Notes
- A special thank you to the amazing team behind this year's GOTY voting: BeardedMan01 and Muzy who helped with ballots, Hecht and OneAndOnly who created the scripts for vote counting and tabulation, ratrosaw for creating VoteBot, Rösti who created the banners, and Nikpls who created the ResetEra GOTY trophy.
- Thank you community for voting and commenting, and thank you ResetEra staff for your support of this project.
- The trophy symbolizes some of the many aspects of game development with the mountain representing modeling and terrain. The inside is hollow, supported only by gears which symbolize the underlying code and engineering. For more information including a detailed breakdown of the design process, check out this post: https://www.resetera.com/posts/3564759/
- 2017's Voting Thread
1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild = 3972 points, 10 honorable mentions
An extraordinary achievement in gaming, a million layers of Nintendo polish and gameplay-first design spread over the biggest and best reinvention of Hyrule. I could write thousands of words talking about the subtle design sprinkled through every corner [...] but just one word sums it up perfectly: Legendary.
Captured everything I love about games and made it better than ever. The best exploration, puzzles, and gameplay of the entire franchise. It's the game of the generation.
A typical BOTW session would begin with me asking myself what I wanted to do that day. No matter what I chose, or how I decided to go about it the game was always up to the challenge of engaging me in some new, cool, or completely unpredictable way.
2. Super Mario Odyssey = 3081 points, 8 honorable mentions
An absolute glorious mix of fun, entertainment, smile inducing happiness. It reminded me why I love gaming so much.
A true blue achievement in joyous freedom, it brings together everything from Mario's history of 3D platforming - 64's freedom, Sunshine's other-worldliness and sky-high skill ceiling, Galaxy's spectacle, 3D World's razor-sharp platforming challenge - and throws into one big pot, creating a Mario where both the journey and the destination are one and the same, and exciting to the very end. Also you can dress up as Diddy Kong.
3. Nier: Automata = 2194 points, 10 honorable mentions
It is gorgeous, deeply moving, thought provoking, and a game unlike anything else that has ever come out except for perhaps its forbear. I will cherish Nier: Automata for decades to come.
The variety of gameplay and genre mashups is refreshing, the world is engrossing but more than anything the characters and storytelling, and how both are approached, consumed me until I had squeezed every last drip from them, which was with the E route conclusion where I opted 'Yes' without a seconds thought. Masterpiece.
4. Horizon Zero Dawn = 2137 points, 16 honorable mentions
An extremely well rounded package in all aspects and a testament to Guerrilla Game's true potential. Boasting stellar gameplay, poignant narrative, fantastic lead character and top of the class visuals, Horizon shines to show an ideal marriage of Western and Japanese game design philosophies.
Guerrilla Games has done an outstanding job creating a post-apocalyptic world that feels fresh and intriguing. The game has the best graphics I've ever seen in a game, the gameplay can be challenging yet incredibly satisfying, and the story was told in an exceptional way.
5. Persona 5 = 1979 points, 6 honorable mentions
My favorite entry in my favorite series. Cast and story were as great as ever and the gameplay was a massive step up from previous entries. I'd call it turn-based perfect. It's lightning quick, full of depth and just a blast to partake in. Also hands-down the most stylish game I've ever played.
Fulfills my dream of being a Japanese High School Student and obliterating our capitalist oppressors.
6. Yakuza 0 = 1110 points, 12 honorable mentions
The game that launched me into the series making me a permanent fan. Great combat, surprisingly deep story, hilarious and fun side missions and mini games, this game has it all.
It is one of the best cinematic narrative experiences in gaming, in my opinion, and I was completely floored by its ability to tell a gripping melodrama, to keep up the tension, and to just present itself as a gangster movie. Couple that with its goofy underbelly and a fun, viscerally satisfying combat system and it is just such a great package.
7. Resident Evil VII: Biohazard = 916 points, 10 honorable mentions
A return to the core of the franchise: horror. The Baker Family is an amazing addition to the horror genre, the first person perspective works great, unlike previous entries it has an incredible horror atmosphere which is what the franchise needed.
Resident Evil 7 brought Resident Evil back to the basics and perfected the formula in the same way RE4 did ten years ago. Jack Baker is one of the best new characters of 2017 and even if the game falls flat in the end, the overall ride was an incredible one that kept me gripped from beginning to end.
8. Cuphead = 797 points, 12 honorable mentions
Tight and responsive controls, amazing boss and level design, fantastic soundtrack and detailed animation… Everything in this game screams BUY ME. If you haven't yet, go ahead and do so.
A run 'n gun shooter made in 2017 that has revitalized the genre in a big way. I have missed this genre so much, so playing Cuphead was not just a visual treat in every way but a return to one of my favorite types of games in general.
9. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 = 770 points, 7 honorable mentions
A JRPG that had my personal favorite OST, a great expansion to the battle system of the previous games with plenty of depth to allow people to master it, a great cast and story that had some surprises that defintely got to me and the world-building was the best of the series.
This definitely surprised in terms of how engaged I ended up with the story. The various party members might be the best ensemble from a game last year and the gameplay and music are both great.
10. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy = 754 points, 13 honorable mentions
Best Uncharted yet? I think so. Tight pacing, good action, solid banter between the two leads, and of course the addictive photo mode with those gorgeous visuals…
11. Nioh = 635 points, 7 honorable mentions
A "Soulsborne Clone" that sets itself apart from the imitators and forges its own identity with tight combat, beautiful art design, and a wonderful setting (who doesn't love Feudal Japan?)
12. Splatoon 2 = 626 points, 19 honorable mentions
Most played game of 2017. Improves on its prequel in every way. A masterclass shooter in terms of design, aesthetics, and sound design (Hydra Splatling, hunnggghhh)
13. PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds = 619 points, 6 honorable mentions
The game that made me discover a genre within a genre, a roller coaster of emotions and tensions. Despite its technical shortcomings, no game in 2017 came remotely close to the euphoric feels that were served with that Chicken Dinner®.
14. Prey = 580 points, 11 honorable mentions
And, perhaps most importantly, it is arguably the best example in the modern gaming industry of how to streamline and modernize complex genre systems in a way that caters in equal measure to accessibility and depth. In its position as the preeminent modern immersive sim, it is unquestionably the gold standard that all systems-driven, intricately-designed games in the genre should aspire to.
15. Sonic Mania = 560 points, 19 honorable mentions
Amazing how a game that feels so familiar can be so fresh. I'm a massive Sonic fan and am so happy to see a return to the classic games I hold so deep to my heart. A brilliant effort by Christian Whitehead and the rest of the team that will be remembered as the true Sonic 4.
16. Assassin's Creed Origins = 539 points, 16 honorable mentions
Origins was the runaway best game of the year for me. An incredibly constructed open world, a great main character, an enjoyable story and solid combat came together to form the best thing we've seen out of the Assassin's Creed franchise in quite a while and one of the best games I've played in recent memory.
17. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus = 515 points, 17 honorable mentions
While I feel The New Order has more cohesive design and tone/story, I admire the go for broke audacity of this sequel that feels sadly prescient in its depiction of America.
18. What Remains of Edith Finch = 496 points, 8 honorable mentions
Exceptionally creative and beautifully told short stories walk you through the life of the Finch family in one of the most memorable 'walking simulator' games I've played to date.
19. Divinity: Original Sin II = 491 points, 4 honorable mentions
Admittedly I have been disappointed by this CRPG renaissance, instead of evolving the genre the new games have been reveling in the glory of the past- with Divinity OS 2 however, Larian instead chooses to answer the question "what if CRPGs never stopped existing", delivering one of the most innovative, immersive and sandboxy RPGs of all time. This is just a damn fine game and sets a new standard for modern CRPGs.
20. Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle = 472 points, 13 honorable mentions
Quite a pleasant surprise! Kingdom Battle meshes Mario and XCOM gameplay in a surprisingly natural way, with an emphasis on character mobility that gives it a unique hook.
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