Final Tabulation Results
Eternal Sonata: 6
Quest 64: 3
Vagrant Story: 2
Xenogears: 2
Valkyria Chronicles: 1

Quest 64 is not going to be possible (it keeps glitching out, although I have tried everything I can think of it to get it working), so its votes are awarded to the next highest title. However, there is a tie between Vagrant Story and Xenogears. A coin toss (performed live with Iliya as witness) has determined that Xenogears is the winner.

RESULT:
WINNER: Eternal Sonata (6 votes)
RUNNER-UP: Xenogears (5 votes)

My comments about Eternal Sonata are not meant to guide anyone towards voting for any of the other games on the list in the hope of securing a ‘better’ review. To wit, there are NO spectacular failures of the sort I describe on this list. In fact, there were few enough on the list before (Xenosaga II, maybe?), so I’m hardly endorsing alternatives here.

If I were going to make a list of awful games which would yield spectacular reviews, it might be something like this (completely off the top of my head):

The 3rd Birthday
Beyond the Beyond
Ehrgeiz
Hey, You! Pikachu!
Mega Man X Command Mission
SaGa Frontier
Shadow Madness
Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)
Unlimited SaGa
Xenosaga

You may absolutely discuss the games, their merits, and their flaws, as long as it remains unclear for which game you voted. Advocating a game’s merits as part of a discussion should not be read (and will not be read, unless explicitly obvious otherwise) as a by-admission reveal of one’s votes.

Therefore, in a discussion about whether a game is suitable or not suitable for a review, commenting on some or all of a game’s features will not be taken to mean that one has voted, or has not voted, for the said game.

This was pretty obvious before. Don’t reveal your votes. Discussion is fine.

How is this a problem?

Comments 172 through 178. There is a fine line here, which I will gladly discuss after the voting period is over.

Potential resistance to what? The fact that I made the contest rules? Where else would they come from, God?

How could you even have a contest without rules? Why are people complaining that there are rules to prevent them influencing each other?

I can play along.

You should put an asterisk to that.

*as long as you play by my rules.

you’re making your thoughts very clear, while I fear I can not without having my vote redacted.

As I have said before, I will not prevent people from nominating a very mediocre effort, but it won’t be the best subject for a review. It’s the spectacular failures that make for the best reviews, which is why Deadly Towers and Fable both worked so well.

Both of those could have been excellent games. There’s an enormous amount of vision behind each. Nor can they be said to be merely another ‘can of peas’ made to make a quick buck. Immense effort was put into each of those titles to make them something new, unique, and genre-changing. And the result was a hopeless fucking disaster, in both cases.

Eternal Sonata is just ‘another RPG’ made ‘because we’re making an RPG now’. It’s like the woefully iterative Tales of games. Churn them out, don’t worry about doing anything special, and make a marginal profit. Although it thinks itself much deeper than it is, one can’t make a review out of that in the same way one can with a Twitter account. I’m reviewing the game, as a whole, in a look back after I have finished it. I’m not sitting down with a copy of the script, spending the entire time cherry-picking the most egregious bits.

There’s a serious flaw in thinking if one believes that reviewing a Twitter account is anything like reviewing a Video Game. There’s absolutely no comparison whatsoever. And, to top it off, I have nothing whatsoever to say about this Jayden fellow, whomever he is.

Now: Just a heads-up. I may *not* be able to play Quest 64 after all. If that is the case, any votes cast for it will be awarded to the game with the next lowest score. Sorry about the late notice on this, but it was unavoidable. That said, if I can play Quest 64, and if it wins, I will absolutely play it.