Starman Super Awards 2024 - Vote! « Beyond EarthBound « Forum « Fangamer (2025)

I’ve been putting as much stuff off as you have, but here is my personal picks for the awards! If there’s no contestants that means they win by default >:)

Game of the Year: The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
Echoes of Wisdom I think is a sleeper hit! A wonderful marriage of Top-Down and Wild/Kingdom style Zelda. In fact, its setting is kind of growing on me as my favorite version of Hyrule!

Sights: Metaphor: ReFantazio
(Shakes fist) STUDIO ZERO! YOU CAN’T KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH THIS! I got Metaphor for Christmas and it’s the first Atlus RPG I’ve actually played. It’s left quite the impression and I’m hoping to finally dive into Persona in 2025.

Sounds: Metaphor: ReFantazio and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Hey look it’s a Final Fantasy game with a good soundtrack what do you know! I have gated myself from Rebirth until I can beat the original and Remake, but I actually do like No Promises to Keep quite a bit. Meanwhile, rapping Buddhist monk makes me very pumped to clinch that Unscathed Triumph.

Systems: Balatro
I can already tell that when I get this game I’m going to fall hard for it. The satisfying pings of all your mults and other joker effects adding together to create a unfathomably high score is very satisfying to even watch!

Best Non-Nintendo AAA Game: Astro Bot
Astro Bot is an absolute treasure, and shows there’s still room for games like it in the main stream. It does ride on the PlayStation nostalgia a bit much, but who can blame Team Asobi, especially when it feels like Sony as a whole is neglecting things!

Best Port, Remake, or Remaster: Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake
Also gorgeous. This may be the platonic ideal for remaking an old RPG, especially one as seminal as DQ3. So grateful for Team Asano and the HD-2D project, honestly.

Best DLC, Update, Expansion, or Ongoing Game: Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail
Even if I’m still head-over-heels for the Critically Acclaimed MMO With An Extended Free Trial, etc. I’ve nevertheless gone back and forth about giving this my nomination. There has been a lot of good that has come out of 7.0 and 7.1 so far, and I’m still very optimistic about the remaining major patches, but also I can’t help but feel slightly disappointed about what they chose to focus on for this expansion as a whole. 7.0’s MSQ isn’t nearly as bad as people say it is, but you can definitely tell we’re in a holding pattern as we wait for better things to come. That said, the gameplay of Dawntrail has been a breath of fresh air! I hope they can capture that magic and distribute it back to the lower level stuff because I don’t want to have to tell people to just trust me anymore…
(PS I’ve been having a wonderful time watching MRC making their way through this gameStarman Super Awards 2024 - Vote! « Beyond EarthBound « Forum « Fangamer (1))

Nicest Surprise: Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door and Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket
The white whale of many a Nintendo collector is finally available to the masses! (Insert Earthbound Fan excited to finally play EarthBound meme)
Meanwhile, I don’t think there’s a game that’s had a bigger impact on my daily routine this year than PTCGP. It’s a game that I can actually engage with with some IRL friends! And I love the card-collecting too.

Biggest Disappointment: Dragon’s Dogma II
With all the hype Dragon’s Dogma II got leading up to its release it’s really sad to see that no one really talks about it now. The weird addition of microtransactions didn’t really help its reputation either, even if said microtransactions turned out to be a nothing burger.

Notable Gaming Moment: The Nintendo Music App
FINALLY. There’s still a few kinks to work out and one album a week is not nearly fast enough, but I’m just glad there’s even any official way to listen to some of my favorite tunes.

2023 Consolation Prize: Final Fantasy XVI
I still would like to give this game its flowers. I honestly really love these dorks and while I have yet to play through the DLC it’s high on my priority list!!

Most Anticipated Upcoming Game: Metroid Prime 4
Not only is there finally hope on the horizon, my anticipation for this game coincides with my anticipation for the As of Yet Unnamed Successor to the Nintendo Switch. The end of the Fiscal Year can’t come soon enough!

Legacy 5 (2019): Fire Emblem: Three Houses
If Awakening revitalized the Fire Emblem franchise, Three Houses cemented it as a Nintendo mainstay. This one really felt like an instant classic when it first came out, and this one is another backlog game I hope to tackle this year! (I’ve known I would be choosing Blue Lions first ever since the timeskip trailer btw)

Legacy 10 (2014): Shovel Knight
2014 feels like the true beginning of my adult life, so it’s been really weird to think of it as something that happened 10 years ago. Shovel Knight is the very first crowdfunding success story, and as such feels very representative of all that’s changed in the last decade. And of course it’s got a banging soundtrack to boot!

Legacy 20 (2004): Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles
Releasing internationally in February and March of 2004, This game was my personal gateway into Final Fantasy. The reunion of Nintendo and Square Enix is significant, but I also love its charming world, pick-up-and-play gameplay, and lush soundtrack by Kumi Tanioka.

Legacy 25 (1999): Donkey Kong 64
Okay! DK64 remains one of the biggest 3D platformers ever made, and as one of the first games I ever played it left a serious impression on me. It seems all people talk about today is how tedious and forced backtracking is in the game, but I’m just here wondering who is forcing people to head to the nearest tag barrel as soon as they see a single different-colored banana. It’s okay to save things for later! It’s okay to forget things too!! 101% Completion is a noble goal, but you don’t have to do it all at once!

Legacy 30 (1994): Final Fantasy VI
Here it is! My first main-series FF game. Still the largest cast of playable characters, with loads of customization options through both relics and espers. It laid the groundwork for the PlayStation Era, but even today it still holds its own! I highly recommend it as a must-play for RPG fans.

Legacy 40 (1984): The Tower of Druaga
This gets my nom more for the influence it had on the Adventure genre than anything. It left a direct influence for The Legend of Zelda, and many more games would use its top-down style to abstract their worlds.

As a reminder, the voting period will end this coming Monday, January 6th, by end of day.

Starman Super Awards 2024 - Vote! « Beyond EarthBound « Forum « Fangamer (2025)
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