Results[]
Saturday, December 5, 2015
Ulti's Analysis[]
| Division | Division 7 |
|---|---|
| Match # | 110 |
| Match Date | Saturday, December 5, 2015 |
| Oracle Expectations |
Resident Evil 4 - 55.59% 71 for - 5 against |
| GameFAQs Prediction |
Resident Evil 4 - 35.01% |
Given how bad the Metal Gear Solid series looked this contest, this was a horrible result for Resident Evil 4. Mario RPG was not only tearing it up in the top half of this division, but Resident Evil 4 was looking rather weak in the bottom half. Even the match itself was rather benign, as it stayed in the 55-45 range pretty much all day. This match itself was never going to be in doubt as RE4 was always going to win comfortably, but the law of unintended consequences often comes into play in these contests.
Take your pick of the more impressive contest path through three rounds:
-54.43% on Oblivion, 57.2% on Grand Theft Auto 5, 60.74% on Chrono Cross
-58.87% on Paper Mario, 58.11% on New Vegas, 54.44% on Metal Gear Solid 2
It doesn't take much to figure out that the top option is more impressive, and when you take the 2009 stats into account it's even worse for RE4. It was expected to get 59% in this match. MGS was much weaker this year, and RE4 only got 54.44%. It became very obvious very quickly that Mario RPG was going to win this division, though for whatever reason most people stayed in denial.
No, really, most people in the oracle still picked Resident Evil 4 in that match. "Whoops."
Ctes' Analysis[]
This is one of the few Metal Gear Solid matches where I'd say the Metal Gear Solid game didn't disappoint. However, that's only because Resident Evil 4 disappointed correspondingly. We just hadn't had complete information that Resident Evil 4 had dropped yet, because the Paper Mario match seemed legit and why would Paper Mario drop? Fallout: New Vegas being somewhat strong on the top of Fallout 4 releasing wouldn't be too weird, and BioShock Infinite having strength seemed very possible after BioShock's great round 2 performance. All in all, you could explain every result Resident Evil 4 had up until now, including this match. The same actually goes for Metal Gear Solid 2. The Witcher 3 has potential even though it's recent, it's hard to determine just how strong that should be. And Resident Evil had REmake being pretty recent. It was entirely possible that Metal Gear Solid 2 hadn't disappointed and this was a legit result.
That's based on this part of the bracket alone though. With the performances the rest of the Metal Gear Solid series put up this contest, you know that Metal Gear Solid 2 is weaker too, it makes no sense for it to have avoided the drop. So it doesn't take much brain to figure out that this result happened because Resident Evil 4 dropped as well. Both are Playstation 2 games, a console which outside of I think Okami, is one that this contest hasn't been kind too. Both are even shooters as well, another thing RPGFAQs aren't too huge about. Of course, Resident Evil 4 dropped as well. That's coming from someone who finds Resident Evil 4 to be a top 10, maybe even top 5 game. It's fantastic, but unfortunately, not a game NostalgiaFAQs favors.
The question was now whether or not Resident Evil 4 could still win the division. Considering the round 1 result against Paper Mario, Resident Evil 4 beating Super Mario RPG was still the popular choice. The match would obviously be close, but it should happen all things considered. However, considering that Resident Evil 4 couldn't put Metal Gear Solid 2 below 45%, it was looking very unlikely that it could compete with whatever game escaped the last division. The more popular Metal Gear Solid games than Sons of Liberty were down there, and with this result, Resident Evil 4 shouldn't be able to beat them. Not to mention that Shadow of the Colossus and even Mass Effect 2 winning the division wasn't out of the question yet. That said, despite requiring a weak division to do it, making the top 8 would not be a bad achievement for Resident Evil 4 at all, because that's how far it got in Game of the Decade and it's definitely not a top 8 game on this site.