The only thing I hate is that it was nominated for the indie categories as a AA game, otherwise looks like a good game. The first soundtrack piece I heard from E33 is the electric guitar piece and that was crazy good
I REALLY love E33 and I agree with this take too. I voted Silksong for best indie and was shook it didn't win. I think we need to make best AA game an official category.
Popping in from the e33 subreddit to say I also voted for Silksong for indie (among a few others) because I really wanted to see Team Cherry win more than one award, and am also as shook as all of you.
Yeah the E33 sweep was predictable, but rather unfortunate. I don't mind it winning a few awards, but come on. Winning art direction against both Silksong and Hades II is criminal.
Idk why everyone is surprised the game awards is just a big popularity contest, most people have only played one game up for each category so they just vote for what they've played.
Yeah even people who love their own game don’t like it when a massive sweep happens like if Silk song was in this position I would also not be super happy with how predictable it winning would be
Yeah nah winning art direction over silksong and hades is diabolical. No wonder Team Cherry couldn't care less about the awards, it didn't really mean anything
I don't think Team Cherry cares about anything except making the games they want to. Having said that, they massively succeeded and made so much money they can spend another however many years plugging away on a new game and it will sell like hotcakes
Now having said that. All the games nominated for Best art direction/soundtrack (specifically E33, Silksong and Hades 2) all have merits and could be argued to which could win. But I just think Team Cherry is so well off regardless there is no reason to be upset they lost, lol
Yeah, as someone that loves both games, I can't help but feel some of the categories felt like a pretty forced E33 win. Indie can be arguable, as someone pointed out, E33 for instance had a smaller budget than Hades 2, and I don't think anyone thinks Hades shouldn't be considered an indie. But E33 winning RPG of the year over KCD? I haven't played the game and know next to nothing about it, but my sense is that it's clearly theRPG to come out this year.
And while I disagree with that one comment I saw saying "E33 has bad art direction", I do think Silksong has a way more distinct and special art direction. And I've loved Supergiant Games all the way since Bastion, they could win Art Direction every year and I'd have no complaints.
If you want more information, it’s theorised that Vedinad is actually Danidev (same name backwards), an indie game dev/youtuber that made Muck and Crab Game, but got harassed off the internet about another game called Karlson taking too long to release
The truth is there were too many good games this year. I put a lot of votes into E33 (GOTY, Direction, Art, Music), but I put Silksong as Action/Adventure, Hades II as Action, Blue Prince as Indie, Dispatch as Debut Indie, and KCD2 as RPG because all of those game deserve their flowers as well.
It was just a disgustingly good year for games with one game that was clearly the general "favorite" by audiences and developers alike.
Yeah, just feels a bit unfair to a game like Blue Prince being up for debut indie against something with millions of dollars and a whole team behind it.
E33 itself certainly seems to have earned its many honors. Touched plenty of people.
That seems like the obvious issue. It's not even close to indie already got GOTY locked in...just comes off absurd to think it should be considered Indie.
God, the industry plant thing is so dumb. Because for sure, nothing screams "industry plant" like a game directed by a guy who quit his job at Ubisoft because they sucked so bad, and was written by a lady that the dev team met on reddit in a voice acting audition, and was scored by a random Soundcloud musician. A plan of evil genius, no doubt.
Yeah, "the industry" surely showed us by... Giving us a genuinely well-crafted game with an interesting gameplay and story (and music, but that's weirdly enough a bit more common) at a lower than usual price and without the usual cavalcade of overpriced dlc bullshit...uh... (Seriously, what is wrong with some people?)
What gets me, it that if any game has the same vibe as Hollow Kinght industry wise, it’s E33. Like, it’s an insane passion project made by a small team reviving what many consider to be a stale genre, and injects an insane amount of style and personality.
Well there's no real definition of what kind of budget a AA game is. People have their own opinions ranging from like 10-50mil so it's up to your own interpretation but E33 is kinda close to that cutoff. I love E33, but I think that nominating for best indie AND best debut indie was just stupid. Like yea, if it won best indie why wouldn't it win best debut indie?
Also it felt a bit weird for E33 to just sweep all the "best ___" categories because it won GOTY. I think that if a game is gonna win GOTY then judging should take that into account for other categories and lower the games rank in those categories. Not outright remove them from those categories but make it so that unless they were an absolute lock for those awards they won't get them because they'll already get GOTY.
E33 is amazing, I would really recommend picking it up. And I say this as someone who usually don't like JRPG fighting mechanics.
IMO, a game should be able to win one of “GOTY, Indie, Debut” and one of the “Best X” awards. Highlighting more games for their unique strengths is important.
This would be a logistical nightmare to implement, though.
Yeah, rightfully criticizing a non-indie game’s inclusion into indie awards is not hate. Especially in the debut indie game where so many small games could have gotten the well deserved recognition an award win provides
If you get GOTY, I feel it should disqualify you from being in certain categories. It would've been fine if E33 got JUST GOTY (and maybe some actress or vocal stuff), but them getting basically every other category just gets on my nerves for some reason. It feels like it's getting TOO much praise and we all know it's gonna be the template for AAA games for the next decade. I wanted to give this game a chance, but after all that, nah, I'd rather be E33's only hater than give it a chance as unrational as that thinking is.
To be fair, they really did start out as a small indie dev with a limited team. The game hot picked up during development so it's not exactly AA either
Best art direction? Sure the game looks visually stunning, can understand why it won out over silksong
Best soundtrack? took a listen, sounds good enough to warrant
But best independant game? COE33 is definetely more AA than indie, given pricing, dev team size and other factors. Silksong has been waiting for SO LONG, from the makers of one of the BEST indie games ever, and for it to get beat out by a ~40 person dev team compared to TC's like, 3 is just annoying to me. why even bother giving it best indie game if its obviously going to be GOTY ???
That feels like a dumb argument. Do you want to limit this award to people who have never had any experience with game dev before?
The only thing that should decide whether a game is indie, AA or AAA is the budget. A 10 mil game like E33 is clearly AA. And that's not counting the free marketing XBox gave them by including them in their games showcase, which is when people first started to get to know about this game.
It's a sticky argument, because E33 is quite a bit less artistically impressive than Silksong and Hades 2 in my opinion, but it uses interpolative rendering technologies as a crutch to prop up the relatively poorly optimized visuals.
The problem is that interpolative rendering results in smears and ghosting which, in this specific game happens to create extremely thematic and internally consistent visuals. So, while imo the artistic skill on display is noticeably lower, the art direction itself is impeccable because they used a technology to improve the art in a way where the downsides of the technology actually improve the final result. It's a pretty impressive achievement to be honest.
Don't get me wrong, I've been waiting for Silksong since it was announced and I'll be a diehard Silksong fan until the day I die, but I think there's a very strong argument that E33 was just as much a contender for that category as Silksong and Hades 2 were.
I think you should take a look at the creature and boss design. Its very surreal. Art direction doesn't just have to mean how the game is drawn and rendered - Star Trek and Star Wars are both live action but look extremely different for example
The game's facial animation tech is also probably the best i've ever played
Even if it weren't store assets it still shouldn't have won that one; it's eclectic to distract from a lack of consideration. Don't get me wrong, it's an incredible use of less-is-more, but none of the art tells a story as it does in Silksong or Elden Ring or Metaphor. None of the visual component of the world actually *means* anything.
Ehhh I don’t like it, but it’s clearly doing a take on French Impressionism from the 19th century and once you get into act 3 the meaning behind the art style is pretty clear. It’s got too much filigree for my taste
The problem is the meaning is all redundant, meant to drive home the absurdist/abstract reality. However, none of each peace is chosen intentionally after that. You could cut out the entire gameplay and the story would stay pretty intact. Like you said, too much filler.
The art tells no story? In a game that is in a painting and many of models were essentially things that the main cast painted themselves? With environments and enemies that very deliberately showcase emotional states and other thematic pointers? Are you for real?
How does anyone upvote this completely ridiculous take?
And you can see that things created by different Dessandre's have a different feeling to them i.e. Lumiere and it's people lean more towards realism as creations of Aline, who wanted it to be as real as possible, wanted him to be real.
The Axons on the other hand are one big metaphor fitting for Renoir's work (even Alicia notes his tendency to give every painting meaning)
It does, the style is quite deliberate and ties into major spoilers in the game story. It becomes more apparent after hitting that point but the world and art looks as they do for a reason, the zones look as they do because of lore associated with them.
I do think silksong is tighter in that regard, but that may be because it's more direct and relatable, less abstract.
The problem is Sandfall is technically independent.
The industry has changed, there are a lot more resources available to independent developers now. We have been using independent as a term for small but that’s just not the case anymore. There are independent publishers and numerous teams for outsourcing.
I think it’s a good thing that independent developers can make high budget games without being absorbed by a corporation, but we need a different term for games made with limited resources.
The way game awards usually go is that GOTY will win other major categories it's nominated for.
People might say, if it's not even the best indie game of the year how can it be the best game overall?
The awards shouldn't be about spreading it around, they should be given to the best game in the category IMO.
Should they have been nominated for best indie and best indie debut? It's more complicated than people make it to be because they did start out as a small indie dev team, but got picked up mid development. If you compare them to Supergiant (Hades dev) who are a ~30 people dev team it's kinda hard to say where the line separates the two.
Indie used to mean no publisher, but over the years we got Indie specific publishers (like Devolver Digital and Kepler) that really blurred the line.
Silksong has long had a rep for having a bad fanbase. You seen the steam reviews page when anyone criticises absolutely anything about their beloved darling of a game?
Honestly, I do feel that the release of Silksong was a net negative for the community itself. Going from fun in the psych ward to having a bit of an elitist streak.
Was a real shocker going to Hades 2 and seeing people struggling with the game not being told "lmao git gud" but "Have you tried turning on god mode? It's in the game for a reason you know.".
I dont hate E33 I hate the game awards for giving it nearly everything over other games. It's not even just a silksong thing it's genuinely just really lame
Yeah it’s like guys hating onlyfan girls for making a lot of money.
Don’t hate the player, hate the game (awards).
Not E33s fault this award show has a messed up system. But it’s still a big shame silksong didn’t win more, seeing as the incredible amount of effort, polish and love went into every inch of this game
I feel E33 winning basically everything is a loss for everyone, E33 included. It'll make people think E33 wins were undeserved while taking away a lot from the other games.
Award shows are about awarding performance, not sharing prizes equally. Obviously the "best x" is subjective but you can make a good argument for every award E33 won.
E33 is peak and deserves all the praise it gets. But..... im definitely don't think it deserves best indie or best RPG. And honestly thats not even e33's fault. Its just the game awards being dumb as always
Since this is the post where the matter should be discussed best, i'd like to give my opinion. Sensable people don't go hate others because their expectations weren't met, those who are quite blinded with feelings and attachment like chains do. And we shouldn't give them attention, fuel their flame into a fire.
I also don't understand those who leap on people who are displeased with the results or point out the surprising amount of E33 wins, bashing at them with "Silksong players when people like other games" and alike. You're the opposite side of that mirror. Encouraging hate as much as they do and dragging the point, focus elsewhere.
Just be civil, respectful, kind and understanding.
I don't quite care about the game itself. The devs are french so my patriotic ass is proud to see them thrive.
But the fans are really annoying.
They come under Silksong videos to call it a Hollow Knight DLC and mock it as if E33 was the only indie game ever and nothing else came out when I agree with certain ppl that E33 isn't indie.
It was made by people from the AAA industry with a lot of money and contacts. The only thing making them indie is that they dont have a producer but like... they could easily have one.
TBF there has been people really salty saying E33 is an industry plant and that it doesn’t deserve awards. I don’t think it’s a lot of people just a very vocal minority can’t accept that other games can win stuff too.
A lot of people that just can’t understand why it won some of the awards. And a lot of people who obviously have never played it trying to give some objective facts about the game.
And they got it, even being nominated is an achievement and Silksong's review scores have been amazing, so the game is hardly lacking for plaudits.
There's zero shame in coming second in a year this packed with amazing titles, and it sounds like Team Cherry have nothing but respect for Sandfall Interactive for E33.
There is a difference between hating the game and hating the awards dick sucking it I think the game is great but my god is the bias on full display here for the awards show and a FUCKING GACHA WON THE PLAYER VOTE AGAIN
No, it is bias. This isn't even about Silksong. NONE of Expedition 33's competitors got acknowledged by ANYONE AT ALL despite it not even being clear of a single one of them in ANY category it competed in. It is a good game, and a worthy winner of GOTY, but it is NOT the second coming of Christ that everyone keeps treating it as. Saying that it wasn't bias is just a bold faced lie
I already kind of sour on E33 due to the fanbase and the whole discourse of "saviour of JRPG" and the type of passive aggressive attitude against the genre from the fanbase
It's kind of like a bunch of westerners just discovered JRPGs through E33 because it has has the art style that appeals to them and they're acting like this is a brand new genre lol
Especially funny as E33's gameplay is HEAVILY influenced by Persona 5 and FFX, I liked it but to call it revolutionary is a stretchhhh
Hate for their light. Hate for their pins. For their waste poured thick and endless.
Fill your hearts with hate, for power has now been claimed, and with it we shall punish.
E33 is just another turn based JRPG, I am genuinely not sure why it was so popular. The music was good, I'll give em that, but the story fell apart in the later acts. Also I don't like turn based stuff, never did.
Writing off criticism for the game as "LITERALLY NOBODY BELIEVES THAT" is stupid
Well get ready to see more and more of that hate across all communities lol. You think this is bad? Look what happened to the death stranding subreddit.
This is what happens when a game is circlejerked to death. The hype backlash is inevitable.
I think it was promoted for way too many categories it wasnt meant for, its probably the overall best game of the year but stuff like art design, indie game etc shouldn't have been allowed for it.
They should've kept it out of the indie categories. imho it is indie in name only and placing it against solo and small group devs like Team Cherry is simply unfair. If 3 dozen people is indie then we have just watched the cultural meaning of the term shift significantly.
I don't hate the game, i havent even played it, if anything i'm so neutral about it cause i see it from the outside and it looks incredibly generic, unreal engine type beat.
What i hate is the hypocrisy of the industry going "this year has been amazing, so many great games!" and then its just expedition 33 winning everything in every category, this is not a celebration of games but a celebration of E33
This is probably the biggest annoyance for me. E33 is a great game, I've played it and loved it. But Silksong was way better about a unique art style and direction. E33 was literally riffing off Persona, which is a great style to riff off of, but it's not unique or new.
Silksong is easily best in art and indie category. The rest goes to E33, though I think it's a tie between the two for music.
i dont hate e33, i watched my brother playing it and thought it looked great! i may play it at some point, but its too big and has too much funding and too big a team to be indie, and while it can be debated it deserved the music win(imo it didnt) silksong got absolutely ROBBED on art direction
it's so bad that the mods of one of the gaming suggestion subreddits had to make a post earlier this year on to tell people to stop recommending E33 if it's not what OP's looking for
I don't hate the game. I'm sure it's fine or whatever. But I really hate its community after seeing the kind of toxic shitty attitude they've had. Can't even say I feel like Silksong or Hades 2 should've won best indie or best art direction without being dogpiled.
Yeah, honestly, the Salt around here is getting to be a touch much.
I definitely would make the argument that Silksong should have walked with best indie, simply because E33 did have a publisher backing it. But then, it could be argued that TC was definitely working at an advantage over other indies, given they had near limitless money and no deadline pressure thanks to HK's success. Hell, maybe Blue Prince should have got it? I dunno. I think that whole category needs firmer parameters. Anyway, for my part, I loved both games.
And really, none of this is worth tying yourself in knots over, it's just Geoff Keighly's big annual industry circle-jerk, after all. Let's all just relax and be glad that we got two classic games this year that didn't come from the same bunch of corpo asshats that keep trying to force GaaS money-extractors on us.
It’s far more digestible than Silksong and comfortably rivals its artistic merits. But as a GAME with GAMEPLAY there is no way it’s actually superior. The systems are barebones RPG stuff with a unique level of polish — whereas Silksong is truly revolutionary. Taking HKs already amazing movement and combat, then elevating it and adding spicy variety. Challenging players with a plethora of trials that comes in different shapes and sizes. Exploration, sideways progression, upgrades, everything like that is miles better. But it’s extremely easy for all that to get overshadowed by its more prominent difficulty and punishment.
Why are people hating the game but not the judges that treated all categoriers as goty. Silksong with art direction or Indie, KCD2 with RPG, something for Dispatch and we would all be happy.
I think the real problem was a players voice won by literally worst choice - slop gacha with cringy and toxic community that expects free stuff for votes. Dispatch got robbed.
Not gonna lie, no hate to E33, didin't play it but i'm sure it's an amazing game. I'm mad at the the game awards for putting it as an indie game when it's clearly not. It very much deserves all the awards they won, EXCEPT the indie ones.
IMO the indie of the year should very much go to silksong and debut indie to blue prince.
Personally I think the ‘best indie’ win was kind of unfair but also kind of deserved. I’m definitely not going to shit on E33’s quality, but it treads the line of being indie lol. The only thing I’m really salty about is art direction. Hollow Knight designs were literally used as examples in an art class I was in. It’s art style is incredible by every metric. Each design perfectly communicates who that character is.
E33 is impressive and beautiful, but it’s not visually unique. I’ve never been a fan of games that try to be hyper realistic. In some cases it works(like in a lot of horror) but as a general rule stylization is what matters. I think that’s why I’ve always gravitated towards indie games, they often have creativity you rarely see in AAA games.
You need to stop conflating frustration and pushback with hate. E33 fans need to get this infallible do-no-wrong victim mentality out of their heads. We all agree it's a great game, stop treating any and every ounce of doubt with hostility.
Anyone here that is actually being "hateful" is most likely being ironic, especially since this is literally r/silksong. Making posts like this just undermine actual good faith criticism.
I'm not interested in E33. I don't care about E33. I don't seek out footage or content of E33. But I've certainly had to hear about it from increasingly insufferable fans of it, and now I'm confronted with the laughable reality that Sandfall Interactive, a company enjoying tethers to Ubisoft and a team of dozens of employees, is being passed off as an indie studio. Hate is a strong word for a game I'm ambivalent about the existence of, but it's annoying that it keeps getting compared to Silksong because of game awards drama to get views, and I hate having to hear OMG THE GRAPHICS about a game that looks likes every 3D UE fantasy title.
I'm just happy Skong won something at all I expected it to just be shelved completely by everyone😭
Also NMS won the best ongoing and I'm a massive NMS fan so I'm not 100% unhappy about TGA. Still hella salty cus I just personally can't bring myself to enjoy turn based RPGs like E33 because I heavily prefer action games over strategy games, but well if people loved it so much it won like 75% of the nominations then it must be just me lmao
Honestly I loved E33 and Silksong. Both amazing games. Only awards I wanted to see go differently was Silksong winning best Indie, and Kingdom Come 2 winning best RPG
Both are great games I’m just miffed that e33 got best independent game while being easily AA. Also I feel like hades 2 should’ve won another thing so I could make sea star jokes (also its my second most played game this year after Celeste)
The unfortunate truth is that, by getting nominations and wins for the two indie categories, e33 kind of became the game awards villain, at least for people who care about those categories.
Once they were nominated, it was inevitable. If a game is going to win goty, obviously it’s going to win any category about best game within a smaller subset of games.
All of the other nominees for indie and debut indie were snubbed and it was unfair. But the issue was with the game awards, not e33. I mean, what were they supposed to do? Get on stage and turn down the award?
The thing i was waiting for the most is what ost will the orcgestra play. Tell me WHY can they bring out a singer for donley kong but not silksong (i just wanted to hear karmelita's ost so bad😭)
I was told that it was one of the best games of the decades and completely changes the turn based rpg formula. Rpgs are one of my favorite genres and im a sucker for turn based and it was average. Anything being proclaimed as new i had played before. When there is so much this year that should get recognition and instead is being overshadowed by a game that tells me that gamers dont play rpgs pmo
omg yes I'm so glad someone else said it. People were hyping it up so much as the new era in turn based RPGs and oh wow you can dodge or parry... I guess a lot of people haven't played Mario RPG
Nope, and its so frustrating too. It doesnt mean that e33s combat is bad but doesnt mean its doing something thats never been done before. It really tells that many people dont play turn based rpgs
It was very surreal watching Expedition 33 win repeatedly. I heard it was really good once but I never looked into it and never heard about it again.
I’m sure it’s great, I’m interested now, but I am a little concerned how I somehow didn’t notice the hypetrain for the entire year lmao. Am I under a rock or was this hype just isolated from the broader public?
But it’s also not surprising at all that SilkSong didn’t win. Of my watch party, I loved and played SilkSong, 1 person is bad at 2d games so skipped it, and 2 people appreciate it but struggled at HK1 and wanna finish that game first. It’s a masterpiece from its community, but its genre is surprisingly a turn off for wider audiences. I mean, apart from Donkey Kong Bananza it was the only game that didn’t use semi-realistic art style.
Honestly amazed that it won best soundtrack over Silksong. There’s some bangers in there, don’t get me wrong, but Silksong’s soundtrack is much tighter and more interwoven with the game world imo
I'll never play E33 just because it costs thrice as Silksong in my region and I'm never spending so much on games. I can't even really afford to spend much on games in general, so the only games that I bought this year are Silksong and Deltarune.
All the while, the experience that I've got playing in Silksong, was phenomenal. So, of course I've voted for it everywhere I can. But apparently, it's just not good enough. Not good enough to take even one award. I don't have anything against E33. I have something against TGA organizers. It's just ridiculous, placing E33 in indie category. We all know that they already are winning the GOTY and whatever else they're taking. There is just no need to give it another, completely controversial nomination, when there is Silksong, left without even ONE won category. (Please, correct me if I'm wrong, I didn't found info about it winning anything so far)
I loathed that cynical maudlin piece of shit long, long before Silksong was even confirmed as coming out, basically as soon as I realized that Act 3 was the writers jacking themselves off over how artists are gods for creating worlds that the audience gets lost in.
You criticize the game for being cynical and yet your takeaway from Act 3 is genuinely the most cynical interpretation of the game’s intent I’ve ever seen, lmao the irony in this comment is insane. The game was about escapism being self-destructive behavior in the long run and how we need to be careful about over reliance on harmful coping mechanisms and you thought the whole point was instead saying that artists are just super badass people who are better than everyone else because others get invested in their works? How tf did you even reach that conclusion 😭
The story is fine - its intentionally obtuse etc to feel smart and complex, sure whatever. It hits good emotional notes, no spoilers, but it does punch good. The gameplay blows chunks for me. Enemies doing multi-attacks constantly, how punishing getting hit is, how powerful parrying is, how many convoluted stacked RPG systems they put on top, having to do QTEs for everything. I played it after Silksong, and coming off parry mechanics with Hornet, it just did not feel like a "game" in the "game" sense. It was an interactive book with annoying gameplay in between scenes. It reminds me of SOMA in that regard.
honestly i enjoyed the gameplay a lot but that's because i love Xenoblade and it's very reminiscent. My main problem with the story is that without spoilers, it kicked me in the nuts for getting invested.
I saw the title and immediately thought, with an audible groan, “it’s about the game awards, isn’t it?”
Legit though, while I am on the train that putting it in the indie category is unfair, I do not understand people hating on the game just because the game they prefer (and likely in a good few cases the only one they actually played) didn’t win.
My only gripe is that a game should only be allowed to win one GOTY type of award. The hierarchy would be GOTY>indie GOTY>best indie game. If you win a higher award, you become ineligible for lower awards. This is more a game awards gripe than anything else.
This was an official diplomatic gift from the devs themselves to us, btw.
Wait really, that’s really cool if so
It’s true
Okay, so far E33's devs and Supergiant have made art for other nominees. TC and Nintendo, join in the fun!
TC gift will be ready by the next game awards
Nintendo would charge money for that
The only thing I hate is that it was nominated for the indie categories as a AA game, otherwise looks like a good game. The first soundtrack piece I heard from E33 is the electric guitar piece and that was crazy good
I REALLY love E33 and I agree with this take too. I voted Silksong for best indie and was shook it didn't win. I think we need to make best AA game an official category.
Popping in from the e33 subreddit to say I also voted for Silksong for indie (among a few others) because I really wanted to see Team Cherry win more than one award, and am also as shook as all of you.
Yeah the E33 sweep was predictable, but rather unfortunate. I don't mind it winning a few awards, but come on. Winning art direction against both Silksong and Hades II is criminal.
(same goes for the indie award obv)
Agreed. It just made everything feel so… Boring? I just can’t help but feel disappointed.
Idk why everyone is surprised the game awards is just a big popularity contest, most people have only played one game up for each category so they just vote for what they've played.
Public voting is only worth 10% (except players choice), the other 90% comes from their panel of judges.
Are the judges obligated to fully play them all?
They certainly should be at least some part. Don't rate games you have not played.
No idea, but considering they are people that play games for a living I imagine they would have played most, if not all of them, regardless.
Given that even the Oscar's didn't require their judges too. Yeah prolly not lol
Yeah even people who love their own game don’t like it when a massive sweep happens like if Silk song was in this position I would also not be super happy with how predictable it winning would be
Yeah nah winning art direction over silksong and hades is diabolical. No wonder Team Cherry couldn't care less about the awards, it didn't really mean anything
I don't think Team Cherry cares about anything except making the games they want to. Having said that, they massively succeeded and made so much money they can spend another however many years plugging away on a new game and it will sell like hotcakes
Yep
Now having said that. All the games nominated for Best art direction/soundtrack (specifically E33, Silksong and Hades 2) all have merits and could be argued to which could win. But I just think Team Cherry is so well off regardless there is no reason to be upset they lost, lol
oh 100%, they couldn't care less about the game awards when they're sitting on a fortune lmao
Yeah, as someone that loves both games, I can't help but feel some of the categories felt like a pretty forced E33 win. Indie can be arguable, as someone pointed out, E33 for instance had a smaller budget than Hades 2, and I don't think anyone thinks Hades shouldn't be considered an indie. But E33 winning RPG of the year over KCD? I haven't played the game and know next to nothing about it, but my sense is that it's clearly the RPG to come out this year.
And while I disagree with that one comment I saw saying "E33 has bad art direction", I do think Silksong has a way more distinct and special art direction. And I've loved Supergiant Games all the way since Bastion, they could win Art Direction every year and I'd have no complaints.
Like e33 looks good but the art direction isn’t super interesting to me. Like it’s not doing anything super unique or stylized.
Calling Expedition 33 not stylized is frankly absurd.
We should’ve left megabonk In there
I'm surprised Megabonk didn't get any chance.
It almost got debut indie but the developer said it wasn’t actually their first game so they removed it
That’s because vedinad dropped out of indie nominations. Absolute goat
I somehow stayed out of loop with that situation. Absolute goat indeed!
If you want more information, it’s theorised that Vedinad is actually Danidev (same name backwards), an indie game dev/youtuber that made Muck and Crab Game, but got harassed off the internet about another game called Karlson taking too long to release
Danidev*
The truth is there were too many good games this year. I put a lot of votes into E33 (GOTY, Direction, Art, Music), but I put Silksong as Action/Adventure, Hades II as Action, Blue Prince as Indie, Dispatch as Debut Indie, and KCD2 as RPG because all of those game deserve their flowers as well.
It was just a disgustingly good year for games with one game that was clearly the general "favorite" by audiences and developers alike.
I agree, I also think that creating a separate AA category (and while at it, create solid definitions for indie/AA/AAA) is the best course of action
There is a big market of both consumers and developers for AA
And if that means more games will get more spotlight, that makes it even more worthwhile
Absolute E33 stan but I voted for my queen Hornet for best indie game too
Yeah, just feels a bit unfair to a game like Blue Prince being up for debut indie against something with millions of dollars and a whole team behind it.
E33 itself certainly seems to have earned its many honors. Touched plenty of people.
It feels unfair because it is tbh.
That seems like the obvious issue. It's not even close to indie already got GOTY locked in...just comes off absurd to think it should be considered Indie.
Fair enough - that I can get around. Seen lot of people calling it an industry plant and terrible music without even playing it.
God, the industry plant thing is so dumb. Because for sure, nothing screams "industry plant" like a game directed by a guy who quit his job at Ubisoft because they sucked so bad, and was written by a lady that the dev team met on reddit in a voice acting audition, and was scored by a random Soundcloud musician. A plan of evil genius, no doubt.
Yeah, "the industry" surely showed us by... Giving us a genuinely well-crafted game with an interesting gameplay and story (and music, but that's weirdly enough a bit more common) at a lower than usual price and without the usual cavalcade of overpriced dlc bullshit...uh... (Seriously, what is wrong with some people?)
What gets me, it that if any game has the same vibe as Hollow Kinght industry wise, it’s E33. Like, it’s an insane passion project made by a small team reviving what many consider to be a stale genre, and injects an insane amount of style and personality.
Well there's no real definition of what kind of budget a AA game is. People have their own opinions ranging from like 10-50mil so it's up to your own interpretation but E33 is kinda close to that cutoff. I love E33, but I think that nominating for best indie AND best debut indie was just stupid. Like yea, if it won best indie why wouldn't it win best debut indie?
Also it felt a bit weird for E33 to just sweep all the "best ___" categories because it won GOTY. I think that if a game is gonna win GOTY then judging should take that into account for other categories and lower the games rank in those categories. Not outright remove them from those categories but make it so that unless they were an absolute lock for those awards they won't get them because they'll already get GOTY.
E33 is amazing, I would really recommend picking it up. And I say this as someone who usually don't like JRPG fighting mechanics.
IMO, a game should be able to win one of “GOTY, Indie, Debut” and one of the “Best X” awards. Highlighting more games for their unique strengths is important.
This would be a logistical nightmare to implement, though.
Yeah, rightfully criticizing a non-indie game’s inclusion into indie awards is not hate. Especially in the debut indie game where so many small games could have gotten the well deserved recognition an award win provides
If you get GOTY, I feel it should disqualify you from being in certain categories. It would've been fine if E33 got JUST GOTY (and maybe some actress or vocal stuff), but them getting basically every other category just gets on my nerves for some reason. It feels like it's getting TOO much praise and we all know it's gonna be the template for AAA games for the next decade. I wanted to give this game a chance, but after all that, nah, I'd rather be E33's only hater than give it a chance as unrational as that thinking is.
It's not even the best piece arguably. If you want to hear a good piece, Monoco is excellent
Tbf Team cherry made more money from HollowKnight than Claire budget was
To be fair, they really did start out as a small indie dev with a limited team. The game hot picked up during development so it's not exactly AA either
i think if it wasn't treated as Indie, people wouldn't have been nearly as upset
Here's my two cents:
Best art direction? Sure the game looks visually stunning, can understand why it won out over silksong
Best soundtrack? took a listen, sounds good enough to warrant
But best independant game? COE33 is definetely more AA than indie, given pricing, dev team size and other factors. Silksong has been waiting for SO LONG, from the makers of one of the BEST indie games ever, and for it to get beat out by a ~40 person dev team compared to TC's like, 3 is just annoying to me. why even bother giving it best indie game if its obviously going to be GOTY ???
If size of dev team is a factor then Blue Prince should have won.
I just got to Room 46 today. That game is proving to be a masterpiece.
It should have won Indie debut
Sandfall Interactive might be a new studio, but they have a bunch of ex-Ubuisoft developers.
That feels like a dumb argument. Do you want to limit this award to people who have never had any experience with game dev before?
The only thing that should decide whether a game is indie, AA or AAA is the budget. A 10 mil game like E33 is clearly AA. And that's not counting the free marketing XBox gave them by including them in their games showcase, which is when people first started to get to know about this game.
They had 3 ex Ubisoft devs and everyone else was their first time making a game whether of that scale or at all.
They said in their speech, thank you to the YouTube tutorials for teaching them how to make the game! They are not triple-A devs
I have seen the take that E33 shouldn't win art direction because it's mostly assets from UE5 but I cannot confirm.
It's a sticky argument, because E33 is quite a bit less artistically impressive than Silksong and Hades 2 in my opinion, but it uses interpolative rendering technologies as a crutch to prop up the relatively poorly optimized visuals.
The problem is that interpolative rendering results in smears and ghosting which, in this specific game happens to create extremely thematic and internally consistent visuals. So, while imo the artistic skill on display is noticeably lower, the art direction itself is impeccable because they used a technology to improve the art in a way where the downsides of the technology actually improve the final result. It's a pretty impressive achievement to be honest.
Don't get me wrong, I've been waiting for Silksong since it was announced and I'll be a diehard Silksong fan until the day I die, but I think there's a very strong argument that E33 was just as much a contender for that category as Silksong and Hades 2 were.
Great writeup, thanks for the info!
I think you should take a look at the creature and boss design. Its very surreal. Art direction doesn't just have to mean how the game is drawn and rendered - Star Trek and Star Wars are both live action but look extremely different for example
The game's facial animation tech is also probably the best i've ever played
While I understand your point. The art direction is extremely distict and it definitely isn’t unreal engine slop
Even if it weren't store assets it still shouldn't have won that one; it's eclectic to distract from a lack of consideration. Don't get me wrong, it's an incredible use of less-is-more, but none of the art tells a story as it does in Silksong or Elden Ring or Metaphor. None of the visual component of the world actually *means* anything.
Ehhh I don’t like it, but it’s clearly doing a take on French Impressionism from the 19th century and once you get into act 3 the meaning behind the art style is pretty clear. It’s got too much filigree for my taste
The problem is the meaning is all redundant, meant to drive home the absurdist/abstract reality. However, none of each peace is chosen intentionally after that. You could cut out the entire gameplay and the story would stay pretty intact. Like you said, too much filler.
The art tells no story? In a game that is in a painting and many of models were essentially things that the main cast painted themselves? With environments and enemies that very deliberately showcase emotional states and other thematic pointers? Are you for real?
How does anyone upvote this completely ridiculous take?
You have not understood much of E33
And you can see that things created by different Dessandre's have a different feeling to them i.e. Lumiere and it's people lean more towards realism as creations of Aline, who wanted it to be as real as possible, wanted him to be real.
The Axons on the other hand are one big metaphor fitting for Renoir's work (even Alicia notes his tendency to give every painting meaning)
It's literally the point of the story.
It does, the style is quite deliberate and ties into major spoilers in the game story. It becomes more apparent after hitting that point but the world and art looks as they do for a reason, the zones look as they do because of lore associated with them.
I do think silksong is tighter in that regard, but that may be because it's more direct and relatable, less abstract.
The problem is Sandfall is technically independent.
The industry has changed, there are a lot more resources available to independent developers now. We have been using independent as a term for small but that’s just not the case anymore. There are independent publishers and numerous teams for outsourcing.
I think it’s a good thing that independent developers can make high budget games without being absorbed by a corporation, but we need a different term for games made with limited resources.
what does “independent “ even mean i don’t understand
The way game awards usually go is that GOTY will win other major categories it's nominated for.
People might say, if it's not even the best indie game of the year how can it be the best game overall?
The awards shouldn't be about spreading it around, they should be given to the best game in the category IMO.
Should they have been nominated for best indie and best indie debut? It's more complicated than people make it to be because they did start out as a small indie dev team, but got picked up mid development. If you compare them to Supergiant (Hades dev) who are a ~30 people dev team it's kinda hard to say where the line separates the two.
Indie used to mean no publisher, but over the years we got Indie specific publishers (like Devolver Digital and Kepler) that really blurred the line.
It makes the award show a bit ass if it's in every category though.
Yeah the show this year wasn't very strong
I thought silksong had art direction tbh
huh? I dont think we hate E33 at all. it's just really unfair to put E33 in Indies category for The game award.
There is a lot of hate going around be it in here or live chats. Silksong is getting a terrible rep for having a bad fanbase tonight.
Silksong has long had a rep for having a bad fanbase. You seen the steam reviews page when anyone criticises absolutely anything about their beloved darling of a game?
Honestly, I do feel that the release of Silksong was a net negative for the community itself. Going from fun in the psych ward to having a bit of an elitist streak.
Was a real shocker going to Hades 2 and seeing people struggling with the game not being told "lmao git gud" but "Have you tried turning on god mode? It's in the game for a reason you know.".
It's not just that, people are just hating on it for no reason and being sexist and hateful towards the VAs
We got the devs being called klan members on twitter for like the past month, it's just super weird
People can't stand it because it's Fr*nch
Wait... is there a reason we're censoring the word "Fronch"?
E33 is AA
I dont hate E33 I hate the game awards for giving it nearly everything over other games. It's not even just a silksong thing it's genuinely just really lame
Yeah it’s like guys hating onlyfan girls for making a lot of money.
Don’t hate the player, hate the game (awards).
Not E33s fault this award show has a messed up system. But it’s still a big shame silksong didn’t win more, seeing as the incredible amount of effort, polish and love went into every inch of this game
I feel E33 winning basically everything is a loss for everyone, E33 included. It'll make people think E33 wins were undeserved while taking away a lot from the other games.
It's a shitty situation, but it is what it is.
Award shows are about awarding performance, not sharing prizes equally. Obviously the "best x" is subjective but you can make a good argument for every award E33 won.
E33 is peak and deserves all the praise it gets. But..... im definitely don't think it deserves best indie or best RPG. And honestly thats not even e33's fault. Its just the game awards being dumb as always
Since this is the post where the matter should be discussed best, i'd like to give my opinion. Sensable people don't go hate others because their expectations weren't met, those who are quite blinded with feelings and attachment like chains do. And we shouldn't give them attention, fuel their flame into a fire.
I also don't understand those who leap on people who are displeased with the results or point out the surprising amount of E33 wins, bashing at them with "Silksong players when people like other games" and alike. You're the opposite side of that mirror. Encouraging hate as much as they do and dragging the point, focus elsewhere.
Just be civil, respectful, kind and understanding.
Im genuinely suprised e33 won indie award over silksong. I love e33 but silksong didnt deserve the snub here
Don't hate them, hate TGA for being fucking stupid.
I don't quite care about the game itself. The devs are french so my patriotic ass is proud to see them thrive. But the fans are really annoying.
They come under Silksong videos to call it a Hollow Knight DLC and mock it as if E33 was the only indie game ever and nothing else came out when I agree with certain ppl that E33 isn't indie. It was made by people from the AAA industry with a lot of money and contacts. The only thing making them indie is that they dont have a producer but like... they could easily have one.
It's ridiculous how the word "hate" has morphed into "expressing anything other than absolute adoration for something"
TBF there has been people really salty saying E33 is an industry plant and that it doesn’t deserve awards. I don’t think it’s a lot of people just a very vocal minority can’t accept that other games can win stuff too.
the funniest thing is that I've seen more E33 hate from salty delusional half-life fans then any of the other goty nominee fandoms
and why are they mad when they're game wasn't even in the running?
idk ig they just have to take out their anger on SOMETHING when their own delusions didn't come true
They are mad at Mega Man too and being incredibly jealous that the game they waited years for got announced first
A lot of people that just can’t understand why it won some of the awards. And a lot of people who obviously have never played it trying to give some objective facts about the game.
I think those people are dwarfed by the nunber of people who just think other games deserve recognition in their respective category more.
Team Cherry deserved recognition, I don't care
And they got it, even being nominated is an achievement and Silksong's review scores have been amazing, so the game is hardly lacking for plaudits.
There's zero shame in coming second in a year this packed with amazing titles, and it sounds like Team Cherry have nothing but respect for Sandfall Interactive for E33.
There is a difference between hating the game and hating the awards dick sucking it I think the game is great but my god is the bias on full display here for the awards show and a FUCKING GACHA WON THE PLAYER VOTE AGAIN
Wuwa is by far the worst of the players choice nominees
I am baffled that they won
They had rewards for players if they won iirc
'Player choice' is the one award they have literally no influence over.
And the 'bias' is just that they don't agree with you, lol.
No, it is bias. This isn't even about Silksong. NONE of Expedition 33's competitors got acknowledged by ANYONE AT ALL despite it not even being clear of a single one of them in ANY category it competed in. It is a good game, and a worthy winner of GOTY, but it is NOT the second coming of Christ that everyone keeps treating it as. Saying that it wasn't bias is just a bold faced lie
Genuinely curious but how would you identify that it's bias?
They don't agree. That's it.
None of the non-winners get time dedicated to them, it’s a fucking award show
“We didn’t rig the mob vote I swear”
Gacha is always going to win the player choice, its not a serious award.
I already kind of sour on E33 due to the fanbase and the whole discourse of "saviour of JRPG" and the type of passive aggressive attitude against the genre from the fanbase
It's kind of like a bunch of westerners just discovered JRPGs through E33 because it has has the art style that appeals to them and they're acting like this is a brand new genre lol
Especially funny as E33's gameplay is HEAVILY influenced by Persona 5 and FFX, I liked it but to call it revolutionary is a stretchhhh
Hate for their light. Hate for their pins. For their waste poured thick and endless.
Fill your hearts with hate, for power has now been claimed, and with it we shall punish.
no one is hating on the game, just on some awards, rightfully i'd say? cause in no way it should win art direction, indie or rpg.
best actor, narrative, music, and goty? sure, but the rest not really
Yes they are. I saw someone say the game is trash because it won
it's just frustration, no one actually believes that
Why would they not? It's understandable IMHO.
E33 is just another turn based JRPG, I am genuinely not sure why it was so popular. The music was good, I'll give em that, but the story fell apart in the later acts. Also I don't like turn based stuff, never did.
Writing off criticism for the game as "LITERALLY NOBODY BELIEVES THAT" is stupid
oh 100% it's just salty feelings in the moment
Well get ready to see more and more of that hate across all communities lol. You think this is bad? Look what happened to the death stranding subreddit.
This is what happens when a game is circlejerked to death. The hype backlash is inevitable.
I don't hate Expedition 33. I just hate The Game Awards.
I think it was promoted for way too many categories it wasnt meant for, its probably the overall best game of the year but stuff like art design, indie game etc shouldn't have been allowed for it.
They should've kept it out of the indie categories. imho it is indie in name only and placing it against solo and small group devs like Team Cherry is simply unfair. If 3 dozen people is indie then we have just watched the cultural meaning of the term shift significantly.
Dude they gave the best rpg to E33 over KCD2... THE GLAZE WAS UNBEARABLE.
I don't hate Expedition 33; I think it deserved the game of the year award. But it's not an indie game, and that's my problem.
My hate is directed towards The Game Awards instead
I don't hate the game, i havent even played it, if anything i'm so neutral about it cause i see it from the outside and it looks incredibly generic, unreal engine type beat.
What i hate is the hypocrisy of the industry going "this year has been amazing, so many great games!" and then its just expedition 33 winning everything in every category, this is not a celebration of games but a celebration of E33
E33 getting it's dick sucked DRYYY 😭
UE5 stock assets winning over actual hand-drawn art is laughable
This is probably the biggest annoyance for me. E33 is a great game, I've played it and loved it. But Silksong was way better about a unique art style and direction. E33 was literally riffing off Persona, which is a great style to riff off of, but it's not unique or new.
Silksong is easily best in art and indie category. The rest goes to E33, though I think it's a tie between the two for music.
I love E33. It's a fantastic game, I'm not mad it won GOTY. But the sheer number of awards is ridiculous.
i dont hate e33, i watched my brother playing it and thought it looked great! i may play it at some point, but its too big and has too much funding and too big a team to be indie, and while it can be debated it deserved the music win(imo it didnt) silksong got absolutely ROBBED on art direction
No offense, but as soon as it started winning basically every single thing it was nominated, I started to get annoyed.
Maybe we wouldn't hate on it so much if their community wasn't insufferable and didn't constantly shit on every other game nominated.
"Guys I'm looking for a roguelike, what should i play"
"Expedition 33!"
"Guys I'm looking for 2d platformers, what should i play"
"Expedition 33!"
I've actually seen so many posts where they'll recommend E33 despite it being completely irrelevant 😭
it's so bad that the mods of one of the gaming suggestion subreddits had to make a post earlier this year on to tell people to stop recommending E33 if it's not what OP's looking for
Oh yeah i actually remember that LMAO, it was rlly funny ngl
"Hey guys, I'm looking for a real time grand strategy game, what should I get?"
"Expedition 33"
its still crazy to me that they won art direction over silksong when there are tons of sections that they use basic ass unreal engine assets lol
I don't hate the game. I'm sure it's fine or whatever. But I really hate its community after seeing the kind of toxic shitty attitude they've had. Can't even say I feel like Silksong or Hades 2 should've won best indie or best art direction without being dogpiled.
It shouldn't have been in the indie category at all. If were them would have refused the award. Shitty behavior.
I dont hate the game but i do kind of hate the prestige game journalists have attached to it.
Yeah, honestly, the Salt around here is getting to be a touch much.
I definitely would make the argument that Silksong should have walked with best indie, simply because E33 did have a publisher backing it. But then, it could be argued that TC was definitely working at an advantage over other indies, given they had near limitless money and no deadline pressure thanks to HK's success. Hell, maybe Blue Prince should have got it? I dunno. I think that whole category needs firmer parameters. Anyway, for my part, I loved both games.
And really, none of this is worth tying yourself in knots over, it's just Geoff Keighly's big annual industry circle-jerk, after all. Let's all just relax and be glad that we got two classic games this year that didn't come from the same bunch of corpo asshats that keep trying to force GaaS money-extractors on us.
It’s far more digestible than Silksong and comfortably rivals its artistic merits. But as a GAME with GAMEPLAY there is no way it’s actually superior. The systems are barebones RPG stuff with a unique level of polish — whereas Silksong is truly revolutionary. Taking HKs already amazing movement and combat, then elevating it and adding spicy variety. Challenging players with a plethora of trials that comes in different shapes and sizes. Exploration, sideways progression, upgrades, everything like that is miles better. But it’s extremely easy for all that to get overshadowed by its more prominent difficulty and punishment.
Why are people hating the game but not the judges that treated all categoriers as goty. Silksong with art direction or Indie, KCD2 with RPG, something for Dispatch and we would all be happy.
I think the real problem was a players voice won by literally worst choice - slop gacha with cringy and toxic community that expects free stuff for votes. Dispatch got robbed.
Not gonna lie, no hate to E33, didin't play it but i'm sure it's an amazing game. I'm mad at the the game awards for putting it as an indie game when it's clearly not. It very much deserves all the awards they won, EXCEPT the indie ones.
IMO the indie of the year should very much go to silksong and debut indie to blue prince.
Personally I think the ‘best indie’ win was kind of unfair but also kind of deserved. I’m definitely not going to shit on E33’s quality, but it treads the line of being indie lol. The only thing I’m really salty about is art direction. Hollow Knight designs were literally used as examples in an art class I was in. It’s art style is incredible by every metric. Each design perfectly communicates who that character is.
E33 is impressive and beautiful, but it’s not visually unique. I’ve never been a fan of games that try to be hyper realistic. In some cases it works(like in a lot of horror) but as a general rule stylization is what matters. I think that’s why I’ve always gravitated towards indie games, they often have creativity you rarely see in AAA games.
It had absolutely no bearing in either indie category, factually, that was being a hog.
You need to stop conflating frustration and pushback with hate. E33 fans need to get this infallible do-no-wrong victim mentality out of their heads. We all agree it's a great game, stop treating any and every ounce of doubt with hostility.
Anyone here that is actually being "hateful" is most likely being ironic, especially since this is literally r/silksong. Making posts like this just undermine actual good faith criticism.
I'm not interested in E33. I don't care about E33. I don't seek out footage or content of E33. But I've certainly had to hear about it from increasingly insufferable fans of it, and now I'm confronted with the laughable reality that Sandfall Interactive, a company enjoying tethers to Ubisoft and a team of dozens of employees, is being passed off as an indie studio. Hate is a strong word for a game I'm ambivalent about the existence of, but it's annoying that it keeps getting compared to Silksong because of game awards drama to get views, and I hate having to hear OMG THE GRAPHICS about a game that looks likes every 3D UE fantasy title.
It is not an indie
It is not an indie
It is not an indie
It is not an indie
It is not an indie
It became boring when every single award was won by E33 with no competition
e33 is legitimately the best game I've played in years. It just so happened that silksong was the best game I'd played since e33.
I'm just happy Skong won something at all I expected it to just be shelved completely by everyone😭
Also NMS won the best ongoing and I'm a massive NMS fan so I'm not 100% unhappy about TGA. Still hella salty cus I just personally can't bring myself to enjoy turn based RPGs like E33 because I heavily prefer action games over strategy games, but well if people loved it so much it won like 75% of the nominations then it must be just me lmao
Honestly I loved E33 and Silksong. Both amazing games. Only awards I wanted to see go differently was Silksong winning best Indie, and Kingdom Come 2 winning best RPG
Both are great games I’m just miffed that e33 got best independent game while being easily AA. Also I feel like hades 2 should’ve won another thing so I could make sea star jokes (also its my second most played game this year after Celeste)
The unfortunate truth is that, by getting nominations and wins for the two indie categories, e33 kind of became the game awards villain, at least for people who care about those categories.
Once they were nominated, it was inevitable. If a game is going to win goty, obviously it’s going to win any category about best game within a smaller subset of games.
All of the other nominees for indie and debut indie were snubbed and it was unfair. But the issue was with the game awards, not e33. I mean, what were they supposed to do? Get on stage and turn down the award?
The thing i was waiting for the most is what ost will the orcgestra play. Tell me WHY can they bring out a singer for donley kong but not silksong (i just wanted to hear karmelita's ost so bad😭)
I think part of it was the one award silksong did get geoff was very sarcastic bout it
Silksong is the peoples champion. Expedition 33 carried by publishers.
indie my ***
I just thin Silksong deserved art direction and soundtrack a lot more
I was told that it was one of the best games of the decades and completely changes the turn based rpg formula. Rpgs are one of my favorite genres and im a sucker for turn based and it was average. Anything being proclaimed as new i had played before. When there is so much this year that should get recognition and instead is being overshadowed by a game that tells me that gamers dont play rpgs pmo
omg yes I'm so glad someone else said it. People were hyping it up so much as the new era in turn based RPGs and oh wow you can dodge or parry... I guess a lot of people haven't played Mario RPG
Nope, and its so frustrating too. It doesnt mean that e33s combat is bad but doesnt mean its doing something thats never been done before. It really tells that many people dont play turn based rpgs
https://preview.redd.it/hs16jrj64p6g1.jpeg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4a5517ccc47c1ad1ae22bb6205e7df4279f06f30
The agenda does not care for logic and differing opinions.
I dont hate it , i just fund it boring and lame.
It was very surreal watching Expedition 33 win repeatedly. I heard it was really good once but I never looked into it and never heard about it again.
I’m sure it’s great, I’m interested now, but I am a little concerned how I somehow didn’t notice the hypetrain for the entire year lmao. Am I under a rock or was this hype just isolated from the broader public?
But it’s also not surprising at all that SilkSong didn’t win. Of my watch party, I loved and played SilkSong, 1 person is bad at 2d games so skipped it, and 2 people appreciate it but struggled at HK1 and wanna finish that game first. It’s a masterpiece from its community, but its genre is surprisingly a turn off for wider audiences. I mean, apart from Donkey Kong Bananza it was the only game that didn’t use semi-realistic art style.
I've seen like a hundred posts about people complaining about Silksong fans complaining, but a total of 0 silksong fans complaining.
This is such a non issue.
If there’s anyone who deserves hate it’s Geoff
Honestly amazed that it won best soundtrack over Silksong. There’s some bangers in there, don’t get me wrong, but Silksong’s soundtrack is much tighter and more interwoven with the game world imo
I'll never play E33 just because it costs thrice as Silksong in my region and I'm never spending so much on games. I can't even really afford to spend much on games in general, so the only games that I bought this year are Silksong and Deltarune.
All the while, the experience that I've got playing in Silksong, was phenomenal. So, of course I've voted for it everywhere I can. But apparently, it's just not good enough. Not good enough to take even one award. I don't have anything against E33. I have something against TGA organizers. It's just ridiculous, placing E33 in indie category. We all know that they already are winning the GOTY and whatever else they're taking. There is just no need to give it another, completely controversial nomination, when there is Silksong, left without even ONE won category. (Please, correct me if I'm wrong, I didn't found info about it winning anything so far)
Silksong won best Action adventure game
Well... I can't say that's what I think it really deserves. But it's really relief that there is at least something...
Game itself is super cool, but E33 fanbase is abysmal dogshit.
I loathed that cynical maudlin piece of shit long, long before Silksong was even confirmed as coming out, basically as soon as I realized that Act 3 was the writers jacking themselves off over how artists are gods for creating worlds that the audience gets lost in.
You criticize the game for being cynical and yet your takeaway from Act 3 is genuinely the most cynical interpretation of the game’s intent I’ve ever seen, lmao the irony in this comment is insane. The game was about escapism being self-destructive behavior in the long run and how we need to be careful about over reliance on harmful coping mechanisms and you thought the whole point was instead saying that artists are just super badass people who are better than everyone else because others get invested in their works? How tf did you even reach that conclusion 😭
The hate is valid. E33 shoudn't be in indie category. The whole "independant" category shoud be reconsidered and changed.
Also why did it won best rpg over KCD2?
I hate E33, not because it won over Silksong but because I actively played it. I know it's a good game but I hate the story so goddamn much.
The story is fine - its intentionally obtuse etc to feel smart and complex, sure whatever. It hits good emotional notes, no spoilers, but it does punch good. The gameplay blows chunks for me. Enemies doing multi-attacks constantly, how punishing getting hit is, how powerful parrying is, how many convoluted stacked RPG systems they put on top, having to do QTEs for everything. I played it after Silksong, and coming off parry mechanics with Hornet, it just did not feel like a "game" in the "game" sense. It was an interactive book with annoying gameplay in between scenes. It reminds me of SOMA in that regard.
honestly i enjoyed the gameplay a lot but that's because i love Xenoblade and it's very reminiscent. My main problem with the story is that without spoilers, it kicked me in the nuts for getting invested.
because e33 is overrated af
It's kinda what?
https://preview.redd.it/31vc4tjv3q6g1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=43aaef184944926f6b76d84d2ceae483acae9e29
I don't hate the game, but i do hate the critics that glaze it
I WILL hate on it for being called a Indie game when its made by a nepo baby The game's probably good though
oh boy another 3rd person turn based rpg
I wish nothing but the best for E33 itself and the devs. However, the fandom and players deserve the clapbacks they get and more.
I'm just salty it won the indie categories. Imo it shouldn't have qualified for them.
What is the point of a debut indie and best indie category if you give the same game the award 😞
Why are we all hating on e33 instead of fucking game awards
I saw the title and immediately thought, with an audible groan, “it’s about the game awards, isn’t it?”
Legit though, while I am on the train that putting it in the indie category is unfair, I do not understand people hating on the game just because the game they prefer (and likely in a good few cases the only one they actually played) didn’t win.
My only gripe is that a game should only be allowed to win one GOTY type of award. The hierarchy would be GOTY>indie GOTY>best indie game. If you win a higher award, you become ineligible for lower awards. This is more a game awards gripe than anything else.
Welp first it was unfair but all the hate towards that should be redirected towards tga really.
Second you have things like "the birth of cinema in gaming" going around wich look pretty obnoxious not gonna lie
Lowk I quit the game shortly after getting the big guy bc it was boring and not trobbiotastic
Holy new vocab I’m going to use trobbiotastic from now on
Frfr
The game is fine. Not exceptional for me, but fine.
The fans can be really obnoxious and I suspect there is some astroturfing, given how repetitive/bot-like the praise has been over the last six months.