Results[]
Sunday, April 19, 2020
Ulti's Analysis[]
| Division | Division 8 |
|---|---|
| Match # | 96 |
| Match Date | Sunday, April 19, 2020 |
| Oracle Expectations |
NieR: Automata - 71.99% 51 for - 0 against |
| GameFAQs Prediction |
NieR: Automata - 63.27% |
| User Votes |
Divinity: Original Sin II - 2653 NieR: Automata - 6254 |
| Anonymous Votes |
Divinity: Original Sin II - 2935 NieR: Automata - 5602 |
This match was hilarious. Not because it was a good or particularly close match or anything, but because Divinity rallied so hard. At the very beginning of the match, it looked like Nier was going to completely and thoroughly torch Divinity off of the map en route to a blowout in excess of 70-30.
But after the initial voting, Divinity went and rallied it ass off, and though it made no difference whatsoever in the match, it did matter in the final percentages and extrapolated standings. What likely should have been a 72-28 beating turned into a 69-31 result, which actually kept Hearthstone from being at the bottom of the stats where it belongs. Divinity took its role as Contest Savior so seriously that it actually rallied in this match to keep the opponent it beat from finishing last in the stats! What a man's man! What a bro. Sucks that Hearthstone got to be the beneficiary here, but I see you working there Divinity. Good stuff.
This set up what would end up being an incredibly annoying round 3 match between the Pokemon and Nier fanbases, and it ended up being every bit as awful as one might think. We'll get there, don't worry.
With this, round 2 was in the books and the contest shifted to two matches per day instead of four.
Star of the Round - Shovel Knight. Of all the indie hype in this contest, only Shovel Knight managed to make it to round 3. That deserves Star honors on general principle.
Turd of the Round - Lots of, um.... wonderful manure to choose from here. I'm going to give it to Zelda: Link Between Worlds, because we'll never again be able to give a Zelda game Turd of the Round honors.
(The actual Turd of the Round is Kingdom Hearts 3.)
I only bother with stars and turds for the first two rounds unless something crazy happens, because the field is too weeded out by this point. On to round 3!
Ctes's Analysis[]
After what seemed to be a very impressive first round result against Bayonetta 2, this match sounded the alarm for the chances of NieR: Automata reaching the division finals. Divinity: Original Sin II was debatably the weakest game to make the second round and NieR was expected to better than this and needed to if it wanted to beat HGSS the following round. Especially considering that being a remake now didn’t seem to be a problem after all despite the contest title.
Divinity made a rally attempt during the match. Although it obviously wasn’t very successful, it probably skewed the percentages a little bit. It might have bailed it out in a close match because it clearly brought some votes in, but I don’t think it’s more than 1% or 2% today. I’d imagine people stopped trying rather quickly, because it was so far behind it rightfully seemed impossible. It’s still worth mentioning when discussing how big a chance NieR had in the following match.
Looking back, I suppose Divinity is exactly the type of game that we like here. We’ve seen Yakuza and even Ys do surprisingly well. Here’s another RPG and a very successful one on top of that. It seemed bad at the time, but I don’t think NieR looks all that bad here. Its hopes of reaching round 4 was always banking on HGSS being significantly hurt either by being a remake or not being one of the first two generations despite being a remake of the second one. Divinity isn’t fantastic here and it took the right opponent to win a match, but easily doubling it, especially considering the rally, was a fine result.
Safer777's Analysis[]
So there was a rally in this match in the first 10 minutes that it started on Reddit for DOS 2. But here is the problem. You can't really rally for this game. I mean the game is excellent sure but I don't think it has such a strong fanbase. Plus since the characters are created by you(okay it has some preset characters but nothing major)you can't even connect with the characters even though it is an RPG. The gameplay and the freedom is there though. Pretty sure the only RPG where you can kill EVERYONE and the game will still go on. But even I that I adore this game I would never vote for it against other games that I have played. I just don't know why, it doesn't feel like it. As for NieR Automata...I said some things in my previous analysis, check there.
So for the match. Since there was a rally going on for DOS2 it did better than expected so it looked decent here. NieR Automata pretty sure people vote for it for 2B since she is hot. Okay that is only 1 reason actually.The game is damn good and the story makes you think but hey Android Waifus are the best Waifus. Or maybe that is me. Still the game is good.
Tsunami's Analysis[]
There were some doubts as to whether Divinity was actually decent or if it was just lucky to draw the hated Hearthstone in Round 1. This performance makes it look like...well, like it wasn't overinflated, at any rate. Yes, it did get a fairly lucky draw, but it got a better percentage than Rayman did against Automata's next opponent, and Rayman at least has name recognition. Then again, Pokémon probably has much better name recognition than Nier, so it all balances out.
And no, the next round won't count as a Nintendo vs. Square match. Nier, and Drakengard before it, are published by Square Enix, but they aren't really made by them; they're made by a company called Platinum Games. Actually, the series seems to have gone through a bunch of developers; the first three games were made by Cavia, Drakengard 3 was made by Access Games, and Nier: Automata was made by the aforementioned Platinum.
Does Breath of the Wild vs. Dragon Quest XI count as Nintendo vs. Square even though it's part of a franchise that began with Enix well before the merger? I feel like technically it does since it's a post-merger game.