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 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’ve been waiting for the sun to come up. Waiting for the showers to stop. Waiting for the penny to drop. One time. And I’ve been standing in a cloud of plans. Standing on the shifting sands. Hoping for an open hand. One time.
In many ways, this is a poetic match-up. The Legend of Zelda is pure gameplay, emptied of plot. Yes, there is a loose over-arching story, but no plot. Literally having no plot is part of the design philosophy of the game—you're in an open world, and you have to decide where to go next. Even tackling the dungeons out of order is an option. The reason you play this game is to explore, find secrets, draw a map, and get good at fighting bad guys.
Torment is at the other end of that spectrum, where so much of the value of the game is tied up in its hours of well-written storytelling.
This doesn't mean Torment has no gameplay, because obviously it does. I'm just looking at the level to which investment in the narrative gives weight to the quality and pleasure of the game. In Zelda: none; in Torment: yes. So consequently, this doesn't mean Torment is automatically better, it's just a distinction of categories, like the difference between Dr. Mario and Call of Duty.
I'll be the first person to extoll the virtues of the blind exploration genre. I love the first Zelda. But I think for the purposes of this contest, something as perfectly and artfully crafted as Torment has to advance.
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^ What he said. The first Zelda is a great game and, unlike a lot of the games of its era, still playable and fun to this day. But Torment has to move forward here.
EDIT: As I elaborated on in extremely verbose fashion in an earlier post several months ago, I think there's a point when evaluating great games where all the games left under consideration are candidates for being the best. The objective criteria are all being met by each entry (though I think the Guacamelee/Superstar Saga matchup may be an exception here) and all that's left is subjective preference. I've reached that point now, and can say with confidence that among these 16 games, PS:T will get my vote in every poll it appears in.
