Results[]
Round One
Ulti's Analysis[]
| Division | Division 6 |
|---|---|
| Match # | 47 |
| Match Date | Monday, November 16, 2015 |
| Oracle Expectations |
Final Fantasy XII - 56.88% 94 for - 5 against |
| GameFAQs Prediction |
Final Fantasy XII - 42.07% |
When the contest got delayed for legal reasons, Allen was nice enough to spoil two matches for us just to get our anticipation going. One of the spoilers was New Vegas vs BioShock Infinite. The other was this match.
This match felt like it was a perfect candidate for the FLOWCHART™! Two games of relatively close strength, that few people care about outside of a contest setting. Yep, perfect time to consult the FLOWCHART™.
Nintendo > Squaresoft > Japanese RPG > Japanese > RPG > old > new > contest experience > top option > everything else.
"Squaresoft" is clearly higher on the totem pole than "Japanese", ergo Final Fantasy 12 was the favorite! We all knew as much the second the match was spoiled, too, even though the games that fall under the Hidetaka Miyazaki umbrella (Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, et al) come with a huge amount of respect. Dark Souls seems to be the only one with any real contest strength for whatever reason, because while Final Fantasy 12 is a game of decent strength, the literal only reason it won this game is because "Final Fantasy" is on the title.
The poll may have been 55-45, but it was 55-45 for 24 hours straight and hardly had any drama to it. I'm sure Bloodborne is a fantastic game since everything under the Miyazaki label is great, but can I defend FF12 for a second? Yes, the plot is trash for 90% of the game. Yes, Vaan is trash. But it's meant to be a Metal Gear Solid 2 perspective where you look at the characters who are actually good through the eyes of a character that's meant to be annoying. Vaan and Penelo are a a nod to the days of royalty where following Ashe without question upon being asked is exactly what would have happened in the old days. Vaan and Penelo don't really need a ton of character development. That was all meant for the other characters.
The plot does manage to get good once you meet the Occuria, and thankfully the gameplay is good enough to get you to that point in an entertaining manner. Yes, the gameplay is good in spite of gambits. The whole point is that you can customize them, so if you hate them just do what I did and set it to auto-battle the closest enemy while you manually handle everything else. Done and done. The graphics are about the best you'll get on the PS2, and they are gorgeous. The atmosphere in this game is amazing.
And the Pharos Lighthouse. Holy crap, talk about a dungeon worthy of the old school. that thing takes zero prisoners, and it isn't some optional area. You're supposed to climb in the main plot, bitch. Let's not forget that the hunts are the best optional content in the entire Final Fantasy series (no joke, I actually do believe this).
Talking about FF12 makes me want to replay it, but I'm waiting for the inevitable HD rerelease of the international version. If FFX can get 28 rereleases, I'm positive Final Fantasy 12 can get one. I don't ask for much!
Ctes's Analysis[]
There is no doubt in mind here that Bloodborne is better received game overall of the two. When SBAllen pre-contest hinted that there would be eight Final Fantasy games in the bracket, I predicted them all right except for having XIII instead of XII, but once he said they equaled 56Tactics, I wasn't surprised to figure out I had that one wrong. It's just that this game was frowned upon a lot. There is also no doubt in my mind that when it comes to contest strength, FFXII is step below the other seven games in this contest. Additionally, there is no doubt in my mind that I find Bloodborne to be the far better game here, and finally, there was no doubt in mind that FFXII would win this.
When you consider that casuals and other websites still go “Final Fantasy always wins”, I'm actually quite a bit surprised the casuals had this one wrong. I know that the phase is moslty associated with FFVII, but it's not limited to. I guess casuals also underestimated the power of NostalgiaFAQs, because that's the real reason Bloodborne lost this one. Recent games simply wont to well here barring outside rallies. It's not like they can't win a match or maybe even two, but put against a game that isn't fodder and is before its own time, a game from the current generation will sadly almost always lose. It didn't matter that FFXII hasn't been that well received, we knew that having Final Fantasy in the name would be enough to give it the edge here, because it has been around for longer.
When this match was over, Final Fantasy had officially managed an 8-0 against its competition in the first round. It's very impressive! Although personally, FFIX vs. Kingdom Hearts was the only one I didn't think would be a safe win for Final Fantasy. Unfortunately, such a streak just means that casuals will keep believing this site will support Final Fantasy above anything not named Zelda. Sure it's a strong franchise, but it really isn't true anymore. It's close to 12 years since Final Fantasy VII won the games contest following up on Cloud's victory. Each year since then, it has looked worse, except for the 2007 finale where Cloud held up like a king.
In 2008, Cloud and Sephiroth lost to Snake with Sephiroth being swallowed up by Kirby afterward. Vincent couldn't defeat Crono once again. Squall lost to Mewtwo and Tidus lost to WCC from round 1. Then Zack looks good and the rest gets ignored. 2010 was highlighted by Snake beating Sephiroth and let's not forget Tidus embarrassed himself once again, but Cloud still reached the finale. Final Fantasy X was the favorite in GotD and it didn't win. Cloud and Sephiroth lost to the Pokemon trainers in Rivalry Rumble. Then there's 2013, oh god 2013. Where Aerith loses to Shepard, Tidus to Missingno, Vincent loses to Mewtwo and Phoenix Wright of all people, L-Block beats Auron, even Sephiroth falld to Mewtwo and Cloud falls to Squirtle. Yet a Vivi victory against Mario was probably enough to keep the Final Fantasy always wins phase alive, or Draven just overshadowed it completely. But there is no reason for it to exist. Yet a match like this will sadly fuel it.