...because it's a game released in episodes and the release on April 10, 2020 is only episode 1. Other episodes will follow to complete the main story.
Don't get me wrong. I don't want to bash the remake. I played the demo and yes, the quality should match the requirements to be nominated as GOTY (game of the year). But my point is that this release is being marketed as "Final Fantasy VII Remake" which suggests that this release is a remake of the complete game Final Fantasy VII, although it's only a small part of the main story of the original Final Fantasy VII, but with additional content. The wording is absolutely misleading and dupery in my opinion. There's no sign for the customer that there are a few more episodes to come in the following years that obviously will be released on future systems (PS5 and probably PS6).
As a game which is released in episodes, it has to be handeled like other games which are released in episodes. For example Life is Strange.
Argument 1: The time between the releases of episodes is much longer than on other episodic game releases (a few years instead of a few months), so FF VII Remake should be handled as a complete game.
Well, if development time between titles is an argument for a nomination as GOTY, then Shenmue III should have won the award without competition. Besides, the time between game releases is not a quality property and doesn't make a game more complete.
Argument 2: The content is much bigger (100 GB) and the time for a playthrough is much longer than on other episodic game releases, so it should be handled as a complete game.
If content and playing time matters to be nominated as GOTY, then why are "Journey" or "Untitled Goose Game" being nominated (in one category) as GOTY? You can play through these games within a few hours, just like a Life is Strange episode.
Even if we assume that FF VII Remake IS a complete game, then we can compare it with other complete games, for example the original Final Fantasy VII. Will it have the same impact on the player? I don't think so. Many important characters and places are missing. Probably you won't even get a good picture of the main villain. Midgar is not even representative for the whole game. When I played the original back in 1997, Midgar was by far the worst part of the game and I really had to force myself to play on. But that's just a personal impression (but I know that I'm not the only one).
You get the point. Is Final Fantasy VII Remake a complete game? In my opinion, content-wise yes, story-wise no. But the story is a main feature of a RPG and people who play FF VII Remake will have a quite different experience as if they would play the original game. But the word "Remake" and the missing "Episode 1" implies that the player gets roughly the same game as the original, just in an optimized version - which isn't the case.
Compared to other games, which were released in episodes, it wouldn't be fair if Final Fantasy VII Remake would be nominated as GOTY. That would imply that all upcoming episodes of FF VII Remake could also be nominated as GOTY. But not every episode of Life is Strange 2 was nominated as GOTY, although they were released in different years. Only the complete game with all episodes got the nomination. To be consistently correct, FF VII Remake can only be nominated as GOTY, when all episodes were released and the complete main story has been told.
Thoughts?
PS: Maybe it's more comparable to the "Star Wars" or "Lord of the Rings" movie series, which each part had also won Oscars individually. But the difference is still the misleading wording. A subtitle like "Midgar" or "VII-1" or "VII Episode 1" would have been a better choice than "Remake". Other recent games like Resident Evil 2 or Shadow of the Colossus don't even have "Remake" in the title, although they are one.
