The best game to use a style, a combination of art style and sound design, that makes it stand out from the beige of normality
The nominees for the GM GOTY Award 2021 for Best Aesthetic are the following:
- Guilty Gear Strive
- Humankind
- Melty Blood Type Lumina
- Psychonauts 2
- Valheim
Deliberations Summary
Now with proper spelling, the Best Aesthetic award is always a long deliberation, not helped by us continuing to have a long shortlist before going into the deliberations.
Most of the deliberation length was accommodated to cutting the shortlist into a top 5 contender list.
Arc System Works is in this category again this year, to the point we were contemplating a ban to stop them from winning too many. Guilty Gear Strive pushes its 2D-looking 3D models to still look good as 3D models, and continues to wear the series’ rock-and-roll and heavy metal inspiration on its sleeve.
Melty Blood Type Lumina, however, continues the old tradition of using 2D sprites for fighting games. Frenchbread and Type-0’s blend of anime style and jazz music is too good, the new character select theme is as gold as the previous iteration of Melty Blood, and so deserved a spot.
Humankind, Amplitude’s big-budget 4X strategy game got a big shout, for doing what Civ isn’t with its aesthetic. A serene, water paint-like artwork accompanied by an original score that’s as impactful as a full orchestra can do, makes it one of our favourite aesthetics for 2021.
Valheim is a choice pick in this selection of nominees. It’s defined by the art style, high-poly models but with low-poly textures. The distinct sky tint gives off that Viking fantasy this survival game strives to be.
Psychonauts 2 proves that quirky cartoon style from the 90s can work in 3D and in high definition. Humans have unconventional silhouttes and proportions yet don’t look as unsettling, for the most part. The soundtrack has quite the range, from very on-point game show themes to jaunty and haunting orchestras.
But what kept Psychonauts 2 in the running here is that it has multiple changes of art styles, to reflect on the different minds that you go in. From a psychedelic rock band road trip to a claustrophobic game show set, it has a hint of Kingdom Hearts where our hero Raz can sometimes blend with the world’s new art, or be standing out like a sore thumb.
Deliberation Length (after edits): 38 minutes
Best Aesthetic Winner
Congratulations to Psychonauts 2 for winning the 2021 GM GOTY Award for Best Aesthetic!
Stay tuned tomorrow when we reveal the winner for Best Story.
For the full list and full recording of the deliberations (as part of dia.log – The Gamer Matters Podcast), check the main page for the Gamer Malaya And Gamer Matters Game Of The Year Awards 2021 here.