Hello guys, for me it is hands down FFVII Rebirth, Tekken 8 being my 2nd and Dragons Dogma 3rd. Personally I feel there are many reasons but I'll just name few:
1. Never before a JRPG won the award - Rebirth finally shows the way on how JRPG genre can evolve and recapture greater audiences. It moves away from the "Niche feel" that JRPG genre has been going post PS2-era. Purists may still argue - I used to feel remakes or changes of JRPG genre direction were uneccessary until Rebirth. All in all, Squaresoft took all the risks (financial, risk of alienating fanbase with story or world choices etc).
2. The scale of the game.
3. If not the greatest OST, undeniably one of the best ever.
4. Apart the high metacritic score compared to the other front-runners, an EXTREMELY HIGH score user review (look at Elden Ring, Zelda TOTK, Ragnarok or even Baldurs Gate.
5. The LOVE factor. I know, all games are the labor of developers might and love. But Rebirth? There was so SO MUCH LOVE given to Rebirth, it screams LOVE. It made us cry, scream of happiness and relive our teen years. Developers wanted us to. How many of us are dads/moms now and introduced the story to our children...Monumental moments... I can't thank them enough.
etc.
I want to state my POV on the amazing 2022 and 2023 gaming years:
Those 2 years had mindblowing GOTY contenders ( 2022 - ELDEN RING, GOWR, HORIZON etc, 2023 - Zelda TOTK, Baldurs Gate 3)
I feel that many of the BIG-Players of global press (IGN, Gamespot etc.) have been overrating the BIG games in the past couple of years. The peak of such practice was overrating an undeniably great Zelda game (TOTK) giving it God-like status and then, seeing that Baldur Gate 3 was THE REVELATION (to me the clear Winner), BG3 needed to score at least an equal score... the rest is history. Sometimes, user scores say a different story, at least when they are not just mindless bombing of hate (aka Last of Us 2 hate etc.).
Anyway, in a world after Elden Ring, GOWR, Zelda TOTK and Baldurs Gate it would be hard for a game to score higher or surpass them within a year or two. Moreover, It is easier to rate higher an action/adventure game than other genres - it is what the audiences want. Dont you feel that, especially the US press is unforgiving to Japanese turn based games? I was so Happy turn-based BG3 won GOTY 2023, even if non-Japanese...
Lets all give the 2024 games the respect they deserve: FFVII Rebirth, Tekken 8, Dragons Dogma 2, Hell Drivers 2, Like a Dragon, Black Myth: Wukong could all have scored better at metacritic - I dont know what will happen with Astrobot but I dont think it will be rated 90+.
Thanks for reading my post.
I really hope Rebirth wins.
It deserves to...
