2024 Game of the Year Awards — Genre Awards

When you think of RPGs you usually think of 16-bit classics or those that helped from franchises in the 32-bit era. Final Fantasy, Persona, Tales of, and so on. JRPGs tend to dominate this genre, but western RPGs with their open-worlds and more action-oriented combat tend to make their way to the top as well. This year saw a huge splash of long awaited AAA titles that mostly dominated this genre.

Metaphor: ReFantazio

JRPGs tend to have a tight grip on this genre, but they aren’t quite as popular as they once were. With the hours long dialogue and cut-scenes, archaic gameplay mechanics, and sometimes stale worlds and trope-infested stories JRPGs are held to a pretty high standard and don’t usually become popular outside of their niche fanbase. Once in a while, these tend to blow up and get everyone to join in. Metaphor did just that thanks to the masterminds behind Atlus. While the story isn’t fantastic the characters, settings, world, visuals, and music are memorable.