My top 10 games of 2025 | Part 2
What a year!
#5 - Strange Antiquities
A fantastic sequel to Strange Horticulture. I often have my gripes with sequels, but I think this one improves upon Strange Horticulture in almost every aspect. It doesn't mean that Strange Horticulture was bad or anything, but I enjoyed Strange Antiquities more.
It has the same vibes as Dredge, albeit with wildly different gameplay. I think I really enjoy the kind of dark, Lovecraftian, cozy type of games. We need a more applicable term of these types of games, I’m running out of adjectives.
To read more on it, check here:
#4 - Persona 5 Royal
As I mentioned in Part 1, I couldn’t believe the amount of time I spent on Persona 5 Royal at the beginning of the year. The first part of my year was spent on playing P5R, which was an amazing time. However, there is one issue.
P5R is a freaking long game. I apparently have 100.7 hours on Steam right now. And considering that I actually started playing on Game Pass, my playtime is probably even more. I need to go check my save file, but to do that, I need to redownload the game, which I’m very lazy to do. So you can take me at my word.
P5R is a very polished game, and it improves on its predecessors by a mile in terms of QoL changes. It’s stylish, it’s fun, it’s comforting, and it really feels like you live in modern-day Tokyo. Between this game and The World Ends with You, I feel like I can navigate my way in Shibuya if I ever visit.
The music in Persona games is always a highlight, and Persona 5’s OST is no different. I sometimes start humming “you’ll never see it comiiiinnnngg” out of the blue, and unfortunately, no one around me understands the reference.
🥉#3 - Final Fantasy XVI
The worst thing about playing a game right before you play your personal game of the year is that it loses the spotlight pretty quickly. Don’t worry FFXVI, I may not be talking about you too much right now, but I haven’t forgotten about you. You are still the game that got me in tears at 3 am on a weekday. You are still the game that got me looking up lore and theories at random times of the day.
What a magnificent game.
Jill Warrick still deserves better, though.
🥈#2 - Hades II
I assume that there are no surprises here, given that I have a short series of me talking about each of Supergiant’s entries, and you can see how much I enjoy their games. Hades II was really no different. Now that I have reached the end, I can put it in the second spot. Phenomenal art and music, fun gameplay, solid story. I will say that in terms of characters and the dynamics between them, I still prefer Hades. But Hades II is still an amazing game that deserves all the hype and praise.
Though I have to say that FFXVI and Hades II’s places are kind of interchangeable depending on my mood. Both were really good games that deserve the second place in this list.
🥇#1 - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
What a shocker, am I right?
I have been incessantly talking about this game ever since I first played it, and the impact it had on me was huge. Writing just one post about it was not enough for me, so I had to write a second one.
The soundtrack was living in my head rent-free, and it ended up dominating my Spotify Wrapped. Is anyone here surprised that Une vie à t’aimer was my top song?
Expedition 33 recently broke some records on The Game Awards, sweeping up a lot of awards, including the Game of the Year. The contenders this year were really strong, but I’m happy that they came out on top.
I’ve been playing the latest free DLC, which is amazing and heartwrenching at times like the main game. And the music is, perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the highlights. Pour que Naisse un Bouquet is the standout for me, especially because of the way it uses Verso’s theme playing underneath the heavenly vocal melody. Lorien & Alice duo is incredible ,and Sandfall really hit big when they recruited these two.
They really gave us a banger album and made a game alongside it, how generous.
Aaand that’s all, folks! What a year, especially for gaming! I’m going to schedule another post before the New Year, so I won’t celebrate it here yet, but I’m very happy with how this went in terms of my gaming, my hobbies and especially my Substack. I feel like I found an amazing community that I can share my nerdy passions with, and wow, what a help it has been for my always chaotic brain.
I hope you enjoyed my top 10 games of 2025 list! What games do you have on yours? Were you able to make a dent on your backlog or did you mostly play newer games?
I just started playing P5R as a staunch Persona hater. I’ve fallen madly in love with this game and I need help
Oya, your praise of FF16 is the entire reason I continue to consider playing it despite playing a bit of the demo and it not immediately clicking with me. Does it get good after that first introductory level?