(6)Velvet Crowe vs (11)James Sunderland 2018

Ulti's Analysis
I had to look this up for myself, because I saw it posted during this match and could not believe it. Until this very match right here, Lloyd Irving is the only character from a Tales game to have ever won a match. Ever. None of the other popular characters from those games have ever won. Not Kratos, not Zelos, not Luke von Fabre, not Yuri Lowell. None of them. I remember crusading back in the day pleading with people to stop nominating these characters, because I adore these games and got so tired of seeing them get flatlined every contest.

Turns out all Tales needed was a super popular main character (popular by Tales standards anyway, I am under no delusion about Tales actually being a popular series) from a recent game to go up against a dumpster fire. James Sunderland was all too happy to bring out his gas can and do his best impersonation of a Vietnamese protestor, because I can't imagine many other spots in this bracket where literal Velvet Crowe breaks 60% on someone. Even Aya Brea, who I believe was the weakest character to actually win a match, couldn't break 60%. I like Silent Hill 2, but those characters will always be absolute bottom tier in these contests.

I'll speak for myself here because I have a casual perspective on a lot of things that I bet translates with a lot of voters. When I play a video game, I want something decidedly unrealistic. Doesn't mean I won't play a realistic game, or even enjoy some realism from my characters. A good example is Solid Snake. He sits there in a world growing more and more insane by the hour, but we appreciate him both for his realism and for the fact that we'll never be like Snake. That's a hard balance to pull off. In other cases, like with a Link or a Mega Man, it's all about having fun. With Dante or Bayonetta or Doom Guy, it's all about beating up some bad guys and being cool af while doing it. With most RPG characters, like Velvet Crowe or Cloud, we get lost in a huge story. There's all kinds of reasons we love a character.

What we don't love are characters where we look at them and go "wow even *I* can do that, what's the point?". It's why sports games will never matter here. It's why pro wrestling is done. And it's exactly why James Sunderland is total fodder. Any one of us could waltz through Silent Hill and do exactly what James Sunderland does. He is nothing special. And deep down, the people who were so happy to get him into a bracket all know it. Silent Hill itself is the star of Silent Hill games, not their lame-ass main characters. The villains and the town are the stars in those games, and when you have that paired with characters who control badly, you have a bad formula for contest strength.

Well that plus Konami being complete and total garbage, but I'm saving that rant for Solid Snake's loss to Samus in the loser's bracket. Fuck Konami.