Game of the Year List – 2025

It is something of a triumph that in a world as absolutely miserable and cruel as the one we inhabit still there can be found art that touches the soul and tickles the brain and tugs at the heart in no less profound a way than in years before: games that speak to our desires, our ambitions, our fears, our sense of wonder, our childish glee at solving a puzzle or discovering something new.

This year, as with every year since the medium’s inception, there were a ton of great games to play and I was fortunate enough to play a lot of them. So many that it was a bit of a struggle to decide not only on the order this Top Ten list would be arranged in but which games would and would not make the cut. After waffling back and forth here and there, I’ve reached my conclusive Game of the Year list. Here it is.

I’ve spoken about many of these at length already (I will link those posts where applicable), so each entry on the list will only have a short blurb describing why it’s there. As an important note, I recommend all of these games to whoever is even the least bit interested in them, as I had an excellent time with each one. Starting with…

10. Labyrinth of the Demon King

If you are a fan of the early King’s Field games or the visual and audio aesthetics of PS1 horror titles, then this is the game for you. It is fun, challenging, tense, atmospheric, and delivers a hack-and-slash dungeon crawling survival horror adventure that doesn’t overstay its welcome and has loads of fun puzzles and unique enemies to overcome.

9. Absolum

https://vulpesvalentine.blog/2025/11/18/absolum-review/

In addition to looking and sounding absolutely gorgeous, this game is simply so damn fun to play. Combat is fast-paced and hard-hitting, with delightfully spectacular abilities to unleash on the many foes that stand between you and the Sun King. The progression, the secrets, the random events encountered on the path to each boss, and the uniqueness of each character make for an exciting time that is even better with a friend thanks to a well designed co-op feature that even allows you to balance the game differently for each respective player.

8. Wanderstop

https://vulpesvalentine.blog/2025/11/11/wanderstop-and-the-necessity-of-play/

In a perfect example of ludo-narrative harmony, Wanderstop asks the player to un-learn the ways that many modern games have taught us to enjoy our time gaming, and to instead put that energy into self-reflection and meditating on the simple mundane tasks set before you. It made me laugh. It made me cry. It left me in a contemplative space for days upon completion. What more can you ask from a game?

7. Monster Hunter Wilds

Dragons. You can ask for dragons. And big pink gorillas. And also a rooster (psst, it’s also a dragon). This game became a staple of my afternoons for a few months and I had a wonderful time mastering my weapon (dual blades babyyyyy) and learning how to face down each new monster that came my way. The focused attacks add a level of strategy that I greatly enjoyed, despite playing most of this game like a kid at an arcade cabinet of a Street Fighter game. Them buttons be mashed.

6. Despelote

https://vulpesvalentine.blog/2025/07/22/despelote-review/

There is a sequence in the game where you play an in-universe soccer video game which slowly bleeds into a dreamlike stroll through your hometown from a bird’s eye view, accompanied by a simple yet devastatingly beautiful score. You are merely a dot in a world so big and and at times empty feeling, but still you walk these streets. You follow them home.

I think about this every day since I played it.

5. Metal Gear Solid 3 Delta

It’s a risky position to put oneself in: remastering a game that a good number of people consider to be one of (if not the) greatest game of all time. Do you make changes that you truly believe will improve upon what some call perfection? Do you leave it alone and have people call the remaster lazy and uninspired? MGS3D finds the perfect balance. It leaves a lot of stuff untouched and gives you a great deal of customization options for your preferred play style. Do you miss the fixed camera angles of the original release? Toggle them on! Do you prefer a more traditional behind the back camera? Then go with Konami’s blessing. New secrets abound, old secrets are still there, and all the wacky mini-games and meta mechanics work just as fantastically as ever. It’s a perfect remake for a nearly perfect game.

4. Elden Ring Nightreign

https://vulpesvalentine.blog/2025/08/12/elden-ring-nightreign-review/

One of my favorite games of all time had a baby with Apex Legends and it came out beautiful if not a little sickly. I love so much about this game, from the way it reshapes Elden Ring’s already flashy and engaging combat by giving each character unique passives, skills, and ultimate abilities, to the steady increase to stratospheric levels of difficulty. The writing is also, in a word, phenomenal. Some of the best fantasy writing I’ve seen in years is tucked into the journal entries of the game’s Nightfarers, providing side-objectives that help you gain mastery over the characters, their stories, and which unlock tangible rewards that will help you struggle through the Night. I can’t stop playing it even though I have the most catastrophically terrible luck when it comes to item drops and matchmaking.

You know who you are.

3. Citizen Sleeper 2

There is an ending to the original Citizen Sleeper that makes my chest tighten and my eyes water just thinking about it. When I finished the first game, I slumped over on my couch and cried for a good ten minutes, mostly because the content of what I’d experienced was so moving, but also because it had been a while since a game had effected me on such a deep level.

In the sequel, unfortunately, none of the emotional peaks ever reached so high, but the mechanical tightness and expansiveness of the game coupled with its new features made for an experience that was impactful, memorable, teeth-clenchingly tense, and darkly beautiful. I have loved everything I’ve played from Gareth Damian Martin and I look forward to whatever they make next.

2. Blue Prince

(https://vulpesvalentine.blog/2025/07/08/blue-prince-review/)

In a year that featured some of the best writing in games I’ve ever encountered, Blue Prince hit the ball all the way out of the park and coupled the brilliance of its language with one of the most engaging and deep puzzle games I’ve ever played. It was spooky, suspenseful, and had me frequently screenshotting and jotting things down in a notebook I kept at my side, the puzzles ranging from simple mathematics and logic games to translating languages and remembering complex political histories of made up countries. There is so much depth to this game that it at times feels like an endless spiral into madness, the desire to learn more, to uncover that next big mystery, pulling you down with its infinitely alluring siren’s song.

And if you get stuck, just use a guide. If anyone judges you, send them my way.

1. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

https://vulpesvalentine.blog/2025/07/15/clair-obscur-expedition-33-review/

What else can be said of a game that has captivated the minds and hearts, the attention, of seemingly everyone involved in games culture this year? How many more times can we praise its voice work, its mechanical tightness that bleeds into damage number absurdity the likes of which you’ve never seen before, its Sekiro style perfect dodges and parries that will reward your bravery and punish your failures in equal measure? How much can we continue describing how amazing it is that games like this can even exist? Should we talk about the spell-binding music? The comedic beats that make us laugh so hard we cry and the emotional moments that just leave us sobbing and breathless?

Clair Obscur is at times a flawed and janky game. Its animations are occasionally stiff, its levels can be difficult to navigate as it is often unclear where you can even go and where you cannot. The optional bosses in the endgame are so blisteringly hard to beat that they practically beg you to employ tactics from a guide on how to create the perfect build for your party, one tailor made for this specific fight. The entire third act of the game suffers from a lack of specificity and direction that takes the pacing of the narrative out to the woodshed with a gun in hand.

And yet, I love this game. I love what it says, I love the way it makes me feel, I love how much goddamn fun it is to play and how every fight rewards the player with new abilities, new weapons, or bonus experience for doing everything with precision.

I love Clair Obscur. Odds are, you love it too.