Games I played in 2025

I'm glad I did this last year, so I'm doing it again this year.
Presented broadly in the chronological order I played them.

Games What Technically Did Not Come Out In 2025

★★★★★
Truly buried treasure. I bought this thinking it was Undernauts: Labyrinth of Yomi (which I still haven't played), and it was one of the best mistakes I've ever made. A deeply flawed game in a hundred different ways that nevertheless make it relentlessly charming to me. Some of its running gags have permanently entered my vernacular.
I know about: Ancient supercivilizations
I don't know about: Japanese pyramids

★★★★★
Serious PS2 or PSP game vibes, and a real gem because of it. Devs ought come back around and embrace the whole concept of "stages" that can be built around a central gimmick or set piece rather than smoothing everything into open world all-game gruel.
Best villager role: Sumo Wrestler
Worst stage type: Boat

★★★☆☆
I would like this a lot more if what little writing it has was a bit less twee; one of the major NPCs being a cutesy anime devil girl kind of kills the mood for me. The world design lacks focus in a way that's actually quite charming, but it does get kind of tedious when you have little direction in where to go or what to do. Not a fan of how the final boss shakes out, either.
Best spell: Coffin
Worst sidequest: Death's Scythe

★★★★★
Jel's Game of the Year several years running for a reason. Absolutely incredible stripping of a "dungeon crawler" to its barest essentials. Looks and feels like it was made in an Excel spreadsheet, because it pretty much was! What set dressing remains is pleasantly economical and fun. Great stuff.
Best party member: Sir Cat, with a bullet
Most comically evil bit of design: Getting robbed and going into debt

★★★★☆
Picked this one up after hearing how the dev got screwed over, and ended up enjoying it quite a bit. It's a bit collar-tugging in how the systems are literally pulled directly from Wizardry, but it works with the aesthetic. Some might say it's slim on content but I found it pleasantly short and sweet.
Good idea: Auto-navigate spell
Bad idea: The gonzo single save slot system

★★★★★
I've considered ZOE 2 a classic ever since I borrowed my friend's copy back in school, and I do a replay every few years. It's got a brisk main campaign with satisfying anime-style mecha action AND a comically janky dub, what's not to like? The game always looked good, and the particulars of its aesthetic make it look amazing blown up to HD. "Beyond the Bounds" is also still a classic intro song.
It's not that hard to understand dude: "Whose secondhand?"
Okay this is kind of annoying though: "Correct the direction."

★★★☆☆
Picked this up cheap because it's directed by the Kowloon High-School Chronicle guy. I could definitely see the creative lineage and that charm still comes through, but only sometimes. Screams "PS Vita game" in a way substantially less charming than, say, Kunitsu-Gami. I didn't have a bad time but this one ain't gonna stick with me.
Good UI touch: Trap setup hands
Bad UI touch: That dialogue input system is incomprehensible, and I played Kowloon

★★★★☆
The start of the Strange Journey through Shin Megami Tensei. Considering my backwards trajectory through the series, I can look back (ahead?) on this one and appreciate all of the quality of life updates. Canon of Vengeance seems to be the obvious way to go plot-wise; Yoko Hiromine is unintentional comedic genius.
MVP: Konohana Sakuya
Also MVP: Cleopatra

★★★★☆
If I'd stuck it out with this game back when it first came out in 2013, I think I'd have completely different tastes today. Its setting gets closest to an interesting balance between tech and fantasy, it's satisfying to claw your way out of the early game doldrums, and everything's just incredibly ambitious for a handheld game. The sidequests can get super tedious though, especially at the end of Neutral route; give me a year to forget the whole "playing it" part and I guarantee this'll rise to being a 5-star game in memory.
3DS repair costs when it broke at the end of this game: $125
Final demon lineup: Vishnu, Mot, Metatron, Mara, Shiva

★★★☆☆
The Persona-fication of mainline SMT; there's a DLC beach episode for cryin' out loud. Refines the gameplay and expands on the setting of IV in some genuinely interesting ways but answers the questions raised with generic Power of Friendship morals. Unfortunately you just know a hypothetical HD Console Remake of the IV saga would hew everything closer to this.
Character build: Shoot God in the head with a 9mm
"Divine Powers" isn't as good a name as: Polytheistic Alliance

★★☆☆☆
Made me really think about what I do or don't enjoy about dungeon crawlers / "blobbers", because playing this game was an absolute chore, the REDUX extra dungeon even moreso. The battles are simply not as interesting as the Press Turn system or the following game's Skill Crack. As funny as I find the concept of SMT Doomguy and his eternal vigil, this one's at the bottom of the list so far.
Did you know: The password generator lets you make whatever demon you want
I'm serious, quit it: Trial-and-error one-way teleporter mazes

★★★★☆
Arguably the spinoff most deserving to retain the Shin Megami Tensei branding (and yes, I know it's a Megami Ibunroku joint in Japan). Still has some of the darkness of the mainline games and actually involves the tech-occultism angle that I feel most of the series is missing. The Skill Crack system is a really neat way to introduce some grit into what's otherwise pretty basic SRPG tactics gameplay.
Really isn't that bad: Yuzu
Actually is that bad: Midori

★★★☆☆
As was noted: better game, worse experience. The party is too damn big and everything's way too Persona-fied for my tastes (though the characters are very hot). The balance between lighter scenes and the main story collapses when the stakes are as high as they are. Not a bad time by any means but you'd be justified in skipping it.
Still a busted strategy: Holy Dance + Drain
Let him cook: Suzuhito Yasuda

★★★☆☆
I suppose I get it. There's something enigmatic and mysterious about Nocturne that the others don't have. It just never quite delivers on that unfulfilled potential, instead stringing you along through a lot of really boring dungeons and a handful of good ones. The strongest Daisoujou has been or ever will be.
Best misheard lyrics: ♪ ONE MORE GOD REJECTED ♪
Meanest ambush: White Rider

★★☆☆☆
I was hankering to replay some FTL (a 5-star game IMO) but wanted to shake it up a little, and that was my mistake. Leave it to big additional content mods to completely upend the elegant balance that makes FTL so compelling in the first place. All I wanted was new ship layouts and maybe one or two new species, not whatever maximalist hell this mod actually is.
We really don't have to: Include all these unique hero units
A solid addition, though: Orchid species

★★★★☆
One of the CRPGs of all time. Did a Restored Content Mod replay alongside Austin Walker and A More Civilized Age (like everyone else this year), and it really is the most Obsidian-ass game: deeply compelling and affecting at its best, completely fucking broken at its worst, and kind of just forgettable the rest of the time. Some truly great vocal performances, and not only from Sara Kestelman.
Influence Gained: Kreia
Influence Lost: Kreia

★★★★☆
Goes in even harder on "campaign" style tactics and really makes you feel like you're scraping and clawing for any advantage you can get; I definitely get how this was controversial at the time. I couldn't imagine playing it without all the DLC additions baked in even though everything unlocking at once is overwhelming at first. It's good!
Best Hero class: Skirmisher
Most annoying Chosen: The Hunter

★★★☆☆ (Main) / ★★★★☆ (Torna)
Wrote a post about this one. I'm glad I played it so that I could say I played every Xenoblade game. The combat might be the best in the series and the story has a few moments that really hit; I just also kinda hate the gacha-fied aesthetic and most of the core cast. Torna really is the best of it. Monolith Soft please make more 35-hour JRPGs okay thank you.
Best guest Blade design: Perun (RIP Takahiro Kimura)
Most busted guest Blade: Elma

★★★☆☆
This is so short that I hardly remember any of it, which is fine because it's meant to be, as the Steam page puts it, "A dungeon crawling microgame for tired people." The power of a handful of character images and a simple grid-based dungeon is not to be underestimated.
Party lineup: General, Priest, Archer, Witch
Total playtime: 68 minutes

★★★☆☆
Enough ink has been spilled about this game that I don't think I have much to add. I played the original at launch and put off Royal until it dropped under $20. The additional content is of good quality, but the way it's tacked onto the end just doesn't work well for me. I don't know what Persona could even do anymore that would bring me back in.
Best alt costume: Phoenix Ranger Featherman
Best combo attack: Makoto with the steel chair

★★★★☆
What's really neat about this game isn't the pleasantly light JRPG storyline(s) or the solid job system, but the way the Path Actions mean every NPC has a description, inventory, technique, and battle attached to them. There's a bunch of charming vignettes and environmental storytelling crammed in and it makes you want to actively talk to every single NPC.
The only good capitalist: Partitio
Comically grimdark: Throné

Star Ocean The Second Story R

★★★★☆
Based on my limited experience with other Star Ocean games, it seems like this is the best one by far? It's just a fairly charming 30-40 hour JRPG, though I wish you spent more time in the sci-fi end of things. The mutable ending and ambitious skill system are great examples of how JRPGs were evolving by the end of the PS1 era. How many games are there where you can write skill books and sell them to a publishing company to collect royalties for the rest of the game?
Cute historical curiosity: Switching between '98, '08, and '23 art on the status screen
I will never: Get all 99 endings

★★★☆☆
The dungeon-crawling layer is simultaneously too complex and too simple, and gets unbearably tedious after a certain point. The narrative layer is pretty much an entire trilogy of plot crammed into a single package with some genuinely solid character writing and a bunch of absolutely wild twists. I gave up after 45-ish hours to watch the rest of the cutscenes on Youtube and it turned out there was probably still about 45 hours left of raw dungeoning for 10-15% of plot. Yikes.
I'm sure there was a good reason but: Why "Nachiroux" instead of "Machiru"?
I cannot fucking believe: How important to the plot the dream donkey is

★★★★☆
A core pillar of JRPG canon, and it's easy to see why if you can calibrate your expectations. Even accounting for modern QoL updates, the party/job system is quite robust for something released in 1988. I feel like the twist final act explains so much about not just video games, but a huge swath of media.
Couldn't help it: Learning every Sage spell only to multiclass to Martial Artist
Also couldn't help it: Finding every friendly monster

★★★☆☆
Yes, again; I'm still doing that Let's Play, which is a solid chunk into NG+ as of this writing. My intent was to be content complete behind the scenes by the end of 2025, but that's not happening. The ADHD torment is real.
Best "This Should Have Happened": Joseph VS Alessi
Most weirdly high-effort mini-game: Dragon Question III

Games What Actually Came Out In 2025

★★★★☆
"Citizen Sleeper, but now you have a crew and multiple hubs," is a pretty solid formula. It never quite catches up to the novelty and magic of that first game, but its refinements and narrative beats that only a sequel can manage help make up for it. The broader "collective action" theming is welcome in these days, too. I'll probably pick up whatever the dev makes next sight unseen.
Best crew member: Juni
Best "Wait, isn't that...": Luz

★★★☆☆
My moral-OCD cope is that I played this before the BDS boycott started and with the $1 Gamepass deal. I have an affection for the Pillars setting, so getting more of Eora was enjoyable despite how the game raises more questions about the world's post-Deadfire status quo than it answers. Surprisingly good combat, but I still wish it was isometric.
Funny every time: Clonking a bear on the head with a big stick
Also funny every time: Hyperspeed rifle ramrod reload animation

★★★★☆
Feels like two or three episodes of an OVA that got cancelled before the plot could start for real - cliché, melodrama, and all - but the aesthetic commitment to the bit makes it just plain charming. Its short runtime (around three hours) means the high volume of mecha references don't overstay their welcome.
Not a reference I ever expected to see: "Doug N' Krill"
Yes, Madam!: Chief Mackenzie, Captain Bartermews

★★★☆☆
Runs like trash on my lower-end PC. I started the series with the more simplistic and action-y Rise so the whole open-world conceit doesn't appeal that much to me in the first place either. It's kind of just been sitting there taking up too much hard drive space and reminding me that launch is objectively the worst time to play any video game.
Best new monster: Xu Wu
Best village meal animation: Suja

★★★★★
Wrote a post on this one about its strange position as a remake coming out after I feel like Future Redeemed firmly closed the book on Xenoblade. In some ways this is the closest to a true JRPG/CRPG hybrid experience I've played, and I love it for that. In other ways it is a half-baked mess. Perhaps one could say the mark of a good game lies in its ability to convince you of its own inevitably unfulfilled potential.
Best Sawano drop, maybe ever: ♪ Over the rainbow / glorious sight ♪
Best bizarrely recurring sidequest location: Biahno Water Purification Plant

★★★☆☆
Possesses the essential quality of an Xbox 360 JRPG; the exact kind that all the games press currently tumbling over themselves to praise Clair Obscur would have once cited as proof of Japan's inevitable decline. But it's white and AAA, so now it's good and respectable and redefining the landscape of RPGs or whatever. I don't particularly care for the entire third act on a conceptual level, but the moment-to-moment writing and acting is great throughout.
More proof mascots are better as sad old men: Monoco
It really is that busted even post-nerf: Stendahl

★★★★☆
All the big mysterious lore stuff is all fine and dandy, but I find myself enjoying the game way more when it's throwing rapid-fire shitposts my way. The way the internet has evolved means any discussion about Deltarune online has become impenetrable to anyone who isn't neck-deep. And really, I think I would really rather play this all at once. Alas.
Best gimmick boss: Jackenstein
I don't know what this is and I don't want to know: "Truck theory"

★★★☆☆
I probably wouldn't have bought this game if not for the whole Switch 2 price debacle, I just ain't a Mario Kart head. It's got a bunch of neat stages and it's fun sometimes to drive around aimlessly and do challenges. The soundtrack is staggering in its quality and sheer breadth.
Favorite tracks: Boo Cinema, DK Spaceport, Rainbow Road
Most unexpected remix: Wario Land's Rice Beach

★★★☆☆
I've been working on a post for ages but sometimes it's hard to come up with anything much to say about a game. It's just like, fine? The Taisho-era vibes are neat but I didn't find the combat very satisfying nor the world quite interesting enough to really keep me engaged. Seems telling they felt they had to add brand-new DLC that's literally just journal entries explaining the end of the plot.
Funniest demons to have just hanging out: Gashadokuro, Oniguruma
So, I mean: How much of the audience has actually played SMT2?

★★★☆☆
This kinda feels like people wanted to make an infinite campaign mod for Shadowrun Returns. The gameplay was solid from what I remember, I just find myself falling out of love with big systems-driven games and also want things I play to actually end. Looking it up, I played around Update 16 but now they're up to Update 56 so maybe everything I recall is totally obsolete anyway.
Cool: Calling favors in with your fixers to get bonuses on the mission
Less cool: The fixers are procedurally generated from generic pieces

★★★★☆
Nintendo is firmly in their "physics puzzles" era and I'm not tired of it quite yet, despite what I just said about systems-driven games. A pointless skill tree menu doesn't take away from the fact it's primally satisfying to punch and break things. A really strong final fourth helps paper over a somewhat dull middle third.
Favorite Layer: Feast Layer
Worst Bananza form: Zebra

★★★☆☆
Haven't gotten back around to Mask of the Betrayer yet, which would probably be listed separately and certainly with a higher rating. Weirdly janky for an "enhanced edition", and the new controller interface has made old-style mouse and keyboard oddly difficult to wrangle. Otherwise, it's just D&D, but at least this game lets you go past level 12.
Still a cool setpiece: The Trial
2nd most annoying companion this year: Grobnar Gnomehands

★★★☆☆
This whole genre of silly multiplayer games exist pretty much as "you had to be there" generators. It's fun when everything's running on all cylinders, but the levels are so long that if someone dies early, they might as well hang up and do something else for half an hour.
I'm sorry: About the banana peel incident, but it was really funny
I'm not sorry: About the cannibalism, you consented

★★★☆☆
Hammered out a quick post about this one that for some reason did better on socials than any of my more considered work. To sum up: good because it's fundamentally Snake Eater, not good because rebuilding such an idiosyncratic thing from scratch feels like it's kind of missing the point. Super Bunnyhop's video about playing it in monochrome is intriguing, though.
Weirdly over-enunciated word in the new theme song recording: Crime
Pleasant Surprise: Guy Savage

★★★★★
Worth the wait, somehow. It's good at everything the original Hollow Knight was, and just filled to the brim with cool little details everywhere. Kind of wild how Hornet is a better written Samus than almost every single version of Samus that has dialogue.
I somehow skipped this sequence and had my mind blown later: Prison break
Yall hear about this "Lore" stuff: Mask Maker

★★★☆☆
Yikes. It's broadly too well put together and I have enough lingering goodwill for Supergiant that I can't in good conscience really rip into Hades II, but I just don't like it despite playing it for quite a while. I'd hoped the first game was a one-off experiment and the looming danger of them just becoming "The Hades Studio" is too real for my liking.
Favorite Aspect: Anubis
I refuse to: Go back in for the patched ending

★★★★★
FFT was always one of the greats. This might be the best version of it, despite everything? The voice work adds more oomph to the script than I thought it might and the new dialogue mostly slides right in as if it'd been there all along. Please give Matsuno the time and money to make whatever he wants (and get me a "Dispose of Mustadio" shirt while you're at it).
Fun addition: Materia Blade+
Bizarre maneuver: Recutting, redubbing, and hiding the PSP cutscenes

★★★☆☆
I've said my piece. Feels like it had its middle 50% removed, drained of any meaningful content, then reattached to the end of the game as a skeleton. I can only think, "Well, this is an interesting experiment for something that they can pull together next time," about Pokemon so many times. Weird to have a franchise that might actually benefit from Persona-fication.
Mega Starmie Presents Best New Mega Evo: Mega Falinks
They somehow keep getting away with this: Jacinthe and Lebanne

★★★★★
I've always held a torch for the original Kirby Air Ride and I will likely continue to do so with the sequel and its maximalist approach to fairly minimalist design. That single player campaign is surprisingly robust, and I never tire of how the multiplayer (especially City Trial) often descends into barely controllable chaos.
Comedic hat of choice: Stereotypical round cap (This User Can Say It)
Kirby lore still weirdly hardcore: Gigantes

★★★☆☆
Also said my piece on this one. It feels like the lesson it took from Persona was "social links let you kiss people" as opposed to "social links let you spend more time on characterization". The writing is charming in the moment but also feels like it's for people who unironically post the "subtext is for cowards" thing.
Regular party line-up: Faye, Knute, Aina, Ti
Most annoying companion I've seen all year: Jem

★★★★★
This one's coming in hot at the very end and so there might be some recency bias, but also who cares? UNBEATABLE feels like it's barely holding together about 85% of the time and actively frustrating 10% of the time... but whenever it pulls it all together for those last 5%? Incredible; enough to outshine the rest. Overflowing with humanity.
I am BEGGING you: Give a bit more warning when the gameplay suddenly shifts
Best episode that isn't the last episode: Episode Three (Hybrid Rainbow)

I don't think I believe in ranked lists anymore, but if everyone else is gonna talk about their GOTYs and whatnot, I might as well! Here are your Top Contenders:

2025's Non-2025 Game of the Year

KOWLOON HIGH-SCHOOL CHRONICLE

This was the only thing I could have picked and I'm not sorry. It's rare for a game to make me laugh so regularly, even if half the time it's from the game's sheer goofy jank. Something about the specific combination of ways it's busted just speaks to me in a way I don't quite understand myself. If they ever make a Kowloon 2 I'll be there on day one.

Runner Up: Dungeon Encounters
Everybody who's anybody knows this game rules and I don't need to tell you that. I don't know if any other RPG has had or will ever have as much mathematics as this.

2025's Shin Megami Tensei of the Year

SHIN MEGAMI TENSEI IV

It took playing the one everyone said was the best one for me to understand that IV is more deserving of the title. It exchanges the enigmatic starkness of Nocturne for a deeply compelling setting and characters with relatable motivations, and plays with the format of the Handheld JRPG in ways I'd never considered. I'm not sure Atlus has shown this level of ambition ever since.

Runner Up: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclocked
What if we just had more grid-based SRPG spinoffs for various franchises? What if they were good?

2025's Remaster/Remake of the Year

XENOBLADE CHRONICLES X: DEFINITIVE EDITION

I'd put down money the vast majority of people saying anything is redefining/saving/whatever the RPG have never played any Xenoblade game, let alone the most strange and experimental of them all. Its narrative about how even if the final result ends up for naught the work leading up to it still has meaning feels a bit weightier these days.

Runner Up: Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles
I will probably get swindled into buying this game at least one more time before I die. I'll probably still break the game with Calculators/Arithmeticians then too.

2025's 2025 Game of the Year

HOLLOW KNIGHT: SILKSONG

With the proviso that it's dumb that I feel bad about my tastes being too "mainstream" or "basic" when I praise something that everybody's already talking about, Silksong really is that good. By maintaining some whimsy and humor in the face of it all, it scratches the itch that so many others don't. It ain't all about Bosses and Lore and Difficulty.

Runner Up: UNBEATABLE
If you can't polish your game to a mirror sheen, the next best thing is to convince me to appreciate its flaws. Or at least grab me with raw emotion.

#games

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