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BEL2026 Video Game Madness - Midwest Region 2nd Round: 12 Ori and the Will of the Wisps vs. 13 Final Fantasy VII Remake
2026 Video Game Madness - Midwest Region 2nd Round
Midwest Region Round of 32 Matchup Preview: 12 Ori and the Will of the Wisps vs. 13 Final Fantasy VII Remake
Two Sequels That Exceeded Their Predecessors Meet in the Most Unexpected Matchup of the Round
The Midwest bracket produced four upsets in the Round of 64, and this matchup is the direct result of two of them meeting in the second round.
Ori and the Will of the Wisps beat Hades II in overtime. Final Fantasy VII Remake beat God of War: Ragnarok by two votes. Two games that the bracket structure suggested were likely first-round exits are instead here in the Round of 32, each having knocked out a game with a stronger seeding and a higher critical score, and now they face each other in a matchup that nobody predicted when the bracket was first drawn.
Ori and the Will of the Wisps is the sequel to Ori and the Blind Forest, Moon Studios' 2015 platformer that established the Austrian developer as one of the premier creators of 2D platformers in the industry. The original was beautiful, challenging, emotionally generous, and scored an 88 on Metacritic. When the sequel arrived in March 2020, the question was whether Moon Studios could build on that foundation without losing what had made the original special. They answered that question by surpassing the original in almost every measurable direction.
Will of the Wisps scored a 93 on Metacritic, five points higher than Blind Forest. It won Best Score and Music at The Game Awards 2020. Gareth Coker's soundtrack is among the most celebrated musical compositions in gaming of its year, a work of genuine emotional power that elevates every moment it accompanies. The combat was expanded. The world was larger and more intricate. The emotional stakes were higher. The game was, by virtually every measure, better than a predecessor that was already considered near-perfect.
What makes Ori 2's presence here remarkable is the specific game it beat to get here. Hades II scored a 94 on Metacritic. It won Best Action Game at The Game Awards 2025. It is Supergiant Games, a studio that has never made a bad game, building on the foundation of one of the most acclaimed games of the 2020s and expanding it in almost every direction. Ori and the Will of the Wisps beat it in overtime by one vote. That is one of the defining results of VGM 2026 and a testament to the intensity of the fanbase that Moon Studios built with two games.
Final Fantasy VII Remake has a different kind of story. The 2020 reimagining of the first portion of the most revered JRPG in history scored an 87 on Metacritic and delivered a version of Midgar that the original's technology could never have achieved. The new real-time combat system is one of the best in the genre. The characters were given depth and detail that the original's limitations had prevented. The story decisions made near the end of the game suggested that the remake would not simply retell the original but would instead interrogate what happens when characters become aware of their own destiny, a premise that Rebirth has been tasked with developing further.
The Final Fantasy VII fanbase is one of the most specific and motivated voting blocs in gaming. These are people who have carried memories of a 1997 game for nearly thirty years, who have debated its story and its characters and its legacy across decades of internet discourse, and who showed up when Square Enix finally committed to reimagining it. They beat God of War: Ragnarok by two votes in the Round of 64. God of War: Ragnarok scored a 94, won six awards at The Game Awards 2022, and sold over fifteen million copies. The Final Fantasy VII fanbase beat it anyway.
Two sequels that outdid their predecessors. Two fanbases that proved themselves in the Round of 64 by eliminating games with stronger seedings. One of them advances to the Round of 16 and one of them goes home having already accomplished something that the bracket suggested they could not do.
The Midwest bracket continues March 21. 12PM.
