Each game is seeded based on its performance in the two opening rounds of pools. Every game in the Upper Bracket has defeated multiple other games in 1-on-1 polls to get to this point. These are still the best of the best.
Polls are updated weekly, typically on Sunday or 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!
I am well known for my dislike of Dark Souls but I feel good about voting for Gargoyle's Quest here. A great fun little RPG/platformer combo that I played for the first time last year and that holds up wonderfully. A perfect spinoff. I'd love to see a new one in the style of the recent new GnG, but I doubt that'll happen.
Gargoyle's Quest is legitimately a cute and competent little black & white handheld spin-off. It's a fine game.
I can't really say it's one of the 128 best games of all time.
Dark Souls is easily in that upper echelon, of course, in terms of environmental storytelling, excellent responsive visceral gameplay & combat controls, and industry impact. I don't just mean in terms of the proliferation of "Souls-like" semi-genre entries where you carry your progress with you and then "retrieve" it after you die, but also simply in terms of action-focused gameplay where your split-second decisions and movements have weight and consequences. You can't just tank hits, or endlessly dodge, or spam attacks. You want to use a heavy sword? That'll cost you in the valuable currency of time. This game has an unfair reputation of being crushingly difficult for the sake of it, but it's not. It's one of those games in the classic tradition where you can be patient, learn the game, learn what the game expects of you, and then master it. You can beat the game without dying.
The final thing I'll say about Dark Souls here is that it did something quite unique that not enough people appreciate—it's a post-apocalyptic fantasy that doesn't reuse the tired cliches of nuclear apocalypse or population-ravaging plague (heh, in a way). Civilization is long gone. All that's left is pockets of sad people. There's no hope of reestablishing what has been lost. But you'll encounter many compelling shells of people who have tried and who are still trying. This fresh take on an old genre is part of what makes what would otherwise be bit parts so compelling as characters. Solaire and Siegmeyer in particular.
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Kong Wen wrote: ↑13 Jun 2023 20:54
The final thing I'll say about Dark Souls here is that it did something quite unique that not enough people appreciate—it's a post-apocalyptic fantasy that doesn't reuse the tired cliches of nuclear apocalypse or population-ravaging plague (heh, in a way). Civilization is long gone. All that's left is pockets of sad people. There's no hope of reestablishing what has been lost. But you'll encounter many compelling shells of people who have tried and who are still trying. This fresh take on an old genre is part of what makes what would otherwise be bit parts so compelling as characters. Solaire and Siegmeyer in particular.
Laurentius is my favorite - he's just trying to be the best pyromancer he can be, and is awkward as heck.
One thing I like about Dark Souls (vague spoilers, mostly thematic)
Spoiler
The times of peace and prosperity come at a price, and the god figures are no longer as powerful nor as virtuous as they appear - if they ever even were either of those.
There are hints that other lands are less defunct (not-undead humans who travel to Lordran) but it's also implied that they will have the same fate.
Demon's Souls was mostly the same way, and did do it first... but it wasn't until I beat Dark that I went back to Demon's and finished it.
