Giant Bombcast Game of the Year 2020: Day Two

God RIP to FF7. Your guts are spilled all over the floor my friend.

Risk of Rain 2 getting the recognition it deserves makes up for FF7 getting straight up murdered in cold blood

Lmao that final deliberation on best music

Will there be video, or does that just take longer to upload?

@royalghost: It was ruthless how fast it died that I had a good laugh when it happened. I love the soundtrack and it got me pumped through much of the game but I see their reasoning on effectively hearing another take on tracks already redone to death at times. Takes a little wind out of the sails versus the fresh stuff this year.

I got to point out, in Yakuza 7 "Universal Boss" isn't Mabuchi's theme, it's "Cold Blooded" and it fuckin' slaps.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon OST - Cold-Blooded (Akira Mabuchi Theme) - YouTube

Also Mabuchi sucks and doesn't deserve to have a theme this good.

Brad getting VICIOUS about Spiritfarer later on damn

I said it in chat at the time and I’ll say it again: FF7R has good enough orchestral versions of better midi arrangements from 20+ years ago, with generic original tracks. It should be nowhere near the top of this list.

Overall, Umurangi and Animal Crossing should have made it, but music is subjective and what’s on there is hard to argue as being anything but quality.

@jonnythan12: I think it just takes a little longer for the video versions.

Best Music was long

2:40:20 is when best multiplayer starts

@ashusp: I never expected it to go the distance with this crowd but I was not prepared for what happened at all ahahaha

@lanechanger: doing the lord's work

it takes a bit longer.

Thanks guys, glad to see GOTY is underway.

Personally, I was quite disappointed that Cyperpunk wasn't (at least) on the list for Best Music. The ambient music, especially, I found to be quite entrancing and immersive (when the game isn't breaking).

Multiplayer isn't my thing, so no comments there. Stay safe everyone. Cheers!

I always enjoy the music. It's usually one of the most chaotic categories in what is inevitably a (joyfully) chaotic series of awards, and this year was no different. Happy to be along with the ride, and those were three worthy finalists! As ever there were tons of phenomenal entries; at first I wasn't sure if it was a great year for music but the more games got read out the more wrong I realised that thought was.

Another fun one. Thanks folks!

Video game music is amazing. I grew up on NES/Genesis stuff, and that eventually led me to learning melodies on my guitar. And I'm still doing that 20 years later.

It just keeps getting better and more diverse. From fun creative melodies, to upbeat funk, to full orchestral scores, to prog, to soulful minimalism. Some incredible stuff mentioned here.

Why Ben no cam :(

Did Ben decide to get a face tattoo? Is that part of his catharsis and grand departure?

Man, there's not been THAT many great OSTs this year; I guess 13 Sentinels, Horizon's Gate, and Trails of Cold Steel 4 in that order for me? Trails from Zero if that's applicable from the localization.

DJ Jan holding it down!

Final Fantasy 7 was robbed 😭

I'm gonna listen to the shit out of that Big Mud song.

Not quite done with the podcast yet, but, every year, the music category always breaks my heart the most. FF7 is getting no love and that makes me super sad. I have a feeling that Hades will be brushed aside as well, much like Pyre was.

Man the fact FF7R lost sucks since the airbuster boss fight remix song slaps hard as fuck

This year's game of the year is extremely enjoyable. So happy we have the old format back.

I might be one of the few that thinks the argument that FF7R's music being primarily re-orchastrations or remixes does invalidate it a bit. Wish Jeff or Jan had gone harder for Sludge Life to be honest.

Deep Rock shoulda swept today. When action kicks in, the soundtrack slaps.

MAD props to Jan for managing the music

My only disappointment is not hearing some of that Fallen Lords from Monster Train, that track slaps hard.

Best music is always a trainwreck but FFVII:R got shoved off the train early and then shot five times in the face

A shame what they did to FF7R. As someone who thinks the original soundtrack wasn't Nobuo's best work; It was good, but far from his best. The way they remixed that music was really special and made me have a whole new respect for the original. And them not even considering Streets of Rage 4's soundtrack almost disqualified the whole list for me. But Hades won and |Ori made top 3 so I'll let it slide.

Multiplayer wise: I think out of all of those games, Call of Duty: MW should have won it. Cold War is such a disappointment. Outside of protect the VIP mode, most of the other MP modes aren't that good. I haven't played Rock Galactic so I could be wrong, and I believe Among Us is more overrated than Fall Guys. Destiny 2 could win it all. But the problem with that game for me, is the developers refuse to allow matchmaking for all of their MP modes. So most of the special levels, challenges and raids require having friends, clans or whatever. In my opinion that will always hold the game back.

ha- it doesn't shock me to find that the TLOU2 soundtrack didn't particularly resonate with anyone on staff (especially given the downer nature of the thing and the context of the year we're having). it was the thing i listened to most this year, and if you're a fan of deeply emotive, minimalist and thoroughly human music- i suggest checking it out. gustavo santaolalla is genius - hearing how he uses different melodic ideas and argentinian instruments to represent character interactions- and the way he records leaving imperfections (like 60 cycle hum and amp buzz)- it's like cocaine for me. austin wintory (composer from Journey) did an excellent video on gustavo's work for those that are interested.

also- shoutout to mac quayle's work on the ST as well- TLOU2 easily has my favorite combat music since XCOM: Enemy Unknown. the way the game diegetically used this track when fighting through the blown-out suburbs of seattle brought unforgettable intensity- and how this one somehow abstracted disquieting bloodlust down to grimy synth noise...it's all brilliantly done stuff.

This one got a little more aggressive than the stuff yesterday, though it was still really enjoyable. Part of the reason that these deliberations have been so good is that everyone seems measured and considerate. Brad roadblocking people occasionally feels weird. Even if he has a point there's this combo of mild defensiveness + a seeming power imbalance as the one deleting & bolding things. I know that's not intentional, though.

But yeah, mostly nitpicks. Great GOTY discussions so far.

I think that if staff had the time/energy to figure out timestamps for the songs they want to fight for, it would really really help their case. But that's a lot of work.

Final Fantasy VII Remake was axed too early in my opinion, even if it is familiar territory. And not that the category is most music, but the soundtrack has 155 songs. There’s a wide variety in terms of what they do and just about everything is great (or at least appropriate for what’s happening).

Ori I forget the music five seconds after I hear it. Also I never liked the aspect of this whimsy music playing as you are getting impaled by spikes / dissolve in swamp water. I was rooting for the Spiritfarer switcheroo. That soundtrack has a lot more depth than even what was played during this video.

My top three are probably Hades, Final Fantasy, and Yakuza. Yakuza is “dumb”, but that soundtrack has bangers and the perfect “Let me think about the past 20 years of my life” acoustic song.

Joel did not get his justice in dads category.

This was dirty. They shoulda just brought back Nier Automata.

The ending discussion on Best Music was both great and hilarious.

I love Brad, but end up getting so annoyed with him during GotY discussions for some reason. This is why we Giant Bomb GotY though.

I remember when most disappointing for Fallout 4 came up, and I was like absolutely, that game sucked, it broke the first three times I tried leaving my cryo pod. The Brad/Jeff debate for that one is an all timer.

It sucks they gave Furi best music in 2016 but no one has heard Haven, which is an entire soundtrack by arguably the best composer from Furi.

Or Paradise Killer, the actual best soundtrack of 2020

SPIRITFARER WAS ROBBED

Never shoulda been cut from the list

Spiritfarer beats Ori any day of the week

Let's fight

"Lets have a vote all around to see where we're at, non-binding."

Narrator: It was binding.

Good show all around, especially that end of Best Music.

Jan is the hero we don't deserve.

I'll back Ori readily because that soundtrack is a goddamn thematic masterpiece of motifs and instrumental layers for any player that actually bothers to pay attention to it. It's not just noodling around for the sake of "ooh whimsy", there is a storytelling in the music that absolutely elevates the game in a way that would make it a lesser game if it wasn't there.

None of what it does is particularly groundbreaking or innovative but I feel people (especially in games) sometimes tend to devalue things which are familiar but done extremely well, which honestly? Kind of sucks ass

I say this in the same spirit in the way I wish FFVII Could Have Been Higher, but honestly I actually feel more critical of that game because the actual orchestral samples and instrumentation feel rushed and arrangements feel of variable quality at times.

When I put the Ori soundtrack on the stereo it's 3 straight hours of some of the most consistent storytelling and ambience out of all the games on the list. It conjures up which characters are involved, what kind of area/environment the music is set in, how high the stakes are in the sequence compared to other sequences. It fucking *owns*

@laserjesus: I see the confusion, Jeff had to remind Ben and others during the discussion as well - this was for best music which is why Spiritfarer was cut.

Baka Mitai deserved better

That last FF7 song is sick!

@roomrunner: Yep, the music in Deep Rock Galactic is great. The whole game is just top notch.