If you have not already listened to this category’s podcast, these are the final results, so this will spoil the course of the discussion on that podcast! Be warned!
When a video game’s mechanics are successful, they’re often easy to overlook altogether: the story, presentation and music are more obvious and in-your-face, while the intricate systems that define how you play melt together into one, amorphous conception of how the game feels. But without these mechanics, there is no game to begin with! It’s easy to forget this simple fact (especially for the host of a “narrative gaming book club podcast”), which is partially why we hold this particular award in the first place. Let’s celebrate what we often overlook.
The Winner
Bullet Guidance (Children of the Sun)
How do you take out an entire farm’s worth of cultists with a single bullet? As Children of the Sun‘s silent, masked protagonist, you only ever need one shot. Every time your bullet makes an impact, you have a handful of seconds to aim it at your next quarry. Relying on a combination of thoughtful planning and swift execution, you paint an elegant portrait of death with your rifle. (And I do mean paint quite literally: after every successful round, you get a birds’ eye view of your shot’s trajectory, a pattern outlined in a vibrant yellow.)
Boiled down to its basic parts, this is the mechanic in Children of the Sun that the player utilizes. It takes one hell of a system to carry an entire game, but the bullet guidance is such a fresh take on action/puzzle hybrids that it manages this feat without breaking a sweat. By the end of our discussion, this was the clear, obvious winner for this category, even weighing it against its strong competition.
The Runners-Up
Special Training Plan (Zenless Zone Zero)
Aside from its predatory gambling practices, gacha is a genre that’s practically defined by busywork. When you aren’t spinning its slot machines, cursing your luck over duplicates and pithy rewards, you’re out there, grinding levels and 4-6 different types of currencies for your characters. Worse yet, different character types often have their own, unique resource that must be farmed to keep them in tip-top shape. Keeping all of these details straight for just one character is bad enough, but as your roster blooms, it quickly transforms into a nightmare.
Enter the Special Training Program from Zenless Zone Zero. Not only can you put together a Recommended list of activities to do to level specific characters: you can tailor it to give you a game plan based on what you want out of those characters. If all you want is leveling a character to the max, it gets that job done, but what if you’re still experimenting with a different character’s toolset, and don’t want to dump all your resources into someone you might hate playing? Select “Try Out,” and it’ll help you level your newcomer just enough to preview their full toolset, without fully committing. You can even ask it to look at the stats other players prioritize with your fave, then build a plan that follows their lead!
Of course, Zenless Zone Zero still expects you to do the busywork itself. But the Special Training Program makes it easier for the average person to boost their favorite fighter without relying on strategy wikis, spreadsheets, or the like. It’s the kind of mechanic that we’ve never even considered before, yet it instantly feels like a must-have for other games in its genre. That, in itself, was more than enough to get it in the top three.
Bravery Points (Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising)
For Arc System Works’ second take on Granblue Fantasy Versus, they sprinkled a little risk into their fighting mechanics. Brave Points, as the name implies, require bravery from the player looking to use them. Each player gets three points at the start of the round, and they can be spent on crucial moves like Brave Counters (which can stop a devastating combo mid-strike) or Raging Strikes (which punishes a blocking opponent with a severe blow). But there’s a good reason to hold onto those points, too: losing two of your three BP means your opponent’s attacks do 25% more damage to you, and losing all of them bumps that number up to a whopping 50%!
Your points are, in other words, a double-edged sword. They can provide an immense advantage in battle, potentially turning the tide in your favor, but only if you know when to spend and when to hold back. Each BP spent is a bet on yourself, adding a new layer of electric uncertainty to matches. Do you have enough faith that burning a point is exactly what you need at that very moment, and your execution will be enough to survive the round? Or are you burdening yourself with a lethal disadvantage? There’s only one way to find out…
The Gimmick Awards are nearly done. Come back Friday for Scanline Media’s Game of the Year, as well as personal lists from our editors!
