If you have not already listened to the podcast of this category, this is the final results, so this will spoil the course of the discussion on that podcast! Be warned!
The best moment of a game or a show is one that sticks with you. The game or show itself could be quite underwhelming, but when the stars align, a moment can just hit. And when it’s in an excellent work, it makes the whole thing shine even brighter. Here are the winners for Best Moment.
The Winner
“We Sing” (Alan Wake II)
A moment is supposed to last, what, maybe a few minutes, tops? But goddamn, sometimes you have a moment that lasts over twenty minutes and it’s worth it the entire time. The moment itself mixes comedy, horror, action, and a bit where you climb a ladder to a slow jazz piece. It’s one of those things that could be all over the place and not cohere, but when the cast of the game are singing in dancing at the very end, it clicks into place beautifully.
As Jennifer puts it, lightning cannot strike twice with moments like these. Remedy had to fight to get a moment this complicated, this spectacular, and this ambitious into the game itself, seemingly fighting against the gears of AAA gaming itself to make it work. It’s bombastic, silly, and mesmerizing. It’s a lovingly crafted moment in a game that itself feels like a celebration of everything Remedy has accomplished in it’s storied career. And boy, that song is catchy. What a fantastic moment.
The Runners-Up
The Final Campsite (Final Fantasy XV)
It’s not easy finding the words to say sometimes. When you’ve spent your life keeping things to yourself, it’s hard to finally gather the strength to say whats in your heart. And even then, it’s barely enough. The Final Campsite is a moment where Noctis must gather all his emotional strength to express how he feels to his friends, and it’s an utterance. Facing the end of the world and the end of his life, Noctis allows his armor to drop in this final moment, and it’s beautiful.
Final Fantasy XV is a divisive game for it’s quality and shortcomings, of which there are spades in both directions. But this moment really resonated with us because there is this unmistakable truth to the struggle to be honest that the game displays in a heartfelt way. There is also the knowledge of Noctis’ personal struggle and how hard he must try to speak those small words of affection. They seem small, but they are a mountain of his true feelings laid bare, and for that we couldn’t help but celebrate this moment.
First Sortie (Gunbuster)
Gunbuster is a explosive and emotional triumph of the human spirit persevering over incalculable odds, but getting there requires some context. Victory is meaningless without the struggle that goes along with it, and this moment in the show really encapsulates that struggle. Noriko, sent to fight the alien invasion she has trained all her life for, stands dumbfounded as blips on her radar appear and disappear. Those blips representing an unknown enemy and deeply cared about friends, she is paralyzed by her fear until she is given the order to retreat. So many people are lost, and a small part of her is broken.
What stands out about this moment is how simple and honest it is. Mecha shows can often lose sight of the idea that war is hell, and the war she has trained herself to fight in is one that takes away her friends. It’s a silent moment in a series of thundering pop music and robots kilometers in size, allowing for said moments of noise and triumph have meaning. The First Sortie isn’t a moment you’d see isolated on YouTube for how cool it is, but it’s a key moment in the emotional impact Gunbuster can have on you. This low moment stands to create the foundation for the dizzying heights this anime can reach.
They say a year is full of moments. I dunno who says that, but hey, I just did. Stay tuned for more awards next week!
Our art is a commission from @yonsoncb on Twitter!