Gabrielle Castania – Game Of The Year 2025

I don’t normally like to speak for everyone, but I’m definitely onto something when I say that 2025 sure was a year. For better or worse, these were 365 days that certainly happened. At the very least, we got some really cool games out of the deal.

I probably spent too much time gaming this year, both for work and pleasure. From museum sims to silly games to kart racers to RPGs, I indulged in an unadulterated buffet that I’m not the least bit ashamed of having enjoyed.

The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy

As someone who’s long been in love with the Danganronpa series, I was incredibly excited by the concept of taking a ragtag gang of high school kids and plopping them down into a life-or-death military tactics situation.

They wouldn’t let me do it in real life, but thanks to The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy I got my fill anyway. I’d just advise against it if you’re not into the wacky anime storytelling twists iconic of Danganronpa – there’s a lot of that.

Titan Quest 2

I began playing World of Warcraft earlier this year and have developed a weekly ritual around it with my boyfriend. But to sate my craving for questing between play sessions on what we’ve come to call WoW Sundays, I dove headlong into another in-depth tale with Titan Quest 2.

Hours were spent fighting all kinds of creatures and criminals, finding my share of rare loot, and venturing off on so many side quests that I almost forgot to finish the main game. It’s still getting updates, too, and you can bet I’ll be playing them all.

Urban Myth Dissolution Center

My first taste of Urban Myth Dissolution Center came from a demo on the showfloor at PAX West in 2024, and that curiously acrid nibble stayed in my mouth until the full horror visual novel launched in full earlier this year.

My schedule for the con was packed, but I flew home afterwards unable to shake the shadow of The Director. I loved the notion of using social media to solve supernatural mysteries, and the game’s creepy pixel art style bathed in bluish grays outside the bright reds of blood soaked across every screen throughout was a statement each time.

Hell Is Us

Another game whose demo left me reeling, I spent weeks ruminating on Hell is Us’ grimly gorgeous adventure after going hands-on with it back in May. The story follows a man seeking answers about what happened to his birth parents during a brutally realistic civil war, tasking him with fighting alongside monsters whose janky movements and hollow bodies still haunt me months later.

When you take inspiration from a subject as dark and serious as real-life civil war, you need a heavy dose of respect to make an enjoyable game both because of and in spite of that reality. Hell is Us delivered in spades.

Two Point Museum

Sinking my teeth into a game that lets me build and tailor a collection is always satisfying, as someone who grew up playing Animal Crossing on a mission to obtain every piece of clothing and every piece of furniture, so Two Point Museum was right up my alley.

I loved both the previous Two Point titles and the third followed neatly in line, delivering a curation game full to the brim with the same zany humor. I spent hours decking my halls with all sorts of specialty themes – history and hydro and hauntings, oh my! – and I still find myself wanting to go back to polish my displays all over again.

AI: The Somnium Files – No Sleep For Kaname Date

Aiba in front of green static in a Somnium in No Sleep for Kaname Date.

I love escape rooms, I love anime ridiculousness, I love mystery tales, and I love being made to think outside the box . Therefore, I love AI: The Somnium Files – No Sleep for Kaname Date.

Dead Take

Sometimes, just when you think a genre is all but dead, it comes back with a vengeance all thanks to a single title. This year, Dead Take turned FMV gaming on its head with a brutal look at the dark side of Hollywood.

Neil Newbon and Ben Starr steal the show with their performances, while the atmosphere is saturated with a choking darkness no matter where you are in the mansion. The puzzles were interesting headscratchers too, and I may or may not have yelped a few times thanks to the jumpscares. I never once got to feel comfortable playing this game, and I loved it.

Raidou Remastered: The Mystery Of The Soulless Army

The only new Persona game we got this year was the gacha title, but Atlus didn’t hold back from giving us another full-sized Shin Megami Tensei port with Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army. You’re a supernatural detective in an alternate-history version of Taisho-era Japan, and it’s up to you and your demons to figure out why the timeline has gone askew.

The real-time combat was very different from the turn-based gameplay I’m used to as a huge Persona fan, but I grew to love it almost immediately. It required more fast-thinking and adaptability than I’d gotten used to with titles in the series, serving as something of a rapidfire test. I can get a little too focused on Persona sometimes, but Raidou Remastered gave me a renewed appreciation for other games in the SMT family.

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds

If you tell me you didn’t have the theme song for this ultra-fun cartoon racing title stuck in your head for weeks, then I hope you’ll read it to the tune of said song when I tell you: you are a li-ar.

Date Everything!

“If you like it so much, why don’t you just marry it?” Joke’s on you, silly – you can’t get married in this game, but my god, does it still deliver on its namesake – you really can Date Everything!

Every few years, a game comes out that’s so perfectly up my alley that I fixate on it for ages, and this year, that was Date Everything!, the debut title from Sassy Chap Games. The only thing I love more than a dating sim is a silly dating sim, and as someone who spent hours on Dream Daddy and Hatoful Boyfriend back in the day, tossing dozens of voice actors from shows and games I love into a genre I adore is guaranteed to be a slam dunk for me.

All 100 pieces of furniture in your sexy, sexy house feel markedly unique from one another, and I spent my summer playing through it a few times to get three different endings with each of them. I spoke with the Sassy Chaps a few times during its development – once just after its announcement and again just before its launch – and as if you couldn’t tell from the trailers and teasers for my Game of the Year, chatting with them confirmed that the only thing there is more than lewdness and laughter in this over-the-top dating sim is heart.