by majormitch
Showing 1-10 of 10 items
As the clear consensus Game of the Year pick for 2025, Clair Obscur’s strengths are well documented. It has lovable characters, incredible word-building, strong writing and narrative themes, fantastic art and music, engaging RPG mechanics, and kick-ass combat. For me personally, it also harkens back to the 1990s, when I first fell in love with RPGs. Nothing about Clair Obscur feels safe or designed for broad appeal, yet by boldly sticking to its vision, it gained that appeal anyway. It’s a game at once melodramatic and profoundly silly, a game with fresh systems that can break it in all sorts of ways, a game willing to explore heavy topics with a human touch, a game that feels uniquely French yet transcends France. That’s what I felt playing the JRPGs of the 90s, and Clair Obscur brings that spirit into the modern era with all the production value and game design lessons we’ve gained over the past three decades. That it does so while adding its own fresh ideas, and its own things to say, is wonderful to see. And it’s why Clair Obscur is also my favorite game of 2025.
The original Hades felt so complete already, I wasn’t sure what they could do to follow it up. But Hades II found a way, taking those same rock-solid fundamentals, shaking up the story and characters, and expanding upon it all in meaningful ways. The new weapons, enemies, and bosses are fun, the progression is more involved without being overbearing, and most importantly, Hades II provides two full routes to explore with their own set of distinct foes and challenges; it’s borderline Hades II and III combined. It’s a smart addition, as both paths offer different experiences, and bouncing back and forth between them keeps things fresh. I don’t expect an actual Hades III at this point, but given how well Hades II turned out, I’m confident Supergiant Games could find a way again if they tried.
Team Cherry is proving to be masters of their craft: I’m not sure anyone else is better at constructing side-scrolling 2D worlds to explore. The way paths and areas weave in and out of each other is such a treat, and the fact that there are many distinct, but equally viable paths through this adventure is a feat. We often think of Metroidvanias like this as having a primary “sequence” that can potentially be “broken”. But Silksong, like Hollow Knight before it, has no single such sequence. This is a player-driven adventure, executed extremely well, with great combat and production values too (holy cow the art and music). Jokes about the length of Silksong’s development are a dime a dozen, but with how well it ultimately turned out, I think it’s safe to say it was worth the wait.
I loved the first Monster Train, and this sequel builds on that winning formula in all the right ways. It adds just enough new card types, clans, and mechanics to enhance the formula rather than destabilize it; it simultaneously feels like a different game, while also feeling like it would be hard to go back and not have the new stuff anymore. It’s a bigger and better game, but also a smarter and more tightly made one, which is a fine line to walk. And my favorite aspect of the original – trying all the different clan combinations – remains just as fun as ever. Monster Train 2 is one of the rare games I feel like I could play forever, and always find new interactions and new ways to enjoy it.
GBA nostalgia has peaked over the past few years, so it’s perhaps no surprise to see some very GBA-coded indie games pop up. But it is surprising to see one as good as Pipistrello. It nails the look and the vibe, starting with its knockoff GBA border, and following through with its fun color palette, animations, and music. It has the juice where it really counts too, with excellent controls, level design, and progression forming a wonderful 2D Zelda-like adventure that I thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish; the platforming in particular becomes a real treat by the end. The spirit of the GBA lives on.
I have a regular Gloomhaven group, so Sunderfolk is admittedly very targeted at me. But it’s also impressive how slick Sunderfolk is as a digital game. By having each player’s controller be their phone, they are able to inspect and manage their characters separately, which keeps up the flow while the main interface remains clean and easy to digest. The tactical game itself is highly enjoyable, with fun classes and exciting abilities carrying a meaty campaign throughout (even if the narrative aspects aren’t worth much). Sunderfolk is one of my favorite “couch co-op” video games I’ve played in a long time.
I didn’t follow every Blue Prince thread to their conclusion, as it got a little too obtuse and tedious for me a number of hours after the credits. Yet that initial process of reaching room 46 was highly engaging, and unlike anything else I’ve played. Learning the rules and intricacies of the manor, developing strategies, scribbling in a notebook like a madman in an attempt to decipher some sprawling manor-wide puzzle, and then bringing all that knowledge together for a winning run is a borderline magical process. Blue Prince is a meticulously crafted, singular experience that consumed me for weeks.
The instant I punched through a few rocks during the tutorial, I knew Donkey Kong Bananza had the juice. It nails the play fundamentals, and makes punching said rocks way more fun than it should be. The destructible environments add a welcome new aspect to a collectathon platformer, and I was happy to dig through large swaths of terrain looking for bananas for dozens of hours. It looks and sounds great too, and there’s just enough variety in the levels and abilities to keep the experience fresh enough. But really, it comes back to just how dang fun it is to punch shit.
Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is now in the running for my favorite side-scrolling action combat in any game I’ve played. Animations are fluid, hits are responsive and satisfying, the controls are buttery smooth, and the moves and combos are super fun to execute. There’s also good variety in the enemies and levels, solid character progression that continues to layer in additional mechanics, and it looks and sounds incredible too. I couldn’t put Art of Vengeance down until I had completed every task it put before me, and would have happily played more. Also, Joe Musashi is the coolest.
Just like its predecessor, Citizen Sleeper 2 is a wonderful tabletop adjacent adventure, with great characters, writing, and world-building. But where I grew less enamored with the original as I became flush with resources in its second half, Starward Vector’s contracts keep the tension high from start to finish. This seemingly minor tweak helped me become much more invested in the game’s setting and narrative, and made the role-playing feel more real. My choices (and dice rolls) had weight and consequences, which is exactly what I want from an RPG like this.
