Favourite video games of 2025

RPGs, roguelites, visual novels

Author

Eddie
January 03, 2026

I didn’t have as much time with games as I’d have liked this year, but still managed to play a fair few. And, happily a fair few that really stood out. Presented below are 10 games I really enjoyed that were released this year, and one bonus entry I just started this week and is promising enough I want to flag it. 10 of the 11 games are also in the current steam sale, with discounts ranging from 20-70%, until 6 January. Most are also available on PS5 and/or Switch (and in fact I played half of these on PS5), and I know some are similarly on sale on those store fronts.

A number of these are well known and it’ll be no surprise they’re on here, but there are at least a couple of semi-obscurities. I hope you find something to tickle your fancy.

Avowed

Obsidian has quietly put out two of the better RPGs of 2025, Avowed being one of them (the other is the very nearly as good Outer Worlds 2), though they don’t quite seem to have got the credit they deserve for it. Avowed is generously but not absurdly sized (40-50 hours unless you’re a ridiculous completionist) and the living lands is a great setting, well realised. Has some of the best character work of the year (shout out to Kai, with the same voice actor as Garrus Vakarian), and some of the best 3D fantasy RPG combat I’ve come across. Response has generally been warm, but I think it deserves something a bit less equivocal than that: Avowed is an excellent entry in a genre it’s really hard to do well.

Ball x Pit

A genre mashup that absolutely shouldn’t work but completely, completely does. Arkanoid meets Vampire Survivors meets Loop Hero meets Pinball. And it’s completely addictive. Different combinations of balls to be bounced at bricks (ie enemies). Different upgrades to build back at town. Both in-run experience and metagame currencies to collect. And a great soundtrack by the reliably excellent Amos Roddy. A dangerous time sink has never been so fun.

Battle Suit Aces

Mechanically a slightly quirky (complimentary) card battler meets visual novel and light resource management. But it’s the vibe that made this one of my favourites. Like a 90s/early 2000s giant robot anime with startlingly modern, queer overlay. Each mission is like a 22 minute episode, complete with B-plots of wacky hijinks amongst the world-shaking stakes – i.e. really true to the anime vibe. And very few pieces of general, mass consumption media are just completely as lacking in heteronormativity as this is, just quietly upending my expectations of where various interpersonal relationships are going to go. Just a bit of jank in the gameplay and while the voice acting is generally good, a few times it does read (endearingly) amateur. Doesn’t really take away from my enjoyment of one of the more out of nowhere nice surprises I came across this year.

Citizen Sleeper 2

Citizen Sleeper was one of my favourite narrative games in years, and happily the sequel maintains the storytelling quality while improving the dice-based gameplay. A wider screen story than the first game, for better (some bigger picture stuff about connections) and worse (not quite as focused), interested very much in what hope and survival look like when both are hard. I’m increasingly convinced that utopian projects make more sense set in spaces where that idea of hope and collective action has a real chance of failure and may well be ephemeral, and CS2 serves that up in spades. Community has value because it may not last. Tie that vibe together with gorgeous character are, another Amos Roddy stunner of a soundtrack, and Gareth Damian Martin’s genuinely good writing (not “good for a video game, just “good”) and you have yet another incredible game from Jump Over The Age.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

I must admit a slight contrarian instinct about Clair Obscur: at heart, it’s a good, modern JRPG but also capital F French. And a lot of what Clair Obscur does really well has also been done well by the last 20 years of JRPGs that are from Japan rather than France (there are 2 later in this list). So forgive me if I don’t find the game relevatory, but it is very, very good regardless. Exceptionally pretty, sounds great, and a challenging but rewarding combination of turn-based combat and QT events. And the vibe is impeccable; it earns its ending with a consistent thematic approach throughout, and the end absolutely would not have worked if it wasn’t earned. An impressive achievement (and I hope their flirtation with AI-produced background assets is the one-off, now-corrected error the developers are asserting now that it was).

Eternal Strands

Genuinely do not understand why this hasn’t been an absolute smash hit. A hugely fun action-adventure-RPGlite with bright graphics, tight combat, really effective ‘combination of elements’ magic system, a better story than the setup needs, and good character work. Enough in there to let you play deeply with the systems as you build your character, but doesn’t outstay its welcome either (~30 hrs of game here). A bit janky on release, that’s been 90% fixed since. Steepest steam discount of any game on this list, really do consider grabbing it if you haven’t played.

Hades 2

You don’t need me to tell you about Hades 2, it’s Hades 2. Great art, compelling gameplay loop, great soundtrack, great voice acting, great story. It’s the latter that distinguishes it from many other modern roguelites. Metaprogression in Hades 2 isn’t just improving your weapons and stats, it’s also opening up more character beats and more of the overarching plot. This continues all the way through to the post-game, with an extended narrative epilogue encouraging you to keep playing even after you’ve killed Time. No one does it like Supergiant, Hades 2 is definitely one of the best games of 2025 (and 2024; one of the only games that has done Early Access right) and I am really fascinated to see what they’re going to do next.

Monster Train 2

While I really enjoyed the overall package presented by Battle Suit Aces, the best pure card battler I played this year was Monster Train 2. Monster Train already set up a great system – 3 tiers of battles which act sequentially – and a great vibe with its art and sound design, and the sequel just does… more. More decks to play with, more challenges, more synergies, without getting so out of hand you forget how things work. Not doing a huge amount narrative wise, but that isn’t really the point. The point is that it’s very hard to resist just one more run.

Octopath Traveler 0

The conversion of the mobile gacha game Champions of the Continent into a genuine, proper quasi prequel to Octopath Traveler 1 is way more successful than it probably has any right to be. The gameplay systems of the Octopath games are incredibly tight, here with a bit of added complexity through allowing 2 rows of party members (and thus 8 active party members total). The music and visuals are superb. And if I don’t think it quite maintains the best narrative beats of Octopath Traveler 2 (my favourite in the series and one of my favourite games of recent years), it’s certainly outgrown its gacha origins and I think does shade the original game. If you have an affection for classic SNES JRPGs which play how your nostalgia tells you they played (as opposed to their actual mid 90s gameplay), you’ll love this game.

Trails in the Sky: First Chapter

The Trails games are simultaneously one of my all-time favourite RPG series and very hard to recommend to newcomers. 20 years of games with interconnecting stories and overlapping casts, hundreds of hours of gameplay and the early games were PSP-era and looked older. What we have here is a remake of the first game in the series, done very well. The graphics aren’t cutting edge by any means, but they look modern and pleasant and the gameplay systems and QoL expectations have also been modernised. That means, finally, I can unhesitatingly recommend you play the first entry of this sprawling fantasy soap opera in its definitive form. Starts a very small-scale story, just starts to blossom towards the end to hints of something bigger. And that is just the taster for things to come. No one does it like Falcom; if you don’t vibe with the feeling of being inside your own custom anime (complete with long cut scenes), you’ll bounce off it. If you do, this might just become your new favourite game too.

 

And a bonus entry I just got to this week. Not really played enough to reach a definitive judgement yet, but early signs are good enough that I want to flag it:

The Hundred Line: Last Defence Academy

Kazutaka Kodaka (Danganronpa) and Kotaro Uchikoshi (Zero Escape) team up to make a hugely ambitious game combining compellingly bonkers visual novel storytelling, overlapping narrative strands, and pretty tight turn-based strategic RPG combat. I trust these two to turn the good start I’ve just dipped my toe in into something kinda messed up and compelling.