Game of the Year 2025

[MetalCaveman]

It's that time of the year again.  

 

Digimon Story: Time Stranger

 

This year I played through Cyber Sleuth and I'm currently going through Hacker's Memory, both have been really fun, so when I booted the demo for Time Stranger and saw how much better everything looked, that immediately was my "GOTY" moment, been playing for a bit and so far everything seems like a huge improvement (except for agent level, but we'll see how that goes lol).                                                                 

[Mister Jack]

 

I almost put Dispatch but if I'm being honest with myself this is the game I obsessed over the most in 2025. I loved the tactical combat and with 100 endings to find among wildly different routes, I ended up playing this for a stupid amount of time in my obsession with getting the golden ending. There aren't really any lazy fade to black text over a blank screen endings in here that I could find either. They all have their own art and scenes and were interesting enough to motivate me to keep going to find the next one. I still haven't found all 100 of them, though I imagine someday I'll go back to get the rest.

[TheMightyEthan]

Game of the Year: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

 

What is there to say that hasn't already been said? This game is dramatic and emotional and funny, the worldbuilding is fantastic and the combat feels great, it's everything I could want from an RPG. I love this game so much, it's my favorite game in years.

 

Runner-Up: Citizen Sleeper 2

 

If you like story based games and haven't played Citizen Sleeper you should, it's kind of a visual novel but also a resource management game, where you play as an android trying to survive in a system that doesn't recognize your personhood. It's a little bit Murderbot, without all the violence, and the sequel expands upon the first in a way that manages to be a lot more than just more of the same.

 

Honorable Mention: Zenless Zone Zero

 

I've never played a gacha game before, I kind of have philosophical objections to the whole concept, but this game has its hooks in me bad. It's a lot of fun, the periodic events keep things changing up, and the stories it tells are surprisingly moving for a gooner gambler game. It's not the best game I've played this year, but it's definitely a big part of my year in games, I started in February and I haven't missed a day since.