Game of the Year 2017 Day Four: Debut, New Characters, Story, and Styyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyle

1. It is insane Persona 5 didn't win for Best Styyyyyyyyyle
2. As someone who really likes Night in the Woods, Yakuza 0 is better. Not just the crime stuff (which is excellent) but a lot of the side story and funny material in that game. Also the writing is just so damn good. Probably the best localization I've ever seen. (The weak link for me out of the ones they discussed is Wolfenstein II which has cool moment, but not a great or memorable overall plot)
3. Another day, another day closer we are until NieR: Automata becomes Giant Bomb's GOTY for 2017

About Mementos, Persona 3 just has a tower that is something like 260+ floors with more or less the same music and the same level design for the entire game and Persona 4 has you replay the exact same dungeon you just did to get to the extra content. I'm not going to say Mementos is the best thing in the world, but I think it was a good solution to the extra content and more repeatable stuff while also tying into the story. And in terms of going through Mementos at the end that doesn't take long at all.

@moseswalker:

I can not believe that Persona 5 got robbed!!!

I got a PS4 recently so I'm still playing Horizon right now. I haven't listened to the guys yet, but I would've expected Horizon to be a contender for best game, debut, character, and definitely graphics. It's easily the most polished open world game I've ever played. The combat/story/world is different and refreshing - I like Aloy a lot so far.

I think it's good to look at diversity, but it seems like when it comes to games, movies, and TV shows that's often just code for "lets not pick a white guy, lets get a 100 pound pretty chick instead"... (and probably pay her way less). I like Aloy, but her being white looks weird with several of the outfits in the game IMO. Having a ginger dressed up very tribal (in an African or native sort of way) looks odd, and not in a positive/unique sort of way... it's like if Conan O'Brien was dressed like a Mayan or Egyptian. I'd like to see more diversity, but not just more white women - men and women of other races too.

In a year rife with excellent story-driven games, they gave best new character to the current Assassin's Creed protagonist? What topsy turvy land is this? Any of the new Persona, Zelda, Nier, Yakuza, Destiny, Resident Evil, Tekken, Wolfenstein, Uncharted, Horizon Zero Dawn, Divinity: Original Sin 2, characters to choose from, among many, many others, and they went with the "oh no my son died time for revenge" guy? I'm really going to have to listen to their deliberations in order to try to make sense of this mad, mad decision.

Persona 5 lost best/most styyyyyyle?!

PUBG for debut? Playerunknown is a brand and it's a direct successor to his previous games, free or not. It's far from a debut.

Cuphead sweeps Best Looking and Most Styyyyyyyyyyle, just like I told you it should. Anime was a mistake

Not only did Persona 5 get robbed, but Pascal got robbed...TWICE!

@zombiepie: As someone who just finished Persona 5 last night at 120 hours I wish there were another 100 hours of game tbh.

Yakuza 0 got robbed in Best Styyyyyyle and Best New Character categories.

@brad you should play Yakuza 0. Play it on easy. Bask yourself in the actual BEST STYYYYYLE.

@superfluouss: your absolutely right, but just judging based off what the staff has been most “passionate” about during these deliberations so far or the ones that have been no question locks, it seems like it’s Nier or Pubg that has grabbed Jeff, Brad, Alex and Vinny the most or the ones they have been willing to go to bat for the hardest.

That unless the rest of them can make passionate arguments for their respective favorite games (cuphead, night in the woods, Zelda and Mario) I just don’t see the final fight for number 1 and 2 being anything except Nier or PubG,

Would love to be proven wrong and genuinely surprised though, but we shall see how it all goes tommorow

Happy with today's results.

@jlaue317: 110% agree, cuphead is fine and all, but Persona 5 was so damn stylish in every damn way. I'm not mad at you, GB crew, but I am disappointed.

Boy Persona had the best style this year.

I’ll reserve my full option untill the final day is out of the way but I really started to get a bad feeling regards the discussions as a whole.

Maybe it’s the number of people has reached a point that is stretching he format and I thought I could tell that some of the West coast team didn’t feel comfortable having a heated discussinon with Abby (not so much Ben due to his internship) due to unfamiliarity and maybe some extended time cross coasts say 2-3 months would benefit the team as a whole moving forward. I also felt while certainly being a positive influence on GB overall Abby didn’t seem as open to compromise as others usually are and constantly backed her horses in EVERY fight as opposed to a few key categories instead of being open to having her mind changed. I understand that untilmatly she’s young and these type of discussion skills come with time so I retain hope for the future. I’d like to re iterate this is not Abby bashing, I enjoy her content with the Beast crew and feel she’s a great addition to the staff just offering some honest feedback.

Today in particular I felt like Brad, Jeff and Dan didn’t contribute as much as maybe I’d like as I always aprechiate their opinion on matters even when I don’t agree with it. I feel like given Jeff’s vast experience and knowledge of the industry he often gives a different perspective on topics to the rest of the crew.

I hope some of the guys are just saving their arguments for the big one and we see some more prepared pitches and counter points etc ultimately it’s always tough adding new members to a team, especially a disparate one, and be able to retain the same dynamic as a group. I feel this has reflected on the discussions as a whole in a somewhat negative way this year but is inevitably if the site is to grow. I’d like to hope that the team stays relatively static for next year to try and find that balance again.

@zombiepie: I think 40 hours is a bit much. From the end of Sae's palace to the true ending it was around 16 hours for me. But I definitely agree that that portion of the game dragged mostly because Shido's dungeon was bad. But I still think the game had a great story. Also, that styyyyyyyyylle.

best s[T]ory

Dang, I thought for sure Jason and Jeff were gonna be onboard the Persona 5 style train.

@zombiepie: dude, it's the style category, style, just sayin'

"A Blessing...To have finished the work I was put on this earth to do...Surrounded by friends that love me.

And the great warmth washing over me....I think the sky is on fire"

For me, that first inner monologue from B.J. in the beginning of Wolfenstein foreshadowed how well written the rest of that game was going to be.

It's not just the idle dialogue you hear on the submarine. It's not just the subject matter that its world is wrestling with.

It's the way Blazkowicz jolts awake in the middle of his nightmare. The way he repeats his father's words as he drags himself into a wheelchair while watching one of his comrades getting shot to near death -

"The old and the weak are doomed"

Everyone likes to focus on the bombast and supposed slapstick of Hitler pissing in a bucket and puking on the floor, but not once did they mention the part where he briefly mistakes Helena for his mother while yearning for her comfort.

Jeff might've thought that dream sequence with William's mom was super corny, and that's fine; it's his opinion.

However, everything leading up to that moment combined with the incredible heartfelt performances of the voice actors, the dialogue itself, and the subtle atmospheric arrangement from Mick Gordon are the reasons that scene made me tear up.

Some folks on the crew might've let the bombast eclipse how well executed everything else was in that story.

Speshie interrupting a serious moment between Anya and B.J. with mild toilet humour didn't bother me. And it was because the writers knew how to go all out on the crazy while also showing incredible restraint and reasoning in it's presentation.

PERSONA 5 WAS ROBBED. Notice it's not just the anime avatars saying it though. It should have won in a walk.

I was so very frustrated with the Best Debut category because the whole time Ben was just an inch from saying the phrase he needed to say: "This isn't even the first time Brendan Greene has made one of these." I'm sorry, but it's just not a debut. It's a phenomenon-- the most successful of this type of game that PlayerUnknown has made, but absolutely not the first.

Also, Night in the Woods was robbed at least twice. No Gregg/any representation at all for Best New Character, and I strongly feel that it should have won at least one of the other two categories it was nominated for. I'd lean Best Story, since NieR doesn't do anything too interesting and arguments against Wolfenstein seemed pretty heated.

The love-fest around NieR is really reaching a fever-pitch. It seems like they're so ready to overlook so many glaring issues with the game. I'm now fully expecting it to win tomorrow. Really hoping it pulls a DOOM, but I'm not holding my breath.

@elmorales94: I have Nier right at the top of my list this year but I fully expect them to crown Zelda or PUBG tomorrow. I do expect Nier to get a solid 2nd or 3rd place showing though.

Just dropping in to say...Persona 5 got robbed. I know, a bold and brave opinion but, seriously, it totally got robbed.

First day in GOTY history where I disagree with all four category winners.

I think both Persona and Cuphead are dripping with style so I'm pretty happy with the outcome.

Also awesome to see Bayek get some love. He's easily the best AC protagonist since Ezio

Every category had moments that bummed me out this year, love everyone, found deliberations frustrating though

Yup, count me in on calling persona 5 getting robbed.

even though it has been said more than a dozen times.

Persona 5 got ROBBED! that is all.

BEST STYLE WAS AN INSIDE JOB

If you think the chorus of, "Persona 5 got ROBBED!" That we're seeing today for the Best Styyyyyyyyyyyyle category is a bit much, I invite you to tomorrow's comments section when Persona 5 doesn't even make it into the Top Ten Games of 2017.

Which I think will be a real shame, especially since we've heard the crew lament the year that was outside of video games. The motivations behind the Phantom Thieves and what they're trying to do by stealing the hearts of those who would use and brutalize people they have power over in order to elevate themselves at others' expense is FAR MORE PRESCIENT than any overblown comparison of Wolfenstein II's America under Nazi rule to America today. Look at some of the villains in Persona 5 and Kamoshida, the shitty gym teacher who sexually abuses and harrasses his student athletes, looks a lot like Harvey Weinstein, Haru's Dad, who is only concerned with corporate profits and sees his workers as replaceable commodities, can stand alongside any CEO that is more concerned with making his or her shareholders happy and neglect the stagnant wages of their employees, and Shido, the populist candidate for Prime Minister who manipulates the public's attention to media to rise to office, while in Japan was probably more of a takedown on Prime Minister Abe, looks a hell of a lot like President Trump.

While the kids initially just want to be super-heroes and become internet-famous, they eventually come to believe that they can affect real change in the world and they try to do that by stealing the twisted desires that lead the villains in their world to do bad things. They want to make their world a better place before it gets even worse. Isn't that a little more aspirational than murdering Nazis?

I doubt we'll hear anything like that during tomorrow's deliberations though. Persona 5 is a 100 hour Japanese RPG with an anime aesthetic and some played-out anime tropes sprinkled throughout its cast, so it couldn't possibly have anything worthy of actually recognizing as, "Best of," in 2017.

That said, Persona 5 got ROBBED!

I think that's silly. Graphics and Style are two different things and one game can do both of those things well enough to win both categories.

Agree. Sometimes I feel like, even often listening to the Beastcast, that many times the other staff members of Giant Bomb don't really feel comfortable having a heated discussion or challenging Abby. I'm not sure why that is although I can make a couple guesses. So they just back down or don't really call her out on it.

@jeremy808: I read it more as Abby is into her own thing so they are less critical/aggressive since they appreciate that. So when she is talking about this game that no one else played in this genre that no one else follows, it doesn't give others much to go on. All-in-all, they've done a good job of being respectful of that and she's done a good job of knowing she can't win those fights unlike Alex and Brad who throw a hissy-fit in that situation.

I kinda disagree, I think the reason they have two categories is because they really aren't supposed to overlap. Normally style is something that is used in place of graphics because they aren't going for graphics, and why cuphead really should have won one or the other. But not both. If anything I think it has weak style because it is just copying one-for-one the old cartoon style of movies and shows.

Yeah, i'd say other than maybe Jason she's the one who i've felt i've heard say "I know this isn't going to win and i'm fine with that" the most so far.

Nonsense, Best Style takes in the visual and audio and whatever other nebulous factors that make a game really stand out. There's no reason a game couldn't have the best Look and then also combine that with whatever else and take Best Style.

I mean it shouldn't have because it's a much better Second Place choice but it's totally eligible.

Persona 5, Rob the Robot

Man. Too bad about that Best Style category. I could see an argument for a more clinical "best art style" kind of award going to cup head, especially if anime visuals ain't your thang, but in a category that's been alternately described as "Best Swagger", I can't think of a game that has more Swagger than P5. Maybe Yakuza? I mean, part of the entire point of the thieves is to BE stylish. I get that Cuphead has some attitude and lots of visual flourishes, but... I dunno. Doesn't feel like the category as described fits the thing they gave it to, feels like the category changed to just "best artistry" or sommat. Hard to describe.

The game about bunch of cool thieves got ROBBED on the category it should've won. Cosmic irony strikes again.

How the fuck did Gregg got robbed? Like, somebody has to tell me because listening to it will make me throw things.