The Game Awards GOTY Is Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Hopefully we'll see it on a Nintendo system one day. Looks like a worthy winner.

Sekiro is a great game and it deserves the award. I personally thought Outer Worlds or Smash Ultimate should have won, but to be honest I'm just happy it wasn't Death Stranding.

I heard it's great. My bet was on Control... how do they determine the winners for this? It's it voted by their members?

Award shows are a crock. All pre determined.

I mean Nintendo cleaned up a few years ago with Breathe of the Wild and Odyssey. Not to mention Fire Emblem won the fan vote. Personally for me Smash was my game of the year, partly because it was on the system I actually own and partly because it's a game that I can have 7 friends over to huddle around my 70 inch TV and we have a blast. Smash will probably end up being my game of the decade really. (Through Breath of the Wild was a fantastic experience.)

@AnnoyingFrenzy pretty much.

Great game, it deserves it. I like SSBU better, but it's definitely a worthy winner.

Really? I'm going to be the first one to express disappointment and dissent? Fine, I'm used to it.

We didn't have to get a shadow drop or anything, but a tease or something would have been far preferable to nothing.

At least it won MY Game of the Year!

I was literally holding my breath for it to at least win once, but no. I'm sorely disappointed

All in all I felt this was a fair and unbiased VGAs! So that part was good. Mostly a ho hum show though. I did like the trailers/reveals for Bravely 2, NMH3, Ori, and Hellblade 2. Shame Ori and Hellblade will likely be X exclusive now. One could hope for more MS games on Switch / Switch 2.0 in the future though.

Shocked Sekiro won. I thought Death Stranding would've won this, especially knowing that Geoff has a hard-on for Kojima.

Fantastic game. Well deserved and a must play.

I was ok with any of the list taking it. All pretty good games.

Surprising, to be sure. I thought it was gonna be Smash.

I'm just glad this game won instead of Death Stranding imo. It's a very cool game. I'm fine with it winning.

The biggest disappointment of the night for me was staying up watching this crap. Barely anything announced in regards to Nintendo and no smash character or anything else big from them. Considering the big drop of Joker from last year, I was expecting more. Had I known I was just gonna get TV ads and Green Day than I would have just come back here and read the news. Gotten more sleep.

@TAndvig Death Stranding seems like it's been a worthwhile experience for those that bought and played it, but it does seem potentially over-marketed and over-hyped given the potential tedium of the gameplay. That's a reasonable enough doubt for someone to hold that kind of opinion. (Again, opinion.)

@TAndvig Overreaction much?

@AnnoyingFrenzy @Kirby_Girl Why? Death Stranding is an amazing game.

Not surprising. Sekiro IS the best game of the year.

@TAndvig Watch the language please.

@Trajan It was the only game on the list I personally felt didn't deserve the award. It was too divisive on release and, in my opinion, doesn't engage the player as much as the other games. Again, my opinion, I know other people have had different experiences and adventures with the game, but such is the medium eh?

Was it boring to anyone? Cause other then Ghost and BD2 I was asleep

Looks like MojoPlays on YouTube predicted correctly.

@Trajan Sorry but from what I've seen of my friend playing the game, it does not look remotely amazing. In fact, people saying the game is amazing really astounds me. I feel like I'm in crazy land. Like up is down and down is up.

There's nothing revolutionary about making an open world game with fetch quests and ackward travel and management and expect me to think it deserves GAME OF THE YEAR either. Say what you will about Seikiro but I think it also conveys a VERY interesting game world while having gameplay that is super polished and precise to accompany it's themes, imagery, and character.

That's just me. I'm sorry. I just sat there watching and watching him navigate in Death Stranding and I was astounded that this was impressive to others. I get that the story elements, the surreal narrative, and all the star power is cool but I can't do it. I could not sit there and deal with that lol. A game has to prioritize gameplay. It's A GAME first and foremost. It just doesn't impress me personally. I get other people have different ideas of what's important and they are welcome to love the game. I just not personally impressed and glad Seikiro won. I was more impressed with it as a gaming experience.

It was a surprise. There wasn’t a game this year I thought stood far above the pack, but Sekiro was the best that I played. Good for the team at From Software.

The lead up to The Game of the Year with that dumb looking Fast and the Furious game was pretty cringe. The in game models looked pretty bad. If Michelle Rodriguez wasn’t on stage you wouldn’t have guessed that was her character in the trailer. I don’t know why they felt that was the best send off for the show.

@LUIGITORNADO Odd way to spell The Outer Worlds there, friend.

@NotTelevision Definitely an odd choice for a closer.

@Kirby_Girl the gameplay loop is very fun and engaging. Its an adventure game. Watching someone play any game is boring. Go watch someone play BOTW. All you do is run around a field killing the same mobs or robot spiders. But we who have played the game know its a good game.

@AnnoyingFrenzy I recommend checking it out.

@Trajan I've already checked it out. Played it, didn't engage me. Good narrative and voice acting and characters, but extremely tedious and, at times, downright boring gameplay.

@Trajan I enjoy watching games and would enjoy watching someone play Zelda. I did not enjoy watching the travel in Death Stranding. Great you enjoy it though.

I’m happy with this decision. Sekiro was a great game in the beginning of the year

It certainly deserved the win over Death Stranding. Well deserved.

Not really as big a game as most GOTY winners, but a complete masterpiece of design that I'd struggle to find many negatives for.

Fortunately I didn't watch all of it, by the time Reggie left I left as well but congrats to Sekiro for GOTY. Now hopefully there's s Switch port in the future.

One would a game that’s considered the unofficial celebration of the video game industry would win, but meh.

Not that big of a deal to me that Smash didn't get GOTY. At least it got the best fighting game award.

I find this a really bizarre choice. Yes it is a good game, but also one that seemed to fizzle out of opinion almost as quickly as it arrived.

@daebiya There is a jury of 40 people (mostly gaming journalists I think) that votes for the awards.

@MsJubilee Geoff doesn't decide who gets an award. He isn't even part of the jury.

@YANDMAN Yeah, I thought so, too. I saw it before it's release on some YT ads, then 1 of my friends went on about it for about a week. Then I never heard about it again. I thought it came out last year when I saw the name again on this post. The same friend has since moved in with his partner and I swear they got together in like January and he was playing it before then.

@TAndvig
OI!Watch ur language!

I guess I wasn't paying attention because I didn't know Super Smash Bros was expected to win. Sure, it's well made (ignoring on-line performance) and it has a ton of content... But after SSB for Wii U, it feels like, "Here it is again, just more of it!" It seems like GOTY should go to something that's not so recycled.

Considering it is a FANTASTIC game I am happy to hear this news (and kinda shocked).

Feel like they gave the award to the studio who needed it since Sekiro sold less than the other Souls games. And Kojima doesn't really need extra money since Sony is funding his games. The GOTY award usually gives a boost in sales for the game who wins.

Since Sekiro took the winning souls formula and improved so so much on it, GOTY is deserved. <3

I prefer Dark Souls. This game is quite tough. And you really have to enjoy sneaking so you can not be noticed and the combo style i dislike as well. Annoying CPU... I was more hating than enjoying. Clearly not my game. If you think Dark Souls level is just good enough.. I AGREE. But this one is different

Well, Well deserved.

@Trajan Pretty much this. Perhaps it doesn't sound fun on paper, but I'm surprised by how much I'm enjoying it. There's a lot of walking, and again, that sounds like a negative thing, but when it is gamified in the way it is done in Death Stranding, traversal becomes challenging and enjoyable. It IS the game. It's definitely the most unique and different game I've played in a while.

Fantastic game. Sadly, the last boss is nearly unbeatable.

The headless ape fight is worth that award alone, though.

I really like Sekiro, I'm fine with that

I stopped playing Sekiro cuz I just didn't care.
Meanwhile I platted Demons Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3

Sekiro is a great game, it deserves this win IMO.

Sekiro is good but is almost too hard to be fun. Code Vein is better for me because I have a chance of actually completing it. GOTY would be Borderlands 3. Still playing single player campaign months after release. Have not played Astral Chain yet though. Looks like my kind of game.

I played it but still have to finish it. Tough as nails. I think it may be the toughest From game so far, at least the toughest Souls. Well deserved, happy it got this type of recognition, it certainly isn't mainstream, at least from a difficulty level standpoint.

@Kirby_Girl Death Stranding takes huge inspiration from Breath of the Wild. The traversal is almost exactly the same with the only major difference being the ability to build stuff to help you overcome tougher areas.

@KingBowser86 the Bayonetta Reddit is on suicide watch.

@PorllM Zelda has way more going for it. I get you walk in both games but I would rather explore the world of Zelda, enjoy the combat in Zelda, see the many more sights, structures, and more joyous characters in Zelda than Death Stranding. That's me. I'm glad others love it though. I'm glad people are fine with the funny climbing and balance in Death Stranding. That's good if that does it for you.

All games of this year for GOTY were very bad.
Think about last year we had 2 very good games to vote ( god of war, red dead redemption ) and also 2017 Zelda botw.
Personally i don't like anyone of this year games.
Desapointment...

So happy the spiritual successor to TENCHU took GOTY. All of these Souls comparisons... Meh. You disappointed Souls fans had your expectations out of whack. This is more TENCHU than Dark Souls. For one, the controls are the tightest of any From Soft game ever, so you're not constantly fighting with the game itself. Superb soundtrack, beautiful environments.. Fully deserved GOTY. Now I'm looking forward to Ghost Of Tsushima. I love stealth games with grappling hooks. 😃

It totally deserves it ! And from software deserves the recognition

@Trajan 83 Metacritic is not a objectivley* Amazing game
P.s go home if you wna argue about nothing is objective.

Well deserved. For me it was between RE2Make and Sekiro. Not played Outer Worlds but heard good things. And personally I'm done with Kojimas pretentious guff so I'm glad Death Stranding didn't win. Not that any of it matters really, but nice to see FromSoft get the recognition

@Kdman If the game of the year was pre-determined and not voted on then it would have went to Death Stranding because Jeff Keeley is best buddies with Kojima and was in the game. I was surprised at a lot of the reward winners not being what I expected which was good though.

Miyazaki and his team are an uber-talented group that create games that can be enjoyed by many for years to come. Congratulations to them.

Reeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

@KingBowser86 Yes it's completely rational to hope something doesn't win an award. Omfg, you'd have to be insane to actual be hoping for something like that. Complete nonsense to go around wishing for a video game not to get an award. Lol.

@ShankyMcSpanky No..

@AnnoyingFrenzy Overreacting is hoping a video game, a piece of art doesn't win an award because they don't like it. That is some kindergarden type of nonsense.

@Kalmaro Hm.....no?

Sekiro is an amazing game! The combat and traversal really make it stand out for me. I was hoping there would be DLC like the other FromSoftware tiles, but now, I would rather have a sequel on next gen. 100% agree with GOTY award, I just didn’t think it would win.

@TAndvig You've been warned. Profanity is against site policy.

@TAndvig What part of "Death Stranding could have gameplay (a technical quality) that's inferior to the other contenders on the list." isn't a valid reason to snub it?

I don't have the skill for Sekiro, so I decided to sell it. My pick would be the Resi 2 Remake

@TAndvig No, Kindergarten nonsense is appearing to have a mental breakdown over somebody not thinking Death Stranding deserved the award.

"A surprising outcome"

Was it? It was an amazing game and there was ZERO chance a fighting game/Super Smash Bros was ever going to win GOTY.

@getyourak Really? How come? I don't know much about these awards other than a lot of this stuff is decided before hand. It's all for show.

Absolutely deserved to win. I played a lot of really good new games this year but Sekiro really got to me on a very deep level.

I can’t take From’s games as serious as I’d like because they won’t get rid of the frame pacing issues when it can cripple any game that is about precise consistent execution which is the core of their superb combat design. Maybe they’d fix it if they got more than endless gushing and awards

Worthy winner, would have been my pick for 2019 without a doubt.

@LoveEmpath using your scale, nothing by Nintendo this year fits that bill either.

You're also missing that DS got a bunch of 100s, followed by lower scores. Not surprising that game journalists that wanted to rush through the game hated it. Even IGN said "oh the post game is really good". The post game is the same as the actual game, you're just not in a hurry to finish it to write a review.

Huh. I haven't played it, but the E3 footage I saw looked really janky and "game-like", for lack of a better word. Not smooth like you'd expect from a modern game. And I didn't see anything really new gameplay- or story-wise. If they improved it for release, all the better!

Can't deny the game looks beautiful though.

@Trajan can you name a Nintendo Game nominated for Game of the Year that didn't get at least a 83 Metacritic .You can't ,so pick an actual argument instead of denying the facts.

@LoveEmpath My point still stands. Is album of the year even good music?

Nintendo has only gotten 1 GOTY.

@liljmoore The only thing I appreciated (besides Fire Emblem winning) was the short on Afghanistan women getting into coding. The rest was very underwhelming (Goddamn Fortnite), or good but we already knew about it (Tsushima)

Still have to play Sekiro.
Have only played acouple of releases this year being Resident evil 2 which is an exelent remake and DMC 5 but yea number 5 in a series.
Talking about remakes I adore Links awakening but it's a carbon copy of the original and so is Final Fantasy VIII remaster.
Bloodstained was a great Igavania throwback.
Currently Playing Red Dead Redemption 2 on pc that had too much of a rocky release to warrant an award and it's a port to boot.

I was pleasantly surprised to see an actual videogame win. Congratulations, Sekiro.

@Kalmaro Unrelated, but does site policy also entail clickbait articles and pretend news?
You’re such a wee teacher’s pet.

@HappyMaskedGuy If you don't agree to a site's policies, you probably should not have made an account then. You have to agree with the site rules before you're even able to sign up here.

I'm not the one you should be frustrated with. I also have younger siblings who go here occasionally and others and I don't want them seeing stuff they don't have to, especially when people agreed not to use profanity when they signed up.

@Kalmaro Sure.

@Kalmaro @Kalmaro Can we say poopie? You have a glossary of all the words not allowed then, since this is a very subjective thing. I would like you to list me the words and terms your policy deem "inappropriate". Only fair if it's a part of site's policy.

@TAndvig Something like that, you'd have to ask Nintendo Life while also just using some common sense. It's thier policy, not mine.

@Kalmaro "Common sense" Wow, so it's okay to hurl insults at your user base now is it? Can't use common cuss words, but we can insult each other? I see.

@TAndvig That was no insult, it's a shame you took it that way. You asked how to tell what words count as profanity. The best way is just to use common sense.

Most people don't ask for a list of what not to say because words you can't say are generally known.

@Kalmaro Does this site sell its goods (articles) and generate profit via revenue it accrues from advertising?

If so, that would make me a customer. As a customer, I will retain my right to contest the services being sold to me.

Go try taping someone else’s mouth.

@HappyMaskedGuy If you don't like the rules, then don't agree to them when you sign up, it's as simple as that. You essentially signed a contract and you're saying you can break it because you feel entitled to. I'm not following your logic.

@HappyMaskedGuy Following your logic:

If a guy, who saw a no smoking sign at the McDonald's he's in, lit up a cigarette after buying a meal... You'd defend them because they are a customer and have a right to "contest the services being sold to me."

I think you're confusing what services you're being given. The article is the service. You being able to comment here is a luxury and not your right. Hence, why they have rules and moderators.

@Kalmaro At what point did I break the rules exactly?

You’re missing the distinction between breaking the rules and criticising the rules.

And honestly, whoever ‘liked’ your previous comment needs to reassess their priorities in terms of their rights and responsibilities as consumers.

I’ll complain about nonsense if I see fit. Stick your site rules.

@Kalmaro Dude, look at Happymasks profile. It's a troll account that's entire purpose is to bring down NL's reputation.

@Kalmaro What a ridiculous strawman comparison.

As I already asked:

When did I break your rules?

@AnnoyingFrenzy Nintendo Life doesn’t need me to bring down its reputation, you can rest assured.

I’m not a troll, per se. But I am contentious where I see necessary.

@HappyMaskedGuy I never said you broke any rules, you may want to read what I said again.

Again though, if you don't agree with a site's rules then you probably shouldn't have agreed to them when you signed up.

@HappyMaskedGuy Sure, whatever you need to tell yourself.

@Kalmaro ‘You being able to comment here is a luxury and not your right.’

Waw, talk about arrogance—nay—borderline contempt for NLife customers with opinions differing from the company line.

Good to see you clarify that publicly.

@AnnoyingFrenzy Lol, I’m telling you, buddy.

If you want to call me a troll for your own sense of security, go ahead.

@HappyMaskedGuy Just pointing out facts, no one deserves to comment here. If that were the case, there would be no way to remove people.

@HappyMaskedGuy Oh yes, dont worry. I totally believe you.

@AnnoyingFrenzy That’s a relief. Thanks.

@HappyMaskedGuy No problem, and also my ability to take you seriously is only growing as we speak.

@HappyMaskedGuy Another thing, this isn't my site, it's everyone's site. The comment section is exclusively for those who made accounts to do so.

In order to make an account, you agree to the site's rules. Why you feel like you can agree to rules and then not follow them is bizarre.

@HappyMaskedGuy @TAndvig Ok let’s stop whatever is happening here and not do it again plz.

@Kalmaro please try not to mini mod, just report and someone will eventually remove the profanity.

@Eel I'm not sure what you mean by mini modding, but we certainly got off topic.

@Trajan you're moving the goalpost for no good reason but if you respond to my reply I'll bother the 2 minutes it would take for me to re-explain

@LoveEmpath Not really, as you don't really have a point. The game recieved plenty of very high scores, for example a 10/10 from this site. It also received negative scores from people who rushed through the game or didn't even complete it as in the IGN case.

You don't like the game, cool. That doesn't mean it wasn't worthy of GOTY.

@Kalmaro it’s when a regular user actively tries to enforce the rules by themselves, usually it simply ends up in a discussion between the “mini moderator” and the people they’re trying to moderate.

@Eel I see what you're trying say. I'm going to drop it here.

@Kdman as in, they vote?

@Eel doesn’t like people having perfectly civilised

CONGER-sations...

Oh hoo hoo! Get it?

Coz he’s an eel!

gleeful laughter

@AnnoyingFrenzy Aw, heck. I think my heart has grown two sizes.

@Alienfreaks04 As in ‘Murder She Wrote’?

You’re well off the reservation and into the shrubs matey. But that’s okay, it happens to us all sometimes.