(4)Final Fantasy IX vs (13)Kingdom Hearts 2015

Ulti's Analysis
I know a lot of people tune into the PCA for rants, political commentary, some bashing, the occasional off-the-wall writeup, and genuine passion. I appreciate it.

But once in awhile I just have to geek out about how good something is, and both FF9 and Kingdom Hearts 1 are just all-time, godtier-level games for me. When I first played Kingdom Hearts, I was a massive Final Fantasy fanboy (I still am, in truth). When Squall first shows up to kick the hell out of you, I was completely hooked. Then Cloud and Yuffie and everyone else showed up, and Kingdom Hearts the game turned into a minor distraction between seeing Kingdom Hearts the Cameo. Not that the game is in any way bad, mind you. The original game was the best mix of platforming, Disney, action RPG, and bonus content. The plot was okay. Lots of good things going on, and it existed before things like Tetsuya Nomura being an idiot, Organization 13, and this hilarious series plot synopsis: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8cPyvE2GTjOMzE4MTVlZTctMjE5Yi00YzAzLWJjZTAtZTllODY2OTc2MTMx/edit?hl=en_US

Seriously, look at that and try defending this series' plot. But KH1 happened before all that garbage, and really was a classic. It holds a special place in my heart, and will always be "the game that showed us everything this series was supposed to be". 2 was good, but you could see the rabbit hole of nonsense opening up in that game.

Then there's FF9, which is an unbelievable game in its own right. Yes us fans are insane freaks. Yes the game's random battles are ungodly slow and every single enemy attack shouldn't have been named. Yes there are problems with character development because the game likes to hyper-focus on a new character before forgetting about them for 2 discs. We know all that. We don't care. FF9 the game is better than the problems it has. First off, the cast is great and even with weird character development it tells the story better than any other game in the series. Having scenes exist away from the main character was a great touch that more games need to copy.

The real selling point is gameplay. The whole thing is a tribute to FF4, and as we all know, the rule of JOB SYSTEM > no job system is law. Great extras, great cast, great plot, great everything. The thing I'm most passionate about is probably the artwork. I have the big FF9 art book, and seeing everything come to life after every single little detail was hand-drawn is unreal. The talent that some artists have is just unreal.

Come match time, even though I'm in love with both games, I was forced to choose. I chose FF9, because it's hard not to hold the garbage direction of the Kingdom Hearts series in contempt. FF9 was the clear underdog though, especially after KH2 smacked MGS4 all over the place. Much to my absolute shock, FF9 won the early vote and the match was tied 313-313 at the freeze. Then FF9 actually started building a lead after that and my jaw just dropped. Yeah I picked FF9 to win and I was rooting for it, but actually seeing do well was something else. You guys seeing this prediction percentage? People really had faith in Kingdom Hearts this contest.

It wouldn't last though, because just as quickly as FF9 built a 100 vote lead, Kingdom Hearts erased it. We all figured the match was over at this point, because Kingdom Hearts has an amazing day vote, and us FF9 fans know all too well that FF9's day vote is pure trash. Like it's just laughable how bad FF9's day vote is. We're talking Chrono Trigger levels of bad here. So when the match stayed tied for hours overnight, we were just kind of sitting there waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Then the dead zone hit. This is typically Square's best time, and though this was a Square mirror, Kingdom Hearts has trends that look more like Nintendo -- great morning vote, great ASV. FF9 took advantage of this weakness, and built up a 400 vote lead during the dead zone. Not that this would matter once the Kingdom Hearts day vote hit, right?

To say I'm shocked Kingdom Hearts lost the day vote doesn't even begin to describe it. Let me pull up some old matches here.

Alucard had a lead in this match two hours in: http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/2103-gear-division-round-2-alucard-vs-sora

Kuja had a 450 vote lead before the morning vote: http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/2004-triforce-division-round-1-kuja-vs-master-hand

Castlevania had a 1200 vote lead heading into the morning vote: http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/2444-snake-division-semifinal-castlevania-vs-kindgom-hearts

RE4 had a 1200 vote lead for first place and almost lost it in this poll, and if it were a 1v1 poll it very well might have lost: http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/3472-division-7-round-1-gears-of-war-k-hearts-2-re4-sotc

Same thing almost happening in round 2 of that contest: http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/3491-division-7-round-2-re4-k-hearts-2-zelda-tp-half-life-2

It even cannibalizes itself! This was a tie match for a couple hours, then the ASV happened: http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/4172-southeast-division-round-3-kingdom-hearts-ii-vs-kingdom

Dante/Vergil came back from down 500, but forgot about DAT MORNING VOTE: http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/4557-northwest-division-round-2-dante-vs-vergil-sora-vs-riku

This was a 1500 vote lead at one point: http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/4565-northwest-division-final-squall-vs-seifer-sora-vs-riku

Zidane probably wins this if it was a night match: http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/3803-mushroom-division-round-2-zidane-tribal-vs-ike

Other stuff might exist, but you get the idea. Kingdom Hearts has a legendary day vote, and FF9, uh... doesn't. Being down 400 against FF9 with the morning vote coming is nothing. So for Final Fantasy 9 to win the morning vote and build a 1000 vote lead, then stall the ASV was nothing short of miraculous. I don't care is this is AntiTrendsFAQs, FF9 pulling this off was an early Christmas miracle and one of the coolest things that happened in this entire contest.

I love you Kingdom Hearts, but I love Final Fantasy 9. It deserved this. A lot of theories were thrown around about why FF9 pulled it off, with the most logical of them being that the 90s-era games were on a whole new level of respect in this contest (a theory backed up by how this contest's results shaped out). Yes I know FF9 came out in 2000, shut up. This match actually took place on the game's 15th birthday, so it pulling off the most improbable of contest trends was quite the birthday present!

This set up an FF9/Okami match, in which I was rooting for FF9 but was worried it might lose. Turns out that was a needless concern.