2025 Dpademy Awards Pt. 4

Hello, and welcome back to the first annual Dpademy Awards. This is the final part of a four part series 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.

• Best Story

While the story in Hypnospace Outlaw is mostly played out in the background, with the player having to infer some of the information before it finally comes to light, it still manages to tell a shockingly plausible tale of power, greed, and corruption. In the course of doing our job of flagging violations, we eventually go down the rabbit hole enough to find Merchantsoft's co-founder and COO guilty of sharing copyrighted music. When flagged, the player is contacted by Dylan who, in a gross abuse of his power, revokes our Enforcer status. This sets the stage for the eventual deaths of innocent users that gets pinned on one Merchantsoft employee, only for us to discover the truth years later. It's a compelling story told in a fairly unconventional manner.

• Best Antagonist

Few antagonists invoke feelings of fear and unease quite as well as Vaas Montenegro from Far Cry 3. Modeled after actor Michael Mando, Vaas easily steals every single scene he's in with a performance that is chilling in just how close he seems to going off at any moment. Despite his seemingly unhinged nature, Vaas is deceptively intelligent, being willing to forgo theatrics and go straight for the kill when appropriate. Over the course of the game, we learn that he is Citra's brother, being manipulated by her in a manner that is similar to how she interacts with Jason. There's more than a little implied incest at play as well, showing just how much of a parallel Vaas is for the player. While this certainly makes him a more complex character, it doesn't make up for all of that he's done, nor does the game try to force that idea upon us.

• Best Character

While I've already written, at length, about Kanji Tatsumi from Persona 4, I will once again sing this young man's praises. Not only does he serve as a fun dissection of sexual identity in teenagers, he also allows for a rather open and frank discussion of gender norms and the toxic effects of society's expectations being forced upon teenagers. While the game mostly skirts around the true nature of Kanji's sexuality, it dives headfirst into the pressures of conforming to societal views concerning gender identity. Kanji is strong, both of will and of body, but he still expresses his fears of rejection, particularly in regard to his love and skill in regards to sewing. While he puts on the tough guy persona, it's not until facing his inner self and interacting with the group that he begins to be his best, authentic self. In addition, he has some of the best dialogue in the game, which is always a bonus.

• 2025 Dpademy Awards Game of the Year

Few games are able to seamlessly blend together a dark, rich fantasy world while still maintaining a tongue in cheek sense of self aware humor that doesn't seem out of place. While I can admit that it took me more than a few times to finally get into The Witcher III, once I did, I was locked in like few games before or since. Combat, while arguably simple and repetitive, allows for enough customization and user expression to make it compelling to try new builds. While you'll come across more than a few one note characters, the characters that are fleshed out are done so magnificently. Hell, The Bloody Baron, while certainly not a good person manages to come off as effortlessly human and damn near sympathetic. The game is gorgeous, even today, and the animations are fluid and natural. The story, taken on its own, is a bit a lacking, but the emotional beats more than make up for it. It's telling that even after spending upwards of 100 hours with the game, I was more than a bit hesitant to walk away from it, and can safely say that I'll be jumping back into the world again at some point in the future.