day after FFVII Remake was released. Naturally, a shitton of Final Fans were hitting up GameFAQs for help and such, and tossed FFXV a courtesy vote. It eventually got the lead and held onto it, finishing 221 votes ahead of Hollow Knight. Does ANYONE believe that if FFVII had gotten another Square-style delay, this result wouldnt have flipped? It was merely by the grace of Allen that FFXV, a game that carried the legacy of the second biggest series on this site, didnt choke to a game about bugs that half the board wasnt even aware was popular. Trust me, if this year didnt suck, FFXV would have definitely been slapped with the bust title here.

But it got to keep bumbling along, shrugging its shoulders at the inevitable destruction BotW was gonna sling at it. Destruction is relative, though. Zelda had fodderized Halo and the Outer Worlds, but Final Fantasy was different, right? Thats too strong of a name on GameFAQs, it surely could maintain a scrap of dignity on its way out, right?

Right?

Hahaha. Zelda broke 80% IN ROUND THREE. Personally, I was devastated; not because I gave a shit about FFXV getting nuked, but because I was shilling for Hollow Knight all contest long, and this suddenly meant that it wasnt even a top 5 indie title, (its SEVENTH in KPs stats, eighth if you include Minecraft, below a severely antivoted Undertale.) making me look like a straight-up dumbass. But honestly? As funny as it is to say that FFXV was a massive embarrassment to its legacy here, I do think this match was a little weird. I honestly believe that the dynamic at play was causing BotW to overperform; the juxtaposition of yet another perceived failure of the Final Fantasy series being matched against Zeldas modern magnum opus (and perhaps just magnum opus, period) was just too obvious to voters, and I think many accordingly rewarded Nintendo and punished Square. Id argue that Hollow Knight would have performed much better in FFXVs position, helping both games save face.

Still though, if you take this match at face value, it means that FFXV would have been absolutely destroyed in many of the other fourpacks in this contest, ruining a shitton of brackets in the process. Would you have taken Tomb Raider over FFXV? How about Stardew Valley? Hell, if you swap its 5 seed with the 3 or 6 seed in this very Division, it might have lost IMMEDIATELY to shit like Bravely Default and Ni No Kuni. Imagine the shitstorm that would have caused! And best of all, it placed lower in the final x-stats than some of the games it beat in the 2016 poll, such as Uncharted 4 and DOOM. Har har har.


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