Awakening as a nominee in VGX 2013

[Acacia Sgt]

http://www.spike.com/vgx/best-rpg'>http://www.spike.com/vgx/best-rpg

Well, I haven't heard of this VGX thing before, or it's predecessor, the VGA, but apparently Awakening has been nominated for best RPG for this year's event, which will be on this Saturday. Considering the other nominees, I'd say it has some tough competition, but well, who knows.

Thoughts?

[Mister Sunshine Sprinkles]

Spike VGAs dont matter becuz they be run by dudebro mainstream jerkoffs.

...I mostly kid. But I honestly think Awakening doesn't stand much of a chance, when weighed up against the heavy competition.

[AstraLunaSol]

haha pokemon is going to win by a landslide

mostly because pokemon

[Czar_Yoshi]

haha pokemon is going to win by a landslide

mostly because pokemon

Well, I can personally say that I got bored of Pokemon before even reaching it's nonexistant endgame, but have logged hundreds of hours not counting resets on one FE:A file alone. If replayability is any sort of factor in the decision whatsoever, Pokemon can go jump in a lake. Awakening has better music, too.

/anti-gen6 rant

[ButteredToast]

Seriously, I had more fun with Pokemon Y than I did with FE: Awakening. Not to knock off Awakening from its pillar, but Pokemon Y had me glued to its gameplay more than FE: Awakening did, unfortunately.

[Czar_Yoshi]

My idea of what grinding to become perfect should take is to make slow, steady progress, not to play with an RNG that makes Lunatic+ look like a joke a few thousand times until you get the perfect combination, and then use that. To each his own, I guess.

Oh, Pokemon does have real multiplayer. I suppose that's something pretty major in it's favor.

[Zerker]

haha pokemon is going to win by a landslide

mostly because pokemon

i lost my X cartridge at a wedding and didn't give a fuck

[Tables]

haha pokemon is going to win by a landslide

mostly because pokemon

Pretty much this. Both are fantastic games, but Pokemon has fanbase and multiplayer while Awakening has... difficulty choices asides from easy vs. RNG? I think Awakening's gameplay is stronger though, although I've put it at least 150 hours into both (mainly because bus journeys)

[RJWalker]

Well, I can personally say that I got bored of Pokemon before even reaching it's nonexistant endgame, but have logged hundreds of hours not counting resets on one FE:A file alone. If replayability is any sort of factor in the decision whatsoever, Pokemon can go jump in a lake. Awakening has better music, too.

/anti-gen6 rant

To me, a game with good replay value is not one where I get to decide which girl to marry next playthrough or how to customize an Avatar. The mark of a truly great game is if you get the urge to play it again immediately after you've beaten it despite knowing that almost nothing will change on a second playthrough. Godd replay value is just that: a game so good that you have to replay it.

And on that, XY has definitely got Awakening beat. Especially since having to replay a Pokemon game means being forced to delete your only save file.

[Czar_Yoshi]

I think you mean Awakening has XY beat.

For what it's worth, Awakening is the only game I have ever bought multiple copies of to get more save files. 5 simply isn't enough for the way I play this game.

[Skynstein]

To me, a game with good replay value is not one where I get to decide which girl to marry next playthrough or how to customize an Avatar. The mark of a truly great game is if you get the urge to play it again immediately after you've beaten it despite knowing that almost nothing will change on a second playthrough. Godd replay value is just that: a game so good that you have to replay it.

And on that, XY has definitely got Awakening beat. Especially since having to replay a Pokemon game means being forced to delete your only save file.

That's quite funny, I restarted my Awakening games several times until I got it right. To me, replay value is when you keep finding new ways to play the game. Both Awakening and Pokémon have it, because in Awakening you can always try different strategies, different units, different pairings etc. while Pokémon is about using different Pokémon each time you play. However, the system of Pokémon, with its single save file, completely discourages replay. Most people who replay Pokémon to try something different (like a Nuzlocke run) do so in emulators. While in Awakening you can have one min/max file and two other ones for experiences.

I'd say Awakening has Pokémon beat by a landslide, although I have replayed Pokémon games in the past. If what you said was true, games without a good story would have zero replayability. Replay is more about gameplay than story, especially when to follow a game's story nowadays you don't even need to play the game, you can watch an LP of it on YouTube if you're satisfied with that.

[RJWalker]

I'd say Awakening has Pokémon beat by a landslide, although I have replayed Pokémon games in the past. If what you said was true, games without a good story would have zero replayability. Replay is more about gameplay than story, especially when to follow a game's story nowadays you don't even need to play the game, you can watch an LP of it on YouTube if you're satisfied with that.

I took both story and gameplay into account in my post.

While XY's plot is average at best, even when compared to the standards of the franchise, gameplay-wise, it is truly amazing.

So I do think XY are far more deserving of a win here, even if they're not even the best Pokemon games so far.

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

I got bored of FE13 ever since like.... 4 months ago, but Pokemon is Pokemon, so yeah

Obviously not biased at all, but saying "my opinion is not biased" is retarded, so fuck that

Edited December 7, 2013 by Eradicator Boner

[Skynstein]

I took both story and gameplay into account in my post.

While XY's plot is average at best, even when compared to the standards of the franchise, gameplay-wise, it is truly amazing.

So I do think XY are far more deserving of a win here, even if they're not even the best Pokemon games so far.

I haven't played XY yet but I truly hope it tops BW. I loved BW. To me it had the best crop of new Pokémon since GSC.

I dunno, I heard complaints about the game being too easy because of the new Exp. Share, which puts me off a little. Pokémon isn't supposed to be hard, but there are so many ways to grind that the game's difficulty becomes meaningless. Although Ghetsis' fight in BW was still a challenge even if you got there with high leveled Pokémon, because Hydreigon is OP and almost nothing in the Unova Dex walls it. And... The story in BW was actually good! For a change. Though Cyrus is probably my favorite villain.

I still think Pokémon will take the prize, because it's Pokémon, but Awakening is a worthy competitor.

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

XY is still very easy without EXP Share, considering my playthrough is still easy despite having EXP Share turned off.

There are only 2 - 3 problem in the game

the Weavile Trainer at the beggining of Victory Road that nobody under normal circumstances would lose against, and the triple rival battle

But honestly, isn't BW also like that? Replace EXP Share with Scraggy, Archeops, Darmanitan, or, for BW2 add Magnemite and the game become the biggest joke ever.

[RJWalker]

I haven't played XY yet but I truly hope it tops BW. I loved BW. To me it had the best crop of new Pokémon since GSC.

I dunno, I heard complaints about the game being too easy because of the new Exp. Share, which puts me off a little. Pokémon isn't supposed to be hard, but there are so many ways to grind that the game's difficulty becomes meaningless. Although Ghetsis' fight in BW was still a challenge even if you got there with high leveled Pokémon, because Hydreigon is OP and almost nothing in the Unova Dex walls it. And... The story in BW was actually good! For a change. Though Cyrus is probably my favorite villain.

I still think Pokémon will take the prize, because it's Pokémon, but Awakening is a worthy competitor.

If there's one undeniable fault that XY have, it's the lack of difficulty. With the EXP share, it's a cake walk. Without it, it's more akin to previous games.

The game quite literally hands out a powerful Lucario that can Mega Evolve right off the bat just after the third gym.

Doesn't take the enjoyment away though.

[LuxSpes]

I guess pokemon will take the win due to its shear popularity, but I personally found more enjoyment in Awakening than in Pokemon Y. Y was a great pokemon game, it doesn't compare with the fun I had with Awakening. While Awakening's story is pretty abysmal, it had its moment where I felt really emotionally invested in it, compared to how detached I was from the intrigue of Y. As for the replayability, even after nearly one year, there are still various things that I want to do with my Awakening file and even when I put it down for some time, I get the urge to play it again eventually, while I feel like there's not much else left to pokemon other than breeding comp worthy pokemon or catching them all which seems more tedious than exciting to me at the moment.

[Rapier]

To me, a game with good replay value is not one where I get to decide which girl to marry next playthrough or how to customize an Avatar.

I agree. That's why I'm glad FE:A isn't just about that, especially with the tons of characters available which you probably didn't use in your first and second runs, reclassing, building characters optimally until they break the game (which is easy even without grinding, on Hard, but some people like having a Galeforce + Lifetaker + Limit Breaker + Aether + Something OP because yes), DLCs (haven't played any of them because they're expensive for me and I won't be satisfied with just one or two maps, but I doubt 4 dollars really matter to most people) and, of course, Challenge Runs.

The mark of a truly great game is if you get the urge to play it again immediately after you've beaten it despite knowing that almost nothing will change on a second playthrough. Godd replay value is just that: a game so good that you have to replay it.

I felt the same thing about FE:A. For Pokémon lovers, I think the same can be said about the franchise's games, though I found these games to have less replayability than any FE ever (I find most pokémons lame and most of my pokémon team are composed of pokémons who I used before, but this is bias; the games are also absurdly easy and anyone, with the exception of the Elite Four, can be beaten by mashing the action button and always choosing the same offensive skill, even Tackle).

My opinion aside, both games have a solid replayability factor.

[RJWalker]

Choosing different skills is no different than choosing the optimal moveset.

Also, Pokemon has fantastic multiplayer, easily one of the best compared to other franchises so that might help it gain the edge for the award.

[Rapier]

Choosing different skills is no different than choosing the optimal moveset.

Also, Pokemon has fantastic multiplayer, easily one of the best compared to other franchises so that might help it gain the edge for the award.

True, except mostly everything you use against other pokémon will work out perfectly because the games are locked on Easier than Easy Mode.

Pokémon will most likely win. It's the most famous choice and has a more broad audience and fandom. Not to say I'm denying it's merits on winning, by the way.

Edited December 7, 2013 by Rapier

[riariadne]

Pokemon will win because it's a better game

there i said it

[Skynstein]

Also, Pokemon has fantastic multiplayer, easily one of the best compared to other franchises so that might help it gain the edge for the award.

Debatable. From time to time GF invents broken stuff like Excadrill and Blaziken which the players themselves have to ban to avoid making the game stale. That's hardly "fantastic multiplayer".

The draw of Pokémon is that you pick a team of 6 and go battle your friends who also have their teams of 6. It becomes less appealing when you get into the metagame and realize only 10% of the 720+ Pokémon that exist are competitively viable. The rest is either outclassed by the 10% or require inferior strategies. I haven't been following the XY metagame, but I can tell the Fairy type is a huge letdown since it was introduced to balance dragons yet the only strong Fairy types are Florges and Mega Mawile. And Xerneas, of course, but Zerneas is banned. If you really get deep into Pokémon, the mechanics are a lot less fantastic than they look on paper.

To balance this, players introduce tiers "for fun". But the high level tournaments are all played on OU. And Nintendo tournaments allow banned crap like Excadrill and Garchomp to mop the floor with anything.

Every game has its stronger and weaker characters, but I don't feel GF does a good job at balancing their own.

Edited December 7, 2013 by Malebolganone

[RJWalker]

Debatable. From time to time GF invents broken stuff like Excadrill and Blaziken which the players have to ban to avoid making the game stale. That's hardly "fantastic multiplayer".

No game is truly balanced. What's your point?

[Robert Stewart]

I don't see why anybody honestly gives a crap. VGX is more about trailers and promoting upcoming games than about actual awards.

Anyway, concerning the VGAs(which is what this is in case anybody forgot):

Edited December 7, 2013 by shinpichu

[Samias]

This is Spike TV. Neither FE or Pokemon are going to win when FF14 exists in the same category (Ni no Kuni is just too obscure to realistically win). Spike is incredibly biased against Nintendo anything.