Actual Top 8 — Poll 4

[This Old Neon]

Welcome to the #BGE2020 Actual Top 8!

Each game is seeded based on its performance in the two opening rounds of pools. There are only eight (8) remaining games: the top 4 have gone undefeated throughout this contest, and their opponents are the remaining top 4 from the lower bracket.

Thus, if one of the underdogs loses, it is gone for good—but it still finishes in the overall Top 8! Not bad! If one of the favourites loses, it still gets another chance to survive. This may result in an uneven matchup next week. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Polls are updated weekly, typically on Monday. Check back throughout the week to make sure you don't miss a vote!

HOW TO VOTE

This is easy. You only get one vote per poll. The game with the most votes wins. In the event of a tie, the higher seed advances, so don't get complacent!

[Kong Wen]

We knew something like this would happen eventually! Two of the very best RPGs ever—which means, not coincidentally, two of the best SNES games ever—finally facing off. They've been cited as examples and bases of comparison in arguments for or against each other in other threads in previous rounds, but now they get to go face to face.

I'm going to give the edge to Chrono Trigger in this one. Even though it has a gimmick where you can beat the game at multiple points in the story, it still manages to feel less disjointed and more coherent through the third act that FF6 does. FF6 suffers a bit in the World of Ruin when the player is left to their own devices to basically free roam through a bunch of little setpiece story segments. It's a good concept, but it doesn't feel as strongly plotted. The fact that the cast is so much bigger and many characters only really get development through their one little character-specific plot segment doesn't help. I have other problems with FF6, but these are all basically just nitpicks, as the game is overall excellent. Deserving of being among the best.

[Niahak]

This is the one poll I feel I can vote in as I haven't played one of the games in each of the others!

It's tough, though - while Chrono Trigger is a much tighter game, FF6 is sprawling and has more to offer - more customization, larger party size, and more secrets.

On the whole the customization isn't THAT interesting though, and for most characters it makes sense to play to their innate abilities and focus on Esper level-up bonuses. Some of the "more" here isn't necessarily better, it's just "more" and some features are so rare/weird that players might go an entire playthrough without seeing them (Gogo without a guide, or the "critical health" special attacks that are unique for each character). That said it has a lot of fun setpieces, and most of the cast is pretty likeable so I won't be sad if it wins.