It's still Forza Horizon 6 for my and will remain it since I have no plans to play GTA 6 anytime soon.

Glad to see Mina getting the love it deserves. Masterpiece IMO. An all-timer, I’d go as far as to say.

Still RE Requiem, but I have high hopes for Orbitals and 007 First Light.

I know it originally came out a couple years back, but Granblue Fantasy Relink's one of my Switch 2 honourable mentions, along with Indiana Jones, Pragmata, and Splatoon Raiders.

Updated to this point! Thanks for everyone's contributions so far.

Hopefully this list has already inspired some of you to try out a few new games :)

It's early days as I'm only around 2 hours in, but Onimusha: Way of the Sword may well be a contender for me, it's absolutely brilliant so far.

Combat is immensely satisfying, the difficulty is challenging but fair, the distinctly Japanese aesthetic and atmosphere are compelling, and it's just a damn well made video game from top to bottom.

The Blood of Dawnwalker !
I'm in love with the game. I have already 35 hours on it.

So far.

Onimusha Way of the Sword.
Romeo is a Deadman.
Digimon Time Story.
Monster Hunter Stories 3.

Hmm I’ve been back and forth on whether I’d consider Splatoon Raiders worthy of my nomination. Still unsure. Really had fun with it, just overstayed its welcome a bit.

Mina remains as my GotY front-runner. Let’s see if any other releases contend.

Another contender for me - Queen's Domain

Just like with Esoteric Ebb I've nominated back in March, which goes after "Disco Elysium meets D&D" fans, this one is also quite niche (thus it will be hardly considered for actual awards), and goes into emerging Field-like genre (games that are trying to evoke and continue King's Field legacy), and this one is pretty much stellar in having that old school vibes and aesthetics, augmented with some of modern enhancements.

I found RE Req to be meh. Grace was amazing, Leon's sections, especially mid-game, were god awful. So far GotY isn't close, the answer is Fortune's Weave. Best FE game to date, just absurd in every way. I have completed chapter 1 for Cai and Leda, working on Theadora now. I have nothing but great things to say about FE:FW. GotY with ease.