Results[]
Ulti's Analysis[]
| Division | Hyrule Division |
|---|---|
| Match # | 03 |
| Match Date | Tuesday, July 4th, 2006 |
| Vote difference | 34,272 |
| Oracle Expectations |
Pokemon - 60.25% 153 for - 8 against |
| GameFAQs Prediction |
Pokemon - 83.74% (38,686 brackets) |
Pre-contest, this match got very little debate. It was sort of accepted that despite Pokémon's historical anti-vote drawing ability, Star Ocean was too cult for it to matter. A few of Star Ocean's bigger fans debated that it had a chance to win, but it wasn't taken seriously for quite some time.
Then for whatever reason, arguments over this match exploded the day before, mostly out of the boredom borne of Suikoden being on the ass end of yet another beating. There was also a mild fear factor setting in among Poké's supporters, for good reason. Pikachu barely beat PaRappa the Rapper in 2002 before getting killed by Cloud. The following year, people had faith that Pikachu could hold his own against Fox (despite the fact that both faced Cloud the previous year, but that's a different issue). He responded by getting destroyed. No Pokémon has seen a character contest since.
In Spring 2004, Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal squared off against Xenogears. GSC couldn't even hold its own during a glitched poll. On the following day when the poll was fixed, the beating at the hands of the "MASSIVELY CULT" Xenogears was realized.
Pokémon's historical ability to tank had some people worried, and it only grew worse when the match picture was first seen. Pikachu, the rat that even most Pokéheads hate due to overexposure, was front and center on Pokémon's side. Surrounding him was a set of loser starter Pokémon. No Mewtwo, no legendaries, no Gardevoir. Just Pikachu and his fellow band of rats.
Flat-out panic set in from Pokémon's side, even from its most devout followers, all the way up to match time. But this would turn into total madness mere seconds after the match began. Not only did Pokémon start out in the lead, it killed Star Ocean from the opening gun. Pokémon flew out to over 90% of the vote early, and though the series would not finish with nearly this high a percentage, it was meaningless to the fans. Vindication for four years of tanking was finally upon them, even if it was a meaningless one point win against a cult series.
Speaking of which, all RPG entities in contests not affiliated with Squaresoft will tank. Didn't the villains contest teach you people anything? Star Ocean, like virtually every other such RPG series, has a very small, loud fanbase. Only Square sees sales numbers and popularity on GameFAQs that causes strength in contests. Even games that you'd think would feature up-and-coming contest stars (Tales of Symphonia and Star Ocean 3 are two great examples of this) have sales figures that proportionally speaking don't come close to how loud the fanbases are when discussing said games. Off the top of my head, I can't even think of the strongest true non-Square RPG character. I say true because Mario doesn't count. KOS-MOS maybe?
After Pokémon's initial percentage surge and collective Pokéorgasm from fans of the series, Pokémon settled down. Throughout the day, it would eventually lose the doubling. A total killing eventually settled into a nice little blowout for Pokémon, and the discussion soon turned into whether or not Pokémon had any chance against Metroid.
Everyone that knows me knows that I despise people calling entire contests after matches have been playing out for mere minutes (the whole "[..] is so screwed." fad was born to make fun of this crap, which is why I love it so much), but I will admit to this being a small exception. Metroid ****s up against Nintendo in just about every contest. No matter how cult Star Ocean is, the Pokémon > Metroid bandwagon would have been widespread to hell and back had Metroid tanked against Kirby. And assume Pokémon actually manages to stay above 80% in this. Granted Metroid put this all to rest seconds after Pokémon's match was over. For one round, at least.
Match Trends[]
