2025 Dpademy Awards Pt. 2

Hello, and welcome back to the first annual Dpademy Awards. This is part two of a four part series that will be released every Sunday of the month of December. Over the course of the year, I've played over 52 games, and while I've written separate articles for each game, this is where I get to take a closer look at things, big and small, that either I didn't cover or that I wanted to gush more about. The categories are a bit unconventional, but that's part of the fun. For this, I'll only be looking at the 52 games that I covered between June and the end of November. Any games covered in December will be eligible for next year's ceremony. So, without further ado, let's get into it.

• Most Badass Moment

Coming as little surprise, the game about being a total badass is chock-full of moments that could easily take this award. Whether it be hunting dangerous augmented super animals, luring a Blood Dragon to an enemy base to do the killing for you, or the simple act of healing by squeezing a hand grip a few times, there's no shortage of moments to choose from. For me though, it has to be everything about the final mission. Running around the enemy base, using the totally legally distinct weapon from Krull, all the way up to the final "confrontation", it all just felt like a victory lap that served as the cherry on top of such an amazing experience.

• Best Weapon/ Power

Combat in Persona games is weird. We play as high school students going into another realm where they can attack using stands, but they also carry around weapons that they use as though they've just been waiting for this moment. Most of the party members in Persona 4 use your traditional weapons, such as swords, daggers, or kicks. Then we have Kanji, the delinquent of the group that has a reputation for being a badass. Nothing, and I assure you NOTHING prepared me for the fact that this motherfucker, seeing his allies using traditional weapons, brought a goddamn folding chair to the fight. The other weapons he gets as we proceed are just as fun, using plates of steel or shields to bash our foes. Not only is it hilarious, he also hits incredibly hard, which makes it even funnier.

• Best Vehicle/ Mount

A two way tie is, frankly, a bit surprising to me. Generally, I avoid mounts in open world games unless they're either fun to ride or make travelling that much faster. In all honesty, the two games that won are better explored on foot, but nonetheless I found myself drawn to these mounts. This is a Miff Gnoat from Biomutant. Aside from the fun name, I just love its stupid design. The combination of its stupid fucking trunk snout and the general stupid look on its face is endearing.

Then we have the mammoths in Far Cry Primal. While I still generally stuck to exploring on foot, the few times I decided to mount up on one of these was always a blast. Plowing through enemies that are rightfully baffled and terrified just felt good. The less said about the completely optional mammoth vision quests the better.

• Best Dialogue

There's a lot to be said for writing a story completely in rhymes. It helps Child of Light stand out, adding to the storybook vibe the entire game gives off. However, it's the self aware nature of the writing that truly cements its win here. One of the earliest characters we recruit is a jester named Rubella. While she unfortunately gets lost in the sea of companions we get over the short runtime of the game, including another jester that serves a very similar role in combat, her constant and purposeful breaking of the rhyming convention makes her stand out. It's not even that her dialogue doesn't lend itself to rhyming, it's the fact that it very much does, often seeming like the easiest set up and pay off imaginable. Instead, every time, without fail, she sets herself up only to botch it at the end, which starts to aggravate Igniculus. It's a wonderful subversion of expectations that shows just how smartly written the game is.

• Best Voice Acting

Another award where, ultimately, I couldn't choose just one winner. First up we have Troy Baker, who pretty much always delivers, but absolutely blew me away with his performance for Kanji Tatsumi in Persona 4 Golden. Kanji is possibly the most complex character in the game, being introduced as your typical delinquent street thug. He quickly becomes so much more than that, after appearing on the Midnight Channel where he's portrayed as over the top gay. As we get to know him, we find the more sensitive side to him, learning of his love for his mother and his hobby sewing and making dolls. In lesser hands, it would be easy for the character to come off as flat or uninspired, but Baker does an outstanding job making the character feel real, with a lot more nuance than would be expected.

A relative newcomer to the world of voice acting, English got her start in 2017's Divinity: Original Sin II. Continuing to work with Larian, she voiced God's Favorite Princess, Shadowheart, in Baldur's Gate III. However, it's her work as Maelle in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 that I want to recognize here. Maelle is an incredibly complex character that undoubtedly has the most character growth over the course of the game. She also has the widest range of emotions that English is able to convey flawlessly at every turn. Whether it be moments of childlike levity, blood boiling rage, or gut wrenching scenes of pure despair, English's acting helps to elevate the character every step of the way.