The game we love best from afar and pining to play.
Unofficially called The Anan Award For Best Game We Didn’t Play in honour of our crew member Anan who don’t play a breadth of games regularly as the rest of us, this is to announce our love for games we didn’t got to play this year. Mostly due to budget constraints.
In any case, we followed the game enough, from news to Let’s Plays, that we enjoyed its existence despite yet to laid hands of them.
This year’s indie darling Celeste deserves a spot here, because we love it but none of us are experts of 2D platformers. Octopath Traveller is a great Switch-exclusive JRPG that arguably may not exceed the reputation of Bravely Default, but great nonetheless. Then we have Fist Of The North Star: Lost Paradise, a “Yakuza but anime” game where the foundations of the Yakuza series is fitted with the skin and flair of the Fist Of The North Star IP.
But at the end of the day, in this house, we respect Uncle Kaz. Yakuza 6: Song Of Life, the swansong for the mainstay Yakuza series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu, takes the win. From karaokes to a Clash Of Clans style mini-game, it definitely is the best game this year we didn’t play.
Congratulations!
The Anan Award For Best Game We Didn’t Play
Winner: Yakuza 6: Song Of Life (Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, Sega)
Honorable Mentions: Celeste (Matt Makes Games), Fist Of The North Star: Lost Paradise (Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, Sega), Octopath Traveller (Square Enix Business Division 11/Acquire, Square Enix)
Choice quotes from the deliberations:
“I still want to get into the Yakuza series. I’ll pick up Yakuza 6 when it’s on sale.” -Daniel
“Yakuza 6, since I played Sleeping Dogs recently.” -Anan
“Yakuza 6. Why? Why bother… This game has weird stuff, weird are good.” -Irham
“We will play you eventually!” -Meck
“…Not through PS Plus that is.” -Wam, disappointed that Yakuza Kiwami was not available for PS Plus subscribers in Asia.
On that note, stay tuned as tomorrow we will be revealing the winner of the most ordinary category of them all, the Best Racing Game! Happy Holidays!
Check here for the full results of the Gamer Malaya and Gamer Matters Game Of The Year Awards 2018.