Listening to both podcasts it sounds like a good portion of the staff is not playing Persona 5. Those that are playing (Vinny and Alex) might not finish the game before the end of the year. I am fairly confident that Ben is on his way to beat the game this month, but we may be looking at a situation where a single person will have completed the game by GOTY deliberation time.

Is anyone else on staff going to beat the game?

Alex will. you can always count on Alex to finish games others won't. :b

I'm pretty sure Alex will finish it as well. He said he is at the 5th Palace, so I think even if he is losing a bit of steam, he will finish it by the end of the year. He did say his girlfriend was a driving force in him playing it, so that is significant motivation. I doubt Vinny will get anywhere close, though. Will be tough competition this year in any case. It will certainly be in the discussion for Style and Music, but I wouldn't be surprised if there is some debate on it even making the top 10. I'm definitely enjoying it, but with it having some minor issues, it has gone from being highly anticipated to being slightly disappointing for many people.

Just Alex, and now Ben. I doubt anyone else will even try to get far. Jason plays long Japanese games but usually actiony. Vinny and Jeff have a thing for p4 obviously but this is a long ass game and the whole point of the first endurance run is to play it at work because they couldn't otherwise. Brad sounds interested in hearing about it. Dan probably won't play it or much. Righto?

Alex and Ben. Maaaaaybe Vinny, although I could see him playing it next year or not at all.

I don't see anyone not currently playing through it picking it up as we get further away, and it would be a very hard game to catch up on layer for goty purposes.

Ben probably will.

Also, if I'm not mistaken, didn't Alex say that he wasn't in the pilot's seat on his P5 playthrough? His girlfriend is? So I think he'll finish it.

A maybe on whether Vinny will finish it.

Probably just Alex and Ben.

@justin258: I think he said he's playing dungeons and his girlfriend's playing social life and dialogue choices? For sure him and Ben both finish it though.

Zero, nada, ziltch, nil, naught, nix, zip, nobody, no one, never.

Just Alex and Ben, but it's not like many other games in their GOTY discussions are played extensively by more than 2 people.

I would agree with the consensus so far. And with at least alex and ben experiencing it, I feel the game will get at the very least a fair shake during goty.

It will be finished by Ben and Alex only. But neither will fight for it for to be ob the top 10 GOTY for 2017.

Witcher III got plenty of awards, don't worry.

Two - Alex and Ben.

Vinny won't get there (as someone who also has two young kids, I'll be lucky to finish it myself)

alex and ben, and that's okay. please don't make this another witcher 3 badgerthon.

Alex and Ben both sound like they're quite far, so I think there's a decent chance of them finishing it. Anyone else? No, nope, absolutely not.

This is another reason endurance must be run!

Seriously though i dont think not finishing a game will keep it from goty lists, they are always busy and i have seen games on the list before they hadnt finished but still loved(i believe i have anyway).

Alex and Ben will. Vinny might but I doubt anyone else will even play it sadly.

I don't think Vinny will. I've heard from multiple people how the game doesn't respect the player's time and how the story beats aren't very satisfying. With Vinny's busy life I bet these things will push him away from finishing.

Ben obviously will. Alex depends on if his girlfriend will want to finish it so who knows.

Ben: definitely
Alex: probably
Vinny: unlikely

Giant Bomb is not a website that covers or likes many RPGs really. Don't expect it.

Looks like it'll just be Alex and Ben otherwise it would have just been Alex

There's plenty of time in the rest of the year for Persona 5. I think the early months this year have been rough because of how many quality games were coming out. I don't see many other "must have" games coming out for a while this year, so maybe a lull will pull some interest.

Alex and Ben only. Vinny will make it a third of the way through tops. At this point, I'm curious what Jeff and Vinny think about it as the original ER crew since it's so different from 4 in terms of its tone and story, but I have a feeling that if either or both of them finish it, the game will take the Destiny award for being on both the Top 10 and Most Disappointing lists given their outspoken feelings on 4.

I hope this doesnt turn into another Witcher 3 where the site hounded the guys into playing it.

I figure Ben and Alex will probably finish, not sure anyone else cares enough to pick it up.

I think Dan definitely will. It seems like his type of game and during the last few podcasts, he's been talking about how much he wants to make time for it.

I have a feeling this will be the game to get robbed come GOTY time.

With the increased variety of games (now is the best time to be playing video games TM) GotY lists have become less and less relevant. I still like the podcast debates but the actual GotY list is so insane at this point. To many genres, to many games that have no business being compared to one another.

That being said, I feel like specific categories in GotY are where the real debates should take place. Persona 5 is a shoe in for best style and best music. It's a serious contender for 2 best moments. It could get robbed of those awards for sure by lesser instances that more people on staff played. Listening to Alex and Ben on podcasts, they don't even really articulate why they even like the game at all or why the played it for upward of 40-70 hours. This doesn't bode well for end of year talks AT ALL.

Alex, because his girlfriend likes it so it's probably a cool thing to just chill and play.

Ben already seems a good way through it, so him too.

Maybe Vinny?

@burncoat: We still have Red Dead Redemption 2, Shadow of War, and Mario Odyssey this year.

I think GotY is mostly going to have 1-3 staff max finishing each game, with the possible exception of Zelda.

Jeff will for sure give up, i reckon he will get to about July in game.

Vinny will never find enough hours to finish it.

Regardless of how many finish it, if it doesn't win Best Styyyyyyyyyle I'm gonna riot.

Is it really getting "robbed" if half of the crew doesn't finish the game because it didn't grab them in a way that warranted finishing it? That right there means the game wasn't good enough for them to include on, or put at the top of, their lists.

If they haven't finished it by now, the game ain't going to be finished at all. Persona 4 was a "right place, right time" thing for the crew and the magic was not recaptured for them.

I think Jeff will get back to it before the end of the year.

Did you realize it was by the same user when you posted this, or did you just get lucky

@dudeglove: Hopefully the Life is Cringe one as well

Alex and Ben and that's it. And Alex suggested he is mostly still playing because its something his partner is enjoying. It was obvious enough that interest in the game was middling at best from the crew beford it was even released. And equally obvious that people who misunderstand the goty top ten are going to call it this years snub.

Outside of Ben and Alex, I doubt anyone else will have finished P5 by the time GotY rolls around. That said, I wouldn't use that fact to discount the game from a top 10 placement. I believe it was the 2012 discussions where Jeff said that Persona 4 Golden was likely the best game of that year despite never playing it for any significant portion of time. Following that line of thought, I can see Jeff supporting the Persona 5 caucus this year in giving it a relatively high list placement.

Alex and Ben. That's it.

And while it sounds like it could definitely end up on both their top 10's, it doesn't sound like either of them love it quite enough to fight for it tooth and nail in the overall top 10. It's almost a tradition at this point, that a great game gets the 11th spot (will never forget Bloodborne..) so that's probably where it'll end up.

Hell, even if they all finished it (which they won't) I don't think it would make the groups combined Top 10. Game has some issues in a lot of areas and doesn't have half the charm as P4. Was enjoyable to play through but it doesn't break my own Top 10 list for this year, compared to the amazing stuff we've had so far.

Probably Ben

Maybe Alex

Probably not Vinny

@mike: I see your point, I can't really argue with that.

@pyrodactyl All great points. It should at least win best style and or best music. But yeah feel it may slip out of the staffs top ten which would seem a little crazy to me but then again its the staffs top ten.

The way Ben has talked about P5 on the bombcast leads me to believe that it will struggle to make it on the collective Top 10 list. Brad, Jeff, Dan, and Jason will most likely have no problem leaving it off unless Ben or Alex really start liking it. Alex is obviously enjoying it and could certainly make a case, but my guess is he'll fight harder for Nier when it comes down to it. It's hard to say if Vinny will have the time to play much more or even dig it enough to fight for it.

Regardless, it's a great game and deserves recognition, but a list of 10 games that 8 people form from the games they liked the most this year is not the place to seek it.

You're right, but this was a unique case. Persona 4 Golden was just an expansion on Persona 4, which Jeff already loved (I think in that video he describes Persona 4 as one of the greatest experiences with games he's ever had or something similar). Persona 5 is a completely separate game and so different from 4 that there's no way he or anyone else could possibly make that argument without playing through a significant amount of the game and loving it.

I'm only raising eyebrows if it gets left out of Best Styyyyyyyyyyyyle.

I've remained spoiler free so I'm not sure how long the game is (the calendar is probably a good gauge), but I've already put in over 110 hours and I still don't have all the party members. It's easy to see how the time commitment would simply stop people from even getting into it. You can probably finish around 5 triple A games that came out this year in the time it will take to finish Persona 5.

It's not really an issue for me as I play Persona games over the course of several months. I feel no need to rush. I'm sure the crew feels the pressure to finish as many games as possible once GOTY discussions get closer. You for sure can't rush Persona 5 and I wouldn't even call 20 hours a significant amount of the game. 20 hours is probably 1 Palace completed.