I am butthurt about the Best RPG at the Game Awards (TGA).
I’m not even going to hide or lie about it—I’m really butthurt about Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 losing Best RPG at The Game Awards this year. Now, hold on a second: this is not an “I hate Clair Obscur: Expedition 33” rant. I love that game, and I honestly thought it was going to win GOTY at various game awards shows if it wasn’t going to be Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 or Death Stranding 2: On the Beach.
Anyway, this is going to be a very surface-level breakdown of why I’m frustrated with the outcome, while also acknowledging a couple of possible reasons why Warhorse Studios didn’t get the win I personally think they deserved. Mostly, I just want to vent.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance is my best RPG of 2025
A significant part of my frustration stems from how the “Best RPG” category often favors certain design philosophies over others. Games with more modern RPG elements usually have an advantage with the mainstream audience, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 absolutely felt like that game this year.
To me, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 represents the peak form of the Skyrim/Fallout-style RPG: deeply immersive, grounded controls, multiple quest solutions, and a complete commitment to its vision.
More than that, it adds systems that improves the role-playing experience through certain activities like blacksmithing and potion brewing—mechanics that actually make you roleplay.
I’d compare Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 to Elden Ring in its ascension to its peak form: with Elden Ring being the peak (so far) of the Dark Souls formula by refining everything while expanding the experience through its open-world structure.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 (actually, even from the first Kingdom Come: Deliverance) doesn’t just borrow from similar games; it pushes that design philosophy to its most polished form yet, choosing to elevate the experience by leaning even further into grounded realism.
Altogether, this made Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 feel like it had an edge in terms of “modern” design. More importantly, it aligns closely with open-world action-adventure gameplay, which tends to resonate strongly with a broad audience.
Yes, the 2023 and 2024 Best RPG awards at The Game Awards went to Baldur’s Gate 3 and Metaphor: ReFantazio, both turn-based RPGs. But let’s be honest—those years either lacked truly fierce competition, or the winning choice was fairly contentious.
Baldur’s Gate 3 rightfully won many RPG awards in 2023, as it felt like the truest translation of a tabletop RPG into a digital format.
Metaphor: ReFantazio, on the other hand, while still a great game, was more hit-or-miss for many players. It didn’t necessarily feel like it brought something fundamentally new to the genre, nor did it stand clearly above the rest of the RPGs released that year.
Looking back as far back as 2018 in the history of TGA’s Best RPG winners, most of them have been real-time action RPGs, with Disco Elysium being another major exception—a masterpiece in its own right, and I won’t even discuss why it is, or it isn’t.
With those winners in mind, it seems that games that won Best RPG at TGA are those with real-time combat, open-world design, or simply just a more modern approach as an RPG. TRPGs, CRPGs, and JRPGs tend to win only when they are truly exceptional or have something new to bring to their subgenre—games like Baldur’s Gate 3 or Disco Elysium.
I know I’m underselling Metaphor: ReFantazio here, but its win just feels strange considering how great the other RPGs in 2024 were: Dragon’s Dogma 2 (which is in my personal top 10), Black Myth: Wukong, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, and Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth. All of these games were fun, impressive, innovative, and have a very modern game design yet they still lost.
If there’s one takeaway from all of this, it’s that the RPGs that tend to win are usually the ones that either refine an existing formula to near perfection and/or elevate the genre by doing something meaningfully new. To me, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 felt like exactly that kind of game.
“But, you are wrong though, Alfen.”
That said, there are plenty of valid counterarguments (and self-contradictions) to the reasons I gave as to why Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 might not be the “Best RPG” for everyone.
For one, it doesn’t really radically reinvent the genre. Instead, as I’ve said before, it mostly perfects the fundamentals—combat, immersion, progression, player consequence—to its near-best form.
And historically, awards don’t always favor refinement over reinvention.
More than that, these “immersive” activities that I brought up, like blacksmithing and potion-brewing, can already be found in most survival games, and you also roleplay in them. If this is a feature that should be considered in measuring the “RPG-ness” of a game, then most survival games should be considered RPGs.
Another flaw in my own bias is how much of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt I see reflected in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2’s success.
Both are action-adventure RPGs with dynamic open worlds, intricate quest design with multiple solutions and outcomes, as well as memorable characters.
Maybe, the time for this style of RPG has simply passed. Action-oriented open-world RPGs have been everywhere for over a decade now, and there may be a sense of fatigue over this type of game design.
At this point in the gaming industry, there’s almost always an expectation that one or two good action-adventure RPGs will come out each year.
Still, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not *that* bad of a pick either
Now, let us take a close look at Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
It takes a classic JRPG structure and makes it feel fresh again. On paper, most of its mechanics aren’t new, but the way the Pictos and Lumina systems interact creates a different way of having variety in character builds in an RPG. Most of the time, RPGs have the usual rigid class, weapon, and armor builds as their way of creating variety.
Then there’s the parry system—which is honestly addictive.
It isn’t an entirely new mechanic in games, but it’s definitely uncommon in turn-based RPGs.
The parry mechanic adds timing, tension, and skill expression in a way that appeals to players who normally shy away from turn-based combat because they want something more active.
In my opinion, many action-adventure fans are actually interested in turn-based RPGs, but avoid them because they often feel that the turn-based combat is too “passive” compared to their first love.
Aside from the class, itemization, and combat systems, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s story and characters are also incredibly well written. This is always a core element of most JRPGs, and without it, you may as well disregard the game as a JRPG.
Outside of the Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s actual content, I feel that part of the reason they won is that there always seems to be an underdog narrative surrounding turn-based RPGs. Baldur’s Gate 3 and Metaphor: ReFantazio sweeping major awards over the past two to three years really cemented that trend by winning Game of the Year and the Best RPG in various game awards shows.
The last reason I could think of as to why Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 probably won is that it came out of nowhere—no legacy, no established franchise, just Sandfall Interactive’s first-ever game punching way above its weight in a year stacked with incredible releases. That surprise factor matters, whether people want to admit it or not.
So, what now?
For me, those are the strongest qualities of both games.
Setting-wise, both games are excellent—though I’d argue Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has the edge thanks to its unique fantasy setting and more abstract presentation. Fantasy worlds tend to charm players more easily, and Sandfall Interactive further colors Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s wondrous world with incredible writing and mysterious, compelling lore. By contrast, realism isn’t particularly well-received in the broader gaming space, largely because it can feel tedious or restrictive for many players; casual or not.
Gameplay-wise, this is probably entirely subjective, but I do feel Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 would have been more palatable to a wider audience if not for its “tedious” combat and slower pacing.
On the other hand, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was able to stave off the negative “passivity” from being a turn-based RPG by incorporating active dodging and parrying mechanics instead of making it chance or character state-based.
Story-wise, both games are incredibly well written, and which one resonates more really depends on what a player is looking for. What Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 offers is a darker, more concise experience, which may have helped players retain and absorb its narrative more fully.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, on the other hand, leans into a more lighthearted, often humorous adventure filled with distractions—something I personally felt was weaker compared to the first entry, which carried significantly more emotional weight.
Anyway, I’m just rambling. Don’t take my words here too seriously.
Still, I firmly believe Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 should have won Best RPG at The Game Awards—and probably at a few other shows too. But at the same time, I can’t be outright mad about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 winning. I just genuinely felt that the former brought more to the RPG community as an RPG than the latter.
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