Rebirth was my game of the year. It made me sad. The voice acting role nominations for FF two years in a row got snubbed. Both Ben Starr and Briana White got done dirty.
Some third parts are great, like Back to the Future III or Return of the Jedi, hope we don't get something like Jurassic World Dominion or The Rise of Skywalker
Hoping part 3 will be rewarded goty just because its "return of the king" is some insane fan cope (that I'm on too) but I also know its only in our head. On people's votes it might win but on critics votes they already gonna pick the biggest ""buzz" of the year like witcher 4 or smth if it comes out the same year. AAnyway for me it was FFF7 only last chance to win goty, it won win part 3, people may not vote as "return of the king" as you want cuz they might not evaluate and take into account part 1 & 2 or even might not want to play them.. Yet for a "return of the king" wave you would need people to have play and realized how important and complementary part 1 & 2 are for part 3. And anyway part 3 winning in TGA of Geoff doesn't send any message, so it won't win. We already know it doesn't matter even if every aspect of part 3 is 11/10.
People should stop feeling bad tbh. I stopped looking at TGA as something prestigious years ago! The longest running and more reliable game awards are Golden Joystick for gamers and fans and DICE awards for industry members. Rebirth won the most awards at Golden Joystick and probably will at DICE too. Just watch TGA for its game trailers coz we all know this show and its panel members have their favorites.
Don't think about it, the show is worthless. Made by morons for a moron audience. The show disrespects the industry, and winning these trash awards is in fact a slap in the face. Which makes me sad Astro Bot won, since I love that game.
I think, Rebirth is my game of the year. I've only started chapter 10 and already 60 hours of gameplay. doing all the side quests turned out to be such a fun experience ❤
I skipped every side quest because it burned me out hard on FF16, so I avoided it like the plague in FF7 Rebirth, going back in NG+ and I made the correct choice for sure. I couldn't even fully complete 1 zone without going "damn, can they add anymore fluff to this?" (I loved the main story, but damn do those side quests drag on hard)
@@DarkDyllonYeah I’m still playing through the game. I’m at the point where I can do all the exploration stuff in Cosmo Canyon and I just don’t have the energy. I’m about to put it on easy and just blow through the story so I can finish the game. It feels like it takes forever with all the side stuff. I’m more of a main story guy anyway but with this game I feel like I’ll miss out on xp and material if I don’t do every single side content. It’s starting to wear thin. I hope part 3 is more main story focused with less fluff.
@@continuallyblessed44 not to spoil the story obviously, but I skipped most of the side quests on my 1st playthrough and I was still overleveled for the most part and didn't struggle that much on normal. But yeah, I hope that part 3 is more story focused, adding a lot of things into your open world is good, since an empty open world is pointless, but I rather have an open world that solely is used for traversing between maps, like in the OG (or most FF games) rather than each area having 40-50 side quests and it's massive and every part is secluded in some way and if you need to travel from 1 side to the other, it takes 5-10 minutes.
Astrobot is a good game, but best game direction and best game of the year should've been FF7 Rebirth , I can't believe it only won best soundtrack. It's so unfair.
Rebirth is my favorite game of this year, but Astro Bot's direction is impeccable. From a level of just the game design, it's pretty much perfect. Rebirth... kind of meanders from time to time. Some of the minigames probably should've been cut. Hell, some of the playable character sections should've been cut or completely reworked (looking at you, Cait Sith section). Such is the case for the huge game that it was. I think Astro Bot really reinvigorated people's love for 3D platforms (myself included! I haven't played a 3D platformer in forever! It's my third favorite game of 2024!). It's imaginative and creative, runs great, doesn't overstay its welcome, is challenging where it needs to be challenging, and has a very clear direction on what kind of game it wants to be. We also don't have a section of the game that turns into Fall Guys with Frogs that isn't very fun. All of its gimmicks benefit the game and are actually fun to play. What I'm trying to say is... it's very, VERY easy to see why Astro Bot won both of those awards and Rebirth didn't.
@aarons.2323 I honestly don't understand the mini game complaints, the only two I remember you are forced to do is queens blood and the dolphin one, the frog minigame is completely optional and gives you no rewards. Ever other mini game is either optional or you can either win or lose, none stop your progress. Eitherway while Astrobot is a fun game it's still only fun for small kids, FF7 has great acting, great scenes and direction, great music, great characters and story, stuff that will stay with people for years, Astrobot will be forgotten in few months, FF7 is the kind that stays with you for years. Astro is great for a quick fun game but that's all that it is. And it's sad this is the game of the year while other more "sophisticated" games got shafted.
The thing they needed to do was blatantly steal from Nintendo. Just copy-paste breath of the wild, put a robot skin on it, and people will praise it to the heavens! But if Palworld has taught us anything it's that if it "looks" like that art style then nooooo that's big bad bad. You no steal art style, only copy paste mechanics with minimal to no change whatsoever!
2:03 sorry, but I won't accept that. This franchise has done way too much and is worth so much more than "being put back on the map" after a game like rebirth. Square enix has found themselves in a cursed part of the gaming community where they will be scrutinized for basically any creative risk they take on a game. It doesn't happen by the same scale to really any other game series that I know of. For a game to be judged so heavily bc of something like an overabundance of mini games is completely asinine to me and is a testament to the gaming community's diminishing attention span.
This franchise has been largely mediocre for the last twenty years. SE is reaping what they sow in both sales and symbolic gesturing such as these awards.
You said it man, its completely dishonest concern trolling at this point. OG purist fans are some of the most pathetic people I have ever come across at worst and at best they are just unaware of how incredibly autistic they are.. sorry to bring mental disabilities in the convo, but if you can handle a simple gameplay system changing over the span of two decades or more then you have something going on in that area. There’s just no two ways about it.
@@SamuelSabharwalThis is because critics dont actually have strongly defined opinions of their own. Rather they ‘read the room’ and then they align with that opinion. Finally they refine it a bit to sound super quirky and original. But the origin point is always some established opinion. Its why Elden Ring, BotW/TotK and BG3 can do no wrong. This happens both in alignment if the gaming community at large aswell as their own peers and industry colleagues. FF and SE will never gain favor with people like that because the established status quo regarding these games are decades old and extremely vocal and toxic. The best they can do is just not give a fuck and hope going multi plat gives them that new audience. And then hope the old one finally pisses off instead of insistently stalking it for years.
It absolutely was not snubbed. It just didn't deserve to win in any of the categories except music. I get that we fans love Brianna White - she's a brilliant Aerith. However the way she's written in Rebirth, it barely requires an actual performance. Melina Juergens *performs* her ass off in Hellblade, that's not a snub either - that's correct.
@MrConeman coming from you yes if you can't accept the facts that the game awards I's 90% judges and the golden joystick award show is 90% voters that's on you man you have no real argument all you got is... smells like cope
The first two Lord of the Rings movies got snubbed Best Picture at the Oscar's. Some people believe that everyone knew thatall three movies would be fire, and the Oscar's didn't want to get too repetitive, just awarding LOTR every time a new movie came out. So Return of the King winning best picture was like a sweeping award given to the whole trilogy.
@@sambajane to be fair, Fellowship of the Ring was competing against A Beautiful Mind. The Twin Towers lost against Chicago, but there were other great films nominated like Gangs of New York
I think unfortunately rebirth was just too similar to other goty winners and that's likely why astrobot won. Not many platformers getting nominated for it and this makes the game awards look more fair to the industry. As much as I disagree with the decision, in some ways it's a good thing so developers get the hint to not just copy whatever the latest open world game that got goty is doing. Also sidenote, Hamaguchi looked really happy and emotional to have even won a single award, and that was really wholesome to see despite what happened. They're really just super proud of what they've achieved and it shows.
Imo the western industry is just full of pretentious journos that think they are the moral compas and shepards of the industry. Astrobot was just yet another vote to make a point. That was the only reason. Not because it was in particular the best game, most grandest game or had the biggest cultural impact all due to its inherent quality. I also really cant think of a game like Rebirth other than Remake and even that feels like an introductory demo compared to Rebirth. Imo its telling Rebirth sweeped the most awards at the Golden Joystick awards but only got one at the TGA’s. One is passionate fans voting. The other pretentious journos.
@mikev8746 fair enough. I think rebirth really deserved it, too. It's definitely one of my favorite games I've played, so I get where you're coming from.
In no way was it too similar, unless you mean the extreme broad category of being an action RPG. There no similarities between FF7 , Metaphor and Elden Ring the only similarity is they're all video games. But the games are vastly different.
@alenezi989a3 I just mean general open world games rpgs like baldurs gate 3 and elden ring before that. I know they're not similar in gameplay but they're all action rpgs.
I agree with you, but I think there is a stronger argument to be made for the GOTY with the 3rd game. It will allow TGA to narrate the project as a whole, it will also allow SE to package it as a whole GOTY package. I never thought that it would win, the game was amazing, but the ending makes it difficult (for me) to replay. If they can keep the quality up and complete the story in a strong way I still think there is a very strong case for it winning no matter what else it is competing with.
I swear, I'm going to have the hardest time if part 3 and Okami 2 come out in the same year. That would literally be the only contender for me I think.
@@jase276 That is true, of course the game has to be strong enough on its own to be considered a GOTY. However, if it is considered and it wins, I assure you that the narrative will include the total package. With that in mind, which do you think will be more valuable to project, a GOTY for the 1st or 2nd game, or a GOTY for the 3rd allowing SE to create a game of the package?
i am super existed about final fantasy rebirth coming out in 2025 for pc. i have already pre ordered the twin pack on steam right now it is 30 percent off so i would recommend picking it up now rather then later.
NGL, I feel slightly embarrassed for FF7R. It got 7 nominations and only won music. It feels like a massive humble after all the social media buzz supporting FF7R for GOTY. I am hoping it doesn't impact the dev team's moral when they are working on part 3.
I might be the only one who thought Rebirth would come away with a goose egg going into the awards. I thought Stellar Blade could have won OST just as well and would have deserved it but yeah they're always gonna pick Square for OST it's a token award at this point to save them from going home empty handed. Stellar Blade got screwed much harder than Rebirth did overall but it just goes to show how hard it is for those genres to win even if you're the best game at your genre and do nearly everything right you will still lose to a run of the mill platformer like Astro Bot that lacks character and story as long as it's "fun."
I mean dude it kinda doesn't matter. The game awards are all for show. The fact that it even got 7 nominations over allll the other games out there is pretty cool either way. I would say that the reason a lot of people watch the game awards to begin with (myself included) is to see all the new games announcements. I don't really need the games I like to win awards to know they're good, lol.
@danimal7544 JRPGs tend to drive away the more casual gamer. This year, the normie game won. Astro Bot was a good game, but it felt more like an Easter egg fest with decent platforming than GOTY. Thankfully, DLC did not win the title because it would have set a bad precedent. Balatro was the only game on the list that I did not care for. I tried it, but it was just gimmicky poker with catchy music. I got bored quickly.
I feel like the disappointment at TGA is gonna stoke the fire to make pt 3 the best it can be. I feel like a lot of fans wanted Rebirth to be the best of the trilogy because this part of the story is the first time you’re set into the open world and because it contains THAT INFAMOUS AERITH SCENE. And if Rebirth swept TGA, I feel like Hamaguchi and squad would have been complacent and would not have gone as hard on pt 3, with many fans also wanting simply a quick, effective wrap up to the trilogy. But now I’m sure they’re gonna go totally ham on pt 3. I can’t wait!!! 😁
It totally depends on what kind of games you like or not. If you like old school pixel games where you can take your time while fighting. Go for 4,5 or 6. ( 6 is the best one in the series in my opinion but you have to like 2d retro for it. ) If you can stand PS2 style 3d graphics FFX hd version is a great introduction. It's fun and has a great story and still some nice cutscenes. I would definitely play FF7 Remake before Rebirth as they are directly connected. Same characters and story. But you don't need to play any other games before 7remake. It's a good start. Only a few of all the FF games are connected most just use the same names for weapons etc. Most have really different stories and game mechanics. I would not start with 1,2,3, 8 or 13 as a first game for sure. But any of the rest.
NSP often gets strongly attached to whatever is the current day JRPG meta. Same happened with FF14 after Remake. Every video had FF14 music in it ad nausium.
@@TheNightSkyPrince Fair point lol. I went too far. But you do sway a bit with the winds from time to time! You could atleast see that in yourself. We all have our tendencies afterall.
@@cynicalidealist11 regarding Astro Bot, do kids care about the game? I'm serious, I have a couple of young relatives who are still in elementary, but they haven't heard about Astro Bot, they like games like Sonic, Mario, Minecraft, etc., but I asked them if they were aware of Astro Bot and they said no. It seems like Astro Bot, despite its colorful graphics and family-friendly look, its actual target are hardcore PlayStation users, and it kinds of makes sense it came out this year for the 30th anniversary of the original PlayStation Though weirdly enough, I find it kind of funny that despite that Astro Bot features tons of cameos from characters from games closely tied to PS histoy, ranging from first-party games like God of War, Uncharted, The Last of Us, and third-party games like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro (which is extra funny considering that they're owned by Microsoft), Street Fighter, Guilty Gear, Metal Gear, Persona, etc. There's no single appearance or reference to Final Fantasy, despite how important the series was for the original PlayStation
@pablocasas5906 astro playroom has tonne of references to ff7 Astro bot had higher review scores Astro bot is an original IP with original music Ff7rebirth is just a remake of ff7 with remixed music Remakes and dlc shouldn't be nominated for GOTY let alone win
Well actually in some fairness last I heard per ign from the chief developer was that there was the implication that it was Square that needed to give their approval for an FF cameo. That presumably they never got. Also that observation of yours doesn't seem fair 💀 maybe if other ppl online were experiencing the same thing it'd be different but you can't just ask a handful of relatives and somehow that means no kids are playing it. I mean it wouldn't be fair of me to ask the handful of ppl I know if they know about Final Fantasy and then assume that Rebirth's actual target are hardcore Square enix fans, would it?
I think Rebirth losing all those rewards comes down to us not being the huge fanbase we think we are. I mean, most of Final Fantasy's golden age was during a time where fandoms and communities weren't really a big thing yet, and then you have XI-XV making a bad impression or just seeming "mid". Final Fantasy, especially for newer generations, is a pretty obselete series nowadays that's only being held up by Remake and Rebirth. I mean, there's a reason people in the West tend to know what Kingdom Hearts is before Final Fantasy, and that's a crossover series, for Pete's sake... Anyways, I'm happy Astro Bot and Metaphor got so many wins. Very good, original games and easily the best of their genres this year.
Imagine thinking VIIR is what's holding FF "up" in the age of XIV, the only game providing a fundamental FF experience to the core while also being an MMO, with all the restrictions that entails from a single-player experience/perspective. Find me a person that thinks Rebirth is holding FF "up" and I'll just as quickly find you another that thinks its holding it "down". Also, "mid" is an amazing word to use here, considering that's high praise for everything in the VII Compilation, which has often been considered an incessant milking of a game none of the following has been able to live up to at all.
@kimlee6643 But the average player won't experience XIV because it's an MMO. Hell, I know FF fans that haven't, and don't plan on playing XIV because it's not their taste. The average player (FF fan or not) is more likely to experience Remake and Rebirth than they are to experience XIV. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a huge fan of what Remake and Rebirth are doing to the original story. I don't like the convoluted "Aerith is alive but only Cloud can see her" plot. It feels like a lazy attempt to please both the people that want Aerith alive and the people that understand the importance of Aerith's death, making it feel like SE isn't doing anything "ambitious" but are actually being painfully safe. As for "mid", I agree. Aside from FFVIICC, almost all of the Compilation of FFVII is awful or unnecessary, only to pair with the relatively mid games between X and VIIRemake. Overall, I just don't think FF has had a valid modern presence outside of XIV and the Remake Trilogy due to the series having it's golden age in the 90s/early 2000s.
Golden joysticks was voted by players and FF7R won a looooot of categories as long as wukong was excluded (thanks to the "bots" would I say) and still managed to get second place on ultra goty if it wwasn't for chinese people mass voting wukong on the only 2 categories it was nominated. Game awards voted by critics: of course they pick astro just to "send their message". The same as they vote TLOU2 goty despite horrible story
The way Rebirths world is designed with its different areas and towns. Should honestly become the new standard in FF games. It's the return of the world map. Content within the world can always be different of course.
I mean the other elephant in the room for Square is outside of say FF7 Rebirth coming to PC, and Clive coming to Tekken 8 There wasn’t anything a brand new game announcement from Square for TGA. Even Capcom and SEGA’s RGG Studio had 2 major announcements respectfully etc. which is surprising as they mostly have something major to show at TGA to fill a roadmap for 2025 So the current roadmap really for 2025, is Dragon Quest 1 and 2 HD-2D Remakes, maybe KH Missing Link and the aforementioned FF7 Rebirth on PC. Now it all could change within the next year, for the big game shows from PS, to even Xbox, SGF and Nintendo (especially Switch 2) but yeah.
@ when it comes to awards, kinda yeah But announcements, naw. They usually have some to show at TGA. Tho I guess with the re-structuring of the company, cancelling over $100 million worth of games, shifting to multiplat and trying to focus a little more in-house, and a little less on outsourced and more on AAA. It probably does kinda explain why they weren’t a full no-show, even Capcom and SEGA managed to put a lot of announcements at the show.
@@madkaiser4887 I still have 0 faith that SE finally turns that sinking ship around. currently only FF14 is keeping that ship afloat, FF16 and FF7 Rebirth costs a lot of cash to make, considering it's long development cycle, but then sells mediocre because ... "PS5 exclusive" and then going "wait, why did it sell bad?" no shit? PS5 was having a massive shortage on top of scalpers, the install base for the PS5 is miniscule compared to PS4, it's like loading a shotgun, aiming it at your own feet, pulling the trigger and then go "wait, why is my foot gone?" They need to bolster FF14's dev team so that there's more content, since players are leaving FF14 atm due to very little content per patch, so that'll eventually dry out. and also, I want a good artstyle again, not these "hyper realistic" graphics, get a good artstyle going again and go with that, it would severely cut down on dev time/cost and maybe, just maybe, you don't need to sell upwards of 5+ mill copies to break even, let alone profit. The biggest issues facing AAA gaming currently is the massive dev cycles, each game taking 3-5 years to make, then we didn't factor in licensing that comes with it. (since everyone is using UE5 now) Also, making massive openworld games also costs a lot, since they gotta factor in ways to save cost on resources for the end user machines. (consoles/PC) have to fill it and of course make it. FF16s big issue was the hyper realistic graphics imo, it's spectacular and stunning visually, but that's about it.
The progression of a series of games is that many people don't move on from one part of a game to another when there is a wait. And then you don't get brand new people because they didn't play the first one and won't start partway through. Each installment of 13 was essentially halved in sales from the previous release, and the Remake trilogy seems to be keeping that trend. So if they aren't getting GOTY wins already, there will be even less people to say it should be GOTY on the 3rd release.
I like the initiatives SE is taking for FF7 Rebirth coming to PC! Thus is the way to go!🙌🏽😊 I am slightly disappointed that FF 7 Rebirth didn't win more awards, and Metaphor Refantazio didn't win GOTY...However I am glad for what they managed to get, and for Astro Bot winning. I believe FF will do better in the future TGA!🙌🏽❤️ Thank you for the updates NSP!🤗❤️
I agree. Game was great. People need to realize that Rebirth is still pretty niche. Astro Bot is approachable by everyone. I think Rebirth should have won, or even Metaphor, but the devs who made Astro Bot deserve a big win, too. It's just a solid, fun game.
@lens_hunter Yeah, and as a huge FF7 nerd I wanted it to win too but I'm definitely not upset about Astro Bot winning at all. I keep seeing all this manufactured "outrage" over the game awards and I just don't really get it, lol. People are so dramatic 😂
I was a big fan of fantasian but metaphor is definitely the objectively better game, definitely check out them both eventually but atlas have already had some great sales on metaphor worth taking advantage of!
ill rate metaphor 9.5 i put 80 hours in there, ill rate FF7 rebirth 9.2 due to its horrible ending and bad minigames and super bad cait sith chapter 12 , 90 hours in there. my fav is prob persona 3 reload this year i put 100 hours in there ill rate it 9.7 out of 10!
Metaphor is a near 100 hour game by atlus and literally the best rpg ever to me Fantasian is a mobile game which is more than enough to turn me away, but I tried it anyways it's not great feels like a super casual game you play on bus rides or while watching a movie or show
Two Towers won 2 Oscars (VFX & Sound) while Return of the King won 11 in a clean sweep. And it's not like ROTK was 5x better than T2T. It wouldn't surprise me if this is the mentality that critics/voters have in their heads knowing that this is a planned trilogy ahead of time. Critics have a sense of "rewarding" the end of something great when it concludes, even if the quality didn't end with a bang (Game of Thrones S8 won best Drama at the Emmys). One could argue Cody Christian was the best VA in Rebirth being the central character, but the equally excellent Briana White gets the nom cuz this might be her final prominent role in the trilogy.
Rebirth was my game of the year. 200 hours to get platinum, and I loved the game from start to finish. That being said, astro bot was by far the most "video gamey" video game released in a long while. I loved it at all, just not to the same level as rebirth.
Really excited to see some of the mods people are going to make for rebirth. My PC is definitely not capable of running the game lol. This year has been absolutely fantastic for me. It would be hard for me to even pick my top five favorite games. While rebirth is definitely my game of the year, I cannot deny that I had a lot of fun with astrobot.
At the very least I was hoping it would walk out with 2 or 3. I can recognize that it might not be game of the year for most people but it atleast deserved RPG of the year. I wanted it for game of the year but it doesn’t help that another RPG was splitting votes with it and that it came out earlier in the year and Astrobot and Metaphor came out late in he year. Tough watch but it’ll always hold a special place in my heart
Metaphor coming in later is even more embarrasing for FF7 Rebirth. Because its had less time to receive critic scores before the Awards while FF7 Rebirth got the full catalog.
Recency bias or not metaphor feels like a perfection of the genre and systems. Rebirth is simply too ambitious to be as good, many of it’s parts are eye roll inducing often enough to detract(see mini games, traversal, and general jank) It also had many pacing issues story wise, and they fumbled the ending scenes and made them super confusing. There was also an emphasis on ubisoft style open world collection and that wore thin about 10 years ago. Not saying it’s not a great game, but the games that won many categories didn’t have these issues.
@@CrystronHalq yeah definitely just meant it as recency bias towards the games that came out later. If the two games swapped release dates then I strongly believe they would have likely swapped awards as well or at least Rebirth would have gotten more. I dont have all the data but I’m pretty sure that most of the “Games of the year” have been released in the later half of the year for the past several years
@@TOMHICHIBAN those are fair points and I recognize that Rebirth is mot perfect and definitely not everyone’s type of game. (Especially if they don’t like the change in directions for the story here and there from the original). I also had similar fatigue moments with the exploring factor and the minigames but I always felt that for the most part those are all optional so you don’t have to play those parts all during the first playthrough to enjoy the game for the story. Also looking back I’ve definitively ranked the later parts of the game as much more enjoyable than the beginning parts and that was when I was in the middle of the fatigue from the length. Again though that was just my experience with the game and I know that everyone has different experiences.
I don't really let the fact that my favorite games like Final Fantasy games not winning GOTY bother me. In the past decade, they're still the ONLY games that I have been buying at retail on pre-order. All of these other games, including that Metaphor game as well as Astrobot, would only gain my attention after they've either been heavily discounted or pop up among PS Plus's game catalog.
"There was nostopping astro bot this year" I'm sorry, what? If Wukong or Elden Ring won, at least I'd understand why. But ASTRO BOT? Most people NEVER EVEN HEARD about it prior to GOTY. Yeah I played it. It's a good platformer. But that really is it. Rebirth is a brilliantly exectured and expanded story we've waited for for DECADES. There is no comparison. Not just FF7, but all other games were robbbed by Astro bot. It's absolutely shameful.
@ exactly. I want to play it, but I’m not going to buy a PS5 just to play it when I already have a good PC to run it, and I already own Remake for it as well.
I believe there is a BIG chance part 3 wjins game of the year because I feel like the main reason remake and rebirth haven’t won is that they’re build ups to part 3, but when all story arcs pay off in part 3 I could easily see it winning best narrative at the very least.
You know what helps Square not sell games? Always saying their games didn't meet sales expectations even though they sell in the millions. They put out info saying people aren't buying it as much as they think would, and that just makes the people who were waiting think, "oh, well it isn't selling well so probably no point trying it". If Square can't be hyped for their games sales, why would anyone expect the rando's who vote for games to pick it over others.
We had some gems from Atlus this year but Rebirth was still best game of the year and probably in the last decade. It would have been nice if it got another award but is still an amazing game!!
If anyone has been keeping up with recent events, it's clear that it's not just anime and manga, but also games and the broader Japanese culture that have been targeted by certain groups. These individuals have taken to social media, openly admitting to bullying by rejecting this content, claiming it damages their brand, and even going as far as using their credit cards to prevent purchases from these companies, aiming to shut them down. In my opinion, the 'Game of the Year' is just another means for them to censor Japanese creators because they disapprove of the tone or content in these games. For instance, Stellar Blade was promoted as an uncensored game, but upon its release, changes were made. They exert pressure, resort to blackmail, and employ other tactics to achieve their objectives. Considering this and the evidence that people are actually engaging in such actions, it's hard to believe that these contests are not being manipulated. Yes, I'm convinced they are indeed doing that.
@@DrakeSparkyRebirth of all games? Wow, people are trying so hard to be (for lack of a better term) "woke" that they've become extremely racist. It's honestly sad if that's true.
@@Klaxynd there are people from both sides attacking the game, some anti-woke people say the game is woke, because it has npcs from minority groups, but there are also people attacking the game saying this other stuff, it's simply absurd
Correction, FF13 was nominated at the Game Awards. At least it did in the previous carnation back in 2010, when it was on Spike. It lost its only nomination, Best RPG, to Mass Effect.
It was 4 years between remake and rebirth, that's actually not that long, but we already know they lost a year due to making yuffie dlc, so part 3 will be 3 years or less
Well after this embarrassment and unappreciative response by the game awards I’m sure they will just throw out a half assed part 3 as quick as possible and call it a day. No matter how good part 3 is it ain’t winning anything because of the bias towards jrpgs
REBIRTH was game of the year. It was a robbery. Only thing I can think of is they give FF7 part 3 the LOTR ROTK treatment where they award the last movie as a representation of the whole series.
This needs to be said: People upset Rebirth didn’t get game of the year…..there was no shot in the first place, nor was there a shot for Remake in 2020, and there won’t be a shot for part 3 in 2027 (hopefully that year). The hard truth is Rebirth is not a quality game from start to finish. Like every open world game, it suffers from extreme bloat, and even Remake had some pretty abysmal padding. Also, writing-wise, it is very much a part 2 of a 3 part story that doesn’t stand on its own very well when you remove the context of its other installments, despite square advertising it does. Remake and Rebirth are my favorite games of their respective years because I love FF7 and I love what they are doing with a franchise I love lol. I’m along for this ride and if part 3 delivers as good as it’s predecessors, this trilogy will be my favorite gaming experience of all time, likely. But no fiber of my being expects or even cares if any of these games get game of the year. Their niche nature 3 part format doesn’t lend itself to a singular quality experience from start to finish, like Astrobot. Make no mistake I’m not saying there’s no consistent quality anywhere in these games, the battle system is the best of any JRPG ever IMO and even the bloated sections can still be enjoyable because of it. Not to mention the soundtracks are always a 10/10. Gamers need to be realistic and they don’t need their immense love for something to be validated by a bunch of out of touch journalists.
Shame Rebirth didn’t win many awards, but I’m not mad at the ones who won tbf. They were amazing games. Only one that didn’t sit well was Best Performance, but I’m not really too upset with that tbh. I’ve got faith for part 3!
A win would have been great for Rebirth, but I feel as though a nomination still puts a lot of eyes and interest on it, especially with the 30% off for pre-orders. Personally, Metaphor is my GOTY, but I also absolutely love Rebirth, and can't wait for part thREe.
Novelty and quirkyness appeal to the eternal western journo. It also aligns with the current year message of smaller anti AAA games. Journos feel they have to push the industry away from mega games suddenly. Except for a year where Elden Ring, Zelda, Baldurs Gate 3 or GTA are released. In that case they suddenly like it.
My big game awards bugbear was Silent Hill 2 not getting at least nominated for art design. The original Japanese Silent Hills were all classic examples of excellent art design in games, the SH2 remake modernized and elevated it, and it not being in the running was a crime, regardless of what ultimately might've won against it.
Astrobot was a super fun game, didn't come close to rebirth though, as a 'comprehensive gaming experience' - basically rebirth had more to it with no sacrifice to quality. Ultimately these awards are opinions, and usually not representative of fanbases (10% fanbase in this case), and I stopped caring about what they say years ago 🙂
Exactly. People forget ps5 sales and 7 isn't enough in this day and age to incentive people to play a game. I think I read within it's forst week or whatever black myth wukong sold 20 million. Ff7 only did like 3.5 million. There were just more eyes on other games causs they weren't exclusively locked behind consoles
As I'm just now getting a chance to play Rebirth. And I just finish remake. Honestly I think the biggest problem is locking this game on PS5 all year. Most people I've seen talk about it All said they can't wait for it to be ported to PC. We missed the large market of non New gen console players.
What the western media did to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth this year was criminal, you can think whatever you want about this game, but it's definetely a top 5 game from 2024, it delivers amazing quality in most regards, i checked a couple of top games lists, specially from the US and UK, and in some of them the game isn't even top 10
You pretty much captured my thoughts. I wanted more for FF7R. And it was a less packed year. But I get why Astro won and I’m blown away by Metaphor’s wins. I like what MR winning means for Atlus and for JRPGs as a whole. But FF7R was my choice for all those categories. I hope the team knows how amazing they did and that they keep up the amazing work for part 3. On a side note, I did feel like Silent Hill 2 got snubbed a bit too. I think it deserved more noms than it got, at least.
I agree that FFVII REBIRTH and METAMORPH FANTASIO both deserved to won some awards, but AstroBot winning the GOTY.........Black Myth Wukong deserved some "love" in my opinion.
Gamers i suggest we organize our OWN Game Awards, without the media and jornalists that dont care about gamers opinion. We shall call it Gaming Celebration 🎉🎉
Rebirth aside, I don't think I agreed with a single award given out at the TGAs, with the possible exception of Helldivers. Whole thing was a waste of 4 hours, next time I'll skip it and just catch the trailers after the fact. I checked on PS5 and appears Remake has updated as well. Didn't log into check but I assume the new accelerated start feature has been patched in there too.
The thing holding Rebirth back is that not enough people played it. The barrier to entry was too high. In order to play Rebirth, you first had to beat Remake, which is a 40 hour commitment. Then to properly judge Rebirth, you had to play through it - and it turned out to be a lot longer than Remake. This is basically what Square Enix chose when they decided to make it in three parts. Even fewer people will play the third game in the trilogy.
Astrobot sold even less with 1.5 million copies. Most ppl don’t know what this game is. The award was just bought by Sony for the sake of PS 30th anniversary.
@@StevenZJ I meant Game Journos. They are the ones who determine which games win the prizes. I'm willing to bet more Journos played Astro than Rebirth. They were the ones who were really pushing the game.
I mean Rebirth had 151 reviews on Metacritic, way more than Astro Bot. I think the thing with Rebirth and the journals is that it’s an incredibly long game. The reviewers had to finish it within a short period, that could kinda instigate fatigue and ppl starts to complain about the bloating and the optional contents in the game. Astro Bot is a short and fun game so I can imagine why they preferred it. But again, as someone who played both, choosing Astro Bot out of those nominees is like picking the dessert from a 7 course meal, no matter how fun It was. And Ultimately it feels like a Mario game rip off and smells like a Sony ads. Not my GOTY.
@@StevenZJ Basically every single mechanic from Astro Bot has been directly lifted from various Mario games - I watched a big supercut of everything they copied. It doesn’t have an original or innovative bone in its body. I don’t know how I feel about that tbh. Does being unoriginal make a fun game less good? I’m not sure.
Definitely will be buying on PC! Thank Valve that they claim to be "optimizing" for SteamDeck (i.e. Linux as well) as Remake was one of few games that had a clear disadvantage there. Now if only Part 3 has no exclusivity at all and comes to GOG!
Rebirth was my game of the year. It made me sad. The voice acting role nominations for FF two years in a row got snubbed. Both Ben Starr and Briana White got done dirty.
What makes me upset is Barrett va got no love despite being the heart of part 2
By Melinda Jurgens of all people.
@@wickdaline8668 This was crazy yeah. If not Briana at least give it to Luke Roberts instead to make it still make sense.
Luke Roberts should have won Best Performance.
@wickdaline8668 what do you mean? I understand wishing it was Brianna, but Melinda did a good job on Hellblade 2...
Part 3 will be rewarded for the trilogy like the Return of the King. I have faith
Some third parts are great, like Back to the Future III or Return of the Jedi, hope we don't get something like Jurassic World Dominion or The Rise of Skywalker
@@pablocasas5906 The games have been consistently amazing so far. I believe it's gonna be a Return of the King situation.
It is written 🙏🏾
Hoping part 3 will be rewarded goty just because its "return of the king" is some insane fan cope (that I'm on too) but I also know its only in our head.
On people's votes it might win but on critics votes they already gonna pick the biggest ""buzz" of the year like witcher 4 or smth if it comes out the same year.
AAnyway for me it was FFF7 only last chance to win goty, it won win part 3, people may not vote as "return of the king" as you want cuz they might not evaluate and take into account part 1 & 2 or even might not want to play them.. Yet for a "return of the king" wave you would need people to have play and realized how important and complementary part 1 & 2 are for part 3.
And anyway part 3 winning in TGA of Geoff doesn't send any message, so it won't win. We already know it doesn't matter even if every aspect of part 3 is 11/10.
Yep 👍
Its still my favorite franchise. I don't need a bunch of journalists to validate my favorite game of all time
Facts
No one does
Rebirth got absolutely robbed imo wasn’t a perfect game but still one of the best games of the last 15 years
Honestly between wukong and rebirth, and metaphor I would been happy
I think if Astrobot wasn't there, it would've been rebirth
Not really no
Don’t have to say it wasn’t perfect. No game is perfect.
People should stop feeling bad tbh. I stopped looking at TGA as something prestigious years ago! The longest running and more reliable game awards are Golden Joystick for gamers and fans and DICE awards for industry members. Rebirth won the most awards at Golden Joystick and probably will at DICE too. Just watch TGA for its game trailers coz we all know this show and its panel members have their favorites.
Rebirth got disrespected at the game awards 😡
yeah only one award it should have got 3 with goty
Don't think about it, the show is worthless. Made by morons for a moron audience. The show disrespects the industry, and winning these trash awards is in fact a slap in the face. Which makes me sad Astro Bot won, since I love that game.
yeah when ign an kotaku are voting on it who really cares!!!
Nah it got what it deserved
No one played it - that's why no one went in to bat for it.
Officially Best Soundtrack of 2024!! Still robbed but Its better than nothibg
It robbed everyone else. It’s just a bunch remixes of old songs. Compare that to other games with completely original osts
Stellar Blade had the best soundtrack...not only in 2024 but in recent memory. Go check it out.
@@alanlee67
I agree! And Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is GOTY
That's the only thing it did right
@@bigzachfulIn graphics alone
I think, Rebirth is my game of the year. I've only started chapter 10 and already 60 hours of gameplay. doing all the side quests turned out to be such a fun experience ❤
yeah the side quests feels like a main quests that game was my goty
I skipped every side quest because it burned me out hard on FF16, so I avoided it like the plague in FF7 Rebirth, going back in NG+ and I made the correct choice for sure.
I couldn't even fully complete 1 zone without going "damn, can they add anymore fluff to this?" (I loved the main story, but damn do those side quests drag on hard)
@@DarkDyllonYeah I’m still playing through the game. I’m at the point where I can do all the exploration stuff in Cosmo Canyon and I just don’t have the energy. I’m about to put it on easy and just blow through the story so I can finish the game. It feels like it takes forever with all the side stuff. I’m more of a main story guy anyway but with this game I feel like I’ll miss out on xp and material if I don’t do every single side content. It’s starting to wear thin. I hope part 3 is more main story focused with less fluff.
@@continuallyblessed44 not to spoil the story obviously, but I skipped most of the side quests on my 1st playthrough and I was still overleveled for the most part and didn't struggle that much on normal.
But yeah, I hope that part 3 is more story focused, adding a lot of things into your open world is good, since an empty open world is pointless, but I rather have an open world that solely is used for traversing between maps, like in the OG (or most FF games)
rather than each area having 40-50 side quests and it's massive and every part is secluded in some way and if you need to travel from 1 side to the other, it takes 5-10 minutes.
Astrobot is a good game, but best game direction and best game of the year should've been FF7 Rebirth , I can't believe it only won best soundtrack. It's so unfair.
Rebirth is my favorite game of this year, but Astro Bot's direction is impeccable. From a level of just the game design, it's pretty much perfect. Rebirth... kind of meanders from time to time. Some of the minigames probably should've been cut. Hell, some of the playable character sections should've been cut or completely reworked (looking at you, Cait Sith section). Such is the case for the huge game that it was. I think Astro Bot really reinvigorated people's love for 3D platforms (myself included! I haven't played a 3D platformer in forever! It's my third favorite game of 2024!). It's imaginative and creative, runs great, doesn't overstay its welcome, is challenging where it needs to be challenging, and has a very clear direction on what kind of game it wants to be. We also don't have a section of the game that turns into Fall Guys with Frogs that isn't very fun. All of its gimmicks benefit the game and are actually fun to play. What I'm trying to say is... it's very, VERY easy to see why Astro Bot won both of those awards and Rebirth didn't.
@aarons.2323 I honestly don't understand the mini game complaints, the only two I remember you are forced to do is queens blood and the dolphin one, the frog minigame is completely optional and gives you no rewards. Ever other mini game is either optional or you can either win or lose, none stop your progress. Eitherway while Astrobot is a fun game it's still only fun for small kids, FF7 has great acting, great scenes and direction, great music, great characters and story, stuff that will stay with people for years, Astrobot will be forgotten in few months, FF7 is the kind that stays with you for years. Astro is great for a quick fun game but that's all that it is. And it's sad this is the game of the year while other more "sophisticated" games got shafted.
yeah ff7 got robbed
Rebirth is great. Astro Bot is perfect.
The thing they needed to do was blatantly steal from Nintendo. Just copy-paste breath of the wild, put a robot skin on it, and people will praise it to the heavens! But if Palworld has taught us anything it's that if it "looks" like that art style then nooooo that's big bad bad. You no steal art style, only copy paste mechanics with minimal to no change whatsoever!
2:03 sorry, but I won't accept that. This franchise has done way too much and is worth so much more than "being put back on the map" after a game like rebirth. Square enix has found themselves in a cursed part of the gaming community where they will be scrutinized for basically any creative risk they take on a game. It doesn't happen by the same scale to really any other game series that I know of. For a game to be judged so heavily bc of something like an overabundance of mini games is completely asinine to me and is a testament to the gaming community's diminishing attention span.
I read a reddit guy saying he hates Rebirth solely because it didn’t have the graves that Dyne made for his wife and Marlene
Have you heard the way some critics talk about ff? It needs to be said that there is some major anti SE sentiment in the industry
This franchise has been largely mediocre for the last twenty years. SE is reaping what they sow in both sales and symbolic gesturing such as these awards.
You said it man, its completely dishonest concern trolling at this point. OG purist fans are some of the most pathetic people I have ever come across at worst and at best they are just unaware of how incredibly autistic they are.. sorry to bring mental disabilities in the convo, but if you can handle a simple gameplay system changing over the span of two decades or more then you have something going on in that area. There’s just no two ways about it.
@@SamuelSabharwalThis is because critics dont actually have strongly defined opinions of their own. Rather they ‘read the room’ and then they align with that opinion. Finally they refine it a bit to sound super quirky and original. But the origin point is always some established opinion. Its why Elden Ring, BotW/TotK and BG3 can do no wrong.
This happens both in alignment if the gaming community at large aswell as their own peers and industry colleagues.
FF and SE will never gain favor with people like that because the established status quo regarding these games are decades old and extremely vocal and toxic. The best they can do is just not give a fuck and hope going multi plat gives them that new audience. And then hope the old one finally pisses off instead of insistently stalking it for years.
The video game awards have lost all semblance of credibility years ago.
And still so many are falling for it.
It absolutely was not snubbed. It just didn't deserve to win in any of the categories except music. I get that we fans love Brianna White - she's a brilliant Aerith. However the way she's written in Rebirth, it barely requires an actual performance. Melina Juergens *performs* her ass off in Hellblade, that's not a snub either - that's correct.
It absolutely did get snubbed while it won 3 or 4 awards at a show decided by the actual votes and not judges this take you got is a serious L bud
@michealjarvis9381 smells like cope to me.
@MrConeman can't be cope if it's facts.... but you know ow whatever you want man
@michealjarvis9381 Unmistakable smell, that cope.
@MrConeman coming from you yes if you can't accept the facts that the game awards I's 90% judges and the golden joystick award show is 90% voters that's on you man you have no real argument all you got is... smells like cope
It definitely got pushed aside for recency bias. Remake won rpg and rebirth only improved it (best system) when it was out.
I'm still sore about Rebirth not winning GOTY, but I won't worry for too long, because I KNOW part 3 will absolutely sweep when it comes out!
Bruh GTA6 taking next year and it's DLC is taking the year after its release 😂 ... this was FF7s only time to shine.
@@RoadtoLunchbox I mean rockstar hasn't done single player DLC in 15 years, I don't know why anyone expects that for GTA6.
@@RoadtoLunchbox Part 3 isn't going to release next year, or probably even the year after, though. 2027 seems the most likely.
Nope Astrobot 2 or some other shitty game gonna get the surprise win over gta6. Watch
yeah bro i will vote in every category that the ff7 part 3 gets in tga 2027
The first two Lord of the Rings movies got snubbed Best Picture at the Oscar's. Some people believe that everyone knew thatall three movies would be fire, and the Oscar's didn't want to get too repetitive, just awarding LOTR every time a new movie came out. So Return of the King winning best picture was like a sweeping award given to the whole trilogy.
@@sambajane to be fair, Fellowship of the Ring was competing against A Beautiful Mind. The Twin Towers lost against Chicago, but there were other great films nominated like Gangs of New York
Really wish Rebirth won Rpg of the year. siiiighhh hopefully at the DICE Awards
I think unfortunately rebirth was just too similar to other goty winners and that's likely why astrobot won. Not many platformers getting nominated for it and this makes the game awards look more fair to the industry. As much as I disagree with the decision, in some ways it's a good thing so developers get the hint to not just copy whatever the latest open world game that got goty is doing.
Also sidenote, Hamaguchi looked really happy and emotional to have even won a single award, and that was really wholesome to see despite what happened. They're really just super proud of what they've achieved and it shows.
Imo the western industry is just full of pretentious journos that think they are the moral compas and shepards of the industry. Astrobot was just yet another vote to make a point. That was the only reason. Not because it was in particular the best game, most grandest game or had the biggest cultural impact all due to its inherent quality. I also really cant think of a game like Rebirth other than Remake and even that feels like an introductory demo compared to Rebirth.
Imo its telling Rebirth sweeped the most awards at the Golden Joystick awards but only got one at the TGA’s. One is passionate fans voting. The other pretentious journos.
@mikev8746 fair enough. I think rebirth really deserved it, too. It's definitely one of my favorite games I've played, so I get where you're coming from.
In no way was it too similar, unless you mean the extreme broad category of being an action RPG. There no similarities between FF7 , Metaphor and Elden Ring the only similarity is they're all video games. But the games are vastly different.
@alenezi989a3 I just mean general open world games rpgs like baldurs gate 3 and elden ring before that. I know they're not similar in gameplay but they're all action rpgs.
Hmmm… Square leaves behind turn-based games for their AAA titles, turn-based game wins “JRPG of the Year”, hmmm… 🤦♂️
If ff7r wasn’t a remake it would shatter every nomination
You really can't call it a remake. It's an 80 hour game made out of 5 hours of content from FF7.
I'm happy with my PS5 version, but WOW!!!! That is incredible improvement! Even way better than I expected!!!!
I definitely think that Rebirth should've won game direction at the least.
I agree with you, but I think there is a stronger argument to be made for the GOTY with the 3rd game. It will allow TGA to narrate the project as a whole, it will also allow SE to package it as a whole GOTY package. I never thought that it would win, the game was amazing, but the ending makes it difficult (for me) to replay. If they can keep the quality up and complete the story in a strong way I still think there is a very strong case for it winning no matter what else it is competing with.
I swear, I'm going to have the hardest time if part 3 and Okami 2 come out in the same year. That would literally be the only contender for me I think.
@@rumasaiI think part3 will be released in 2026 or 2027?
No, each part should be judged independently. They wanted to split it up instead of just making one game, so this is how it will be.
@@jase276 That is true, of course the game has to be strong enough on its own to be considered a GOTY. However, if it is considered and it wins, I assure you that the narrative will include the total package. With that in mind, which do you think will be more valuable to project, a GOTY for the 1st or 2nd game, or a GOTY for the 3rd allowing SE to create a game of the package?
i am super existed about final fantasy rebirth coming out in 2025 for pc. i have already pre ordered the twin pack on steam right now it is 30 percent off so i would recommend picking it up now rather then later.
NGL, I feel slightly embarrassed for FF7R. It got 7 nominations and only won music. It feels like a massive humble after all the social media buzz supporting FF7R for GOTY. I am hoping it doesn't impact the dev team's moral when they are working on part 3.
I might be the only one who thought Rebirth would come away with a goose egg going into the awards. I thought Stellar Blade could have won OST just as well and would have deserved it but yeah they're always gonna pick Square for OST it's a token award at this point to save them from going home empty handed. Stellar Blade got screwed much harder than Rebirth did overall but it just goes to show how hard it is for those genres to win even if you're the best game at your genre and do nearly everything right you will still lose to a run of the mill platformer like Astro Bot that lacks character and story as long as it's "fun."
Do Japanese developers care about The Game Awards aside from advertising purposes? There's a ton more of Japanese game award ceremonies
I mean dude it kinda doesn't matter. The game awards are all for show. The fact that it even got 7 nominations over allll the other games out there is pretty cool either way. I would say that the reason a lot of people watch the game awards to begin with (myself included) is to see all the new games announcements. I don't really need the games I like to win awards to know they're good, lol.
@@pablocasas5906I think so. Hamaguchi seemed to care when he accepted the award for Score and Music
@@ganymede4030this 100%
I hope this second “snub” in the awards motivates the developers to make part 3 legendary.
Has a JRPG ever won GOTY though? Unless you call Elden Ring a JRPG, I’m not sure…
@danimal7544 JRPGs tend to drive away the more casual gamer. This year, the normie game won. Astro Bot was a good game, but it felt more like an Easter egg fest with decent platforming than GOTY. Thankfully, DLC did not win the title because it would have set a bad precedent. Balatro was the only game on the list that I did not care for. I tried it, but it was just gimmicky poker with catchy music. I got bored quickly.
Persona 5
@ it was nominated, but lost to Breath of the Wild. It won RPG of the year, but not GOTY.
I feel like the disappointment at TGA is gonna stoke the fire to make pt 3 the best it can be. I feel like a lot of fans wanted Rebirth to be the best of the trilogy because this part of the story is the first time you’re set into the open world and because it contains THAT INFAMOUS AERITH SCENE. And if Rebirth swept TGA, I feel like Hamaguchi and squad would have been complacent and would not have gone as hard on pt 3, with many fans also wanting simply a quick, effective wrap up to the trilogy. But now I’m sure they’re gonna go totally ham on pt 3. I can’t wait!!! 😁
this was the real goty.
i have a feeling that if ff7r was a 1to1 it would definitely would have won
Yes it's a good game but let's not pretend it divided the fan base.
I havent played any final Fantasy games, should i start with this one? Do i need to play the other 20 games? Lol
It totally depends on what kind of games you like or not.
If you like old school pixel games where you can take your time while fighting. Go for 4,5 or 6. ( 6 is the best one in the series in my opinion but you have to like 2d retro for it. )
If you can stand PS2 style 3d graphics FFX hd version is a great introduction.
It's fun and has a great story and still some nice cutscenes.
I would definitely play FF7 Remake before Rebirth as they are directly connected.
Same characters and story.
But you don't need to play any other games before 7remake.
It's a good start.
Only a few of all the FF games are connected most just use the same names for weapons etc.
Most have really different stories and game mechanics.
I would not start with 1,2,3, 8 or 13 as a first game for sure.
But any of the rest.
There's well over 100 different FF games. And with that info, do you think you'd be required to play them all?
Metaphor battle music as background music for FF7 video?
NSP often gets strongly attached to whatever is the current day JRPG meta. Same happened with FF14 after Remake. Every video had FF14 music in it ad nausium.
@@mikev8746 damn… it’s almost like I enjoy music from the game I recently played lol
@@TheNightSkyPrince Fair point lol. I went too far. But you do sway a bit with the winds from time to time! You could atleast see that in yourself. We all have our tendencies afterall.
A game like rebirth losing to a Mario clone/ps5 advertisement for 8 year olds is a travesty.
Rebirth only 1 won award 🤦♂️ straight insanity!
@@cynicalidealist11 regarding Astro Bot, do kids care about the game? I'm serious, I have a couple of young relatives who are still in elementary, but they haven't heard about Astro Bot, they like games like Sonic, Mario, Minecraft, etc., but I asked them if they were aware of Astro Bot and they said no. It seems like Astro Bot, despite its colorful graphics and family-friendly look, its actual target are hardcore PlayStation users, and it kinds of makes sense it came out this year for the 30th anniversary of the original PlayStation
Though weirdly enough, I find it kind of funny that despite that Astro Bot features tons of cameos from characters from games closely tied to PS histoy, ranging from first-party games like God of War, Uncharted, The Last of Us, and third-party games like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro (which is extra funny considering that they're owned by Microsoft), Street Fighter, Guilty Gear, Metal Gear, Persona, etc. There's no single appearance or reference to Final Fantasy, despite how important the series was for the original PlayStation
@pablocasas5906 astro playroom has tonne of references to ff7
Astro bot had higher review scores
Astro bot is an original IP with original music
Ff7rebirth is just a remake of ff7 with remixed music
Remakes and dlc shouldn't be nominated for GOTY let alone win
Well actually in some fairness last I heard per ign from the chief developer was that there was the implication that it was Square that needed to give their approval for an FF cameo. That presumably they never got.
Also that observation of yours doesn't seem fair 💀 maybe if other ppl online were experiencing the same thing it'd be different but you can't just ask a handful of relatives and somehow that means no kids are playing it. I mean it wouldn't be fair of me to ask the handful of ppl I know if they know about Final Fantasy and then assume that Rebirth's actual target are hardcore Square enix fans, would it?
Rebirth got the only reward it deserved.
And the only way they got that reward is by remastering Nobuo Uematsu's work from the 90s. lol
I think Rebirth losing all those rewards comes down to us not being the huge fanbase we think we are.
I mean, most of Final Fantasy's golden age was during a time where fandoms and communities weren't really a big thing yet, and then you have XI-XV making a bad impression or just seeming "mid". Final Fantasy, especially for newer generations, is a pretty obselete series nowadays that's only being held up by Remake and Rebirth.
I mean, there's a reason people in the West tend to know what Kingdom Hearts is before Final Fantasy, and that's a crossover series, for Pete's sake...
Anyways, I'm happy Astro Bot and Metaphor got so many wins. Very good, original games and easily the best of their genres this year.
Voting is only part of the awards. Astrobot was an absolute critical darling and that also carries a lot of weight at TGA.
Imagine thinking VIIR is what's holding FF "up" in the age of XIV, the only game providing a fundamental FF experience to the core while also being an MMO, with all the restrictions that entails from a single-player experience/perspective. Find me a person that thinks Rebirth is holding FF "up" and I'll just as quickly find you another that thinks its holding it "down".
Also, "mid" is an amazing word to use here, considering that's high praise for everything in the VII Compilation, which has often been considered an incessant milking of a game none of the following has been able to live up to at all.
@kimlee6643 But the average player won't experience XIV because it's an MMO.
Hell, I know FF fans that haven't, and don't plan on playing XIV because it's not their taste. The average player (FF fan or not) is more likely to experience Remake and Rebirth than they are to experience XIV.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a huge fan of what Remake and Rebirth are doing to the original story. I don't like the convoluted "Aerith is alive but only Cloud can see her" plot. It feels like a lazy attempt to please both the people that want Aerith alive and the people that understand the importance of Aerith's death, making it feel like SE isn't doing anything "ambitious" but are actually being painfully safe.
As for "mid", I agree. Aside from FFVIICC, almost all of the Compilation of FFVII is awful or unnecessary, only to pair with the relatively mid games between X and VIIRemake. Overall, I just don't think FF has had a valid modern presence outside of XIV and the Remake Trilogy due to the series having it's golden age in the 90s/early 2000s.
"we" only voted for 10 percent. The rest was a jury vote
Golden joysticks was voted by players and FF7R won a looooot of categories as long as wukong was excluded (thanks to the "bots" would I say) and still managed to get second place on ultra goty if it wwasn't for chinese people mass voting wukong on the only 2 categories it was nominated.
Game awards voted by critics: of course they pick astro just to "send their message". The same as they vote TLOU2 goty despite horrible story
The way Rebirths world is designed with its different areas and towns. Should honestly become the new standard in FF games. It's the return of the world map. Content within the world can always be different of course.
I mean the other elephant in the room for Square is outside of say FF7 Rebirth coming to PC, and Clive coming to Tekken 8
There wasn’t anything a brand new game announcement from Square for TGA. Even Capcom and SEGA’s RGG Studio had 2 major announcements respectfully etc. which is surprising as they mostly have something major to show at TGA to fill a roadmap for 2025
So the current roadmap really for 2025, is Dragon Quest 1 and 2 HD-2D Remakes, maybe KH Missing Link and the aforementioned FF7 Rebirth on PC.
Now it all could change within the next year, for the big game shows from PS, to even Xbox, SGF and Nintendo (especially Switch 2) but yeah.
Square Enix knows they don't get love from TGA
@ when it comes to awards, kinda yeah
But announcements, naw. They usually have some to show at TGA. Tho I guess with the re-structuring of the company, cancelling over $100 million worth of games, shifting to multiplat and trying to focus a little more in-house, and a little less on outsourced and more on AAA. It probably does kinda explain why they weren’t a full no-show, even Capcom and SEGA managed to put a lot of announcements at the show.
@@madkaiser4887 and Sega managed to take away some awards from Square. Must be a coincidence
@@madkaiser4887 I still have 0 faith that SE finally turns that sinking ship around.
currently only FF14 is keeping that ship afloat, FF16 and FF7 Rebirth costs a lot of cash to make, considering it's long development cycle, but then sells mediocre because ... "PS5 exclusive" and then going "wait, why did it sell bad?" no shit? PS5 was having a massive shortage on top of scalpers, the install base for the PS5 is miniscule compared to PS4, it's like loading a shotgun, aiming it at your own feet, pulling the trigger and then go "wait, why is my foot gone?"
They need to bolster FF14's dev team so that there's more content, since players are leaving FF14 atm due to very little content per patch, so that'll eventually dry out.
and also, I want a good artstyle again, not these "hyper realistic" graphics, get a good artstyle going again and go with that, it would severely cut down on dev time/cost and maybe, just maybe, you don't need to sell upwards of 5+ mill copies to break even, let alone profit.
The biggest issues facing AAA gaming currently is the massive dev cycles, each game taking 3-5 years to make, then we didn't factor in licensing that comes with it. (since everyone is using UE5 now)
Also, making massive openworld games also costs a lot, since they gotta factor in ways to save cost on resources for the end user machines. (consoles/PC)
have to fill it and of course make it.
FF16s big issue was the hyper realistic graphics imo, it's spectacular and stunning visually, but that's about it.
The progression of a series of games is that many people don't move on from one part of a game to another when there is a wait. And then you don't get brand new people because they didn't play the first one and won't start partway through. Each installment of 13 was essentially halved in sales from the previous release, and the Remake trilogy seems to be keeping that trend. So if they aren't getting GOTY wins already, there will be even less people to say it should be GOTY on the 3rd release.
I like the initiatives SE is taking for FF7 Rebirth coming to PC! Thus is the way to go!🙌🏽😊
I am slightly disappointed that FF 7 Rebirth didn't win more awards, and Metaphor Refantazio didn't win GOTY...However I am glad for what they managed to get, and for Astro Bot winning. I believe FF will do better in the future TGA!🙌🏽❤️
Thank you for the updates NSP!🤗❤️
I think Astro Bot winning is fine. I mostly watch the game awards to see all the new game announcements anyway.
I agree. Game was great. People need to realize that Rebirth is still pretty niche. Astro Bot is approachable by everyone. I think Rebirth should have won, or even Metaphor, but the devs who made Astro Bot deserve a big win, too. It's just a solid, fun game.
@lens_hunter Yeah, and as a huge FF7 nerd I wanted it to win too but I'm definitely not upset about Astro Bot winning at all. I keep seeing all this manufactured "outrage" over the game awards and I just don't really get it, lol. People are so dramatic 😂
"None competitive year"? Metaphor was absolutely competition.
"Can we please stop using license music at these events" 😂😂😂😂
Is Metaphor or Fantasian better? I'm thinking of ordering one before the year ends
Fantasian. Metaphor is hugely disappointing. Try the demo to see for yourself
Metaphor is a Masterpiece.
What is Fantasian? lol
I was a big fan of fantasian but metaphor is definitely the objectively better game, definitely check out them both eventually but atlas have already had some great sales on metaphor worth taking advantage of!
ill rate metaphor 9.5 i put 80 hours in there, ill rate FF7 rebirth 9.2 due to its horrible ending and bad minigames and super bad cait sith chapter 12 , 90 hours in there. my fav is prob persona 3 reload this year i put 100 hours in there ill rate it 9.7 out of 10!
Metaphor is a near 100 hour game by atlus and literally the best rpg ever to me
Fantasian is a mobile game which is more than enough to turn me away, but I tried it anyways it's not great feels like a super casual game you play on bus rides or while watching a movie or show
Two Towers won 2 Oscars (VFX & Sound) while Return of the King won 11 in a clean sweep. And it's not like ROTK was 5x better than T2T. It wouldn't surprise me if this is the mentality that critics/voters have in their heads knowing that this is a planned trilogy ahead of time. Critics have a sense of "rewarding" the end of something great when it concludes, even if the quality didn't end with a bang (Game of Thrones S8 won best Drama at the Emmys). One could argue Cody Christian was the best VA in Rebirth being the central character, but the equally excellent Briana White gets the nom cuz this might be her final prominent role in the trilogy.
Rebirth was my game of the year. 200 hours to get platinum, and I loved the game from start to finish. That being said, astro bot was by far the most "video gamey" video game released in a long while. I loved it at all, just not to the same level as rebirth.
Really excited to see some of the mods people are going to make for rebirth. My PC is definitely not capable of running the game lol.
This year has been absolutely fantastic for me. It would be hard for me to even pick my top five favorite games. While rebirth is definitely my game of the year, I cannot deny that I had a lot of fun with astrobot.
The amount of effort put into this game. I’m sad it didn’t pick up more wins. I have hope Part 3 will finish strong.
Whew, glad I’m not the only one who uses 2x speed on UA-cam videos haha 😅
At the very least I was hoping it would walk out with 2 or 3. I can recognize that it might not be game of the year for most people but it atleast deserved RPG of the year. I wanted it for game of the year but it doesn’t help that another RPG was splitting votes with it and that it came out earlier in the year and Astrobot and Metaphor came out late in he year. Tough watch but it’ll always hold a special place in my heart
Metaphor coming in later is even more embarrasing for FF7 Rebirth. Because its had less time to receive critic scores before the Awards while FF7 Rebirth got the full catalog.
@@CrystronHalq I’m pretty sure the original comment was referring to recency bias which most likely is a factor
Recency bias or not metaphor feels like a perfection of the genre and systems. Rebirth is simply too ambitious to be as good, many of it’s
parts are eye roll inducing often enough to detract(see mini games, traversal, and general jank) It also had many pacing issues story wise, and they fumbled the ending scenes and made them super confusing. There was also an emphasis on ubisoft style open world collection and that wore thin about 10 years ago. Not saying it’s not a great game, but the games that won many categories didn’t have these issues.
@@CrystronHalq yeah definitely just meant it as recency bias towards the games that came out later. If the two games swapped release dates then I strongly believe they would have likely swapped awards as well or at least Rebirth would have gotten more. I dont have all the data but I’m pretty sure that most of the “Games of the year” have been released in the later half of the year for the past several years
@@TOMHICHIBAN those are fair points and I recognize that Rebirth is mot perfect and definitely not everyone’s type of game. (Especially if they don’t like the change in directions for the story here and there from the original). I also had similar fatigue moments with the exploring factor and the minigames but I always felt that for the most part those are all optional so you don’t have to play those parts all during the first playthrough to enjoy the game for the story. Also looking back I’ve definitively ranked the later parts of the game as much more enjoyable than the beginning parts and that was when I was in the middle of the fatigue from the length. Again though that was just my experience with the game and I know that everyone has different experiences.
yes i will be... scratch that, i already bought it on PC
I don't really let the fact that my favorite games like Final Fantasy games not winning GOTY bother me. In the past decade, they're still the ONLY games that I have been buying at retail on pre-order. All of these other games, including that Metaphor game as well as Astrobot, would only gain my attention after they've either been heavily discounted or pop up among PS Plus's game catalog.
"There was nostopping astro bot this year" I'm sorry, what? If Wukong or Elden Ring won, at least I'd understand why. But ASTRO BOT? Most people NEVER EVEN HEARD about it prior to GOTY. Yeah I played it. It's a good platformer. But that really is it. Rebirth is a brilliantly exectured and expanded story we've waited for for DECADES. There is no comparison. Not just FF7, but all other games were robbbed by Astro bot. It's absolutely shameful.
I bought FF7 Intergrade but only played a few hours. Now with this patch I might give it a shot.
I would be more upset if the awards weren't based on 10% audience vote and 90% insider/journalist vote
I hope SE will reconsider Rebirth being a failure after the PC port comes out. It should have never started off as a PS5 exclusive
Yeah less people that played = less votes it's common sense
@ exactly. I want to play it, but I’m not going to buy a PS5 just to play it when I already have a good PC to run it, and I already own Remake for it as well.
Final fantasy rebirth not winning goty ...but being nominated??? Isn't that like being the nicest guy in prison????😅
Hateful
I believe there is a BIG chance part 3 wjins game of the year because I feel like the main reason remake and rebirth haven’t won is that they’re build ups to part 3, but when all story arcs pay off in part 3 I could easily see it winning best narrative at the very least.
In retrospect, if TGA was around 30 years ago, FFVII, XI, and X probably would have won.
I don't know about what could've happened back in 1997, back then it seemed GoldenEye 007 took a lot important awards
You know what helps Square not sell games? Always saying their games didn't meet sales expectations even though they sell in the millions. They put out info saying people aren't buying it as much as they think would, and that just makes the people who were waiting think, "oh, well it isn't selling well so probably no point trying it". If Square can't be hyped for their games sales, why would anyone expect the rando's who vote for games to pick it over others.
I'm confused. I already have ff7 remake intergrade on steam. Is this different than that?
Ff7 rebirth is sequel from ff7 remake
I think intergrade is ff7 remake but it just includes Yuffies dlc.
We had some gems from Atlus this year but Rebirth was still best game of the year and probably in the last decade. It would have been nice if it got another award but is still an amazing game!!
For me FF7 Rebirth is GOTY, best RPG, best Narrative, best Music, voice acting (Briana White) is more than the best!
If anyone has been keeping up with recent events, it's clear that it's not just anime and manga, but also games and the broader Japanese culture that have been targeted by certain groups. These individuals have taken to social media, openly admitting to bullying by rejecting this content, claiming it damages their brand, and even going as far as using their credit cards to prevent purchases from these companies, aiming to shut them down. In my opinion, the 'Game of the Year' is just another means for them to censor Japanese creators because they disapprove of the tone or content in these games. For instance, Stellar Blade was promoted as an uncensored game, but upon its release, changes were made. They exert pressure, resort to blackmail, and employ other tactics to achieve their objectives. Considering this and the evidence that people are actually engaging in such actions, it's hard to believe that these contests are not being manipulated. Yes, I'm convinced they are indeed doing that.
It makes sense, i've seen some people attacking Rebirth saying it's a gooner's game
@@DrakeSparkyRebirth of all games? Wow, people are trying so hard to be (for lack of a better term) "woke" that they've become extremely racist. It's honestly sad if that's true.
@@Klaxynd there are people from both sides attacking the game, some anti-woke people say the game is woke, because it has npcs from minority groups, but there are also people attacking the game saying this other stuff, it's simply absurd
@@Klaxynd you can find some of those replies on the Game Spot top 10 games twitte
Please spend time with real humans and detox from social media, you need it more than you know 💀
Correction, FF13 was nominated at the Game Awards. At least it did in the previous carnation back in 2010, when it was on Spike. It lost its only nomination, Best RPG, to Mass Effect.
He was talking about GOTY.
astrobot winning is baffling. it was a fun game, but it didnt have me thinking about and consuming videos about its ending months after i finished it.
Im so happy it isnt FF7 rebored
I think Rebirth development might have been impacted by the pandemic. Hopefully, the 3rd installment will not take as long to develop as the 2nd.
It was 4 years between remake and rebirth, that's actually not that long, but we already know they lost a year due to making yuffie dlc, so part 3 will be 3 years or less
Well after this embarrassment and unappreciative response by the game awards I’m sure they will just throw out a half assed part 3 as quick as possible and call it a day. No matter how good part 3 is it ain’t winning anything because of the bias towards jrpgs
Why would anyone want to fly through that game? It’s brillant. Enjoy ever second of it
Is the update to FF Remake with the new game plus extra stuff coming to PS5 ?
honestly im completely happy with it winning best music. because remake trilogy’s ost is just unmatched in gaming up to this point if you ask me
REBIRTH was game of the year. It was a robbery. Only thing I can think of is they give FF7 part 3 the LOTR ROTK treatment where they award the last movie as a representation of the whole series.
Ain't gonna happen. The sales get lower between each installment, so if it can't win now, it won't in part 3
Final Fantasy VII game/story/franchise is the greatest of ALL time.
It sounds like SE still haven't got an official name for the last part. If anything, I'd think "Reclaim" would both be catchy and befit the themes.
After Rebirth’s announcement I would have put money on Reunion. But then Crisis Core happened.
@saltyk9869 Exactly what one of the developers said.
This needs to be said: People upset Rebirth didn’t get game of the year…..there was no shot in the first place, nor was there a shot for Remake in 2020, and there won’t be a shot for part 3 in 2027 (hopefully that year). The hard truth is Rebirth is not a quality game from start to finish. Like every open world game, it suffers from extreme bloat, and even Remake had some pretty abysmal padding. Also, writing-wise, it is very much a part 2 of a 3 part story that doesn’t stand on its own very well when you remove the context of its other installments, despite square advertising it does. Remake and Rebirth are my favorite games of their respective years because I love FF7 and I love what they are doing with a franchise I love lol. I’m along for this ride and if part 3 delivers as good as it’s predecessors, this trilogy will be my favorite gaming experience of all time, likely. But no fiber of my being expects or even cares if any of these games get game of the year. Their niche nature 3 part format doesn’t lend itself to a singular quality experience from start to finish, like Astrobot. Make no mistake I’m not saying there’s no consistent quality anywhere in these games, the battle system is the best of any JRPG ever IMO and even the bloated sections can still be enjoyable because of it. Not to mention the soundtracks are always a 10/10. Gamers need to be realistic and they don’t need their immense love for something to be validated by a bunch of out of touch journalists.
Shame Rebirth didn’t win many awards, but I’m not mad at the ones who won tbf. They were amazing games.
Only one that didn’t sit well was Best Performance, but I’m not really too upset with that tbh.
I’ve got faith for part 3!
A win would have been great for Rebirth, but I feel as though a nomination still puts a lot of eyes and interest on it, especially with the 30% off for pre-orders. Personally, Metaphor is my GOTY, but I also absolutely love Rebirth, and can't wait for part thREe.
I think these updates are eating what little HD space I have left on my PS5.
This was such a weird Game Awards. Almost nobody that were shoe ins for their category won.
Frame rate don't matter if the frames themselves are good. I've seen 24 frame animations run smoother than butter.
How did Astro Bot even win GOTY?
Because it was probably the only nominated that game jornous skill managed to 100%... 😂
It is a really good Game!
Being a great game focused on pure fun. It's pretty simple.
@@Kingdom850Right because the other 5 games weren’t fun.
Novelty and quirkyness appeal to the eternal western journo. It also aligns with the current year message of smaller anti AAA games. Journos feel they have to push the industry away from mega games suddenly.
Except for a year where Elden Ring, Zelda, Baldurs Gate 3 or GTA are released. In that case they suddenly like it.
My big game awards bugbear was Silent Hill 2 not getting at least nominated for art design. The original Japanese Silent Hills were all classic examples of excellent art design in games, the SH2 remake modernized and elevated it, and it not being in the running was a crime, regardless of what ultimately might've won against it.
Astrobot was a super fun game, didn't come close to rebirth though, as a 'comprehensive gaming experience' - basically rebirth had more to it with no sacrifice to quality.
Ultimately these awards are opinions, and usually not representative of fanbases (10% fanbase in this case), and I stopped caring about what they say years ago 🙂
As a PS5 Pro owner, I’m hopeful that the upgrades will not stay exclusive to the PC!
Rebirth needed a PC release from launch to get more people invested in it.
Exactly. People forget ps5 sales and 7 isn't enough in this day and age to incentive people to play a game.
I think I read within it's forst week or whatever black myth wukong sold 20 million. Ff7 only did like 3.5 million.
There were just more eyes on other games causs they weren't exclusively locked behind consoles
@petree Sony still thinks its 2005. Hopefully this is a wakeup call for them.
As I'm just now getting a chance to play Rebirth. And I just finish remake. Honestly I think the biggest problem is locking this game on PS5 all year.
Most people I've seen talk about it All said they can't wait for it to be ported to PC. We missed the large market of non New gen console players.
What the western media did to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth this year was criminal, you can think whatever you want about this game, but it's definetely a top 5 game from 2024, it delivers amazing quality in most regards, i checked a couple of top games lists, specially from the US and UK, and in some of them the game isn't even top 10
You pretty much captured my thoughts. I wanted more for FF7R. And it was a less packed year. But I get why Astro won and I’m blown away by Metaphor’s wins. I like what MR winning means for Atlus and for JRPGs as a whole. But FF7R was my choice for all those categories. I hope the team knows how amazing they did and that they keep up the amazing work for part 3. On a side note, I did feel like Silent Hill 2 got snubbed a bit too. I think it deserved more noms than it got, at least.
I agree that FFVII REBIRTH and METAMORPH FANTASIO both deserved to won some awards, but AstroBot winning the GOTY.........Black Myth Wukong deserved some "love" in my opinion.
Magical Archer not being nominated for anything is criminal.
Gamers i suggest we organize our OWN Game Awards, without the media and jornalists that dont care about gamers opinion. We shall call it Gaming Celebration 🎉🎉
Rebirth aside, I don't think I agreed with a single award given out at the TGAs, with the possible exception of Helldivers. Whole thing was a waste of 4 hours, next time I'll skip it and just catch the trailers after the fact.
I checked on PS5 and appears Remake has updated as well. Didn't log into check but I assume the new accelerated start feature has been patched in there too.
0:28
FF7Rb received 7 nominations. I don't think Best Performance was counted, which I normally would count for a game's nomination.
Final Fantasy 7 remake should have been game of the year, but apparently naughty dog paid the game awards to win for the last of us 2
The nominations made sense 'cus everything that makes this reimagination a game is bad, but the story, script and even music is lightyears ahead lol!
The thing holding Rebirth back is that not enough people played it. The barrier to entry was too high. In order to play Rebirth, you first had to beat Remake, which is a 40 hour commitment. Then to properly judge Rebirth, you had to play through it - and it turned out to be a lot longer than Remake.
This is basically what Square Enix chose when they decided to make it in three parts. Even fewer people will play the third game in the trilogy.
Astrobot sold even less with 1.5 million copies. Most ppl don’t know what this game is. The award was just bought by Sony for the sake of PS 30th anniversary.
@@StevenZJ I meant Game Journos. They are the ones who determine which games win the prizes. I'm willing to bet more Journos played Astro than Rebirth. They were the ones who were really pushing the game.
I mean Rebirth had 151 reviews on Metacritic, way more than Astro Bot. I think the thing with Rebirth and the journals is that it’s an incredibly long game. The reviewers had to finish it within a short period, that could kinda instigate fatigue and ppl starts to complain about the bloating and the optional contents in the game. Astro Bot is a short and fun game so I can imagine why they preferred it.
But again, as someone who played both, choosing Astro Bot out of those nominees is like picking the dessert from a 7 course meal, no matter how fun It was. And Ultimately it feels like a Mario game rip off and smells like a Sony ads. Not my GOTY.
@@StevenZJ Basically every single mechanic from Astro Bot has been directly lifted from various Mario games - I watched a big supercut of everything they copied. It doesn’t have an original or innovative bone in its body.
I don’t know how I feel about that tbh. Does being unoriginal make a fun game less good? I’m not sure.
Astrobot was the best Mario experience Sony could ever make but GOTY over FF7R? pfft
i agree Final Fantasy 7 rebirth should have won way more awards
Definitely will be buying on PC! Thank Valve that they claim to be "optimizing" for SteamDeck (i.e. Linux as well) as Remake was one of few games that had a clear disadvantage there. Now if only Part 3 has no exclusivity at all and comes to GOG!
What about RTX 3050 laptop? Can play?
Rebirth should have won ! It's outstanding!! Only problem i had with it was way to many mini games they force on you .
I'm annoyed they didn't get more awards since this was an amazing game. XIV has won awards at TGA though, haven't they? So they have won SOME.
The thing about randos opinions, they don’t matter to me. For me, this was THE GAME OF THE YEAR!! For me 😊 it was perfect!