Posted in: Games, Video Games | Tagged: Bleeding Cool Game Awards, Bleeding Cool Game Awards 2017, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, mass effect: andromeda, Middle-earth Shadow of War, nier: Automata, persona 5, South Park: Fractured But Whole, Torment: Tides of Numenera

Bleeding Cool Game Awards: Best RPG

Published Sun, 31 Dec 2017 08:45:23 -0600

by Madeline Ricchiuto

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For Bleeding Cool's Best RPG of 2017, our three esteemed games judges were asked to weigh in on the best of the role playing game market to determine which was the absolute best RPG of the year. It was a pretty stiff competition that mostly came down to two games, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Persona 5.

The nominees are:

South Park: Fractured But Whole
NeiR: Automata
Mass Effect: Andromeda
Torment: Tides of Numenera
Legend of Zelda, Breath of the Wild
Persona 5
Middle-earth: Shadow of War

Our judges scores were:

Games	Madeline's Score	Patrick's Score	Gavin's Score	Total
South Park: Fratured But Whole	7	6	1	14
NieR: Automata	3	5	4	12
Mass Effect: Andromeda	6	2	6	14
Torment: Tides of Numunera	5	7	7	19
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild	2	1	3	6
Persona 5	1	3	2	6
Middle-earth: Shadow of War	4	4	5	13

Breath of the Wild was absolutely going to take home some category from these awards, but Persona 5 put up a very, very good fight. Persona 5 is a game that almost didn't get finished, it sat in development hell for so long, it was the punchline to far too many jokes. But then we got it this year, and it was good. Sure, it raised some ethical questions about video games protraying romances between adult teachers and teenage students, the merits of being a medical guinea pig, and probably made you question your sanity along the way, but for a game that debuted with graphics designed for last gen consol31es with mostly text dialogue, we loved Persona 5. We loved it when it should have been unlovable. But it didn't hold a candle to the amount of fervor and love that Breath of the Wild generated.

And, let's be real, you didn't expect any other game to win this category, did you? Breath of the Wild has been the game every single Zelda fan in the world has liked. It's the game that brought in new Zelda fans, that made Link a cultural icon in 2017. People who don't love Nintendo games play Breath of the Wild and love it. And there is so much of it to love. It doesn't hurt that the development team on Breath of the Wild are pleased as punch with how well received the game has been, after all of the time and incredible effort they put into it. And that's a beautiful thing to see.

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