This is the big one. Game of the Year. We don’t hand out this award lightly, we don’t even let very many games onto our list of nominees. But enough preamble. Who won?
The Winner
Paradise Killer
Paradise Killer is honestly a revelation in the area of murder mystery games. An open world investigation with beautiful art and music, interesting characters to talk to, some light platforming, and the ability to investigate at your leisure. Honestly, I don’t know if I’ll be able to go back to Ace Attorney’s screen-by-screen pixel hunts.
That would barely matter if the mystery wasn’t a web worth unraveling. And boy, there are some THINGS GOING ON on Paradise Island 24. And you bet your bottom dollar that “Perfect” 25 is gonna have its disasters as well. When you’re a crew of immortal zealots kidnapping people for psychic worship and ritual sacrifice, trouble is more or less inevitable.
I started playing Paradise Killer on Steam via Family Sharing, and then stopped on bought it on the Switch because I wanted to be able to play it when I couldn’t access a computer. It just GRABBED me. This after blowing off months of Jen telling me “you should really play Paradise Killer.” Mea culpa, you were damn right.
The Runners-Up
Beam Saber
2020 was a year defined by Beam Saber, for me. Austin Ramsay’s hack of Blades in the Dark was all the cue I needed to dig up an old setting called Starsung Distance, and drag my friends with me into a world of factional sci-fi politics and mecha that I’ve been stewing on for years. I am sad that Scanline Tabletop will be leaving Beam Saber behind for now, but I can’t wait for my physical copy to arrive once they’re printed. A truly great tabletop game.
Final Fantasy VII Remake
I honestly dunno how the hell this happened. How did this game ever ship? How did a Nomura game in 2020 turn out well? How did a remake of probably the most beloved JRPG of all time defy its legacy, and do it WELL? The game is just a shock, and a delight. I still really think they mistuned those bosses pretty badly, but and the Wall Market section are some of the few flaws I can hold against it. It’s an exceptional action RPG.
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That’s it! We’re all done here! RIP to 2020, let’s move on! Thank you so much for joining us on this wild journey. We tried to be pretty ambitious with our Gimmick Awards this year, and we definitely felt the pains of overreaching a bit, but I’m really happy with what our little crew has achieved. If you haven’t, consider listening to this discussion of this and other categories on the Scanline Talks podcast feed. Here’s to a better 2021!
A big thank you to Zwimmy (@zwimmy on Twitter) for our Game of the Year art!
