This year, I’ve taken a page from Six’s book and abandoned the Top 10 formatting. It’s not as if there weren’t ten fantastic games worth mentioning in 2025: it just felt like we were due for a change, beyond ditching the whole “Wow, this year sucked, huh?” spiel we repeated for a while. Besides, I got married, so 2025 had some things worth remembering!
Games I Didn’t Finish (But Wish I Had)
The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy
This one is something of a miracle, huh? Kazutaka Kodaka, Kotaro Uchikoshi, and a stable of other wildly talented authors put their very livelihoods on the line to make one of the densest, intimidatingly large visual novels ever made…and it works! Over the course of many hours, you get to know Takumi Sumino and his fellow band of misfits front-to-back, see them bounce through countless genres, watch them fall in love again and again…it’s a fantastic, one-of-a-kind game. And after 71 hours, I burned out. HARD.
It’s hard not to feel a twinge of guilt for bouncing off of it, especially when I was in the middle of the beloved “death game polycule” route. But there’s so much game to chew through, and paradoxically, segmenting each part off into its own set of routes only made the sheer volume of everything even more intimidating. With any luck, I’ll be back later this year. But to anyone reading this who hasn’t given Hundred Line a chance yet? Pace yourself. Please. You’ll thank me later.
Silent Hill f
An absolutely gorgeous, original survival-horror game, written by Ryukishi07? Sign me up! At least, that was the thinking when I leapt on it at launch. But it was the right game, at the wrong time: as much as I’ve inoculated myself against real fear in horror media, this one scared the shit out of me, to the point where I couldn’t bring myself to push forward. I’ll come back for you later in 2026, I swear.
Game That Sustained Me Through A Miserable Year
Picross S+
For those who aren’t already aware, I’ve developed a stress-related medical condition in the past year or so. If I freak myself out by paying too close attention to the news, or have an anxiety episode over something else entirely, it can lead to stomach bile, retching, and generally unpleasant physical reactions. I’ve gotten better at tuning out right as the doom scrolling starts, but closing my phone or locking Bluesky altogether isn’t enough: unless I want the overpowering sense of doom to hang over me for the rest of the evening, I need something else to occupy my mind.
And few things occupied my mind more thoroughly in 2025 than Picross. It’s the perfect, attention-grabbing puzzle game: presented with a grid of squares, you use a combination of spatial reasoning, process of elimination and math to conjure an image out of thin air. Whenever I found myself gasping for air, surrounded by dark thoughts that threatened to consume my entire day? Picross S+ was there (along with its numerous other entries), posing enough of a challenge that it wrung out my despair like a sponge. I can’t thank Jupiter enough for making such an effective mental ripcord, saving me from severe panic attacks that once occupied my entire day.
The One Remake Worth A Damn In 2025
Dragon Quest I + II HD-2D Remake
I am so fucking sick of remakes, y’all. By and large, they’re cultural detritus, a get-rich-quick scheme for publishers who are now so risk-averse, they’ve resorted to rolling out the same shit recreated in Unreal Engine 5 and claiming it’s an upgrade. Remakes like Metal Gear Solid Delta can’t hold a candle to the games they supposedly “replace,” and will be forgotten in time, while the classics they copied will live on.
In spite of its embarrassingly buzzword-laden name, Dragon Quest I + II HD-2D Remake represents what a good remake can actually look like. This isn’t a game interested in replacing two of the most beloved RPGs of all time (as much as upper management might wish it would). Instead, it builds off the Dragon Quest III remake that came before it (Square-Enix gets a little silly with numbers every now and then), then uses the plots of I + II as outlines to tell its own tale. In spite of you going it alone, the DQI remake hardly feels like a solo affair: your hero may not speak, but his world is now filled with talkative characters cheering him on as they struggle with their own affairs.
And your DQII party, the Scions of Erdrick, feature some of the most heartwarming scenes I’ve ever encountered in an RPG! You get to watch these kids put on their bravest face for the road ahead, acting out their roles as princes and princesses while holding onto their childlike wonder for dear life. More than once, I felt my heart swell as if I were a proud parent, something that even the most gratuitous Dad Game never wrung out of me.
Dragon Quest I + II HD-2D Remake will never replicate the experiences it’s named after. It is a brand-new game, relying on its namesakes as a setting rather than scripture. And that’s A-OK with me. Hell, if more remakes took the same path, I wouldn’t be so grumpy about them all the time!
Best Games About Thriving In The Face Of An Oppressive State
Skate Story
Skate Story’s glass-bodied skater shatters against ledges, spikes and gaps, but they always put themselves back together to continue the journey, even after the forces of Hell briefly break their spirit. This isn’t a game where you’re chaining 900s and Switch Christ Airs for a massive score: forward momentum, even something as simple as a single ollie or rail grind, is what’s celebrated here. Your board’s paint scratches after X many grinds, and the broken glass from your bails remains for a spell. Despite Hell’s efforts, you leave your mark on the world, and it leaves its mark on you.
Unbeatable
Unbeatable is a loud, heartfelt scream. The campaign can get rough at times, from imperfect pacing in the first half to bizarre performance bugs, but it only serves to emphasize the raw emotion within. Its soundtrack, peppered with lyrics about heartbreak, longing, and giving the finger to fascists latched onto my heart and hasn’t let go. I can’t even think about its ending for too long, or I start welling up with tears!
On my darkest days, I look at these two games and feel the strength returning to my body. We’re going to make it. We’re going to win.
The “You Should Play Pinfeather” Section
Pinfeather
You should play Pinfeather.
It’s free. It’s only a few hours long. The sound effects will make every muscle in your body cringe in disgust. The plot about a monster who Just Can’t Help Herself and the sociopathic friend keeping tabs on her doesn’t lead anywhere pleasant. And from the moment I hit the credits, I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
That’s all you’re getting: the less you know going in, the harder it’ll hit. If you can stomach body horror and Bad Ends, you need to read this one.
(It was also made by two oomfs, Benn Ends and Ina, but that won’t stop me from recommending it here.)
Game of the Year
of the Devil (Episodes I and II)
Even though of the Devil had been in the works for a while, it only caught my attention after the first, paid episode was released in February. Anything that took influence from Ace Attorney and Danganronpa at the same time was bound to appear in my Steam library eventually. But I was fully unprepared for just how well it would land for me.
It hits all the important notes you’d expect from a fiery courtroom visual novel. You’ve got the protagonist that’s way over their head, tackling a seemingly unwinnable case. A cute, plucky sidekick who’s quirky, empathetic, and guides the player back on course when they veer off the rails. And there’s the electrifying soundtrack, where each win and setback is so pronounced that the stodgy legal building might as well be a literal background. But of the Devil puts in the work to make it stand out from its inspirations, with a darker tone and cyberpunk writing so sharp, it embarrasses a certain AAA behemoth that literally named itself after the genre!
It was Morgan, the criminal defense attorney at the center of it all, that made the game resonate with me. Her “dad joke” deflections, dour insights, and bloodthirsty hobbies help her stand out from the typical legal hero, but the work she puts into passing as “normal” was all too familiar. As an autistic woman with a social handicap, I know what it’s like to practice and act out emotional tells that come naturally to everyone around me. It’s like there’s a void inside my chest, one that I’m responsible for covering up at all times, or the people around me will see through it immediately. Morgan’s void isn’t in quite the same shape, but I still recognize it, and my heart breaks every time her carefully honed act of normality falls through.
If of the Devil’s later episodes are as strong as these first two entries, there’s a solid chance this game will remain at the top of my GOTY list for another year or two. I’m ride-or-die for Morgan now, regardless of the bodycount she may or may not pile up in the future.
Now that we’re avoiding same-year AAA releases for 2026, this list will almost certainly look a little different during the next Gimmicks. Without a new Resident Evil, Ace Combat, or Square-Enix remake to take up the slots, I’m excited to see how things change! Maybe there will be more indies…or I’ll dive deep into my backlog, and fall in love with a PS1 game I hadn’t even heard of when I wrote this. Literally anything could happen, and I couldn’t be more excited to see where the year takes me.
