Giant Bombcast Game of the Year 2017: Best Story

If Yakuza 0 doesn't win we riot

I am 100% with Alex when it comes to the top 3. I haven't played Night in the Woods but if the descriptions within are accurate I'd say it hangs, but I would 1000% put Yakuza 0 over Wolfenstein. In fact, I'm between Yakuza and Nier for winner.

better be doki doki literature club

So the games that were removed from Best World contention because they should be Best Story didn't even get nominated for Best Story...

How is Horizon not even in basic contention, its easily one of the best stories this year and every time they mentioned they say its one of the main reasons to beat the game. Also its like they totally forgot Prey existed. Then we have Divinity which none of them played.

From how all the vods have gone so far it really feels like GB needs someone who actually enjoys games with good Stories, World Building, and Lore to juxtapose against the everyone else.

Horizon isn't even in contention but: "Honest question, how is the story in Knack 2?"

Giant Bomb just jumped the shark.

@s1acer: Don't think any of them played it ;/

Vinny's reason for not wanting Yakuza 0 and how it has "been done before in other media" makes no sense when Red Dead Redemption won this award in '10 and is EXACTLY that.

This end of the year stuff is not supposed to be taken seriously and it is just stupid to get hung up on its outcome but yakuza 0 was ROBBED.

Good show!
I wasn't even hoping for Night in the Woods to get that far up the list but it's very good that it did.

Great picks, but would love to hear why Horizon wasn’t on this list of nominees

Did Will Smith (not that one) walk into the office and neuralyze the existence of Horizon Zero Dawn from everyones minds, what happened? :D

The Horizon thing seems to be easily explained. It was too early in the year and other games simply stole its thunder(jaw). There are legitimate psychological reasons why Oscar movies come out closer to the oscars.

When it comes to stories, we have a very strong tendency of mentally organising them chronologically. Even when it comes to fiction.

Really love the picks! I should mention.

The treatment of Horizon is seriously bringing me down in a way I never expected from these deliberations. The ridiculous arguments against it when it has legitimate points to critique, the lack of support for the things it does incredibly well... I'm using HZD as one example, but I'm just kind of lost as to what's happening with these discussions this year. The overall group dynamic, generally thoughtful and often hilarious conversation, it all just feels off in a way that bums me out a bit. Perhaps it's due to 2017 just being tough year for a lot of folks, plus quite a few new faces at the table, but overall I'm glad to be a subscriber regardless and I'm excited to see what's ahead.

The more Nier pops up, the more excited I am to see how they try to hash out the top 4-6 games tomorrow. Feels like Mario and Zelda have been kind of simmering in the background, waiting to strike.

Makes me happy to see Night in the Woods getting love. Gregg rulz

Dan really sucks at this category.

I felt at the time that they were so out of touch with the Western Film genre that they didn't realize almost every major story in that game was lifted beat for beat from a film.

How the fuck is Horizon not even considered..... did Jeff forget?

I said it elsewhere, but Horizon got sniped by Zelda in the open world implementation and Nier in the "thoughtful machine apocalypse" angle. Which sucks, because any other year it'd have been a shoo-in for best story and GOTY.

I wish I'd had the time to play Assassin's Creed, though. Absolutely nothing about that game seems appealing to me, but it keeps popping up in these categories, while Horizon, which seems like it should make it obsolete, is getting glossed over. I'd love to know if there's something there I'm not seeing, but I'm simply not spending another 40 hours on something that seems just so... drab. Still got plenty of open world games to wrap up before I start another one just to see if it's as boring as it seems on video.

Horizon is best story .

With regards to the Yakuza series. I've played all the games except Dead Souls and of course Yakuza 6 which isn't out here yet.

Overall Game rankings: Yakuza 2 > Yakuza 0 > Yakuza 4, > Yakuza 5 >Yakuza 1> Yakuza 3

Overall Story rankings: Yakuza 4 > Yakuza 0 > Yakuza 2 > Yakuza 1> Yakuza 5 > Yakuza 3

Talking about the story in these games is a bit tricky because each game is connected to the others even if it doesn't initially appear to be so. That's part of the charm of the series. It's why I hold Yakuza 2 in such high regard. Yakuza 2 does for Yakuza 1 what route B of Nier does for route A. It also lays the groundwork for the series to evolve into what it has become now.

Yakuza 0's story is great on its own but in the context of the overall series, it cannibalizes portions of Yakuza 1 which makes that game feel less impactful as a result. So for me personally, it loses points but it's still a damn good game.

I swear every category this year has a "walk in" game that's on the list the entire time that I'm always like "...what?", when it doesn't get cut, so I was happy to see everyone put to the test to explain why Wolfenstein II has a good story.

That said, the fact Yakuza 0 got cut for being "a perfect example of one of those" when that's basically the only argument anyone's made for Cuphead winning anything is sad.

Even as someone who doesn't think Horizon had a very well told story (mostly just a good backstory delivered badly with dull characters, too many text logs, and bad pacing), I'm also surprised it didn't even get a mention when Assassin's Creed of all things was on there.

That's seven years ago. Peoples opinions on what's important for them change. And most importantly, that wasn't the only reason he gave. He said that he rather reward a game for telling a story with a more unique and important theme.

Vinny throwing Yakuza 0 under the bus belongs in the Top 10 Anime Betrayals list. Such a shame. I think choosing Night in the Woods over it, because you want to reward the type of story it tells, is kinda weird - the better story should win, not the one that is perceived to be somehow more novel.

On an unrelated note: I needed something to do with my hands while listening to the deliberations this week, so I gave in and tried Doki-Doki Literature Club. It is a free game after all. While slow to really get going.... I thoroughly enjoyed it. If you have steam, you should try it.

Vindog, three lattes deep!

Having played all the games, Wolfenstein was the odd man out. It's a great story, but at the end of the day it's a great action story, and I think the other three in the games do more interesting things and transcend that story.

I can't believe the ending argument for Yakuza was everyone in favor of kicking it out saying "I didn't play the game, I wish I did". I understand everyone can't get to any game but when it comes down to it like that I think it's ridiculous to kick out Yakuza while admitting they haven't played it, especially when juxtaposed with Brad and Jeff admitting they almost overlooked Nier for this category.

"I've seen Yakuza's crime story before, in TV and games and movies".

Meanwhile, Night in the Woods is Mumblecore: The Game

I'm glad that Divinity at least got acknowledged in this category.

Thanks for Jeff speeding up the process. Some of these categories would take twice as long without him willing to get to the point of the top 3.

That said, I'm still not sure what Night in the wood's story is.

I get that It's about suburb teens doing the stuff you do in a boring town while exploring these characters. They all go through some shit and some feel directionless. That helps to flesh out believable characters, but i feel like having a good story needs to be more than just containing good characters. Like what is the storyline that takes these characters through the game? Abby mentions that the game has a full fledged journey, but i don't think they ever talk about it.

Jeff mentions that his favorite thing about it is that it feels like a believable place. Maybe it should've been talked about in Best World instead? :)

@onemanarmyy: getting to who wins the award isn't the whole point though; the crew have explicitly said every year part of the reason they record their deliberations is so that they can give props to every game they feel warrants it in each category.

Not an empty quote.

Jan's list was pretty great, hopefully he;s involved next year.

It's kind of infuriating how many times people said "the side stories are amazing but the main quest isn't that good so let's cut it" considering they spent a whole lot of time talking about how side stories and lore should be talked about in the "Best Story" category and not the "Best World"

Horizon had one of the best written stories in years and it not even being on their list to talk about is insane. I'm fine with it not winning but it should be in contention. This is the first year where I've been on a completely different page for most categories. I don't expect them to think exactly like me but it's just crazy to me. If it came out recently I don't think horizon would be getting such a huge overlook, I'm baffled by how negative they are about it.

@anupsis: yeah. It's like a rehash of The Witcher 3's fate in the 2015 GotY deliberations. It came out at a bad time(opposite Zelda for Horizon, just before E3 for Witcher 3), many months ago, and they have some kind of nitpick with a particular element of how it controls and plays... The end result it it getting overlooked in categories where it deserves to be recognized(Vinny forcing the issue was the main reason that The Witcher 3 got recognition outside of the Bloody Baron arc which none of them could deny).

@silversaint: I'm not entirely sure it is a timing issue with Brad playing it most recently. Unfortunately I think that their issue with the controls and traversing the environment are putting such a bad taste in their mouth that it is overshadowing most other aspects about the game. Not entirely sure what their issues with the traversal are as I don't remember having such a bad time with it but definitely disappointing for fans.

How does Ben need the Persona 5 story explained?
I'm fine with Nier winning but pay attention people.

@dystopiax: True true.

But when everyone has said their piece on the nominated games, but can't get themselves to make a choice it's refreshing to have someone in the room that can point out that realistically there's only one spot left to argue for. That's the difference between 40 hours of deliberations & the 25 hours we have now. At some point, no new arguments are being made anymore and it comes down to people wistfully saying things are 'very good' or 'remember how cool ... was? '

I liked watching Abby during the deliberation videos. She would play with her laptop, put her hand under her chin, or just occupy herself. I tend to do that same thing in meetings, it probably a bad habit, but I listen better when I'm not trying to 'appear to be' listening.

I especially liked when she played with her keyboard, found something stucks between the keys, fished it out, and examined it like a booger between her fingers.

How bad are the Yakuza 0/Horizon spoilers in this vid? I need to finish Horizon before I get started on Yakuza.

This is literally unbelievable. Horizon isn't even on the list? The list is a sham. I listened to the entire thing just waiting for someone to realize that they left off the true winner of this category somehow. But let's make sure we get a mortician's tale and Bury me my love on this list. Further, if I have to hear about Dream Daddy being on a list it has no business being on with the reasoning being "it's super fun" I'm going to lose it. I mean Vinny literally said "I don't remember the story" in Observer but that made it on the list. But Horizon, that Jeff said earlier in the year had one of the best stories he's seen in a game in a long time, doesn't make it on the list? Yakuza belonged in the top 3. Not to knock Night in the woods but it doesn't even compare. This is just mind boggling. Another infuriating and disappointing category.

@visualizer: Horizon is not mentioned. Not even 1 second of discussion about it.

@morkins324: huh..well then. Thanks for letting me know.

Yakuza was robbed. Do feel Wolfenstein 2 should of been left off I feel.

I am genuinely surprised at how differently I feel about Persona 5 than the GB crew. 95% of the criticism about it seems to be people not actually playing / paying attention to the game...

Horizon was the best story I experienced in a game this year.

Ben basically turned everybody off of the game by comparing the robots to the Michael Bay Transformers designs.

@silversaint: Amen.

Dan is my spirit animal when talking about Night in the Woods. It's a real shame that Night in the Woods beat out Yakuza 0 in this category. It just doesn't compare.

I'm not really enjoying any of the discussions this year... I think Best Music was maybe the only category that I feel got proper dues.