My Top 10 Games of 2025
It's that time of year again! Here is my personal top 10 list of games that released in 2025. I'm not considering games still in Early Access for this list.
These are in ascending order, with #1 being my Game of the Year for 2025.
Number 10: Unfair Flips
I can't quite put into words why I like Unfair Flips. It shouldn't be fun, but it is. It's a silly way to make a number go up and see if you can flip heads on a coin 10 times in a row. You should play it. It'll make you think about why we even play games in the first place, and that makes it a good game (I think).
Number 9: Little Problems
I bounced off The Case of the Golden Idol because it was, honestly, too hard for me to complete. Little Problems is a very similar game in terms of gameplay, but much easier and with less murder. It's still a little difficult for me to read all the clues and retain them in my brain, but I still had a nice time playing it.
Number 8: Nubby's Number Factory
When I was making Luck be a Landlord, it was very important to me that I could stim while playing it. A lot needed to happen after I finished making inputs and I didn't want to have to stop my stimming and press a button while I'm enjoying all the effects. Nubby's Number Factory understands this and is a fantastic stim game.
Number 7: Blue Prince
Blue Prince didn't grab me immediately. It was hard to wrap my head around what you're even supposed to do in this game. After a few runs, though, things started to click. Building up my knowledge of what everything in the game does is a very satisfying experience.
It's also, strangely, the most relaxing game I've played in a while, Something about the atmosphere and the color palette just let me mellow out and walk around a cool manor. After winning a run of the game, I felt that was enough for me. I know there's a lot more to the game after that, but I'm satisfied with the time I spent with it. Maybe I'll come back to it some day, but probably not.
Number 6: Is This Seat Taken?
The way I pitch this game to people is: "You know those puzzles where someone's like 'I want an aisle seat on the plane, but I don't want to sit next to Sally!' and you have to figure out where to have them sit? This is an entire game of just those puzzles." You'll know if the game's for you from that pitch alone, and Is This Seat Taken? is very much a game for me.
The puzzles aren't too challenging and are pretty easy to solve through trial and error, but that's honestly a plus for me. I don't always have the mental capacity to solve puzzles on the level of Baba Is You. Less mentally taxing puzzle games like this one are great.
Number 5: Cabernet
A wonderful narrative-focused game about being a young vampire in 19th century Eastern Europe. The whole experience, despite the serious themes, always felt very chill. The main gameplay revolves around putting points into social stats, managing your schedule, and maintaining relationships. It feels like a mishmash of the social links in Persona and the non-random skill checks of Disco Elysium.
Sometimes narrative-heavy games let the cracks show when they say "no, you can't do that." I very rarely felt this way with Cabernet. For example, there are several characters that can potentially die depending on the decisions you make. After I let some characters die, the narrative still felt like it was naturally continuing with a variable number of characters present. Very impressive for a game with a lot of moving parts.
Number 4: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has so much going for it. When I saw the first reveal trailer, I was already interested in the setting. Number goes down, everyone as old as that number dies, gotta stop the number from going down. Perfect! You've set the stage...and then I find out it's got a turn-based battle system. Now I'm extremely interested!
I've always loved turn-based battle systems. I was disappointed playing modern games like Final Fantasy XV because of how meaningless the combat felt. In Clair Obscur, every action you take in combat feels like it matters. I was initially worried about the parry-based gameplay since I don't have very good reflexes, but I was able to make a synergistic build that steamrolled through the game's final act, so parrying didn't matter that much. The story is very good, and the soundtrack is phenomenal.
To address the genAI elephant in the room: let me reiterate that I feel genAI is a disgusting insult to everything I stand for as an artist. I'm also willing to believe the people who worked on the game when they say they experimented with it in 2022, decided it wasn't for them, and some assets they generated found their way into the game (which they eventually patched out). Many developers, myself included, did not know the full depth of how horrible generative AI was in 2022. The situation isn't great, but it's forgivable for me personally. Using generative AI at any point in development these days is unforgivable though. I hope Sandfall stays true to their word.
Number 3: Promise Mascot Agency
I've seen a lot of people online compare this game to the Yakuza / Like a Dragon series, and honestly, I don't think that's an accurate comparison to make. You play as a disgraced yakuza, the dialogue is in Japanese, and there are a lot of well-written quirky characters. In terms of the actual gameplay, however, there are really only similarities to the real estate minigame in Yakuza 0.
Promise Mascot Agency is actually much more of a collectathon than the Yakuza games. The collectibles also have a lot more meaning than traditional collectathons. It's less of a "I need to find 100 bananas to open this door" and more of a web of collectibles that all interact with each other and can be used to reach an overarching goal. Very well done and easy to sink hours into.
Number 2: Detective Instinct: Farewell, My Beloved
I grew up on Nintendo DS visual novels. Detective Instinct: Farewell, My Beloved feels like a visual novel that was supposed to release on the DS in 2005, but somehow came out on Steam in 2025. This might sound like an insult to some, but it's the highest praise for me. I can't quite put into words why I love this game so much, it's possible it's the nostalgia talking.
But nostalgia aside, the game has fantastic writing (which a visual novel lives or dies by) and a subversive story. The game's lead designer also composed the soundtrack, and you can tell they put a lot of care into the songs that complement each scene. A wonderful game from start to end. If you can't think of being in middle school without remembering playing Hotel Dusk: Room 215, this game is for you.
Number 1: The Roottrees are Dead
Return of the Obra Dinn walked so this game could run. An amazing genealogy mystery that felt satisfying the whole way through. The Roottrees are Dead came out all the way back in January of this year and I'm still thinking about it at the end of December. I haven't played another game with "aha!" moments as good as this one, and Roottrees has a ton of them. The best detective game I've ever played.
To once again address the genAI elephant in the room: The original 2023 game jam version of The Roottrees are Dead used generative AI to create the majority of the art in the game. This is extremely unfortunate and I will never endorse such a thing. That having been said, the Steam version of The Roottrees are Dead does not use any generative AI, is made by an entirely different person who reached an agreement with the original creator to remake the game, and has a lot of different content from the jam version. Is this a mark against the game? Yes. Is the Steam version far enough removed from the jam version to not be tainted by generative AI? Also yes.
It's a weird Ship of Theseus problem, and something I wish I didn't have to think about. In 2026, I hope to see more developers and players pushing back against generative AI and the damage it's doing to our industry and planet.