Site Event Famiboards Game of the Year 2022 Celebration: WINNERS ANNOUNCED! See threadmark.

[Irene]

Hello everyone, and welcome to this year’s Game of the Year celebration. This will be an opportunity to look back on what has been, to remember a year gone by, and to reflect upon fond memories, and to do it all together!

2022 was wild, weird and in many ways brilliant when it came to games. We all did so much, in so many games, across so many adventures, vistas, and storytelling experiences. We had fun, we were challenged, and maybe we shed a tear.

11 days ago, we kicked off our prelude, focused on a single category - Most Anticipated 2023 game. Now, then, it’s time for the main event, the Game of the Year celebration that will have us nominate, talk about, and vote on games in a variety of categories.

The event will have a total of 16 categories, with 2 of them being categories touching on things outside the games themselves. The nomination process will work so that we nominate games in two categories at the same time. Today, we will immediately start the event by nominating both “Best Action or Best Action-Adventure”, and “Best Art Direction”.

There will be 3 days of nominations for each pair of categories. The nomination period will run until January 26th, where we end the final bundle of categories. The nomination process will take place in this very thread, where you fine folks will nominate your favourite games of 2022, and the things about them.

Starting January 27th, voting will run for 5 days, and close on January 31st, with the winners being announced on February 1st. Voting will be made via a Google Forms ballot, just like in the case of the prelude event. You are going to nominate your top 3 games in each category. It will be a lot to vote on, but we encourage everyone who wants to participate!

To nominate, there will be a specific template that needs to be followed in order for the nomination to count.

First, type ”Fami Your Consideration”, and then on the next row, present the category. On the next row, present the game. And then, follow up with a motivation of at least one paragraph detailing why this game is the one you nominate. If you want to nominate in both categories, repeat the process, but you don’t have to write “Fami Your Consideration” again. It's encouraged that you nominate in both categories! (But it's completely okay to just pick one)

Example:

Fami Your Consideration
Best Action or Action/Adventure game
God of War Ragnarök

This game blew me away, from when I first booted it up, all the way to that epic final battle that I won’t spoil. The visuals are stunning, and I didn’t mind the long runtime. This is everything I loved about the first God of War reboot game, turned up to 11. More intense combat, more impressive locations, and more emotional moments. Definitely my favourite action-adventure game in 2022 by far.

Best Art Direction
Tunic

I just love how this game looks. It’s cute as heck! It’s a gorgeous world to get lost in, and it has this pleasant muted colour palette that is really appealing to look at. Love the enemy and boss designs, and the lighting in some of the environments really stand out. Definitely a stunning-looking game!

Best Action or Best Action-Adventure
Best Art Direction
Best RPG
Best Soundtrack
Best Platformer
Best Level, Area or World
Best RTS/Strategy Game
Best Multiplayer Experience
Best Puzzle Game
Best Rerelease
Best Indie Game
Best Gaming Moment
Best Sports/Party Game
Cutest Character
Community Award: Most Impactful Gaming Thread
Game of the Year​

Best Action or Best Action-Adventure
An award recognizing the feeling of being on an outstanding journey, whether it be through an intriguing world, through excellently crafted levels, or just through extraordinairy places. Games where you get to meet engaging characters, and where you meet tons of enemies and bosses that gets to taste your weapon of choice.

Best Art Direction
An award recognizing excellent visuals. Stylistic and minimalist or hyper-realistic and bombastic, or something that aims for striking a balance. Games that offers pure eye-candy in the form of an appealing and excellently crafted style.

Best RPG
An award recognizing the very best that this year’s role-playing experiences had to offer. Intricate customization options where you can spend hours tinkering with party members that will take you on an epic adventure across fascinating worlds. Games that let you experience an unforgettable plot with characters to die for.

Best Soundtrack
An award recognizing excellent music to accompany what’s happening on the screen. For a soundtrack that fits its game like the hand in the glove.

Best Platformer
An award recognizing escapades often upbeat and uplifting, where quick footing is key, and where you jump across hazards and enemies with your tongue between your teeth. Games with tight controls that makes for satisfying gameplay, and levels that are a joy to go through.

Best Level, Area or World
An award recognizing places you simply love to be in. It can be for any reason - for a sense of place and immersion, for a place offering excellent gameplay challenges, or just a zone to chill in.

Best RTS/Strategy Game
An award recognizing games that allow you to take part in complex, tactical decisions. Games that encourages careful consideration and planning, and has you immerse yourself in a world where victory is key.

Best Multiplayer Experience
An award recognizing the fun that can be had with friends and close ones - or rivals, for that matter. Whether it be in purely multiplayer-focused games, or games with multiplayer elements, this award is for spotlighting times where the most fun comes from, and with, other people.

Best Puzzle Game
An award recognizing true brain-twisters. Games where you have to utilize logical thinking, rationalize solutions, or just guess your way through. Games that offers gameplay and solutions that are incredibly satisfying to solve and take part in.

Best Rerelease
An award recognizing the chance for newcomers to experience a classic game anew. Whether they be remasters, rereleases or remakes released in 2022, this is an award for those games that gets a second, sometimes better, chance on new or old hardware.

Best Indie Game
An award recognizing games that are made by smaller teams and publishers. Games that are just as outstanding as bigger productions, in spite of their sometimes shorter length and smaller scope.

Best Gaming Moment
An award recognizing what’s happening outside of games themselves, in the wider worlds of games and the gaming industry. Events, viral clips, jolly or heartwarming moments - anything in the gaming space outside the actual games.

Best Sports/Party Game
An award recognizing the times where it was just fun to let loose and have a fun time, whether it be with vehicles, tennis or just something random and cool.

Cutest Character
An award recognizing that cute character that you can’t help but adore. For an easygoing and heartwarming character that it’s hard to not like.

Community Award: Most Impactful Gaming Thread
For this community award, we recognize game-related threads here on Famiboards during the year that have been impactful: important discussions that have taken place, discussions that has been touching on crucial parts of the world of video games and that has led to productive and insightful conversation.

Game of the Year
An award recognizing the best of the best that 2022 had to offer.

1. You can only nominate one game per category to be added to the voting ballot. You are free to mention and talk about other games, but your top choice(s) is the only ones that will be added. We are encouraging everyone to nominate as many games as possible!

2. The game must be released in 2022, and it must be a new game. Remasters/Remakes/Rereleases are reserved for the “Best rerelease” category only.

3. Any games that are nominated in this thread will be included on the ballot, assuming that they are eligible games of course.

Additionally, two more things:
First of all, genres can sometimes be tricky to pin down today, with how much that can blend together. (Especially in Action/Adventure/RPG genres) We won’t have a rule where we will follow a strict genre definition down to the bone to determine what games are or aren’t eligible for a category. When in doubt though, we will defer to how The Game Awards handled genres for their categories.

Second of all, we can admit that choosing categories wasn’t easy. There was a lot of discussion, and some categories had to be discarded since we wanted an even blend of genre categories and some more loose, general ones. We understand if people are dissatisfied by the categories presented here. Nevertheless, we would like to discourage any discussion regarding what genres are and aren’t part of the celebration.

Jan 1st to Jan 3rd - Introduction and nominating Best Action/Action Adventure and Best Art Direction
Jan 4th to Jan 6th - Nominating Best RPG and Best Soundtrack
Jan 7th to Jan 9th - Nominating Best Platformer and Best Level/Area/World
Jan 10th to Jan 12th - Nominating Best RTS/Strategy game and best Multiplayer Experience
Jan 13th to Jan 15th - Nominating Best Puzzle Game and Best Rerelease
Jan 16th to Jan 18th - Nominating Best Indie Game and Best Gaming Moment
Jan 19th to Jan 21st - Nominating Best Sports/Party game and Cutest Character
Jan 22nd to Jan 26th - Nominating Most Impactful Gaming Thread and Game of the Year
Jan 27th to Jan 31st - Voting period
February 1st - Winners presented

Primary organizers: @Josh5890 @Irene
Graphic design: @Irene
Input: @PixelKnight @Aurc
And a special shoutout to @Lozjam for hosting last year's GOTY event
___

Now, let's nominate!

 

[Josh5890]

This is the current list of nominated games/participants for this year's Gaming Celebration event:

Best Action/Action Adventure Game:

• Bayonetta 3
• God of War: Ragnarok
• High on Life
• Horizon: Forbidden West
• River City Girls 2
• Sifu
• Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin
• Tunic

Best Role Playing Game Game:

• Elden Ring
• Harvestella
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero
• Live A Live
• Pokémon Legends: Arceus
• Pokemon Scarlet/Violet
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Best Platformer Game:

• Cuphead- The Delicious Last Course
• Kirby and the Forgotten Land
• Sonic Frontiers
• Tinykin

Best RTS/Strategy Game:

• Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope
• Marvel Snap
• Triangle Strategy

Best Puzzle Game:

• The Curse of the Golden Idol
• Elechead
• Picross S8

Best Indie Game:

• Chained Echoes
• Crystal Project
• Cursed to Golf
• High on Life
• Infernax
• Ooblets
• Prodeus
• SIGNALIS
• Stray
• Tunic
• Vampire Survivors

Best Sports/Party Game:

• FIFA 23
• Mario Strikers: Battle League Football
• MLB the Show 22
• Nintendo Switch Sports
• OlliOlli World

Best Artistic Direction:

• About an Elf
• Card Shark
• Elden Ring
• Horizon: Forbidden West
• Kirby and the Forgotten Land
• Live A Live
• Splatoon 3
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Best OST:

• Bayonetta 3
• God of War Ragnarok
• Horizon: Forbidden West
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero
• Neon White
• Pokemon Scarlet/Violet
• River City Girls 2
• Sonic Frontiers
• We Are OFK
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Best Level/World:

• Crystal Project- Sequoia
• Horizon: Forbidden West- World Map
• Kirby and the Forgotten Land- Waddle Dee Town
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero- Crossbell
• Marvel Snap - Limbo
• Pokemon Scarlet/Violet- Area Zero
• Splatoon 3- Alterna
• Tunic- Inside the Ziggurat
• Xenoblade 3- Aionis
• Xenoblade 3- Fornis

Best Multiplayer Experience:

• Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak
• Nintendo Switch Sports
• Pokemon Scarlet/Violet

Best Re-release/Remaster:

• 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
• Chrono Cross The Radical Dreamers Edition
• Live A Live
• NieR: Automata The End of YoRHa Edition
• Pocky and Rocky: Reshrined
• Tactics Ogre Reborn
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Cowabunga Collection

Best Gaming Moment:

• The 8-Bit Big Band winning a Grammy
• Bundle for Ukraine on itch.io raises over $6 million
• The friends we made along the way
• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom title and release date reveal trailer
• Square-Enix’s Absolute Lack of Chill

Cutest Game Character:

• Awoofy- Kirby and the Forgotten Land
• Cat- Stray
• Chocobo- Chocobo GP
• Fidough- Pokémon Scarlet/Violet
• Kirby- Kirby and the Forgotten Land
• Mabosstiff- Pokémon Scarlet/Violet
• Main Character- Lil Gator Game
• Sena - Xenoblade Chronicles 3
• Smoliv- Pokémon Scarlet/Violet

Most Impactful Thread:

• My Dream Remaster: Pokémon Colosseum HD
• Nintendo General Discussion |ST12 Sep 2022| Trails From Splatoon 3

Game of the Year:

• AI: The Somnium Files - nirvanA Initiative
• Bayonetta 3
• Elden Ring
• God of War: Ragnarok
• Horizon: Forbidden West
• Kirby and the Forgotten Land
• Pokemon Legends: Arceus
• Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet
• SIGNALIS
• Triangle Strategy
• Vampire Survivors
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3

 

[Deleted member 2258]

Fami Your Consideration
Best Art Direction
About an Elf

When this game came out, its unique and striking art direction had everyone taking notice, but I think an unfortunately smaller amount of folks actually played the game. Every visual element is bizarre, beautiful and hilarious from start to finish. This game was made with a very small team and looks perfect to my wacky eyes. This was one of my favorite games of the year, and its art direction was one of the big reasons why. It will remain a hidden jewel to be discovered by brave eShop treasure seekers for years to come.

 

[chocolate_supra]

Fami Your Consideration
Best Art Direction
About an Elf

When this game came out, its unique and striking art direction had everyone taking notice, but I think an unfortunately smaller amount of folks actually played the game. Every visual element is bizarre, beautiful and hilarious from start to finish. This game was made with a very small team and looks perfect to my wacky eyes. This was one of my favorite games of the year, and its art direction was one of the big reasons why. It will remain a hidden jewel to be discovered by brave eShop treasure seekers for years to come.

wtf that looks absolutely wild

 

[King_Dodongo]

Fami Your Consideration
Best Action/Action Adventure Game:
Kirby and the Forgotten Land


Its Kirby, its in 3D and in a post-apocaliptic environment. Remember Shiver Star in Crystal Shards? This goes full havoc with the concept and introduces us new enemies, old rivals, amazing locales, enchanting music and a plethora of tranformations. Seeing how epic some encounters were, it will be hard to top this one. This one was destined to be an incredible entry and delivers in spades. It can be also played in co-op.

 

[chocolate_supra]

Fami Your Consideration
Best Art Direction
Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Much like the original Xenoblade, this game completely beats the expectations of the hardware it was released on, punching well above its weight through the power of well-designed visuals.

The real treat is the impressive attention to detail. The design and animation of the eyes (the subtle twitches!), tricks done with the cel-shading techniques (subtle brushstrokes between the light and dark sides, shadow gradients getting a darker along the edge of the light side the way old hand-painted cels used to do), and the floppy bounciness of the hair and clothes make these characters feel more alive than ever. And if course there's the beautiful vistas we get to traverse. The lighting, the color, the grandeur of the giant mechs you can see nestled in the distance of the natural terrain, it's lovely and surreal. It all rolls into a beautiful example of what can be achieved with art direction over pure graphical power.

Spoiler: supporting evidence

 

[classicgamer504]

Fami Your Consideration
Best Action Game
Bayonetta 3

Bayonetta 3 once again delivers the over the top insane action, that Platinum Games is known for. The combat is arguably the best in the series. With new features like demon slave and demon masquerade, it offers a wide variety of new techniques. There's a nice amount of depth with the many different demons and weapons to use at your disposal. Plenty of hidden items, areas, secrets, etc. With a high replay value.
The game may be a bit too ambitious for the Switch's hardware. Which some of the environment details suffer because of all the things happening on screen, while targeting 60fps. Nevertheless the less, it's one of the best looking titles on Switch. As with previous Bayonetta games, it features a stellar soundtrack. The characters and story are fun and entertaining, despite some of the controversy surrounding the game's ending, it is a blast from start to finish. Bayonetta 3 truly shines with its phenomenal gameplay.

 

[DistractedByPixels]

Fami Your Consideration
Best Action or Action/Adventure game
Sifu

The core premise, which is very neat, is luckily supported by a strong combat system that feels good to play. In a year where pretty much every AAA offering in this area left me cold (unless you count Kirby and the Forgotten Land as both AAA and action/action-adventure), it was nice to have a game like this come out with addictive, simple-yet-deep combat that scratched my itch for action.


Best Art Direction
Card Shark

I feel like I shouldn't have to say more than "looks like Kubrick's Barry Lyndon, but in rich watercolors." If that don't sell ya, nothing will.

 

[curl-6]

Fami Your Consideration
Best Art Direction
Kirby and the Forgotten Land

From its vibrant and lush colour palette, to its soft lighting, to its adorable creature design, to its restrained and subtle use of modern rendering technology, the game is a masterclass in beauty through simplicity. Nothing feels overly flashy or excessive, and everything feels wonderfully cohesive, with every model, texture, and pixel geling together into a warm and lovely whole.

It achieves the look it aims for practically flawlessly, and much like the gameplay, the visual presentation is a cosy delight.

 

[xghost777]

Fami Your Consideration
Best Action Game
River City Girls 2

One of my favorite action games this year was River City Girls 2. It's another fantastic adventure with Kyoko and Misako as they brawl their way to clean up the streets of River City, this time from the forces of the true leader of the mafia, Sabu, and his pathetic son Ken. The writing is once again often very funny and thankfully the rougher edges of the first game were eliminated. The already enjoyable brawling action is further refined here as every character has access to new moves, new accessories, and the ability to have two recruits to assist them in battle. Incidentally, there are more recruits than ever with a fun gotta catch em all element attached to it and even better there are now unique characters you can pay to recruit that have extra devastating abilities some which you have to discover secret rooms to unlock. The world is significantly larger than the original with two brand new locations to explore, a spooky forest and a high tech building, and all the returning locations are expanded and revamped. It's super cool seeing how much the city has changed from the first game and wandering the town is a great excuse to listen to the incredible soundtrack that goes far harder and more funkier than the first game. I definitely want to nominate this game though because it is so much fun to play with friends and the online works really well.

...

Also just wanted to say this event is going to be awesome and I appreciate laying out the categories and schedule in advance

 

[Brock Reiher]

Fami Your Consideration
Best Action or Action/Adventure game
High on Life

While on the surface this is just a "Rick and Morty game", High on Life is a deeply engrossing 3D Metroidvania that rewards exploring its visually exciting world with something unique for the genre- humor. Tight gameplay the seamlessly incorporates a grappling hook, a jetpack, and a slide reminiscent of Platinum Games's Vanquish make the game compelling even if the style of humor isn't your cup of tea. And all of this in service of a story that takes itself seriously where it matters to leave you wanting more from Kenny and the gang by the time you're done. It may have released too late to contend for most GOTY awards, but don't miss out! This is my personal favorite single-player FPS of the past 10 years and comes highly recommended.

 

[Josh5890]

Warning, this is the beginning of my month-long stan for Aloy and Horizon.

Fami Your Consideration
Best Action Game
Horizon: Forbidden West

Horizon brought a huge improvement to the gameplay from the first game. The open world is diverse with many different stories. The main quest is good, and the story is ok at best, but where the game shines the most is the side quests. You can get lost for hours on end chasing the next question mark on the map. I put in 70 hours into the game, and it is easily my favorite PS5 game of the early gen.

----------------

Fami Your Consideration
Best Art Direction
Horizon: Forbidden West

I am just going to submit these in-game screenshots:

Spoiler

 

[hologram]

Fami your consideration
Best Action or Action/Adventure game
God of War Ragnarok

Santa Monica did it again. The follow-up to 2018's God of War builds on everything: more characters, more realms, more lore, more gods, more RPG systems. Critically, and seemingly in response to the main criticisms leveled at the first game, there were also more combat options (especially comparing the early games), more enemy variety, and more boss fights. This was accompanied by a powerful, emotional story with some truly jaw-dropping moments that moments which more than made up for occasional problems with pacing. For me, this is a game that stands head and shoulders above all others this year, and is an easy nod for best action adventure.

 

[Party Sklar]

Fami Your Consideration

Best Action Game
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin

Team Ninja prove once again that, when it comes to make an action game, they know their craft. Stranger of Paradise is an ugly and dumb game, but does it play well. It's like Square Enix went to see Koei Tecmo and told them : "make Nioh, but more accessible". And that's exactly why it's so much fun to play. Hard, but not to a point of being punishing ; fast enough to be fun, but heavy enough to feel the weight of your weapons. A mesmerizing game that I couldn't let go of even after I finished it.

Best Art Direction
Splatoon 3

While it's nothing new, Splatoon's art direction keeps being on point. With flashy colors everywhere, never a post-apocalyptic world looked more fun to live in. The last Dreamcast game, and that enough should make him nominated in this category.

 

[Irene]

Fami your consideration
Best Action-Adventure game
Tunic

This game is that kind of special adventure that makes you so engaged and eager to explore this strange, wonderful, sometimes hostile world that the hours just pass by. It’s a world rife with secrets, and with that clever lock-and-key approach to world design that makes series like Metroid and Zelda - clear inspirations here - so enthralling. But the star of the game is the manual. A unique and completely ingenious concept that ties into the whole feeling of mystery and secrecy that the game completely oozes. It’s such a smart way to make the gradual understanding of the world and its inhabitants so rewarding and fun, while still making it all so mysterious.

There's the cute fox, and the lush grasslands and forests, and the tough bosses. Then... there’s the back half of the game, and oh my freaking god what an experience. Those who have played the game knows what I’m talking about. Just getting to that area, and exploring it, and finding out the small truths of the world, and the whole final stretch with the you-know-what and the you-know-where, was jaw-dropping. Tunic on the whole is a game that just knocked it out of the park in regards to what it tries to achieve.

 

[Josh5890]

12 hour warning for the first round of nominations. Get your picks in if you haven't already.

Also, please make sure you yell at me if I haven't added your pick to the ballot. If there is an issue where the nominee doesn't qualify, we will be sure to communicate back asap.

 

[SammyJ9]

Fami your consideration
Best Art Direction
Elden Ring

Elden Ring is simply one of the most gorgeous games I have ever played in my entire life, and it's mostly down to the art direction. The vistas, shots as you enter an area, etc., are beautiful and very well-considered, often purposefully giving you specific views. And in the overworld the Erdtree is visible from nearly everywhere and never stops being stunning.

From a pure graphics and horsepower perspective it gets beaten by other games, but IMO it's the absolute pinnacle of art direction and a new high from From.

A few shots to show it off:

Spoiler: Images

 

[meatbag]

Fami Your Consideration
Best Action/Adventure Game
Elden Ring

I'm not sure if this nomination is allowed, since I haven't actually played the game myself yet. But I kind of feel like this has to be nominated-- this is FROM's latest masterpiece, an open-world take on Souls that took the gaming world by storm, and even end up winning GotY at TGA. So yeah, I'm throwing this nomination out for Elden Ring, because I'm sure there'll be quite a few that will want to vote for it.

Fami Your Consideration
Best Art Direction
Live A Live

HD 2D is an incredible art style and I am glad more games are making use of it. Live A Live is a refinement of the beautiful pixel perfection started by Octopath Traveler. Simultaneously nostalgic and modern, and all around gorgeous.

 

[Josh5890]

Fami Your Consideration
Best Action/Adventure Game
Elden Ring

I'm not sure if this nomination is allowed, since I haven't actually played the game myself yet. But I kind of feel like this has to be nominated-- this is FROM's latest masterpiece, an open-world take on Souls that took the gaming world by storm, and even end up winning GotY at TGA. So yeah, I'm throwing this nomination out for Elden Ring, because I'm sure there'll be quite a few that will want to vote for it.

So, Elden Ring might fall in a grey area in some ways, but it has been nominated in the Role-Playing category for several awards, including The Game Awards. Therefore, we cannot accept this nomination and ask that it be saved for RPG category, later this month.

 

[classicgamer504]

So, Elden Ring might fall in a grey area in some ways, but it has been nominated in the Role-Playing category for several awards, including The Game Awards. Therefore, we cannot accept this nomination and ask that it be saved for RPG category, later this month.

I was wondering myself about some of the genres and choosing the correct games for its right genre. Cause there are games that I seen label before, depending on who you ask a certain genre. Like some people call Zelda an action/rpg and others call it an adventure game. I seen people call platformers, as well as rpgs, adventure games as well. So it can get confusing.

 

[King_Dodongo]

So, Elden Ring might fall in a grey area in some ways, but it has been nominated in the Role-Playing category for several awards, including The Game Awards. Therefore, we cannot accept this nomination and ask that it be saved for RPG category, later this month.

Reminds me when a game called "Triangle Strategy" wasn't nominated in the strategy category. What a clown move by the pope.

 

[Irene]

I was wondering myself about some of the genres and choosing the correct games for its right genre. Cause there are games that I seen label before, depending on who you ask a certain genre. Like some people call Zelda an action/rpg and others call it an adventure game. I seen people call platformers, as well as rpgs, adventure games as well. So it can get confusing.

Genres are a tricky one that we spent some time discussing during the making of the event. There are many games that blend together things, including the aforementioned Elden Ring, where you can definitely get nitty-gritty with its elements and variables - for example, coming up, you could arguably nominate Triangle Strategy in both RPG and Strategy game, which becomes somewhat of a tight spot, since it eventually has to be slotted into one or the other.

What we mean with “not following a strict genre definition down to the bone” means that we won’t, for example, define Best Platformer by purely focusing on games that are linear, are divided into levels, has enemies and bosses etc, because we want to recognize games that innovate and stretch the boundaries of the genre. (The genre descriptions in the OP are mostly for a casual overlook) However, we ended up on choosing The Game Awards as a more general template for genres, especially for action/adventure and RPG.

This will also be true for best indie, perhaps an even more diffuse thing to define than genre categories.

We apologize if any inconvenience is caused by us feeling the need to disqualify some nomination due to these kinds of differences. It’s all in good fun, and there’s no hard feelings involved.

And for the record, we are going to define Triangle Strategy as Strategy (believe it or not ).

 

[meatbag]

Therefore, we cannot accept this nomination and ask that it be saved for RPG category, later this month

Fair enough

 

[Josh5890]

We have now moved onto the second round of nominations. It is time to highlight your favorite RPGs and Soundtracks of 2022!

Best RPG
An award recognizing the very best that this year’s role-playing experiences had to offer. Intricate customization options where you can spend hours tinkering with party members that will take you on an epic adventure across fascinating worlds. Games that let you experience an unforgettable plot with characters to die for.

Best Soundtrack
An award recognizing excellent music to accompany what’s happening on the screen. For a soundtrack that fits its game like the hand in the glove.

 

[curl-6]

Fami Your Consideration
Best Soundtrack
Bayonetta 3

From punk rock to choirs, the score is as eclectic and varied as the game itself, capturing the game's untamed, exuberant energy wonderfully

 

[Party Sklar]

Fami Your Consideration

Best RPG
Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Going for the easy choice with this one, but was there a more impactful RPG released this year ? A powerful, impactful, story, well-written enough to not be afraid of using tropes. A combat system that, while not as good as the second game, is still excellent. As always with MonolithSoft, top-notch worldbuilding. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a studio at the top of its art delivering us a great game that, like Tales of Arise last year, is not afraid of what it is, of its J-RPG roots that must be respected and modernized at the same time. An important game, for sure.

Best OST
Tomoya Ohtani, Kenichi Tokoi, Takahito Eguchi, Rintaro Soma, Kenji Mizuno, Kanon Oguni, Hiroshi Kawaguchi – Sonic Frontiers

The music in Sonic games is always good, and the one in Frontiers is easily in the top three. A very rich soundtrack that delivers memorable tune upon memorable tune, wether it's ambiant tracks or crazy boss battles. A soundtrack that is Sonic at its core : not afraid of being dated, not afraid of being silly, not afraid, even, of being a bit cringe to some. Leaving those fears behind, the talented composers at SEGA were able to create, once again, a marvelous OST.

 

[xghost777]

Fami Your Consideration

Best RPG
Trails From Zero

Over a decade since its original release, we finally have the official Western release of Trails From Zero, the fourth Trails game overall and the first of the Crossbell duology, and it was worth the wait as it is the definitive version of an excellent game. Trails From Zero follows the formation of the Crossbell police department’s Special Support Section to the end of their first major case. You play as rookie detective Lloyd Bannings and work together with your coworkers to assist the public and solve criminal cases. The big appeal is the tighter party of four that you get to know across your adventure as well as the City of Crossbell and its citizens. Once it becomes available to you, the entire state of Crossbell is available to explore at almost any time and the citizens have tons of new, interesting things to say as time marches forward. A thorough playthrough will enrich your understanding of Crossbell and your party members and cause you to deeply care as events inevitably escalate. While the story is the main appeal, it is backed up by an excellent turn based battle system that sees you making interesting decisions both on and off the battlefield. I mentioned this is the definitive edition of Zero and it certainly is as there are tons of cool quality of life features present, like a turbo mode and BGM name display, enhanced graphics and performance improvements, and most significantly the entire main scenario is now fully voice acted which adds so much more dimension to the characters and story. If you have any love for classic JRPGs, Trails From Zero is the coziest and warmest of blankets on a cold night.

Best Music
River City Girls 2

River City Girls 2’s soundtrack goes far harder and more funkier than the first game and is all the better for it. Roaming around River City and beating up all who oppose you is an excellent excuse to rock out to this wonderful soundtrack. My favorite is definitely all the new vocal songs that serve as a wonderful compliment to all of the returning vocal songs from the first game and it is delightful that you are able to have these play in any of your hideouts. While some other soundtracks this year have higher highs, the excellent consistency of River City Girls 2’s soundtrack makes it my favorite video game soundtrack of the year. The full soundtrack is on all the big music services and is officially on Youtube so I’ll drop the video below. I highly encourage listening to “I’m Better Than You”, “Pound The Pavement”, and “Ken” for a great sample of early songs. Also since the video starts with it anyway, I love the OP song River City Girls Too lol.

 

[PixelKnight]

Fami Your Consideration

Best RPG
Live A Live

When I first started playing this, if you’d have asked me to nominate my favourite rpg of the year, I’d have said it had no chance. Initially I thought it’s appeal is in it being an oddity, a throwback, a remade look at a path JRPGs could have gone down in terms of raw variety while FF and DQ were laying down genre templates. But, the more scenarios I played, the more the variety in their setup felt refreshing, the more the pacing and length of each section felt just as varied. In a world where rpgs can easily go on over 60+ hours these days with cut scenes getting ever-longer, Live A Live tells its story in both broad strokes and with surprising heart in less than half the time. I was ready to just skip it after the first section and go play something else instead, but I stuck with it and it blossomed into a very rounded tale. The new added chapter only serves to make the final battles even more epic, its core message even stronger. It’s 25 hours or so running time has pretty much become something that’s stuck in my mind long after I’ve forgotten about RPGs that are twice the length.

 

[PixelKnight]

Fami Your Consideration

Best RPG
Chained Echoes

Just as an addition to the RPG category, it released too late in the year for enough people to play it really, but Chained Echoes is extraordinarily good. It looks like ‘another SNES-style rpg’ but the talent of its lone developer, Matthias Linda, in working up an interesting story and characters and whole new sets of mechanics is unbelievable in its showcase of the talent of one developer. It’ll miss out on these awards and likely next years due to being forgotten too, but it’s one that I’m pretty sure is gonna end up as both a hidden gem and required reading for the genre as more people play it. I expect to see it’s reputation spread though word of mouth throughout this year. Just a stunning rpg.

 

[Josh5890]

Fami Your Consideration

Best RPG
Live A Live

When I first started playing this, if you’d have asked me to nominate my favourite rpg of the year, I’d have said it had no chance. Initially I thought it’s appeal is in it being an oddity, a throwback, a remade look at a path JRPGs could have gone down in terms of raw variety while FF and DQ were laying down genre templates. But, the more scenarios I played, the more the variety in their setup felt refreshing, the more the pacing and length of each section felt just as varied. In a world where rpgs can easily go on over 60+ hours these days with cut scenes getting ever-longer, Live A Live tells its story in both broad strokes and with surprising heart in less than half the time. I was ready to just skip it after the first section and go play something else instead, but I stuck with it and it blossomed into a very rounded tale. The new added chapter only serves to make the final battles even more epic, its core message even stronger. It’s 25 hours or so running time has pretty much become something that’s stuck in my mind long after I’ve forgotten about RPGs that are twice the length.

Fami Your Consideration

Best RPG
Chained Echoes

Just as an addition to the RPG category, it released too late in the year for enough people to play it really, but Chained Echoes is extraordinarily good. It looks like ‘another SNES-style rpg’ but the talent of its lone developer, Matthias Linda, in working up an interesting story and characters and whole new sets of mechanics is unbelievable in its showcase of the talent of one developer. It’ll miss out on these awards and likely next years due to being forgotten too, but it’s one that I’m pretty sure is gonna end up as both a hidden gem and required reading for the genre as more people play it. I expect to see it’s reputation spread though word of mouth throughout this year. Just a stunning rpg.

Sorry Pixel, but you can only nominate one game per category. You have to cut one of these choices

 

[PixelKnight]

Sorry Pixel, but you can only nominate one game per category. You have to cut one of these choices

Sorry! I nominate Live A Live then

 

[hologram]

Fami your consideration
Best OST
God of War Ragnarok (Bear McCreary)

Bear McCreary set himself an extremely high bar in God of War 2018. Did he manage to reach it? That's debatable - personally I feel like there were a few too many moments that reused tracks from God of War 2018 rather than the new soundtrack - but there's no denying it's a fantastic soundtrack nonetheless and easily the best of the year. Honestly, some of the tracks on this OST are so emotionally evocative that they might count as spoilers for the game. "The Mask" starts with what feels like a heroic crescendo before dramatically faking you out. "Raeb's Lament" is a tragic reworking of a leitmotif established earlier in the game, and is a gutting final track before the full credits. "Ragnarok" is a suitably epic climax to the game, and "Letting Go" beautifully ties up the narrative and themes. Just a wonderful soundtrack overall.

 

[chocolate_supra]

Fami Your Consideration
Best OST
Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Ahem.
They had custom flutes made to have distinct sounds for the different characters. That is all.

Actually I'm kidding, there's so much more. Xenoblade 3's music is an incredible mix of ethereal, melancholy, romantic, triumphant, and like some Zelda games, music itself and the instruments that create it are part of what drive the story forward. Aside from simply being really good listening, the somewhat gentle music creates part of the atmosphere of the world, only to then swell into the forefront as the party has to dig deep to push forward. And the tragedy that comes from certain parts of the game is made all the more impactful by the score accompanying it. Mitsuda, ACE, Kiyota, and the others have made something beautiful with this.

 

[Thunder84]

Fami Your Consideration
Best OST
The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero

I haven't played a ton of games from 2022, so there isn't a whole lot that I can nominate for certain categories like RPG, but OST is definitely an exception to that. Trails OSTs have always been more catchy than intense, and Zero might just be my favorite one yet of the 4 that I've listened too. The battle themes are excellent, particularly Getting Over the Barrier (and the Roaring Version) and Inevitable Struggle, but it's the general city themes that really get stuck in your head. So damn subtle, and yet they just get stuck in your head almost immediately. Love it.

 

[Irene]

Fami Your Consideration
Best RPG
Harvestella

On a surface level, Harvestella is the pure definition of comfy and cosy, with its lush and rich colours, dense atmosphere, and fantastic renditions of the four seasons. But it's so much more than pure surface. Beneath its modest exterior, Harvestella hides significant depth, both when it comes to customization, as well as its titular farming simulator elements. The farming is as addictive here as it ever was in other games, sowing, watering and growing becomes these simple, everyday things that has this pull and appeal that you just have to live through one more day.

It's all set within the framework of a story that draws you in, and really goes places near the end. The story itself is fairly straightforward from the get-go, but gets really carried up by the characters and the side quests that fleshes them out properly. They're all likeable, sometimes in adorable ways, and sometimes in ways that earns them respect. This adorable, wholesome and yet sightly intimidating RPG simply has everything going for it that a great RPG should have, and then some.

Best Soundtrack
We Are OFK
A game that was in my opinion a bit mediocre nevertheless delivered one hell of a soundtrack, that became one of my most played Spotify releases of the year. It’s extremely well-crafted pop hits that are catchy, yet have that ethereal and dreamy side to them that I really find myself adoring. As the saying goes, this shit slaps!

 

[Brock Reiher]

Fami Your Consideration
Best RPG
Pokémon Legends: Arceus

The Beautiful RPG. Pokémon Legends Arceus is arguably the most ambitious game in the series since the 90's, taking the core concepts of the excellent Let's Go Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee and evolving them into something completely new. I will mostly let screenshots speak for themselves, but the game should be commended on the risks it takes with gameplay and story compared to a traditional Pokémon release.

 

[Deleted member 2258]

Question: I have a game in mind for Best OST that was released on consoles in 2022. However, it also had a PC release in late 2020. Would it be eligible for a nomination or should I pick something else?

 

[Josh5890]

Question: I have a game in mind for Best OST that was released on consoles in 2022. However, it also had a PC release in late 2020. Would it be eligible for a nomination or should I pick something else?

If it was something like a Steam Early Access in 2020, but the "official release" was 2022, then I'd say you are fine. If the 2022 console release was just a port, than I would suggest picking a different game.

 

[MissingNo.]

Someone @ me when best strategy/RTS is coming up.

 

[Deleted member 2258]

Fami Your Consideration
Best Soundtrack
Neon White

Full disclosure: I have not played Neon White... But these heavenly techno sounds full of breakbeats and a pretty wide array of flavors and emotions makes me feel like I've just put a caffeine patch directly on my ear. Machine Girl is the duo behind the music. While some of it feels a little referential, it is a great reminder that the alternative electronic scene has more than a few musicians who are beyond qualified to make video game music that rips, and hopefully this soundtrack will encourage more creators to consider them. Here's a few of my favorite tracks:

 

[xghost777]

Fami Your Consideration

Best RPG
Trails From Zero

Over a decade since its original release, we finally have the official Western release of Trails From Zero, the fourth Trails game overall and the first of the Crossbell duology, and it was worth the wait as it is the definitive version of an excellent game. Trails From Zero follows the formation of the Crossbell police department’s Special Support Section to the end of their first major case. You play as rookie detective Lloyd Bannings and work together with your coworkers to assist the public and solve criminal cases. The big appeal is the tighter party of four that you get to know across your adventure as well as the City of Crossbell and its citizens. Once it becomes available to you, the entire state of Crossbell is available to explore at almost any time and the citizens have tons of new, interesting things to say as time marches forward. A thorough playthrough will enrich your understanding of Crossbell and your party members and cause you to deeply care as events inevitably escalate. While the story is the main appeal, it is backed up by an excellent turn based battle system that sees you making interesting decisions both on and off the battlefield. I mentioned this is the definitive edition of Zero and it certainly is as there are tons of cool quality of life features present, like a turbo mode and BGM name display, enhanced graphics and performance improvements, and most significantly the entire main scenario is now fully voice acted which adds so much more dimension to the characters and story. If you have any love for classic JRPGs, Trails From Zero is the coziest and warmest of blankets on a cold night.

Best Music
River City Girls 2

River City Girls 2’s soundtrack goes far harder and more funkier than the first game and is all the better for it. Roaming around River City and beating up all who oppose you is an excellent excuse to rock out to this wonderful soundtrack. My favorite is definitely all the new vocal songs that serve as a wonderful compliment to all of the returning vocal songs from the first game and it is delightful that you are able to have these play in any of your hideouts. While some other soundtracks this year have higher highs, the excellent consistency of River City Girls 2’s soundtrack makes it my favorite video game soundtrack of the year. The full soundtrack is on all the big music services and is officially on Youtube so I’ll drop the video below. I highly encourage listening to “I’m Better Than You”, “Pound The Pavement”, and “Ken” for a great sample of early songs. Also since the video starts with it anyway, I love the OP song River City Girls Too lol.

Hey @Josh5890 I accidentally listed it in my post as best music, but I’m nominating River City Girls 2 for Best OST. Saw it wasn’t in the nominations list yet in Post 2. Sorry if that’s why it got skipped over.

 

[meatbag]

Sorry! I nominate Live A Live then

No worries I'll be sure to give Chained Echoes a shoutout once I manage to play it in 2025

 

[NabiscoFelt]

Fami Your Consideration
Best RPG/OST (this allowed?)
Pokemon Scarlet/Violet

This duo nomination goes to this year's second mainline Pokemon titles, Scarlet and Violet. Taking the open world elements first introduced in Legends Arceus, these games expand on that by adding a full generation of new Pokemon and all the trappings of a usual mainline Pokemon game - Gyms, rival teams, and the traditional simple yet deep Pokemon combat system. With a fully open world and three "routes" you can progress through mostly independently, S/V offers a greater amount of progression freedom than any Pokemon game before it, and manages to do that while still providing one of the series' best narratives. Mix all these elements together and you've got one hell of an RPG

And one element that gets special attention here due to the dual nomination is the soundtrack, a nice and varied set of absolute bangers, featuring:

The best Xenoblade Unique Monster theme this year (sorry, not sorry You Will Know Our Names - Finale)


The "why does this grunt theme go so hard" theme:


and some Spoiler themes

Spoiler: Late/End game tracks

 

[Josh5890]

10 hours until the next turnover

 

[Josh5890]

Fami Your Consideration
Elden Ring
Best RPG

I've heard this is one of the greatest games of all time.




Fami Your Consideration
Horizon: Forbidden West
Best OST

Guerilla did not spare any expense with this game when it came to the soundtrack. The whole OST deserves a listen, but I will share one of the most popular tracks.

 

[Josh5890]

Thank you to everyone for your nominations for best RPG and Soundtrack. Now we are on to round 3.


Best Platformer
An award recognizing escapades often upbeat and uplifting, where quick footing is key, and where you jump across hazards and enemies with your tongue between your teeth. Games with tight controls that makes for satisfying gameplay, and levels that are a joy to go through.

Best Level, Area or World
An award recognizing places you simply love to be in. It can be for any reason - for a sense of place and immersion, for a place offering excellent gameplay challenges, or just a zone to chill in.

 

[xghost777]

Fami Your Consideration
Best Platformer
Kirby and the Forgotten Land

Kirby’s transition to 3D feels effortless with how refined it is. Forgotten Land evokes some of the best N64-era platformers, but is executed on a level of excellence and wonder they could only dream of. The actual platforming in Kirby is generally pretty breezy thanks to Kirby’s ability to float, but by smartly limiting this power HAL is able to explore a much larger variety of interesting levels, challenges, and puzzles.

Best Level / Area / World
Xenoblade 3’s Fornis Region

Xenoblade 3’s world is breathtaking and spectacular. Of the big three largest areas, the coolest in my book is the Fornis region. It begins with a fairly linear trek through a desert as you are guided by the story. At the start of Chapter 3 though you enter this space where your journey truly begins. I call it the crossroads as it is the intersection of four major areas, the desert behind you, the cliffs ahead of you, a separate desert to the left, and a dangerous canyon area to the right. The wild thing about Fornis with this huge reveal is that it actually just keeps, densely expanding as you explore it. There’s one more large area beyond the cliffs ahead, there’s two other towns to find including one in a mountain, there’s multiple caves to explore and some even feature light dungeon/puzzle elements. To fully explore all of Fornis you must not only level up your party to tackle the toughest challenges, but also you must learn new traversal skills. Fornis is a stunning achievement of level and world design that compels and surprises you in equal measure and the sights, monsters, characters, and quests you encounter in it only make it all the more meaningful. Fornis is the best area of the year.

 

[chocolate_supra]

Fami Your Consideration
Best Platformer
Sonic Frontiers

One of my favorite Sonic games, Sonic Adventure, was a little rough and janky because the team was ambitious in the world they were trying to create, and it ended up being wonderful in spite of its rough edges.

Welp, over two decades later they've finally done it again.

Sonic Frontiers is a game that wears its ambition on its sleeve, tries hard, stumbles sometimes, then gets back up and keeps (gotta) going fast. It gives the player several large islands to use as high-speed playgrounds, to explore and complete platforming challenges, to cheese the physics and see what you can do with the landscape, or to simply see how friggin fast you can run from one end to the other.

It relieves some of the frustration of the series' previous obstacle course stages by drastically shortening the linear stages and peppering them across the big playgrounds. The linear platforming stages now play as challenges to keep working at, where retrying and improving is nowhere near as intimidating as in past Sonic games. Personally, I haven't gone after S-Rank runs so often and so happily since the series was on the Dreamcast.

The whole thing comes together into something that feels more special than the sum of its parts. You can feel this game is both looking backward (feeling reminiscent of Adventure 1, reusing old level layouts), and forward (as Sonic Team will likely be using and refining this formula in the next games). It's fun to play, it's fun to explore, the story is interesting and surprisingly adds to and reframes decades-old lore, but it's a bit more than that. It's an actual turning point for one of the oldest series in gaming.

And there's a giant cat who fishes again. Finally.




Fami Your Consideration
Best World
Xenoblade 3: Aionios

It's gorgeous, it's sad, it's vast, it's colorful, it's majestic. Xenoblade games consistently contain my favorite games worlds, and Aionios definitely continues that tradition. The only game in the series besides the sadly little-played Xenoblade X to have areas so connected, where you can walk from one biome to another, climb a stack of cliffs, look out over the desert you just came from towards the north, then turn and look over a whole other desert you missed toward the northeast.

It's large and lonely, giving you the feeling you could almost get legitimately lost in it, while also being so lovely that you want to explore more of it. MonolithSoft found a way to make a world that feels all new and more complex on the ground level, even as recognizable landmarks from the two previous (numbered) Xenoblade games loom high over the landscape. I thought about naming off the areas in this world that I found especially lovely, but then I'd just end up naming off most of them.

Like the other worlds in Xenoblades past (and in any good JRPG, really) the world is essentially another character in the story. And Aionios is a lovely, compelling character.

 

[meatbag]

Fami Your Consideration
Best Platformer
Cuphead - The Delicious Last Course

Yes, it's DLC, but it's a pretty meat add-on to one of the absolute best action platformers of all time. The cartoon rubberhose animation is relentlessly charming, but don't be fooled, the bosses are tough as nails! The biggest criticism I have is that it's the last Cuphead thing we're getting for a long time. But they were right, this was freaking DELICIOUS.

Fami Your Consideration
Best Area/World
Waddle Dee Town - Kirby and the Forgotten Land

One of the best motivators for doing all the missions is that you find adorable little Waddle Dees. And the more you find, the more you build up Waddle Dee Town! You start from a pitiful wreck, and eventually add restaurants, coliseums and other amenities. You even get your own house and your own big fluffy bed! There's a bunch of fun minigames and things to do in the hub, but I'd also find myself just sitting on a bench and letting Kirby just hum to the tunes. Then maybe wave at a couple of Waddle Dees and see them wave back AWW THAT IS TOO ADORABLE.

 

[Irene]

Fami Your Consideration
Best Level
Inside the Ziggurat (Tunic)

Tunic is a game that hides many secrets, and it's later in the game that the surprises just keeps on coming. One of the biggest surprises of the game was first arriving at the Ziggurat. This is one of those areas when arriving feels just like pure wonder - when the song kicks in and when you step out of the elevator, I got chills.

Spoiler