Every “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33” Game Award Ranked By How Deserved They Were

For the first time in my life, I stayed up until 4 a.m. to watch The Game Awards – mostly in support of my favourite game this year “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33”. You can imagine how happy I am that it won the most trophies in Game Awards history!

This game won nine (!!!) awards in total … but, in my personal opinion, some were more deserved than others. Let’s talk about it.

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Probably Shouldn’t Have Won

I’m glad “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33” almost swept the awards … but now that the hype has subsided, I think these particular awards should’ve gone to other nominees.

9 – Best Debut Indie Game

To give a bit of context, Sandfall Interactive are by no means newbies when it comes to game design and professional releases. A lot of their staff jumped ship from Ubisoft, so it feels a little insincere to have them win the “Best Debut Indie Game” above more deserving candidates.

I would’ve loved to see “Blue Prince” or even “Dispatch” take this trophy home, as those were games made by people genuinely new to this industry.

8 – Best Independent Game

Again, the Game Awards seem to have a loose interpretation of what qualifies as an “Indie” game studio.

“Blue Prince”, “Hades 2” or “Silksong” would’ve been the more appropriate (and less controversial) picks.

7 – Best RPG

Spoiler alert – I think “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33” was absolutely deserving of the Game Of The Year award. Since it was also nominated for the sub-category “Best RPG”, it would’ve been weird if it didn’t win … but was it really the best RPG of 2025?

It doesn’t do much to innovate in the RPG genre other than add dodging and parrying to turn-based combat (something we’ve seen before in other RPGs like “Paper Mario”). “Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2”, on the other hand, pushed the limits of what modern RPGs could be capable of.

Tough Competition

Though I think these wins were deserved, it could’ve gone another way on another night.

6 – Best Game Direction

“Best Game Direction” is always a weird and vague concept to award. You can kinda see where the director’s input comes from in TV and Film, but for gaming it takes an entire studio of collaborative effort to realise a project.

“Hades 2” and “Split Fiction” were worthy nominees. Hideo Kojima could’ve easily taken this award home for “Death Stranding 2: On The Beach”. I’d still probably give it to “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33”, however, for how perfect the final vision ended up being conveyed.

5 – Best Performance (Jennifer English)

When I voted for the Game Awards, Jennifer English’s portrayal of Maelle was my personal pick for “Best Performance”. We were blessed with a stacked category this year so it could’ve gone to three other nominees.

I see a universe where Charlie Cox wins it for Gustave … but I personally think he didn’t have enough screentime. Ben Starr as Verso and Troy Baker as Indiana Jones, however, were very close runners-up in my mind.

I wouldn’t have been mad if either of those two had won. Well, maybe a little salty …

4 – Best Art Direction

In fairness, all of the nominees for “Best Art Direction” were top class. “Death Stranding 2: On The Beach”, “Ghost of Yotei”, “Hades 2” and “Silksong” all look visually stunning.

I’ve seen some people rag on “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33” for looking like a generic Unreal Engine 5 project … did we play the same game?!? Every frame of this game felt like it came straight out of a fairytale, and pretty much every location I visited made my jaw drop from their beauty.

Locked In

We didn’t need the announcer to read the name on the card – we knew “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33” was going to win these categories before the award ceremony even started.

3 – Game of the Year

The other frontrunner candidates seemed to be “Silksong”, “Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2” and “Hades 2”. I would’ve hated it if “Silksong” won. “Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2” was great and GOTY worthy in another year. “Hades 2” was my second favourite game of 2025 … but there was only ever one winner in my mind.

I would’ve been shocked if “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33” didn’t win the overall crown. It got the most nominations in history, won the most individual awards in history, and everyone apart from trolls on the internet is in agreement that it’s an astonishing work of art.

It’ll definitely go down as one of the best games of this decade, let alone the year.

2 – Best Narrative

Looking back on past “Best Narrative” winners, there have been some fantastic games – “Alan Wake 2”, “Metaphor: ReFantazio”, “Disco Elysium”, “Red Dead Redemption 2” … but none of them made me feel the way “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33” did.

“Death Stranding 2: On The Beach” and “Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2” had good narratives, one providing a cerebreal experience while the other concluding Henry’s epic journey, but it was no contest really.

“Clair Obscur: Expedition 33” had compelling characters, a gripping world and a mysterious plot that both invigorated me at its high points and crushed me at its low points. As narratives go, this is one of the best I’ve ever experienced.

1 – Best Score And Music (Lorien Testard)

If “Hades 2” or “Silksong” had won in “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s” place, I would’ve rioted. No shade to those soundtracks, but few videogame scores have been as effective as Lorien Testard’s plethora of masterpieces.

Every five minutes in the game you’re hit with one of the best videogame songs you’ve ever heard. I think only soundtracks like “Persona 5” and “Super Mario Galaxy” can rival what Lorien Testard has accomplished.

What a journey Lorien Testard has had – from Soundcloud composer to one of videogame music’s greatest ever contributors. Bravo, sir. You can sleep easy knowing you’ve raised the bar For Those Who Come After.

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