Never count out Atlus, and now the famed studio has unleashed a late-comer for GOTY 2024. What may have felt like a surefire head-to-head matchup before is now up in the air.
Metaphor: ReFantazio has arrived with a 94 Metascore, which is tied for the highest of the year alongside Sony’s Astro Bot and Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree expansion. Now, it’s a three-way race for GOTY, it seems, barring a last-minute dark horse.
But…those three? No, not when most places are not going to count Shadow of the Erdtree as its own game. You might be able to make that argument if it was standalone, but it isn’t, and you very much need to have played (a decent amount of) Elden Ring to even start it. So I think it will be left out of most lists for that reason.
The three-way race is likely going to be between Astro Bot, Metaphor: ReFantazio and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the last of which has a still-stellar 92 score. Elsewhere, other possible short-listers may be Animal Well, Balatro (a favorite for many) and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. Something impactful like Helldivers 2 may get a nod, despite its ups and downs. I would not expect, despite its massive sales, Black Myth: Wukong to get a nomination for GOTY, as popularity does not necessarily mean placement on lists like this. I also think there are simply a slew of better games this year, and I’d guess most critics, the kinds that vote in these sorts of things, would agree.
What has the best chance of winning? I still say Astro Bot, as not only is it a great platform but it’s a celebrating of decades of PlayStation gaming in a way that doesn’t feel cheap, and it was positively beloved by both critics and fans. Its 94 score is from 135 critic reviews, while right now, Metaphor’s is based on 35. I also simply think that more people will have played Astro Bot by the end of the year. However, Final Fantasy’s 92 is a 151 reviews, and I don’t think you can rule it out as a potential winner.
At first it seemed like perhaps 2024 was going to have a less-impressive slate of games than 2023, but I’m not sure that’s turning out to be true by the end here. Yes, there were more major games above a 90 in 2023, but outside of Baldur’s Gate 3, which we knew would win everything, I think 2024 is shaping up to be much more competitive than anyone thought, and now Metaphor is helping with that. Two more months until we know what GOTY will be, at least at The Game Awards.
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