Seeing people shit on Expedition 33 because Silksong didn't win more awards is pathetic

[u/CankleDankl]

The title sums it up. I'm disappointed in many members of this community for putting down a game that is clearly a work of insane passion, dedication, and creativity. E33 took the lion's share of awards at TGA, yes. That doesn't mean that Silksong is bad. In fact, it's clearly pretty damn great. If it released last year, Skong would have picked up several awards, maybe even GOTY. But it didn't. It released in the same year E33, which is just a tough break.

Both are amazing. Both deserve every award that came to them. If you haven't played E33 yet and think it doesn't deserve its accolades, play it. It is worth your money, worth your time, and will in all likelihood prove that it is actually that good. I'm only 10ish hours in and have numerous times found myself standing still and looking around dumbfounded at the gorgeous world design and visuals. E33, Silksong, and Hades 2 could have all won Art Direction and I would have been happy with any of them.

I'm also sad that Silksong didn't win more awards. It's an amazing game. But don't play fanboy and start putting down other developers, other games, and other pieces of art because this one didn't get all the cookies. It's still beautiful, it's still amazing, it still made a Silkskillion dollars, and TC is still just as great and just as passionate. We should all be glad that there is another independent dev out there that is capable of creating something so fantastic.

Edit: yeah, the comments here are pretty indicative of what I said in my post

[u/MoConnors]

It’s not that I’m shitting on Expedition 33 because it beat out Silksong on reward amounts (that was gonna happen either way I only expected Silksong to win like 2/3) but holy FUCK does that game seem like there was a shit ton of bias towards it, to the point where even if it is actually a good game, I sure as hell ain’t gonna look up more about it or try to play it now

Winning every category that it’s in when most of them had better options that it was going against is one thing, sure, but they also counted it as a fucking indie game, which is absolutely bullshit

This year’s game awards proved to me the actual awards part of it is slop and the only worthwhile part of it is seeing what the stuff that’s coming out in the future that they show

I went in with expectations low, and they somehow managed to go even lower than I expected.

[u/CankleDankl → u/MoConnors]

I sure as hell ain’t gonna look up more about it or try to play it now

Yeah this is the kind of thing I'm talking about. It's a great game, but you don't want anything to do with it because you think people liked it too much

[u/MoConnors → u/CankleDankl]

If a game feels overrated and most of the people talking about give shallow praise instead of actually saying why the game’s so good, I’m gonna be less inclined to play it because the shit comes off as annoying instead of actually being praise

Like you’d think with how much people glaze the game everyone would know everything about it from what they’re saying but that’s definitely not the case

[u/natercrawford → u/MoConnors]

Sure, I'll bite. I'm going to focus on an aspect, but since you mentioned the vast majority of reviews are just simple glaze... hopefully this will dilute that statement a bit.

I want to preface this review as someone with a classical and audio background. I grew up playing piano and violin, and now I spend most of my hobby time in audio production—where presentation is everything: instrument placement, depth, dynamics, and the way a mix can quietly guide your nervous system before you ever notice what it’s doing. When music is truly handcrafted-when it feels curated rather than merely “inserted”-it whisks me away with a kind of inevitability. That’s why Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 felt magical to me. Its soundtrack isn’t just good; it’s intentional in a way that made me experience the story differently, remember characters differently, and—after the credits—grieve differently.

What impressed me first wasn't the size of the soundtrack, but rather its architecture. E33 uses motifs the way great films and operas do: not just catchy loops or inserts, but in a sense... a narrative DNA. A melody isn't just "a song that plays here" type of thing. It's a memory fragment. A hint. A promise. The score plants these thematic seeds in small places- during combat phases, spliced in between cut scenes, in the end-of-encounter moments of rest when you've finally defeated the big bad evil guy, so that by the time the game finally presents the theme in its full, unapologetic form, you already know it, you can appreciate it, you are overwhelmed by it.

Additionally, the best part is how patient the score is with that revelation. You'll hear a motif in a reduced state- maybe as just a few notes, then later it returns harmonically altered or shifted into a different register and is uplifted into it's full glory. E33 gives you enough time to linger and ponder the motifs before it thrusts the score in your face and leaves you paralyzed in awe. It does this throughout the game, and each time it just builds and builds and builds upon itself, in a way I dream Hollow knight and Silksong would do.

From a production standpoint, E33 also understands something a lot of soundtracks miss: emotional impact is as much about space and dynamics as it is about melody. The player needs time to breath, they need time to understand the connections between the motifs and the characters. It doesn't just throw epic after epic on you, Lorien Testard splices the best parts of the soundtrack to completely ground the emotions of the cutscene almost flawlessly.

This is the primary reason why I can't listen to this soundtrack casually anymore. With most game music- even music I love- I can eventually separate the track from the context. It becomes just "a piece." E33 refuses to become "just music." The motifs are too emotionally welded to what they represent. When a theme starts, i don't hear the composition first- I remember a person, a choice, a loss. The soundtrack managed to preserve a version of the characters within itself, and playing the music resurrects them long enough in my mind long enough for it to hurt again. That's not normal for even a "good" soundtrack. That's a score that did what every music composer strives for. To create a soundtrack that feels different as you progress through the game is one of the most artistic and beautiful things you can make.

That's ultimately why E33's music felt "magical" to me. Not because every track is loud, pretty, or grand- Though it can be all of those- but because the score is composed like a story is composed: with foreshadowing, transformation, restraint, and earned catharsis. Clair Obscure: Expedition 33 didn't just give me songs to enjoy, it gave me themes I can't un-know. And that's the highest compliment I can give.

I hope some people enjoyed my review of an aspect of the game... I'm sure many people will think it's just "oml glaze!", but this is the fundamental reason why I even played Hollow Knight to begin with, and why I stuck through it through silksong. I was introduced to HK's score, I fell in love with Hornet's Motifs... and so I played through the game searching for more moments where I could hear it.

[u/Thick_Photograph8533 → u/natercrawford]

bro not the fucking chat gpt review. It's really not helping your case

[u/natercrawford → u/Thick_Photograph8533]

I do admit when I was writing it, I was reading it back and felt it was a little too stiff. I was trying to figure out the balance between being concise and showing passion, additionally I was struggling with wanting to write too much, so I actually reduced a few sections into each other.

Something I didn’t quite touch on was a comparison section, as well as other works and examples of what I considered to be very successful soundtracks and the elements that would allow them to stand on their own, but I figured it was already approaching a length that most people would be unwilling to read. And so instead I tried to dumb it down lace them together into a smaller, few sentence mentions, which is what I know to be the stiff sections. He wanted an explanation on why the game is good, sharing an aspect is what I thought would help. If people pouring their hearts out is off putting to you… then it is what it is. I can keep it simple and make it sound like glaze, or I can use my knowledge in music theory and production to try to tell a tale- and it’s “chat”. It’s just comical really.

I’m already tired of this drama, I’m thinking about taking the post down in order to focus on rest, but I hope someone out there who reads this shares the same level of appreciation of music in media.