Results[]
Wednesday, April 8, 2020
Ulti's Analysis[]
| Division | Division 7 |
|---|---|
| Match # | 52 |
| Match Date | Wednesday, April 08, 2020 |
| Oracle Expectations |
Metal Gear Solid V - 67.75% 60 for - 0 against |
| GameFAQs Prediction |
Metal Gear Solid V - 87.15% |
| User Votes |
Metal Gear Solid V - 6273 Dead Cells - 2350 |
| Anonymous Votes |
Metal Gear Solid V - 5022 Dead Cells - 1960 |
You did this on purpose, Allen. There is no chance this was a coincidence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DshSkkbWwd0
Some indie games looked okay in this contest. Most did not. Dead Cells, while aptly named for this match, was never going to make a match out of this. It's actually a very good game though, and I highly recommend it if Metroidvania is your thing. It's my thing for sure, so I was going to find it sooner or later.
During the Persona 5 vs Heavy Rain match, we talked about games that fell off the hardest during this decade, with Heavy Rain being the game mentioned most often. The other game mentioned a lot was Metal Gear Solid 5. Now I love Metal Gear Solid 5, so this is painful for me to write, but I can see why people are down on it. The game released half finished and proved that Hideo Kojima was long past his prime as a storyteller. The gameplay was the best in the series, few people will argue otherwise, but almost everything else was suspect. That plot was trash. The setting was hit and miss. The characters and plot twist were really, really bad. The reused missions and home base aspect were such a turnoff. The potential for greatness was there, but once again, Kojima got in the way.
Konami was right. It kills me to admit it, but they were. Death Stranding proved it. Metal Gear Solid 5 got very lucky to be handed such a weak fourpack, and in looking at the bracket, this fourpack and Undertale's fourpack are the only two MGS5 could have gotten out of. It serves penance anywhere else.
But hey, those are the breaks and MGS5 was allowed to score a 73% blowout like nothing was ever wrong.
Ctes's Analysis[]
It looked like Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain would have quite the easy path this year. It got what was believed to be a very weak fourpack before running into the exact same game it lost to the previous contest. Back then it was an upset, but no one was giving MGSV any chance this year. There is no bigger shame in the gaming world than what happened to Konami and what happened to one of the best franchises of all time because of it, but not much to do about that, unfortunately.
MSGV was certainly getting anti-voted a bit here. Not as much because of the actual game as its just voting against Konami. Despite that, it managed to outdo the boards expectations a little bit. Some probably thought it would be hurt more from all the backlash. Others probably put too much faith in Dead Cells after good showings by indies this round. Dead Cells is released around the time that appears to be the preferred time to be released for indie games, but it didn’t do it much favor. It just didn’t quite hit the big scenes. I’m sure MGSV got a lot of franchise name votes from the forced voting. If Dead Cells couldn’t look better than this against MGSV then its playrate is probably very low. Despite Yakuza 0 looking good today, Metal Gear Solid V would still come into round 2 as the unanimous favorite to win and into round 3 as the unanimous favorite to lose, so it’s not like it made a huge difference that it did slightly better than expected.
Safer777's Analysis[]
So MGS 5 is the last MGS game that the creator of the series worked before getting kicked out of the company. Now I don't know anything about MGS series but I do know they always have ridiculous stories and twists that can give the Kindom Hearts franchise a run for its money. DC is another indie game. It is fairly popular but that is. The thing I don't understand is that 3 of the crew guys gave MGS 5 a 55% winning prediction percentage victory. Okay people seriously? I know you are experts but we are talking about MGS series here. You know a series that is HUGE here? Or at least it was. Even the strongest indie game here wouldn't beat it. At least I think so. I know that people were dissapointed with MGS 5 because I heard even the story wasn't finished or something but still.
So for the match. MGS 5 won easily. Well of course. DC may be fun and all but at the end it is just a metroidvania indie game and we have already hundreds of them since apparently it is the most popular genre to make games of. So did MGS 5 redeemed itself here? Hard to say. It did score a big victory against a well regarded indie game at least.
Tsunami's Analysis[]
While the days of SFF matches out the wazoo seems to finally be behind us, Allen can't help but get cute with the bracketmaking sometimes. Dead Cells going up against a Metal Gear game is funny enough, but we're also looking at a probable 2015 rematch in Round 3. It wasn't even a particularly close match in 2015, though it was one with what seemed like a fairly even split in prediction percentage.
MGSV was expected to have suffered from backlash. It feels like nearly every established franchise has been facing backlash towards its most recent games. No wonder indies are doing so well; any franchise not owned by Nintendo is essentially getting punished for how good earlier games in the series were, or are perceived to have been. We're in the midst of maximum hype about a Final Fantasy VII remake, and seeing the ads, it certainly does look beautiful. Modern graphics with, presumably, the original story. But I can't help but wonder, if it weren't a remake, would it be nearly so beloved? I haven't gotten that far into FFVII yet, but so far I'm less than impressed, and pretty new graphics won't fix that.
Though I was happy that the game took mercy on me after I failed the stealth sequence in Shinra Tower too many times. Funny, I thought that the problem with modern games was that they held your hand too much? It wouldn't surprise me at all if some gamers held that mercy against the remake, if it's still there.