Congratulations to Zelda, in spite of Justin. ;)

Conglaturations, guys! An episode for the ages! I thought the conversation was going to end in the middle of it with someone ripping their shirt off and dropping the mic. Surely, someone was going to be worked into a shoot, brother!

Seriously, I enjoyed it. Lots of good conversation. Zach's defense of Zelda, Justin talking about Odyssey and its handling of Mario history (Neal: But Zelda has costumes in the DLC!), learning about Donald's disenchantment with 3D Zeldas, really good. I felt sorry for Alex, though, since the conversation wasn't as positive as he hoped. While it got contenious at times, I felt it was almost always spirited, rather than just being negative nancys. I think Alex's suggestion for next year to mention only positives until someone brings up a negative aspect of a game is a good one. Positive conversation and also lead to a feeding frenzy once the dam of a negative aspect is burst. The best of both worlds!

When will the fabled Top 25 WiiU games be revealed, Neal?

And yes, Justin needs to do an hour on Breath of the Wild and the future of Zelda. Make sure to surround himself with the various Zelda merchandise he has collected. For bonus points, illustrate his points about BOTW through thoughtful positioning of said merchandise/characters. I would be very interested in hearing his thoughts.

Thanks for the feedback! And yeah, that talk got heated. If people would rather we do a list like this again next year, I'm open to it. It's just that I've always been of the mind that GOTY should celebrate a year of video games rather than put games down that aren't '#1 Material.' But maybe that's what's most fun to listen to? I'll have to think on it some.

Ha!

Ha!

Great show. And it didn't need to take six plus hours!


While I understand the impulse to only focus on the happiness a year's video game art has brought us, I think it is so important to discuss flaws and complaints (personal or general) of said art.


To speak of one of this episode's hot topics, I think their is incredible value in discussing the Korok Seeds of Breath of the Wild and how they are executed. For players who have a strong obsessive compulsion or completionist leanings, it should be talked about how the game is designed for the player to not be easily able to find and catalog all of the Seeds. The Korok Seeds can be compared and contrasted with the Rare Blades of Xenoblade Chronicles 2. While there are frustrations to had with the Core Crystal system of Xenoblade 2, there can be some comfort for completionists in how farming Legendary Core Crystals can acceptably apply brute force the system to acquire all the Rare Blades that come from Core Crystals. Such assured brute force can't be necessarily applied to Breath of the Wild's Korok Seeds.


I don't think such a discussion can happen at all if the panel were to individually go over their personal GOTY lists. Such discussions are sometimes painful to go through, but the possibility of gaining insight in to our favorite games and our tastes is worth it.


In order to reach that possibility, you have to acknowledge that building a list is going to be a process. A process of debate and compromise. It is so important that all participants recognize that deeply, and that they are not there to fight and win an argument for their personal love or pet peeve. Compared to a specific other deliberation, I think you guys did a great job discussing things and making firm executive decisions to move on to the next stage. This is always how it is going to go when you bring different people to reach a consensus. As long as everyone recognizes they are there to have some spirited discussions and are resolved to compromise in order to reach the goal, I will be happy to listen everyone do this again next year.


For me, I was bummed the two JRPGs fell in tandem because I adore Xenoblade 2 in all its shortcomings and triumphs. But hey, PS2-and-On JRPGs are gargantuan, 70+ hour beasts that seem to be designed purposefully to strongly dissuade some and inspire intense love with others.