Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 actor Ben Starr is still ready to "lose to Megabonk" at The Game Awards, since one "person's game of the year is going to be another person's worst game of all time"

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Technically, Megabonk dropped out of TGA, but there are plenty of other awards to win

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 screenshot of Verso, a man with black hair with white streaks running through his fringe
(Image credit: Kepler Interactive)

Indie megahit Megabonk may have officially dropped out of The Game Awards after being nominated for Debut Indie Game along with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, but voice actor Ben Starr is nonetheless readying himself for a public bonking.

Starr, the silky voice of Expedition 33's possibly evil Verso, and Maelle actor Jennifer English share their thoughts on the French JRPG's stuffed awards season in a new video with Future Games Show, which asks them to predict how many categories Clair Obscur will win at this year's awards shows. The JRPG and developer Sandfall Interactive crushed the Golden Joystick Awards like a beer can, winning seven categories, and they're up for a record-breaking total of 12 nominations at the upcoming Game Awards. With that in mind, "Don't know," both Starr and English say.

Verso meets Maelle IRL | Ben Starr and Jennifer English spoil Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - YouTube Verso meets Maelle IRL | Ben Starr and Jennifer English spoil Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - YouTube
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"It's going to lose to Megabonk in all [19 category nominations]," Starr adds jokingly. "I don't know."

Actually, Megabonk's solo developer decided to withdraw from The Game Awards after explaining they've made other games in the past and don't "feel right" in the 'Debut Indie Game' category – though some fans urged them to stay in the race if a huge game like Expedition 33 got to fudge the rules and classify as "indie," too.

Starr likely wouldn't be disturbed by this debate. "I really, really stand by this, and I will stand by this for the rest of my career," he continues to say in the Future Games Show video: "a game doesn't need to win awards in order for it to be justifiably excellent, because your relationship with that video game in the context in which you play is the most important thing."

"Some person's game of the year is going to be another person's worst game of all time," Starr concludes, and then shrugs. "Because that's the beauty of opinion."

Despite the JRPG love letter dominating award shows, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 creative lead insists the game really was "not supposed to be big."

Ashley Bardhan
Ashley Bardhan
Senior Writer

Ashley is a Senior Writer at GamesRadar+. She's been a staff writer at Kotaku and Inverse, too, and she's written freelance pieces about horror and women in games for sites like Rolling Stone, Vulture, IGN, and Polygon. When she's not covering gaming news, she's usually working on expanding her doll collection while watching Saw movies one through 11.

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