Top 10 Games of 2025

 

 Here's a list of my top 10 games of 2025. To qualify, they would've had to come out officially in English this year because I did not want to count fan translations or disqualify games that took multiple years to be localized for the English market.

But first I wanna mention some games that totally could’ve made the list if I played them last year, but since I got super busy in 2025 and a lot of the games I played reached over 100hrs of play time I never got around to them.

Detective Instinct: Farewell, My Beloved – The various social media accounts for this game/developer were kind of relentless when talking about this game, to the point where I found it a tad annoying any time I saw it. Despite that I was interested in the game since I went through the Famicom Detective Club games. Didn’t hear absolutely stellar things about it, but I still grabbed it and want to go through it at some point.

Digimon Story Time Stranger – Didn’t end up grabbing this cause the PS5 version was locked to 30fps for some reason and I didn’t feel like paying $70 for the game. I enjoyed the demo and figured I’d get it at some point on sale but then my friend Andrew got be the game with all of its DLC for Christmas. Excited to check it out some time in 2026 since I remember liking the original anime series quite a bit.

Look Outside – Picked this up really late when I heard it was by the guy that made Charles Barkley’s Shut up and Jam Gaiden. Seems like a cool RPG Maker horror game and it has a killer aesthetic.

Tokyo Xtreme Racer – I played this in early access, but never booted it up once the full game was out. Arcade racers feel like a dying breed, but this felt incredibly good and I’m so glad this style of racing game is slowly making a comeback.

Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga – Technically this is a remaster of a PSP game, but I love the series enough I wanted to grab this as soon as it came out. Not a big fan of arena fighters and I’m sure the story is some dumb crossover type, but I’m down to hang out with Sky’s cast even more.

Octopath Traveler 0 – I absolutely love Octopath Traveler 2, so I was excited for this conversion of the mobile game into an actual game for consoles. It just came at a time where I was in the middle of in the middle of other games and I didn’t have enough time to get through a 100+hr JRPG right at the end of the year.

Now let’s get to the actual Top 10 for 2025!

#10 – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

 

Expedition 33 is a game I wish I liked more, I still have it on my Top 10 for the year but I think it could’ve been so much better. It’s a game that’s obviously made with an incredible passion for classic JRPGs like Final Fantasy and even slightly more obscure ones like Shadow Hearts. If a key staff member on your game lists Final Fantasy VIII as one of their favorite games of all time then I’m definitely more interested from the jump. Thankfully Expedition 33 surpasses a lot of the indie games that love advertising themselves as being inspired by the classics, since it actually has interesting things to say in its story and actual gameplay ideas that aren’t just blatant copying.

 

From a gameplay perspective, I was skeptical about the game having an active dodge and parry and unfortunately I was right in thinking so. It starts off fine enough, but as the game goes on enemies start getting more and more attacks in a single move that you have to account for and then they start doing annoying charge up animations that are only there in an attempt to trick you. Since the parry is an all encompassing defense move, it just feels like the answer to everything. This leads to the combat feeling horribly unbalanced, both being incredibly easy and incredibly tedious at the same time. I hit the damage cap in the first 4 hours of the game and you can’t unlock it until Act 3, this made it feel like I wasn’t really getting stronger during the game since it was so easy to hit. I do appreciate every character having unique combat mechanics and it helped everyone feel fresh.

 

The games UI is also a complete mess. I waited until the “Thank You” update since they were going to address some of the problems, but giving you Picto loadouts doesn’t alleviate most of them. The Picto menu is a complete mess and trying to sift through all of your options is a pain. I had some issues with the story too, since I enjoy ones that are more character focused so I was really disappointed when all but two of your main party members got actual story importance. Was excited to see Sciel and Lune have some kind of story moment, but it just doesn’t happen and they shrink into the background once you get to Act 2. Esquie is my boy though, love that weird dude.

 

Despite these issues I still liked the game well enough. From and art direction standpoint the game is goregous. I was in awe at some of the vistas you go to despite Unreal Engine 5 having a weird mucky blur over parts of the screen. The music is absolutely incredible, some of the best music I’ve heard in a game the last few years and despite my issues with the story I think the overall themes it tackles by the end to be incredibly compelling. The end of Act 2/beginning of Act 3 is kinda rocky, I don’t think it’s handled particularly well, but I think it comes together well enough.

 

Overall it’s a game that I liked and had a ton of potential, so I’m excited to see what this teams next game is and I hope they can iron out all of the kinks.

#9 – Donkey Kong Bananza

After I was just whelmed when it came to Mario Odyssey, I really didn’t know what to expect from the teams followup game. Donkey Kong Bananza still has a few of the issues I had with Odyssey, the collectibles still feel like they are too frequent and there’s not a lot of challenge, but having a greater focus on combat and having a skill tree gives it a better sense of progression. Combine that with a fun environment destruction mechanic and I vibed way more with this games overall loop.

This game is also a good showcase of the Switch 2’s hardware, it looks incredibly pretty and the physics are all fairly impressive. The framerate is also solid and the game controls fantastically. I was also left pretty surprised by the last stretch of the game and though it ended on an incredibly strong note. Not my favorite 3D platformer, but it’s still really solid and a great first year Switch 2 game.

#8 – Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army

Years ago I remember trying to play the original PS2 version of Raidou Kuzunoha for the first time and dropped off pretty quickly. It was an action RPG, and a fairly bad one at that. All of the combat mechanics felt clunky and the encounter rate was through the roof which I why I was excited when they announced this enhanced remaster. ATLUS went through and completely upgraded all of the combat mechanics, taking a lot of the lessons they learned in the sequel and improving upon them even more. Gone are the random encounters and instead you attack enemies on the field. Also there are no longer encounters during the investigation segments making the story flow a lot better than in the original. Combine that with full voice acting and this, I believe, the definitive way to play the game.

Aside from this ports improvements, I really enjoyed Raidou 1 overall. The story has some neat stuff in it and it really just goes places by the end that has really interesting implications for the Shin Megami Tensei metaverse as a whole. Raidou’s combat is also decent enough, even if it feels fairly basic for what it is. I only thought it started to wear down on me by the end when enemies throw out a ton of status effects and use moves that require you to jump all of the time. They also added sidequests into this version and they’re fine, really just generic RPG sidequests that you see all of the time.

As a whole I’m glad ATLUS decided to give this game the remaster treatment and really iron out all of the kinks. I hope that the second Raidou game comes sooner rather than later and then hopefully we can get Digital Devil Saga on modern platforms soon.

#7 – Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition

The Xenoblade trilogy is one of my favorite video game series of all time. They’re some of my favorite game narratives and I think they are mostly incredibly fun to play. However one of the black spots for me on the series was Xenoblade X. It was the game I bought the Wii U for and when it finally came out I was incredibly disappointed. The game barely had a story, the world design was infuriating, the gameplay was tedious, and I generally didn’t like the whole package. I dropped the game before I even received the flight pack because I was several levels under the required level for the quest and was just fed up with the game. Then once I looked up the rest of the story online I was incredibly pissed that a game with so little story had the audacity to end on a cliffhanger.

All of this to say, the Definitive Edition that came out in 2025 fixes so many of the problems with the base game I can actually say that I enjoy X to some capacity, maybe not as much as any of the others in the series, but enough to say I don’t hate this version. The gameplay is massively improved since now all of the available party members get EXP and you can move them in and out of your party from the menu now instead of having to run around the whole city. Quick recast is the smartest feature ever added to this series, every battle you have a resource that you can use to instantly recast arts instead of waiting for their cool down to end and you can also use this for the secondary ones as well. This is especially great in X, since there isn’t a dedicated healer class all of your healing comes from matching your party member art call outs. It smoothed out the early game by making it less hard and fixed one of the issues I had with both 1 and X’s arts. You can also track any collectible item that you need which makes gathering and grinding 1000% less tedious.

I never really got to experiment with X’s class system originally since I burnt out on the game hard, but with X DE giving you more class points I can finally see what it has to offer and honestly I quite like it. It’s cool having your different arts tied to the melee weapon and ranged weapon, and once you get them all the way down the tree you can mix and match the two pieces of equipment. It still takes too long to unlock stuff (which is why I used a grinding technique to max all classes 30hrs into the game) but trying out different build is a ton of fun. I wish I could say all of the gameplay is good now, but unfortunately enemy placement still sucks and monsters will stay aggroed on you for miles making it a pain to do sidequests and just explore in general.

The new story chapter is the other selling point of Definitive Edition. While it is pretty good and has some really interesting lore implications for the rest of the series, you can also tell this wasn’t what they originally planned for the game. It rushes past a lot of the new story and lore stuff and it ends up feeling a bit thrifty. Overall this version of Xenoblade X finally makes a game I loathed decent and I’m so glad they finally ported this. Excited for what Monolith is doing next.

#6 – Mario Kart World

In some ways, Mario Kart World is both better and worse than it’s predecessor, 8 Deluxe. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe had the benefit of being iterated on with tons of new tracks and content over the course of the Switch’s life time and is incredibly tight and responsive. Then you have Mario Kart World, it’s a bit looser than 8 but also makes several large changes to the gameplay formula that helps it feel incredibly fresh. Changing it so you drive between tracks is an interesting idea, and I think it helps give this game a unique identity compared to other games in the series and even other racing games. I’ve seen some complain about the between tracks, and I can agree that I wish we got to go more than one lap on most of the courses, but the in between parts are still fun and offer some great variety due to the sheer number of them.

The online multiplayer is also the most fun I’ve had with a Mario Kart game. Getting into a lobby with people and running races is great and the new mode, Knockout Tour, is such a fantastic addition. It takes advantage of the new open world and makes the race and endurance run where people are slowly bumped off until your left with a scant few doing a lap on the final track. While these gameplay elements are fun, I find driving around the open world to be largely uninteresting and the only thing to collect are stickers to you on your kart. Despite that though Mario Kart World is a ton of fun and is a game I will go back to for the next several years. Also I want to mention the incredible soundtrack. Just go find a playlist and hit shuffle, you’re bound to hear an absolute banger.

#5 – Dispatch

I’ve honestly missed this style of game. An episodic, story driven game that has light choices that slightly effect your playthrough. It’s the kinda game that died off with the closure of TellTale. There’s not really much to say on a gameplay front, the little strategy parts you do are neat, the QTEs help give impact to scenes despite not mattering, and your choices only make small changes to the overall narrative. It’s about what I expected from a game like this, which means most of it’s strengths are gonna come from the writing. Thankfully the game is full of an incredibly memorable cast and the overall story is pretty decent. Not everyone is gonna like how this game does dialogue since it is very quippy, but I found it to be overall pretty funny and charming. Not much else to say without going into spoilers, but it’s one of the most memorable gaming experiences from 2025.

#4 – The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak II

Trails through Daybreak II is a pretty solid followup to the first game. This is easily some of the best gameplay in the series, the additions to field battles help flesh it out and feel better and Ex Chains giving something strong to use against stunned enemies is a great mechanic. I ended up liking the random dungeon in this too, letting me randomize the music to different tracks in the series while I play around with all of the characters and the combat system is fun. You also get a ton of rewards in there, but I wish they'd start giving you the higher level Quartz as the game goes on instead of the low and mid level ones. The music is also a step up from the last game and I feel like there are a lot more memorable tracks.

While the game doesn't advance the overall story of the world and series, I loved this cast and am glad to spend more time with them. There's some really great moments in here as well, Fragments being one of my favorite parts. The story of this game feels way more character focused, giving each of the part members more screen time and fleshing them out. This game also has some really great connect events too, it's just a shame that there's so few of them. Some of them feel very vital for the characters moving forward too, would highly recommend save scumming to see all of them.

I spent years hearing about how this is the worst game in the series and how Act 3 was an affront to god. But I finally got to Act 3 and... it was fine? I actually liked it a lot? Sure it starts to run out of steam in the middle, but the stretch through Route E and F was incredibly good.

Overall Daybreak II is a great game and has one of my favorite final bosses in the series. Excited to see what the future of this franchise holds.

#3 – Death Stranding 2: On The Beach

Death Stranding is such a weird game, but I’m glad it ended up getting a sequel. The biggest issue on the surface going into a sequel is that Death Stranding’s world is a known factor. So much fun of the original was watching all of those trailers for years wondering what the hell is going on in this world and then getting all of the answers to those questions in the game itself. Now that the questions have been answered, a lot of the mystique is gone and it can make going through this a bit uninteresting. Thankfully Death Stranding 2’s story is pretty great and despite retreading some of what the first game does, it provides some great character moments. It’s what made me connect with DS2 a lot more than the original, this feels like a character focused story. The DS1 story felt solitary with how Sam has to traverse the world alone. It made for good themes but it felt lacking regarding memorable characters outside of Higgs and Fragile. Meanwhile DS2 has a pretty memorable cast and it feels like everyone gets enough interesting story beats. The biggest issue I have with the story however is that it has the exact same structure as the first game so it feels like you’re retreading a lot of ground with the biggest offender being the sections with not-Solid Snake just feeling like Cliff’s from the first game.

The gameplay is also a step above the first one. It feels like you have more options for traversing and exploring that made setting up routes and building structures a ton of fun. The first game already felt unique in that regard, but giving you more options just helps it shine even more. Also combat in the sequel doesn’t feel bad and the gunplay actually feels really smooth, which is good considering how much more combat this game has. What really ties the whole game together however is the final sequence. The first game already had a fantastic final stretch, but the one for Death Stranding 2 is incredibly off-the-walls crazy. This is easily one of the best final stretches I’ve seen in a game and it’s something that’ll stick with me for awhile. Death Stranding 2 as a whole is fantastic, I’m not sure if I like it more than the first game, but both of these make a very solid duology and I wonder if they’ll try and take it even farther.

#2 – Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter

I actually already did a more in depth write up for the Sky 1st Chapter remake. In short it’s a near perfect remake to the start of one of my favorite video game series of all time. The updated combat is incredibly fun and the various quality of life features smooth over some of the original games rougher edges. It’s also fun playing through this game with the modern voice cast and they really help bring the characters to life. The only blemishes it has are a slightly rushed translation and inconsistent voice direction for the English dub.

#1 – The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy

I was so excited for The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy. Finally it was time for the game written by both Kotaru Uchikoshi and Kazutaka Kodaka to come to fruition and despite the constant messaging from them that this game not going well would sink their studio, it was a success. Not every route in the game is a winner and it does have a few problems with some of the gameplay sections, like combat and exploration segments getting tedious, but the good HEAVILY outweighs the bad and makes Hundred Line one of my favorite games of the year. The sheer ambition to try and make a game with 100 endings was impressive, even if a small fraction of them aren't very interesting.

It has a fantastic cast that get some really great stories across the games 21 routes covering a wide variety of genres with send ups to other games that inspired it. They can go from being a dumb comedy, a tragic fight for survival, a shounen anime-esque power of friendship battle, a heartwarming romance, a sci-fi thriller, and everything in between. The game does have around 11 writers working on it so the quality can vary, but this is the kind of thing that you can only really do in video games and I'm glad that two of my favorite game creators got to go hog wild and make something really special. Despite the obvious issues, Hundred Line is my favorite game of 2025 just for the sheer ambition alone. It’s the kind of crazy thing that can only be done in the world of games and I loved all 200+ hours that I put into it.

Full review of all 100 endings here: Reviewing all 100Endings in The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy