Desert Island Video Game Draft Playoffs - Round 2 (#4 Tetsujin vs. #5 Insomniacal Fan)

[Capt. Factorial]

Tetsujin​

1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo Switch)
2. Diablo II (Nintendo Switch)
3. Pokémon [Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald Version] (Nintendo Game Boy Advance)
4. Oregon Trail (PC)
5. Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo Switch)
6. Final Fantasy X (PS2)
7. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo Switch)
8. Jak 3 (PS2)
9. Madden NFL 08 (PS2)
10. Metroid Dread (Nintendo Switch 2)
11. Donkey Kong Bananza (Nintendo Switch 2)
12. Dr. Mario (NES)
13. Rampage World Tour (Arcade)
14. Spider-Man [2000] (PS1)
15. Zoo Tycoon (PC)



vs.

Insomniacal Fan​

1. Baldur's Gate 3 (PC)
2. Red Dead Redemption II (PC)
3. The Legend of Zelda: the Wind Waker (Nintendo GameCube)
4. Subnautica (PC)
5. Factorio: Space Age (PC)
6. World of Warcraft (PC)
7. Sid Meier's Civilization IV (PC)
8. Super Smash Bros. Melee (Nintendo GameCube)
9. Dwarf Fortress (PC)
10. Satisfactory (PC)
11. X4: Foundations (PC)
12. Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor (PC)
13. Crusader Kings II (PC)
14. NFL Blitz (Arcade)
15. Tribes 2 (PC)

 

[Insomniacal Fan]

"Breath of the Kingdom", as a composite game, is unbeatable. Combine the joy of exploration and the beautiful desolation of the first game; with the second game's world filled with characters and adventure, and it's perfection.

These games are an example of what's possible when you take systems-driven gameplay (i.e. from the eurojank scene), and hold it to a high standard of production quality and craftsmanship.

 

[whitechocolate]

Dwarf Fortress scores a lot of points with me. I would have picked it if I weren't such a Kenshi head. I could play nothing but Virtua Fighter, Battle Garegga, and a story/legend generator like Dwarf Fortress or Kenshi, and be content.

 

[Warhawk]

These two lists were neck and neck in my initial rankings and upon further review I keep changing my mind back and forth. Ended up going with Insomniacal Fan by a whisker. Part of that was the selection of PC games and not game systems, which I typically don't like playing on.

 

[Tetsujin]

FWIW I had Insomniacal Fan above myself in my rankings.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

I'm riding with Civ4 until Civ4 ain't there no more.

 

[Padrino]

@Insomniacal Fan opened his list with two stone-cold modern masterpieces that I absolutely adore and a Zelda entry that has aged remarkably well. But @Tetsujin grabbed both of the Switch Zelda titles, and they're what brought me back to gaming in a big way. Breath of the Wild, in particular, is such a heavily-weighted selection for me. He could have picked mobile phone garbage up and down his list after that and I probably still would have voted for him in this round on the strength of BotW alone. That game is just a marvel to me.

 

[Srzly]

I went by a scoring system for this round and it’s really unfortunate because you both had the highest scores for me and happened to be playing against each other.

You both have great taste in games.

One game that gave @Tetsujin negative points (not actually) was Breath of the Wild. Maybe a hot take but the breakable weapons—and how frequently they broke—ruined it for me.

 

[Löwenherz]

One game that gave @Tetsujin negative points (not actually) was Breath of the Wild. Maybe a hot take but the breakable weapons—and how frequently they broke—ruined it for me.

I don’t love Breath of the Wild, but weapon durability wasn’t one of my issues. I actually thought it fit well with the theming of exploring the rugged post-apocalyptic medieval wilderness. And I appreciated the added mechanic of carrying around some crappy swords I didn’t care about breaking to use on the random goons of Hyrule, and saving my Infinity +1 lightning sabres for the big bads.

I just wish they had implemented a way to repair the weapons. A little flint and fairy dust at a campfire to reforge a broadsword would have solved the problem people most complain about I think.

 

[Löwenherz]

This might be the Zelda nerds’ version of visiting every baseball stadium in a season.

LINK: Touring Japan for the inspirations for Breath of the Wild