Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom Wins Nintendo GOTY At Golden Joystick Awards 2023

@Farts_Ahoy no it’s not

God peered from the heavens and claimed their will only be 3 comments.

Man, what a great year it’s been for games. Happy for BG3 since it is a fantastic game and maybe even more people will be convinced to check it out now that it’s getting some awards. TotK doesn’t need more help, but I expect it will likely get more GOTY awards overall.

Either way….

1998. 2004. 2023.

Privileged to have been actively playing through gaming’s best years.

I don't even like the list above.
Glad I only play kids games and underrated games.

Good. TotK doesn’t deserve any GOTY award. Better games and Zeldas out there. Hope this is a step to deflate the hype for it and get Zelda back to form.

Edit: Looking at the comments I’m so glad the public opinion is turning around and the honeymoon phase of this game is coming to an end after people actually experienced it and came to their personal conclusion about it.

Kinda surprised that XC3 Future Redeemed didn't get a nomination for Best Game Expansion

@StarPoint These types of events always kind of bring down JRPGs and don't tend to take them seriously, so I'm not entirely surprised. Its a shame though.

As for TotK, of course it'll be the Nintendo Game of the Year. Its the only "big" Nintendo game, not counting Mario Wonder. Just like how Starfield only won Xbox GotY because Xbox has no real big exclusives this year outside of Starfield.

@Yoshif3 I tend to agree. TotK feels more like an extension than outright sequel to BOTW. It's characters and plot are weak too.

Personally, I don't care for game awards. Seems like whoever has the better AAA budget is declared winner.

@VoidofLight so Forza ain’t big at all?

It’s nice to see Baldur’s Gate 3 win overall, but also obvious to see ToTK win Nintendo’s GOTY. I personally love the game which is shocking since I did not like BoTW whatsoever.

I love how people are anxious to crown a 2023 game of the year with nearly two full months of the year left to go.

@anoyonmus Forza is big, but in the sense of CoD. Its there, but it doesn't really offer much for people who aren't already invested in the series.

@VoidofLight They don’t take jrpg seriously? But why?

I’m just happy Pikmin 4 got up there… oh wait it didn’t… well this list is wrong then.

But seriously unfortunate TotK didn’t get GOTY, I haven’t played bg3 but it really doesn’t interest me. I guess just cause I don’t care for DnD.

EDIT: looking at this list again, wow the only Nintendo game to get on this list was TotK? Gamers really don’t appreciate the wonderful world of Nintendo do they. I’m surprised Wonder didn’t make it up there.

@ChumChum dont forget their more video game awards coming up which tear of the kingdom has a good chance of sweeping it up nothing against baldurs gate 3.

Very well deserved. Not only my personal Goty, but my favorite game ever, beating out Botw.

@thesilverbrick To be fair, there really isn’t much releasing the rest of the year that sticks out, other than Super Mario RPG, and I highly doubt it will be GOTY.

Golden joystick is fan voted, right? So the games that usually win tend to be slightly different from other game awards shows. Because mainly fans that know their way on the internet will vote for the fan voted events and that usually doesn’t favor Nintendo games.

baldur's gate 3 deserved the award as game of the year..breath of the wild won game of the year so the odds of totk winning it again when we had a great game like baldur's gate 3 in the way were slim to none.. i knew god of war ragnarok would not win it last year with elden ring in the way..

Not too surprised by the list. Glad Zelda won for nintendo, Xbox should've had Hi Fi Rush instead, but starfield is still a great choice, and kind of odd Playstation had RE4. Im beyond happy Sea Of Stars won in the indie category. Not sure what breakthrough game means but im playing Cocoon as we speak. Once BG3 hits xbox I'll grab it and see what the fuss is about. I just have a feeling the hype won't deliver once I get my mitts on it. Felt that way about Elden Ring unfortunately.

@johnedwin dont be too sure totk has a big chance of sweeping game of the year awards from the main game awards coming up.

For me Tears of the Kingdom is like game of the eternity. It has reignited my love for Breath of the Wild. I've had approximately 20 moments in the game where I couldn't believe how good it is, how surprising it is, or something awesome and remarkable. Also, since I'm highly into my Nintendo fan boy thing these days, all the winners would be Switch software. Getting Metroid Prime Remastered, Tears of the Kingdom, Pikmin 4, Mario Wonder, and Mario RPG Remake in one year is incredible. Plus, I really enjoy the Kirby remaster from the beginning of the year too(and many other releases this year).

@gamerswereamistake i thought that, but isn't cocoon made by the people who made inside and limbo?

@somnambulance well joystick awards is basically a fan voted thing while the main game awards from others sites and show that comes in december are voted by critics/game reviewers or some thing like that.

@Snatcher Old stigma in the Western gaming industry that still goes on today.

@gamerswereamistake ah gotcha. That makes sense then.

Well deserved. Baldur's Gate 3 is absolutely one of the finest, most robust games ever crafted.
Everything it does, it does so well, and caters to every type of player.

Totk didn’t even win overall yet the totk haters are here loud as ever

@FawfulsFury joystick awards is basically voted by fans so i expect the next big game awards coming up will be voted by actual game critics/reviewers/experts reason why totk will have a bigger chance to sweeping game of the year awards from those events.

Congratulations to TotK and to the other game winners. This has been a good year.

Yeah its a well deserved win for Baldur's Gate 3 as its incredible and my GOTY as well. TotK is a close 2nd though and if it had won GOTY i would have been still happy.

@Yoshif3 "back to form" You TotK haters really are funny. TotK is the 2nd best selling Zelda game, has universal acclaim and just won best Nintendo game of the year so sorry dude Nintendo don't give two sh#ts what a very small minority think.

Does anyone else think it’s strange that Nintendo never wins any other category, but they make a “special” single category for Nintendo?

I wonder what Metroid Prime 4 would rate, eventually...

@gloom each major platform has a category as well. Some of the other winners are playable on switch as well. Nintendo doesn’t make multiplat games. So not weird that you don’t see them winning outside their own category or perhaps the goty role.

@gloom - so this is just a typical category that all platforms have to celebrate the best game of their specific system.

If you look at the list you’ll see PlayStation, Xbox and PC have similar categories - here they have just classified Nintendo as a category specifically by the company name rather than saying “switch” because they change their console name per generation unlike the others.

I do think that these results are a strong glimpse into how the VGA’s will turnout next month also.

In any case, having clocked over 300 hours in TOTK, it’s still remains my personal GOTY. I think those wanting it to “return to form” just want a bog standard streamlined Zelda experience again. Thats absolutely fine in theory - but it it would never make these award listings if they did that and wouldn’t evolve the series in the way it so desperately needed (and thankfully got with BOTW and TOTK).

Let’s also not forget that there are other studios out there that continue to create Zelda clones using the original formula, and these are often better than Nintendo efforts. It isn’t worth Nintendo’s time to go back when other games take care of this gameplay loop now, so this leaves them open to peruse innovating this series.

I also think because TOTK is a direct sequel, it’s going to have a harder time going against the competition because the game is an evolution (or completion) of what BOTW could be. I’ve no doubt if this was the revelatory game that BOTW was 6 years ago on debut, then it would have wiped the floor with most of these awards.

As it stands, BG3 will likely continue to be the top pick of the crop. I don’t really rate the game personally as the genre and type of game is not one I enjoy and find quite dull, but I can understand the positive storm that surrounds the unique release of this title.

Both Tears of the Kingdom and Balder’s Gate 3 are great achievements, but Balder’s Gate left more of an impact on me. Tears has so many systems that the game overwhelms, but not always positively. It feels like a bit like eating an eight course meal at a fusion restaurant. It impresses you with the effort the chefs went through but you end up feeling like the experience lacked nutrients.

Balder’s Gate impresses both in scale and execution.

@gloom
It's almost like Nintendo is behind and not capable of winning the other categories.

I will say that out of the things Nintendo has put out this year, Tears is probably the best. That's not saying much but it is still technically true.

There's still 1,5 months left of this year, hold your horses.

@nimnio I mean, I disagree w them as well...but who cares? There will be giant Zelda games with smaller ones peppered in as well, I'm sure. I don't really see how people don't get that BotW and TotK are quintessential Zelda, but meh. No reason to bother with mocking them.

I’m getting the feeling that Baldur's Gate 3 is the gaming equivalent of putting a book on your shelf not to read but to give the appearance to others that you read it.
@NotTelevision
So Tears is overwhelming meanwhile in Baldur's Gate 3 it’s the same old inventory management hell and screen cluttered with dozens of icons its genre is infamous for, totally not overwhelming at all.

Why is RE4 the PS Game of the Year when it's a multi-platform game?

Some of these comments are crying their own Tears of the Kingdom™️. On a related note, congrats! Hope it does well at the TGA too, I love Tears and I enjoyed the all of the time I spent in it. While it would be nice to see it win awards it’s not a huge deal for me if it doesn’t win GotY. I wasn’t initially a huge Zelda fan before but now I’ll try some of the ones I haven’t played because of Tears. I just started WW and it’s great!

TOTK has a bad, poorly explained, even unexplained story with key elements missing. It is supposed to be a sequel yet acts as it's own game. Almost nothing in the game suggests to or refers to the events that happened in the last game. There is no explanation of why after already activating towers you now have to go reactivate some completely different new towers. Why is every tower not working? Princess Zelda is a dragon (of course they explain why, but....honestly, why)? No real in depth explanation of the Zonai. They just included them to include them. The graphics and game play barely updated. Even more vast areas full of complete nothingness. The entire underground seems as if it is just meant to waste your time and life away. The Yiga clan have even less connection to the story than last time. I can go on and on. Completing this game felt like a chore. Ganondorf had a cool updated version, sure. But what even was the point?

The original BOTW surpasses this immensely and I hope TOTK does not outsell it in the long run. What were they thinking creating this, and why and how did it take so long. It did not deserve GOTY.

@FawfulsFury Ever not liked something and voiced your criticism of it?

Well, I wanna ask this; Is it quite possible to do the same for TotK or has the game itself transcended any form of criticism whatsoever?

Not you specifically, but alot of people are pretending anyone who even remotely says anything negative about this game has a chip on their shoulder.

These are useless "Internet poll" awards.

We await the real awards!

Honestly I am okay with this. Baldur's Gate 3 is really good. (Tears of the Kingdom as well, but has a smaller reach)

All of the other games sound like real snoozefests anyway (though I wouldn't mind giving PSVR2 a try).

TOTK for me, saying nothing else.

@highscore honestly 99,99% of all games have repeating content

Congrats to BG3, haven’t played it but I can tell based off the reception it’s a finely crafted game. Genuinely an amazing year for gaming filled with excellent titles from all sorts of studios and developers.

What is even the point off these awards there is 12 months in a year there cut of point for the nominations was ten months so no Spider-Man 2 and super mario wonder nominations for game of the year why not hold it in the middle of December when all the games are out

@sanderev BOTW imo got herald as being innovative of the genre and a lesson others should follow. I disagree with that and much agree with highscore. BOTW did give the freedom to play as you want, but outside of that it still faced the same problems found in other open world games.

I don't think BOTW did enough to separate itself to the point it;s put on a pedestal as an example. Underneath all freedom is the same core issues that plague the genre.

Super Mario Wonder was the better Nintendo game, though.

All awards ceremonies are nonsense and this is no different.

Not sure why people think Nintendo's going to drop the current formula because ToTK didn't win game of the year?

Isn't ToTK the best selling game of 2023 or near that?

No Sonic, Mario, or Spiderman oh & Robocop. These are my top games for me personally.

@sanqet totally agree mate !!

@VoidofLight I mean, Sea of Stars won best indie game and that's a JRPG... so clearly they take the genre seriously at least a little bit.

These comment sections remind me just how much I dislike GOTY discourse.

@gloom They... don't? Joystick Awards give awards away for each console's best game and then an overall winner. You did read the article, right?

@B_Lindz I guess. I personally feel like it winning was a misstep though, given how the game pretty much falls off completely about halfway through.

@Vexx234 I mean, not really? Sea of Stars and Cocoon aren't from AAA Studios. I mean, even Baldur's Gate 3 and Larian are/were more of a AA studio compared to their competitors.

Haven t played BG3...but I m glad TOTK didn't get the GOTY. BOTW blew my mind. TOTK was a huge disappointment; exactly the sequel I was hoping we wouldn't t get. TOTK checked almost every "please don't" cases I was imagining when the sequel was announced.

@NintendoByNature Okay, fun story about where Cocoon came from. There were two director guys that worked together to create LIMBO and Inside. One of them was more of the world/atmosphere designers and the other was the world/level designers. The two of them had a falling out. The atmosphere guy went on to create Somerville and the level design guy created Cocoon.

Bad luck TOTK. Good thing it basically had its own category!

What a great year for games though

@Eel RE4 won in the Sony category because in the time frame that these awards span (Spider-Man 2 missed the window) Sony did not release a single game.

@Kiliomp I enjoyed TOTK but couldn’t quite put into words why I found BOTW so much more enjoyable. I think you’ve captured it nicely. The more subtle aspects of the story were really shoehorned to make the game fit and just don’t really make sense or even fit. And like you said the BOTW story is largely ignored in TOTK.

Still, I happily put 150 hours into TOTK, but BOTW had such a greater impact on me.

Congratulations Baldies Gate 3. Would be interesting to read the reasoning behind it (especially as I have never played it.), usually awards like this are just titles slapped on to things. Anyhoo, good news if it comes to Switch 2 then!

Zelda needs better hardware with the direction they are going. Totk is obviously a good game, but suffer from not being able to up the game enough compared to botw, and meet peoples expectations, because of hardware limitations.
On a personal note, i feel they are also in a «we are not sure and confused bubble» with the series. Hopefully zelda can show itself more like mario wonder or even better in the future.

@somnambulance In fairness, , isn't that game really long. I mean I haven' t played it personally, but that's what i've heard.

I wouldn't put much stock into GOTY awards, especially the Golden Joysticks. The result basically means, the people who voted, who are always predominantly fans of PC, Xbox and Playstation systems, have chosen a multiplatform game as no.1

On a wider note, I detest the infantile obsession with having there be only 'one' GOTY. Why not 3, or 5?

Having there be only one just needlessly diminishes those below as inferior and feeds into all the dumb fanboy wars in threads like this one.

I'd prefer something akin to what the Strong Museum does, and have 8-10 games as part of a 'Game of the Year Class of 2023'. That would feel more grown up and representative.

Well, that's a shame. TotK surely isn't worthy of any goty awards, Cyberpunk should never be mentioned, and Starfield/RE4 aren't "xbox" and "PlayStation" games, they're multiplatform titles. You can't just give a weak, 3rd party console like Xbox an award because you feel bad for it, and PlayStation has had better games than RE4 to come out.

@Kraven Interesting. I finished BoTW but didn't strongly like it. Hope Tears of the Kingdom proves more enjoyable as well.

Nintendo had a stellar year with ToTK, Pikmin 4, and Super Mario Wonder and a bunch of other games I’m forgetting/omitting.

I wish this particular awards venue had made more categories to acknowledge just how many phenomenal games were released this year. It’s abnormal and it’s been awesome.

Nintendo deserves more awards. So does Sony. So do many other publishers and devs. Props to all.

@FawfulsFury chance of TOTK winning overall is very slim, see the issue is that no matter how much some people might kick and scream that TOTK is a brand new game and it has tons of stuff that BOTW doesn't, it still shares about 75% of the same assets as BOTW.

Same art style
Same items
Same map
Same NPCs

The issue here is that this isn't a fringe opinion shared by very few people. There are a LOT of people who were disappointed by TOTK, myself included, i put over 250 hours into BOTW too.

Trust me if i could go back, id have no purchased the game at all. I'm not the only one who thinks like this, TOTK will definitely not win overall this year.

No chance.

Hoo boy this comment section just proves my point from the previous articles about the amount of Tears haters that are here in NL.

@Yoshif3 Sorry Tears Doesn’t need “GOTY” for validation that it’s a great game and objectively is doing more then fine so no “get back to form” necessary buddy ^_^

@Kiliomp I think the story is still engaging overall. It does follow the previous game and there are plenty of references from characters that talk about the events of BOTW (Eg, Zelda’s school teaches the kids about the calamity). Also, seeing how Hyrule as a nation is rebuilding itself 5 years on from the calamity is really something. Almost everyone knows you as the hero of the last game too - which is a really nice world building aspect.

The new towers have been built as the older ones disappeared. The Purah Pad is not the Sheikah Slate, and the upheaval has completely changed the map - that’s why they are necessary. Not all of them are broken, and those that are have individual issues because of the upheaval blocking access or knocking it out of commission etc… no two issues are are same.

Zelda story (not cool to spoiler that in the comments buddy) I thought made sense. It cements her dedication to Link and Hyrule (and follows on from her established character traits in BOTW). So this makes her personal sacrifice heartbreaking - it also gives us one of the very best “acquiring the master sword” sequences in the entire franchises history.

I agree that we learn little of the Zonai as a people beyond Rauru and Mineru, but this species is still no less fascinating. It upends existing lore in very interesting ways that now makes the player question what we know about the history of Hyrule without giving us all the answers.

TOTK also plugs the map with thousands of new things to do and hundreds of caves to explore. The remixed map is different to navigate and you have dozens of sky islands on top of that. The depths is arguably emptier, sure. But they didn’t have to include this extra and the game still would have been more than complete.

Personally, I found lots to explore and do down there - the pitch black navigation and gloom invested creatures forces us to strategise navigating this place and creates a brand new experience for a Zelda title. The depths are not designed to be fully explored like the surface - and are instead supposed to be an inhospitable environment to the player. There is certainly plenty of treasure and mining materials to be found though, so there’s a big risk / reward factor to this place if you ultimately want to explore anyway.

As for the Yiga Clan, this connects directly on from BOTW’s ending & their goal is researching and pillaging the depths in preparation for Ganondorfs return - so if anything they are more connected to the main story than last time (even if this is ultimately a side adventure).

Graphically? It’s just BOTW again, but the scale is unquestionably more impressive when you view the map from the skies. Visually it is one of this generations most visually competent games.

The gameplay is a hugely different system and experience to BOTW. The freedom of navigation has expanded by definition of the skies being traversable and the tools which allow you to construct vehicles. The level of engagement Nintendo have offered is now fundamentally limitless. We’ve been give their developer tools (in a very meta and in universe way) to find creative ways to “break” the game.

Really, there’s are lot of valid reasons to why this is a GOTY contender.

All of the hate that TotK gets in comments sections like these simply proves how truly great the game is.

This was a great year for Nintendo and there is still Super Mario RPG to be played. Really, I am very happy with the games Nintendo released and I am sure this is not the last game of the year award for Nintendo.

My highlights are Pikmin 4, Tears Of The Kingdom and Super Mario Bros. Wonder.

@SalvorHardin Have to agree with this take. The fewer the amount of people actually play BG3, the easier it is to sweep its criticisms under the rug.

Entirely the opposite case for TOTK, since it reached so many more people and found more opportunities for people to find criticisms.

Great game, easily my GOTY.

Playstation game of the year Resident Evil 4, that's just sad.

Nintendo I feel like it should have been SMBW but yeah TOTK is phenomenal. As for global game of the year it was always going to be between Baldurs Gate and Zelda. Baldurs gate has the advantage of novelty when Zelda feels very much like a sequel. BotW won all of the awards, TotK as a sequel has a lot less chance to win.

Some people have said TotK would have been the best game ever if BotW had not existed before. That's interesting to me. It's like saying very directly that both games are just too much of the same kind of gameplay.

Im glad nintendo didnt win, maybe they’ll think twice about not letting me pet the dog!

@nimnio You just know Nintendo is clamoring to go back to the days of Zelda games selling 5 - 10 million units lifetime (maybe 10+ across multiple systems and generations if they're particularly lucky). Back to when every new release wasn't an industry-shaking event that became the standard other games had to compare themselves against that year, and for years after.

Game over, man. Game over.

It's as if Pikmin 4 and Future Redeemed don't exist...

As much as I liked TotK, it's still obvious Baldur's Gate 3 is a better game, especially when it comes to the story and characters, which are wonderfully crafted while still allowing for an unprecedented amount of player choice. So for once you should believe the hype, BG3 is undoubtedly the best game of the year. I hope it will get ported to Switch 2, I'd love to be able to play it on the go.

RE4 winning on Playstation is just sad

@SalvorHardin Salty, eh? I actually agree that BG 3’s inventory is too overwhelming. The prospect of opening the menu and organizing everything does fill me with a bit of dread. But that’s a common issue with RPGs, it just feels slightly worse in this one since the items are so small and they all have novel effects which means lots of reading. It certainly affects pacing. But ToTK has inventory issues as well.

Outside of that it doesn’t feel like it is that overwhelming though. The maps are large but they aren’t full of repetitive tasks and it always feels like you are experiencing something different. The characters and world feel complex but not unnecessarily so.

Zelda on the other hand has so much repetitive content in the world sandbox, that feels great to interact with at first but then gets boring 50 hours later. The weather and physics are so groundbreaking in the game, but it doesn’t amount to much more than just a novelty after a while. BotW was all about the world of Hyrule returning to nature, so Link having to traverse the ruined world, survive, and get stronger made sense. I’m not sure what all the systems amount to in Tears other than the developers thinking they would be cool. I understand how the building mechanics work into the concept of Hyrule repairing itself, but what about flying cars and driving tanks around destroying bokoblins in a vast dark wasteland under Hyrule?

Tears is still a great game though and I had fun with it.

Yeah no way Zelda DLC is going to contend with Baulders Gate lmao.

@Reztobi Same art style: It’s a beautiful art style no need to fix something that’s not broken, also I don’t see you complaining about majoras mask
Same items:In addition to new items most of the old ones have different stats and the fuse mechanic add a whole new dimension to all the items
Same map: the old map is greatly remixed and there are two additional maps
Same NPCs:there are many new NPCs and part of the fun of the game is seeing how your favorite botw NPC ended up

@DonkeyBrainKing your account is a troll account created ten minutes ago and already complained about Nintendo on 2 separate threads

"TotK haters" is going to lose all meaning soon just like the word "woke."

I think we should pass a law that says all GotY award shows should be held in January so that the entire year could be evaluated before handing out awards. I am assuming that Spider Man came out too late to be evaluated for these awards, so I think that it’s funny that Final Fantasy XVI was really the only other big Playstation game this year, and it was so bad that it lost to a multiplat. As for TotK, I played a little bit, but I found traversing Hyrule to be boring. Once I got to the destination it was fun, but the journey there wasn’t. I don’t have any interest in BG3, so I can’t comment on it. The Xbox award definitely should have went to HiFi Rush. That game is fantastic!

I don't tend to have any interest in the kinds of games that win these awards (except indie games and Zelda games) but I am looking forward to BG3 when I get around to it.

@B_Lindz oh. Oof. That’s kinda odd.

@Pipulitoch dont forget the main game awards is coming up so totk has a bigger chance of sweeping all game of the year awards from those events especially since the only people that can vote in those is game critics,reviewers,and other well known game experts.

I'm still struggling too like BG3 that much taking a break from it at the moment as with Totk. Its new game releases Mario wonder etc that stop me playing them. But I will play them again oh yes. And Totk game of the year for me not BG3.

@Yoshif3 I get preferring Baldur's Gate to Zelda. But to say Zelda doesn't deserve it? Thats quite a stretch. I've played close to 30 new releases this year, and I'd say only maybe a couple were better or even on par with Tears of the Kingdom. If Tears had won over BG3 it would have been justified in my book, despite me not having a preference one way or the other

I really just despise this notion of "there's only one possible game that deserves Game of the Year". Chances are that if a game got far enough along in the process to be nominated then it more than likely deserved it. Even if it ultimately doesn't end up winning

While undoubtedly BG3 pushes the traditional D&D rpg and gameplay scope, we cannot ignore the fact that TOTK has one of the most innovative and COMPLETE crafting systems with Ultrahand and the Zonai devices.

Both games pushes video games in new directions. BG3 shows how traditional RPG gameplay can be updated for today’a market. TOTK, genre blends a whole crafting game into traditional open world adventure games.

Neither are small feats, but for me personally, in the grand scheme of things, TOTK is the GOTY because it is more creative and innovative in gameplay, while BG3 is more of an evolution of traditional RPGs.

@Tchunga That user's comment has nothing to do with Baldur's Gate. Said user absolutely loathes the open air formula of BotW/TotK and wishes they'd scrap it and return to the Ocarina formula.

Zelda supposed to win

Let's hope Baldur's gate 3 win the goty in the game awards, I think the studio deserves it more. It's like when Messi won best player over Mbappe, Messi deserved it more for stopping being a "pecho frio" and finally winning the World Cup.

@graviton But Zelda Totk is more of an evolution of Zelda BOTW .-.

Let's be honest, the 2 GOTY contenders this year are TOTK and Baldurs Gate 3.

That said, Don't be surprised if it's not Zelda...the industry loves a comeback story.

This is the only Zelda game i detest/hate

I hope the next game will be better

@B_Lindz Sea of Stars was developed by Sabotage Studio, a Canadian company. It is not Japanese.

@IceClimbers Are you their spokesperson or something? They said "Good. TotK doesn’t deserve any GOTY award." In reference to TotK losing to Baldur's Gate 3. Sounds like it might have something to do with BG3 otherwise the comment in question wouldn't at all exist.

Thanks for gatekeeping the comments section though

@Tchunga Said user has a history of posting on BotW/TotK related articles about how much they dislike the formula. Hence the "return to form" comment.

They never mentioned Baldur's Gate. They're hoping that TotK not winning the overall GOTY is a step towards Nintendo ditching the open air formula.

@METROID79 Wow, I loved TOTK. Can't imagine how one could "detest" a game this beautifully interactive...🤔

That ending was insanely Epic and worth it...imo

@FirstEmperor There are two interpretations of what JRPG means. 1) An RPG made in Japan, or 2) a genre of video game based on traditional Japanese RPG mechanics. Yes, Sea of Stars was made in Canada, but the genre is turn-based RPG, or traditional JRPG. It's kind of like how Bloodborne and Elden Ring are Western-style RPGs, but both were created in Japan.

I've heard is described this way, can a TV be considered anime if it wasn't created in Japan? It's kind of the same concept.

Oh dear, this will be a really, really tough competition for GOTY. I honestly don't wanna imagine the winner so soon!

@METROID79 why

@fenlix Usually, the sequel is an evolution of it’s predecessors. This can be said of TOTK AND BD3.

However, if you look at both games, which one does more to gaming? But this is just one of the markers for the GOTY I use. Yours maybe different.

@B_Lindz Your second interpretation of JRPG is utterly useless at describing anything consistently. By that reasoning the original Dragon Quest would be a "western style" RPG due to the inspiration it took from Ultima.

Also, Bloodborne and Elden Ring follow the same gameplay cycle as Demon's Souls, which itself was a spiritual successor to King's Field. Both are from Japan, so no, Bloodborne and Elden Ring are not "western style" games.

@B_Lindz

Disney is anime in Japan

@highscore Honestly those are the only things that are somewhat similar. And still they are very different. Also it's a direct sequel, of course there are going to be similarities. And in that it's quite unique in the Zelda series, the only other direct sequel was Majora's Mask. Which was a very different game, set in a different world entirely.

"I don't like towers", towers are a good way to open up the world to you. And there are only 14 towers in the entire game. None of which are very difficult to unlock. And most of them are completely optional.

"I don't like shrines", shrines give you puzzles and teach you mechanics. And almost all shrines are very different. But again, most are optional.

"I hate koroks" then just ignore them, they aren't required for anything. Okay, except for inventory space. Which, honestly, is a cool way to increase that.

Zelda TOTK is definitely one of the best games of the year it's a solid 8/10 for me. Super mario wonder has to be my favorite switch game of the year but BG3 takes the crown. I played many games this year but that is the only 10/10.

Wow, I haven’t played any of these, and can still say I’ve played some jolly good stuff this year

@weisske An incredibly rare negative comment from you!!! How refreshing!

@DonkeyBrainKing Just out of curiosity, do you consider Spiderman 2 DLC?

The big issue I feel with the Game of the Year debate is that people fail to make the distinction between the fact that the Award is intended for the BEST game of the year, rather than your favourite. A lot of the excuses proposed for the award is based on external factors such as "Larian is a smaller studio so they deserve it more" or "Zelda sold a bunch of copies meaning it deserves it more". No. The award is about quality, not based on biases or anything else. If we judge the award strictly on quality, I believe Tears of the Kingdom wins. Is it an expansion/DLC to Breath of the Wild? Maybe, I could see why some people would think that despite it being a misguided opinion. But DLC or not, Tears of the Kingdom ultimately is Breath of the Wild but better, and Breath of the Wild was already one of the greatest games of all time.

@VoidofLight i know its not big at all BUT HI FI RUSH DESERVES MORE PUBLIC ATTENTION if people knew it existed then itd be be so awesome it would be so cool

im really jealous of the TOTK lovers you wait 6 years for a game, let yourself get hyped, and then you dont get your unrealistic expectations met. Its totally on me, but dang was i underwhelmed by it! I do hope it does well in the awards nominations though, and, unrelated, it would be really cool to see pikmin 4 nominated for goty.

Well deserved! W for Bg3, but then again the golden joystick awards are fan-voted, so I wouldn't be surprised if Zelda ended up winning at the game awards, mainly due to the critics bias for Zelda

but whatever shall the winner be, it's been a great year for all games across every platform

Bg3 is nowhere near TOTK. Its receiving attention because PS5 fans have played such dumbed down games for so long, that a 1990d style turn based game mesmerizing to them.

TOTK is probably the best game I've ever played, and I've played Zelda since ALTTP. No it's not perfect, but very very close. It's astonishing to see losers beg for the series to go back in time.

If they bring back the tri force and item progression, but keep the game like TOTK, then I don't see any game ever topping this.

People be like "TOTK sucks, I only played 659 hours."

@FawfulsFury the builder style gaming takes the soul out of the game

@METROID79 this article is ancient, and you can just not build

@LikelySatan
is...is this sarcasm?

@weisske yes, you are negative all of the time. That was sarcasm, saying that you being negative is rare.

@LikelySatan Not all the time. Look at my post history