The narrative that captures our hearts and minds delivered in video game form.
Another classic GM GOTY Award category, it’s the one where we spoil a game’s story and weigh down which one leaves the most impact on us post-game.
Based on history, a GM Game Of The Year has a strong likelihood of also winning Best Story. As of last year, four games had won both Best Story and Game Of The Year. There’s something about a good story that elevates a game to be the favourite among the team here.
There will be no major spoilers in this article.
Past Winners: Metaphor: ReFantazio (2024), Armored Core VI Fires Of Rubicon (2023), Citizen Sleeper (2022), Psychonauts 2 (2021), Yakuza: Like A Dragon (2020), The Outer Worlds (2019), Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018)
Best Story Nominees
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Ghost of Yōtei
- Skate Story
- Split Fiction
- Umamusume: Pretty Derby
How The Winner Is Decided (Deliberations Summary)
For a game named Skate Story, it’s nice that it has quite the story. It’s nominated here less about the story, but rather the way the story is written. The written prose is striking, elegant and confident, a tone you might want when you’re telling the story about a demon contractually obligated to skate and eat moons in a hellscape that for some reason looks like an ethereal New York City.
Before the list of nominees was whittled into short list of five nominees, there were two games that attempts to say something about this year’s favourite two-letter initialism. Between two games, Split Fiction gets the nod to be here. Without even mentioning the two-letter word, the whole story is built around the idea of extracting work from real humans without their consent so that a supposedly intelligent slop machine can generate infinite works. Being a game published by a two-letter initialism of a company that also dabbles with generative slop, and have it indirectly criticising that, is a ballsy, bold move that deserves respect to both the folks at Hazelight and EA.
The list of five also can only accommodate one revenge story, of which Ghost of Yōtei takes the nod. We’ve come to expect what a revenge story will end, but the fact that the tale adds interesting twists by the mid-part of the story, making one question that previously resolute resolve, makes for good drama. You have nothing to lose, or do you now? You’re a lone wolf… but what if there is a pack where you belong? A believable, human struggle, the story is.
Umamusume: Pretty Derby has a wealth of lore and storytelling devices thanks to the world they’ve set up. A world where horses don’t exist and there’s a chance for a female to be born as an Umamusume who not only can compete in athletic track races but also go to the Tracen Academy (which somehow is operated like a high school, with uniforms, and on-campus dormitories despite the age range of these horsegirls going from pre-teens to possible mother of four) and also be idols. Moments between the racing can be slice-of-life vignettes, a perfect fit for a visual novel roguelike. Rivalries and friendships can be experienced, where you can see the different sides of an Umamusume—the same horsegirl when chosen as your trainee will experience things differently when you encounter them as an NPC. It’s the perfect vehicle for storytelling. And the fact that it’s filled with homages to the namesake horses these horse girls represent is also an astonishing feat.
Though the winner here is obvious once the nominees have been locked in. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s story expands by every Act by having its scope more intimate. It starts with a struggle of humanity’s survival but ends with one individual’s personal struggles with grief. Every Acts with a plot twist of a reveal, yet none of them undermines what has happened previously, it just adds more. And the finale being a clash of ideals where either answer can be argued to lengths to be the correct one is amazing. Like how one’s outlook in life can change over time by how they relate to either SpongeBob or Squidward, so too is Expedition 33’s big moment.
It’s a perfect compliment to last year’s winner, Metaphor: ReFantazio, which asks players to use fantasy to reflect on reality. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 asks players if one should rely on fantasy to cope with reality. The answer is never provided, but for the player to ponder, like a work of art that it is.
Best Story Winner
Congratulations to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 for winning Best Story! This is the Final Fantasy VII of a new generation, in more ways than one.
Check out the Gamer Malaya and Gamer Matters Game Of The Year Awards 2025 hub for full list of awards.