Graphics, music, sound, writing… All of these elements enhance a videogame, but every now and then, a developer manages to deliver in one of these areas in a way that shines through and not only enhances, but elevates the rest of the experience to a whole other level. These awards go to the games that excelled in one of these areas.

Note: You can listen to a podcast where Jenn and I discuss these awards! Check it out here!

1. Best Music
2. Best Song
3. Best Sound Design
4. Best Voice Acting
5. Best Graphical Style
6. Best Graphics
7. Best Story
8. Best New Character
9. Additional Commentary!

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Best Music

Blasphemous 2 by Carlos Viola – Blasphemous 2’s soundtrack is not only truly excellent, but it paints a vivid picture of the world the game takes place in, with Spainish guitars, mournful violins, and piano’s giving us a perfectly complimentary image of a world of deep culture and beauty filled with pain and struggle. There were many fierce competitors for this award in 2023, but no other game not only presented me with something beautiful and unique, but also something that was such a perfect fit for the game it was created for.

Runners-Up:

A Highland Song by Laurence Chapman, with Talisk and Fourth Moon

Hogwarts Legacy by Chuck E. Myers, Alexander Horowitz, and J. Scott Rakozy

Backpack Hero by BinaryCounter

Octopath Traveler II by Yasunori Nishiki

Jack Jeanne by Akira Kosemura

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Best Song

Wind Temple Boss Theme – Colgera by Manaka Kataoka, Maasa Miyoshi, Masato Ohashi, and Tsukasa Usui from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Colgera is (small spoiler) probably the easiest boss in the entire game. Yet thanks to this music, your battle with this beast feels absolutely epic, starting off mournful and foreboding, and ending with the music building up to be triumphant, channeling inspiration from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. This was one of the absolute high points (both literally and figuratively) of this massive game’s sprawling quest, and it was thanks to this stirring music that this moment felt like a true highlight in a game absolutely filled with wonderful moments.

Runners-Up:

Our Stars by Joshua Queen, from This Way Madness Lies

Battle On! (Day) by Eric W. Brown, from Sea of Stars

Encounter Elite! by Eric W. Brown, from Sea of Stars

When We Laugh About Forgetting to Buy Something by Kazuki Yanagawa, from Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key

Spirit Call by Paul Zimmerman, from Wildfrost

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Best Sound Design

Dredge – This game gets so much right about its presentation, but I think it’s the sound design that ties everything together, from the dirty chugging of your boat, the viscous gloopy sound of the water, and the creepy noises coming from unknown terrors in the fog, Dredge’s sound design ensures that everything about this place is just off, whether you’re fishing peacefully in midday, or hurriedly scrounging for resources at night, hoping to be done and back to safety before something ungodly finds you. Dredge is absolutely dripping in atmosphere, and much of this is thanks to the amazing sound design.

Runners-Up:

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Cocoon

Squad 51 Vs. The Flying Saucers

Super Crazy Rhythm Castle

A Space for the Unbound

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Best Voice Acting

MJ Deans as Moira McKinnon in A Highland Song – There’s a lot of beauty to be found in A Highland Song, but that beauty is heightened so much by MJ Deans’ wonderful, expressive, grounded performance as Moira, helping us to see the world through her eyes, feel her excitement. Moira has such a beautiful, funny, warm, and clever personality, and it’s all brought to life with grace and subtlety thanks to Deans’ excellent performance.

Runners-Up:

Patricia Summersett as Princess Zelda in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Paul Warren as Uncle Hamish in A Highland Song

Nicholas Guy Smith as Eleazar Fig in Hogwarts Legacy

Unknown as Narrator in Howl

Various in Blasphemous 2

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Best Graphical Style

Squad 51 Vs. The Flying Saucers – No game so perfectly captured the aesthetic it was aiming for in 2023 like Squad 51, with a visual style so absolutely spot-on for its inspiration that its videogame elements blend into its live action elements, making you wonder where one ends and the other begins. I was in awe when I played this game that so much effort was put into making this game look so shoddy (in a good way!). As I keep saying, not since Cuphead has a game so fully committed to bringing to life the art of a bygone era, and I absolutely hope we see more games like these.

Runners-Up:

Cocoon

Sea of Stars

Blasphemous 2

Star Ocean: The Second Story R

Dredge

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Best Graphics

Pikmin 4 – The Pikmin series has always been far more graphically impressive than I think many give these games credit for, and with the fourth mainline installment this series goes even farther into photorealistic environments, all while still bringing us silly cartoony characters that still manage to fit into those environments, with superb animation and a lot of style, and with tons of different individual elements on-screen at a time. Pikmin 4 is one of the best-looking games on Nintendo Switch, and shows that even this late into the handheld’s life, its games can still impress visually.

Runners-Up:

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Metroid Prime Remastered

Cocoon

Squad 51 Vs. The Flying Saucers

Dredge

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Best Story

The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood – This game deals with some extremely large themes, exploring the meaning of existence, life, power, and so much more, yet it does this one a very personable, human level, with characters we care about. What’s more, this game puts the story in our own hands, letting our interpretation of the divination cards we read decide the direction of the story. While this year has featured some excellent stories, none felt as well-told, as important, and as tied to the gameplay as the story in The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood.

Runners-Up:

Sanabi

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

A Space for the Unbound

This Way Madness Lies

Hogwarts Legacy

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Best New Character

Garl, from Sea of Stars – Sea of Stars has a major problem with its story – its two central heroes are forgettable, interchangeable blank slates. They’re not devoid of a personality, but there’s just not much reason to care about either of them… which is why Garl is so very important, because all of the personality they lack, he got in spades (or perhaps more fittingly, in ladles?). Even lacking the magic or ninja skills of his comrades, Garl makes up for it with sheer positivity and determination, putting a brave face on things even when others dismiss him as unimportant. As far as I’m concerned, he’s the real hero of the story – this game’s version of a Samwise Gamgee.

Runners-Up:

Abramar, from The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood

Moira McKinnon, from A Highland Song

Raya, from A Space for the Unbound

The General’s Daughter, from Sanabi

Addison, from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

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Additional Commentary!

Just going to comment on the categories I feel like I have more to add.

Best Music

As always, this was the toughest award for me to decide, and in fact the very last one that I decided on. I think this year it was even tougher than prior years, because there were so many amazing soundtracks. In fact, I’m still not entirely sure about the last few picks, just because it was all so close.

For the record, game soundtracks that came close but didn’t make the list include This Way Madness Lies, The Shape of Things, Cocoon, The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, A Space for the Unbound, Howl, Shadows Over Loathing, and Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly, to name the best of the bunch (but multiple others were considered too).

I know Sea of Stars was a favorite for many, and I absolutely love Yasunori Mitsuda’s work, but apart from a few very, very good songs (a few of which got in the short list for Best Song), I found the overall soundtrack to by not especially compelling.

I should also mention that Tents and Trees, much of the soundtrack from Disney Speedstorm, Metroid Prime Remastered, Persona 3 Portable… all of these were disqualified due to the age of the original game’s release (or in Speedstorm’s case, the fact that most of its soundtrack was adapted from other sources). But otherwise, these would have been strong contenders too.

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Best Song

While I settled on the winner in this category fairly easily, it was a grueling task deciding on the runners-up. The first three runners-up were locked in early on, at least – Our Stars from This Way Madness Lies is probably the one song in this group I listened to on repeat the most, Battle On from Sea of Stars was a solid battle theme that didn’t wear out its welcome despite playing constantly throughout the game, and Encounter Elite is an absolutely fantastic boss theme. After that, it gets harder to pick.

Other songs that almost made the cut include Walk the Skies from A Space for the Unbound, Crypt Battle from Backpack Hero, Battle-Dance of the Astray from Disgaea 7, Field of Dreams from Jack Jeanne, Title Theme from Pikmin 4, Coral Cascades from Sea of Stars (yes, a third Sea of Stars song), Piranha Plants on Parade from Super Mario Bros. Wonder (I absolutely love this moment in the game, but don’t quite love the song itself), Fortuna and The Peppermancer from The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, and Every Rose from This Way Madness Lies. If you’re counting, that’s sixteen songs I needed to cut down to only six. Ask me on any given day and I might trade out one of the last two songs in the runners-up for any of these.

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Best Voice Acting

I know that some people absolutely hated Summersett’s performance as Zelda, but I found it to be so delightful it nearly won this award. Summerset did an outstanding job conveying Zelda’s fear and determination, and really sold us on the humongous sacrifice she makes in this game.

Also, when it comes to Blasphemous 2, I couldn’t pick just one character, all of them were so beautifully voiced.

Oh, and I absolutely could not track down the voice actor who voiced The Narrator in Howl. If anyone knows, please let me know!

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Best Graphics

I feel like some people may feel like it wasn’t appropriate including Metroid Prime Remastered here, since that’s “just” a “remaster” of a GameCube game. Except the graphics have been completely recreated here, so this part of the game is entirely new. And it looks amazing, so it absolutely belongs in this list.

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That’s all for today! to keep up with all of the eShopperReviews 2023 Game Awards, be sure to check back at the Awards’ Start Page, which I’ll be updating throughout the week!

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