🕹️ Awards and fantasies

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🏆 Game of the Year awards nominees

It’s that time of year again, and I’ve outlined the six nominees below. Of note is that there is only one game that is not a sequel (or close to one). What I mean by that is Death Stranding, Hades, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance are all clearly sequels (based on their numbering), but Silksong is also a follow-up to the hugely successful Hollow Knight. Finally, Bananza is made by the same team that made Mario Odyssey, and it shows. Of course, it is not a sequel, but it is built heavily on the back of Odyssey.

I would put my money on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 as the most original and most likely to win the award this year, and so would the majority of the other gamblers out there.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Developer: Sandfall Interactive

Publisher: Kepler Interactive

Lead the members of Expedition 33 on their quest to destroy the Paintress so that she can never paint death again. Explore a world of wonders inspired by Belle Époque France and battle unique enemies in this turn-based RPG with real-time mechanics.

Deep turn-based combat enhanced with real-time mechanics such as dodge, parry, and timed actions. Rich, atmospheric world inspired by Belle Époque France, filled with haunting environments and surreal adversaries. Strong narrative and voice acting, praised for emotional weight and immersive storytelling.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach

Kojima Productions

Embark on an inspiring mission of human connection beyond the UCA. Sam—with companions by his side—sets out on a new journey to save humanity from extinction. Join them as they traverse a world beset by otherworldly enemies, obstacles and a haunting question: should we have connected? Step by step, legendary game creator Hideo Kojima changes the world once again.

Open-world exploration across diverse environments with dynamic day/night cycles, natural disasters, and changing terrain. Evolved gameplay combining stealth, climbing, driving, and combat — giving players freedom to choose how to approach missions. Deep, emotional narrative that explores connection, survival, and the human condition — hallmarks of the series’ identity.

Donkey Kong Bananza

Nintendo

Join DK and his companion, Pauline, as they delve deep underground—and discover that this subterranean world is a lot more than it seems on the surface.

A standout title among family games, bringing the classic Donkey Kong spirit to modern platforms. Created by the same team that worked on Mario Odyssey, so it features many of the same mechanics and exploration systems.

Hades II

Supergiant Games

Battle beyond the Underworld using dark sorcery to take on the Titan of Time in this bewitching sequel to the award-winning rogue-like dungeon crawler.

Sequel to a celebrated indie title (which I put MANY hours into). Known for robust art direction and independent-game sensibilities. Among the few indie games in GOTY slate, representing diversity in scale and style.

Hollow Knight: Silksong

Team Cherry

Discover a vast, haunted kingdom in Hollow Knight: Silksong! Explore, fight and survive as you ascend to the peak of a land ruled by silk and song.

Successor to a beloved indie classic. Tight, polished 2D action/adventure gameplay with atmospheric design. Artistic and musical direction, as well as independent-game roots, make it stand out among large AAA titles. Combines exploration, challenge, and deep world-building, potentially resonating with both hardcore and casual players (but mostly hardcore).

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II

Developer: Warhorse Studios

Publisher: Deep Silver

A thrilling story-driven action RPG, with a rich open world, set in 15th century Medieval Europe. Experience the ultimate medieval adventure - through the eyes of young Henry - as you embark on a journey of epic proportions.

A large-scale RPG with emphasis on realism, historical setting, and immersive world simulation. Among the few major-studio, high-budget games nominated.

🆕 New releases

🔮 The Seance of Blake Manor

Developer: Spooky Doorway

Publisher: Raw Fury

The Séance of Blake Manor is a supernatural detective mystery, set in 1897 Ireland, where you investigate the disappearance of Evelyn Deane in a remote hotel full of secrets and other-worldly occurrences.

Set in Ireland. Deep lore. Occult. Time limit. A library that must be used to figure out what is going on—doesn’t eat into your time.

🎮 In Rotation

🤓 Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

Square Enix

The Unknown Journey Continues... After escaping the city of Midgar, Cloud and his friends set out on a journey across the planet. New adventures await in a vibrant, expansive world in this standalone entry of the FFVII remake trilogy.

After playing the Remake recently and being a big fan of the original, I knew I would pick this one up at some point. Well, that time finally came when a student of mine told me it was fantastic. I went all out and bought a PS5 to play it on (not wanting to settle for low-res on my Steam Deck). It was about time I got a PS5 anyway... right?! I got it for you guys! So I can keep bringing you game news from the front line!

Anyway, as for my thoughts on the game:

Battle system complexity

There were so many fighting mechanics and systems in the previous game (Remake). Compared to the original, which was "active" but still fairly turn-based, the jump to FFVII Remake was massive. You could run around and attack for a start, which was a big difference. But not only that, you had to block attacks, change characters, watch the gauges in the bottom-right corner, watch your health, etc. Similar to the original, we also need to consider the distribution of materia among players and the assignment of materia for optimal boss beatdowns. Finally, there was a weapon/character strengthening system where you could assign points to make a character hit harder or block more efficiently. There was a lot. But by the end of the game, I had my play style and the systems mostly figured out.

Now with Rebirth, there are EVEN MORE things to think about.

Synergies between characters to do attacks or blocks together (which reminds me heavily of the way combo attacks worked in The Simpsons acade game). Books that you pick up which allow for the casting of spells WITHOUT needing materia, or new synergies that can be unlocked.

There's perhaps too much now to be honest. I'm tempted to turn the complexity down and choose the Classic mode instead (which allows me to focus on issuing commands instead of doing all the running around)

Visuals

My god, it's gorgeous. There is a photo mode now as well, which means you can pause the game and take photos of the current scene from various angles.

World traversal

So, SPOILER, the first game ends as the characters leave Midgar. We are now in the big, wide world, and in the first game, this meant that the angle of vision and camera distance from the characters changed quite distinctly. (See pic)

I was curious how this game would handle the shift, but at my current point in the game (only 3 hours in), there is no shift in camera angle or distance, which is quite disappointing. It makes the world seem much smaller than the original because the sense of scale is not there at all... (again, I should add the disclaimer that this is so far. Things may change as I go through the game)

New notable stuff

SO MANY MINI GAMES

Queen's Blood!: There is now a card game embedded in FFVII, which is actually a LOT of fun to play. It should totally be a mobile app from Square. I think they would make a killing. It seems others agree, too. There is a website where you can play in your browser.

Piano playing rhythm game!: Again, pretty good. Push your thumbstick to the correct place, and hit the notes. Uses both sides of the controller, so the right side is for chords and the left is melody. My kids and I played the same song around 10 times last night to try and get an A-Rank.

SO MUCH (filler) CONTENT

There really is a LOT to do in this game, which pulls you away from the main quest. I can see this taking 100+ hours, honestly.

Panzer Dragoon

I was curious about this ancient Saturn game, so I booted it up in an emulator 🤫. It’s essentially a 3D, on-rails shmup. The dragon itself is well animated, and the shooting system is fine, but nothing special tbh.