Results[]
Monday, April 20, 2020
Ulti's Analysis[]
| Division | Division 1 |
|---|---|
| Match # | 97 |
| Match Date | Monday, April 20, 2020 |
| Oracle Expectations |
Zelda: Breath of the Wild - 76.97% 49 for - 0 against |
| GameFAQs Prediction |
Zelda: Breath of the Wild - 84.65% |
| User Votes |
Zelda: Breath of the Wild - 7648 Final Fantasy XV - 1820 |
| Anonymous Votes |
Zelda: Breath of the Wild - 7129 Final Fantasy XV - 1900 |
Zelda was dominant in the first two rounds, but it was done against lesser competition that this site wouldn't care about. This is the match where people realized Zelda was on the level with the shit-kicking badasses from the 1990s. Yes, I am aware the game was made in 2017. In terms of contest strength, it might as well be from 1998. We'll talk more about that in the final, but the very short of it is Breath of the Wild had ridiculous strength in this contest.
There are three contest entrants in our history, and only three, that have managed to break 80% three times in a row:
-Link in 2004 (beating CATS, Ganondorf, and Yoshi)
-The Legend of Zelda in the series contest (beating Civilization, Mega Man X, and Metroid)
-Breath of the Wild in 2020
We've had some good Zelda vs Final Fantasy duels over the years. Breath of the Wild vs Final Fantasy 15 was not one of them. The only "drama" in this match, if you can call it that, was whether or not Breath of the Wild would finish above 80%. There were a few updates, 21 of the 288 to be exact, where it was actually below 80. It did obviously manage to finish above that number and make history, which puts it on par with any character or game with 90s strength.
With this one match, Breath of the Wild went from contest favorite to historically dominant badass. I know most blowouts are boring, but watching something be this dominant has a certain car crash quality to it. We're the same people that laughed all day long when Snake SFFd Tanner, after all.
At this point, it wasn't whether or not Zelda would win the contest, but by how much.
Ctes's Analysis[]
This is one of the most impressive round 3 performances of all time and one of only three times that something has managed to crack 80% three rounds in a row. To no one’s surprise, the other two times also belong to the same franchise, Link in 2004 and The Legend of Zelda in the series contest. Both times also involved at least one SFF match though, making this one look even more impressive in comparison. Breath of the Wild was completely steamrolling all competition. Despite being the favorite to win the whole contest, it managed to exceed our expectations three rounds in a row. It’s insane.
This performance is so dominant that everything in the fourpack Final Fantasy XV won suddenly looks extremely weak. Hollow Knights was thought to be among the best indie games, and it ended up way below the others in contention. Final Fantasy XV ends up significantly below Final Fantasy XIV and while the latter probably isn’t as disliked, it’s still and MMORPG and something not as many has played. Does it really do any better in this match? This looks off to me is what I’m trying to say. Is it really a coincidence that twice in a row we’ve seen the worst game of a round in x-stats being the game that faced Breath of the Wild?
Is it possible that Breath of the Wild used forced voting and the title of contest to overperform these first three rounds? No one has respect for The Outer Worlds, Halo: Reach or Final Fantasy XV when it comes to what Game of the Decade is. Dragon Quest does have a more dedicated fanbase than that. I also thought that maybe, just maybe, there actually is some SFF here after all? It’s a stretch perhaps, but both franchises are historically very big and very exposed on this site. Usually, we’re split on them, but everyone played them. This decade, there has been absolutely no doubt about which one is better. Breath of the Wild might have a vocal group not liking it, but FFXV certainly does too. SFF might not be the right term, but I think something caused Breath of the Wild to look better than it usually would today.
There has not been a single contest on this site, that didn’t involve The Legend of Zelda vs. Final Fantasy in some way. 2013 came close with Draven and all the Pokemon wrecking the bracket, but Sephiroth still got to face Midna and Vivi got to face Ganondorf. This contest obviously made it statistically more unlike with less entrants, but it’s not like it was only because of that. Not that it was the only match, but Link against Cloud was the obvious final match for many contests, although it became less and less debatable over time. These two franchises against each other have been a defining part of our contests and our site. Now look at what it has become. Final Fantasy XV is below the fodder line. It’s crazy how uneven it is today. Of course, Ocarina of Time vs. Final Fantasy VII would not be this big of a blowout at all, but it’s still a bit crazy to think about. One of them still has the quality of the 90s. The other one doesn’t. Ironically, the Final Fantasy game we’ve been the most positive towards in a long time is a remake of the most popular one.
Final Fantasy is in modern gaming no longer a big name. FFXV wouldn’t be in this match if it didn’t have the franchise name to ride on. It almost didn’t make it here already. It’s a shame to see one of the best franchises of all time come to this. Pumping out VII to X in five years is so incomparably impressive and it’s sad to see that it can’t even spit out quality like that once in a decade any longer.
Safer777's Analysis[]
This percentage is from a Round 3 match. Seriously. Over 80% on a Round 3 match. It has happened before BUT we are talking 3 matches in a row where the same winner has over 80% wins in all of them. I checked some results and seems that only Link in 2004 had 3 matches in a row where he scored above 80, again in 2006 with Zelda series and that basically is. So congrats to BOTW for doing something that has happened only 2 other times ever! And all 3 times it has something to do with Zelda series/characters. Only in this site! And it might even reach over 80% on the Division Final Match! So yeah that is the thing we should keep here! Now we are talking about power!
So for the match. Okay the only thing that mattered is how much BOTW would win and yeah NOBODY expected this much! Okay maybe 1 person expected it. Also another thing to hold, this is the WORST 1 VS 1 loss between Zelda characters/games against FF characters/games. So in this contest we have the worst 1 VS 1 loss for a FF game AND for a Zelda game too! Yeah Link Between Worlds lost with 64-36 from a Smash game! At least not even a doubling there, against maybe the 2nd strongest game. But a quadrupling? What happened to Square Enix? Why they can't make Final Fantasy games as they used to be? Now the best you can say about the FF games is that they are competent. Great eh? Also from what I have been informed is we have once again Zelda VS Final Fantasy which has happened in ALL other contests ever made. Even when we had Threeways and Fourways and Battle Royales and Tournament Of Champions we still have Zelda VS Final Fantasy even with the 2 games per series limitations which we had in this contest. This thing has been going on for 18 years. Tradition! So yeah amazing win for BOTW, really bad loss for FF 15. I guess at least a FF game managed to reach Round 3 and that is all the compliments I can give. Man even FF 7 Remake with all the hype would still barely score over 40 on BOTW. Probably at least. If only it had come a few months earlier to test this theory! Well if we ever have another GOTD contest we shall see I guess.
Tsunami's Analysis[]
Here, have a list.
[https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/988-north-division-semifinals-mario-vs-donkey-kong https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/988-north-division-semifinals-mario-vs-donkey-kong https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/1766-hyrule-division-semifinal-link-vs-yoshi] https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/2449-hyrule-division-final-the-legend-of-zelda-vs-metroid https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/8011-division-1-semifinal-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-vs-final
There you go. That's your full list of 1v1 contest matches in which a character, series, or game got quadrupled in Round 3 or later. Once in Character Battle 1, once in Character Battle 3, once in the Series Contest, and now here. The first three were all Nintendo vs. Nintendo, though, so this stands out even more starkly as a sign of just how far Final Fantasy has fallen. What an absolute embarrassment. Yes, Breath of the Wild was well-received even by Zelda game standards, but how can the juggernaut that Final Fantasy once was have been reduced to this?