Bookkeeping! Or how CK makes a bunch of pointless work for himself

[Talaysen]

Ranking new games that contain characters from older games never obsoletes them because some people haven't played the new one.  And this will ALWAYS be the case.

It's even more prominent with DLC forms since I doubt many people with bother buying those.

Just let people vote on whatever forms they're familiar with.

[Dhyerwolf]

Disgaea 4 is better played?! That seems really unlikely. I'd also personally say based on the stat topic the cast is probably the most boring since D1 (They generally either hit things decently and do nothing else, or hit things really badly, heal and run out of resources).

[Cmdr_King]

Odds are decent Disgaea 4 and Disgaea 3 are roughly equal(ly bad) draws.  I think there's a couple people who skipped Disgaea 3 because it was release before anyone had a PS3 that did play Disgaea 4, but I know that I at least haven't finished Disgaea 4, so.

Traditionally, something like the DLC characters wouldn't get people to vote on them. They're easily missed cameos of characters from another game.  And if they were more meaningful, say major players in an alternate campaign that most people bought and played, they'd still just get tagged something like "Adell (Disgaea Series)"; just because Disgaea 4 has a version of Adell doesn't mean people who played Disgaea 2 but not 4 can suddenly not vote on him.  I might do something like that in a non-DL season, to test how a character draws or because the two forms are substantially different and make for a more interesting match, but not in a regular season.

I'm (very slowly) recompiling the data in the topic into a more readable and easily updated format to be reposted in the next few days.  The idea will be having a topic where people can just pop in and say "oh I played this" and I can update it and shuffle rankings accordingly.  In the meantime, I think I have most voters except Dhyer (who I can only assume just doesn't have time to put a list together), so it'll at least be relatively good data.

[Dhyerwolf]

The List of Ranked Things (I have played everything in this category fully enough to vote on except for FE 10)

If I say nothing, it's a keep

Arc the Lad- Boot
Arc the Lad 2
Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits- Boot
Breath of Fire
Breath of Fire II
Breath of Fire III
Breath of Fire IV
Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter- Abstain
Brigandine- Boot
Chrono Cross
Chrono Trigger
Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga
Disgaea: Hour of Darkness
Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories- Abstain
Dragon Quest VIII
Dragon Warrior IV
Earthbound- Boot
Fire Emblem: The Blazing Sword
Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn
Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy III
Final Fantasy IV
Final Fantasy V
Final Fantasy VI
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VIII
Final Fantasy IX
Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy X-2- Boot
Grandia
Grandia II
Grandia III
Golden Sun- Abstain
Legend of Dragoon
Legend of Legaia
Legaia 2: Duel Saga
Lufia and the Fortress of Doom
Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals
Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete
Lunar: Eternal Blue Complete
Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis
Mega Man X: Command Mission
Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen
Persona
Persona 2: Eternal Punishment
Persona 3
Persona 4
Pokémon Red, Blue, Yellow
Pokémon Gold, Silver, Crystal
Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald
Phantasy Star- Boot
Phantasy Star II- Abstain
Phantasy Star IV
Suikoden
Suikoden II
Suikoden III
Suikoden IV
Suikoden V
SaGa Frontier
Seiken Densetsu 3
Shining Force
Shining Force II
Shadow Hearts
Shadow Hearts: Covenant
Shadow Hearts: From the New World
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
Star Ocean: The Second Story
Star Ocean: Till the End of Time
Skies of Arcadia
Secret of Mana
Soul Nomad & The World Eaters
Tales of Destiny- Boot
Tales of Eternia- Boot
Tales of Phantasia- Boot, I suppose.
Tales of Symphonia
Tales of the Abyss
Vandal-Hearts- Boot
Valkyrie Profile
Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria
Wild ARMs
Wild ARMs 2
Wild ARMs 3
Wild ARMs 4
Wild ARMs 5- Abstain
Wild ARMs: Alter Code F- Boot (Waffly here, but this doesn't preclude from other WA 1 character forms, but does boot Mariel. Boot Mariel).
Wild ARMs XF
Xenogears
Xenosaga: Der Wille zur Macht
Xenosaga: Jenseits von Gut und Bose

The List of Potentially Ranked Things

Kingdom Hearts- Haven't played, Don't rank
Radiant Historia- Played, Rank
Tales of Vesperia- Played Rank
Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation- Haven't played, don't rank
Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, Platinum- Haven't played, abstain
The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow-Brick Road- Played, Rank
Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy- Played, Rank
Cthulhu Saves the World- Haven't played, rank
Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana- Played, don't rank
Atelier Iris 2: The Azoth of Destiny- Haven't played, don't rank
Parasite Eve- Haven't played, don't rank
Dragon Quest V- Haven't played, don't rank
Star Ocean: First Departure- Played, rank
Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice Haven't played, don't rank
Valkyria Chronicles- Haven't played, Abstain
Pokémon Black, White Haven't played, don't rank
Xenosaga: Also Sprach Zarathustra- Played, Abstain
Suikoden Tactics- Played, Rank (Gah...so tentative here, but I like it so I guess it meets the best subjective criteria)
Breath of Death VII: The Beginning
Suikoden Tierkreis- Played, don't rank
Final Fantasy II- Haven't played, don't rank
Final Fantasy XIII- Played, rank
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance- Haven't played, don't rank
Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift- Played, don't rank
Final Fantasy XII- Played, don't rank
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne- Haven't played, don't rank
Final Fantasy IV: The After Years- Haven't played, don't rank

[DjinnAndTonic]

Putting this here while I'm thinking about it:

I'm curious where these series fall in playership, though I suspect it is far below the more prominent games:
Ar Tonelico
Growlanser II
Growlanser III
Growlanser V
Eternal Poison
Lost Odyssey
Infinite Undiscovery
The Last Remnant
Enchanted Arms

If any of these are really well-played, we could get a stat topic made up for them.