LogFAQs > #939492042

Headliner Analysis continued:

Lets move to a sexier game, one that also drew a hilariously shit eightpack. Ive already alluded to this several times over the course of my analyses, but let me be more explicit here. Persona 5 might not be the best-selling JRPG of the decade, but it is 100% the biggest DEAL in the genre since FFX. Persona 3 started generating interest, Persona 4 made the series a household name in RPG circles, but Persona 5 was THE mainstream breakthrough hit. There was a GIGANTIC hole that needed to be filled in the genre after Final Fantasy fell apart, with no one seeming to be able to recapture the magic of the PS1/PS2 Golden Age. P5 capitalized on this and then some, delivering a visually stimulating 100 hour journey with the simple-to-learn, hard-to-master turn-based combat system that every other major game has cast off in favor of some hybrid rubbish that left no one satisfied. It notched a Game Awards nomination (which is as mainstream as you can get), and more importantly, earned the hallowed Smash roster spot; Joker becoming one of the most notorious characters in competitive play ensured that no one ever forgot his presence in the biggest fighting game ever.

So P5 came into this contest with a head of steam and a lot to prove. Unfortunately, it didnt have much of an opportunity to prove shit; it got one match with a game worth a damn before falling into the Witcher thresher maw. Yes, if my Headliner analysis sounds a little tepid this year, its because 2017s lineup was a little too OP, on top of getting opponents that couldnt bring them to anything less than a doubling for most of their runs.

Persona 5 sure drew a strange 16 seed, though. Heavy Rain was once a pretty damn acclaimed title, and might have actually done a little more here, once upon a time. Its best days are waaay behind it now though, as David Cages name has been dragged and the games novelty has worn off. So, easy W for P5 to the tune of 78%. Still, no one was particularly impressed yet, even though Heavy Rain was at least recognizable compared to the INSIDEs and Obra Dinns of the world.

Like its inevitable Quarterfinals opponent, it got to face off against an Assassins Creed game, probably the last one that people REALLY liked. Put highly acclaimed JRPG against failing Western brand, though, and you get a drubbing to the tune of 71%. This match at least made a blip on the radar; if you felt ACIV was significantly stronger than Odyssey AND believed Witcher SFFed it into the dirt, you had a case to make that Persona might upset Geraldo. Some people entertained this thought, but it was mostly the same crowd that had trouble believing Witcher was THAT good no matter how many games it crushed between its pecs.

Speaking of failing brands, Personas next opponent was the weakest game, or second weakest behind Shovel Knight, to make Round 3, Sonic Mania. While Sonic pushed Persona below 70%, this was still very much a just happy to be here match for the human-sized manhog thing. The intra-2017 duel was one of the biggest snoozefests of the round, and Persona once again failed to make any noise compared to the gloryhounds like Zelda and Witcher and Dark Souls.

But finally, FINALLY, Division Finals would bring Persona a real challenger, a game that worked pretty damn hard to make it that far. As this match immediately followed up the Xenoblade/Persona 4 rallyfest, with Xenoblade getting the last laugh, Persona 5 started the match almost dead even with Portal 2. Who thought wed see the day where Persona, B8s darling, would lose a board vote to something that wasnt like, Phoenix Wright or something. Eventually, though, Persona started building a bigger and bigger lead, ending the match at 57%; considering that Portal had just convincingly beat RDR2, this was no small accomplishment.

At this point, two schools of thought emerged. Persona had a rally pinned in one of its subs during the Portal match; if you believed that post caused Persona to overperform, then its match was unimpressive and it was going to get rolled by Witcher (this on top of the default state of mind being that it was getting rolled by Witcher). If however, you DIDNT think that thread mattered, AND you felt that Witcher SFFed God of War to oblivion, then the Quarterfinals were still in question. Personally, I feel that sometimes the board contrives reasons to argue in order to make the contest more exciting than it was at this point (the last interesting day was the Division 3 and 4 finals, honestly, and I figured that was gonna be the case). The Witcher had been too dominant at this point to lose to anything but Zelda, and while 57% on Portal IS really good, almost doubling God of War was just straight-up better.

The first few minutes of the match sure satiated those looking for drama, though, with the titans of JRPGs and WRPGs, one doing the weebs of the world proud while the other brought a smile to the face of the entirety of Poland, going back and forth for a couple of minutes lol. The second the freeze hit with the latter ahead, the match was over. Persona has a sick board while Witcher has a shit one (play it damn it!), so if Persona couldnt even lead in the first five minutes, it was never going to. Witcher always has a rise to heaven trendline when facing Japanese games, with the Europeans padding its small lead out to a relatively large one, ending the match at around 56%.

So Personas contest run would end by being run over by the Geraldo train. Oh well. Getting beat by the Witcher is hardly an indictment on its strength, and it was unquestionably the strongest JRPG in the bracket, which is what it needed to prove. In the next general Games contest, I hope Allen sets P5 up against one of the stronger FF games like VIII or IX or even X; Id love to see how those matches go down.

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