2025 has seen plenty of new games, but as is the case every year, there are always those that stand out. We’ve played through plenty of new titles, spin-offs, sequels, prequels, and games that have generated discussion about genre as a whole. As the year ends, we’d like to highlight a few of our favorites.
Much like our Yearly Top Visual Novels lists, these are our subjective choices. They don’t necessarily need to be the highest-rated games, but the ones we personally enjoyed the most. And if you’re looking for the Top Visual Novels of 2025, you can find them here.
What were your top games of 2025? Want to let us know your thoughts on the best games of 2025? Ping us on X (Twitter) or our Discord.
THOMAS KNIGHT – Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma works brilliantly to reimagine the series as a JRPG with fluid combat, while still retaining key elements such as relationship-building, farming crops, and slaying monsters. As much as I’ve enjoyed some of the other Rune Factory titles, this one really stands out.
The story was engaging. It was at times a little too light, but it had its more serious moments. Each character had something interesting to explore, and the main plot kept me hooked too. The relationship-building was really well integrated, and being able to invite other characters along to join me in exploration and combat meant that I got to know them outside of set narrative events. The hack-and-slash combat itself was always fun, with plenty of different ways to go about it.
It’s certainly not perfect and has weaknesses around the farming in particular, but I could not put this game down at all, to the point that I finished it within the week. It is not a short title either, having taken me 40 hours to reach the end, then longer to finish up some outstanding tasks. Whether you enjoy the more standard Rune Factory games or just JRPGs in general, I certainly recommend that you give Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma a try.
Please check out our full review of Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma.
ROB MACINTOSH – Lumines Arise
Combining Lumines with Enhance’s synesthetic approach that they previously brought to Tetris Effect creates one of the best combinations since chocolate met peanut butter. Two things that were already great joined to make something even better. Lumines Arise is just about everything you could ask for in a tile-matching puzzle game. It’s simple, it’s addictive, it’s gorgeous, and it’s highly rewarding when you feel yourself getting better at it. Moreover, it’s a treat for the senses, with splendid audio-visual feedback that puts you into the zone more than perhaps any puzzle game I’ve played, even including Tetris Effect. The inclusion of the new Burst mechanic offers a welcome addition to the series’s formula, as there’s nothing quite like making a big ole square and shooting blocks into the sky only to watch them come back down and create a new formation that also quickly disappears.
As an artform, gaming can deliver on so many emotions. And while Lumines Arise offers many of them in its entrancing package, the one I felt strongest when playing it was joy. This game is an absolute joy to experience. This game just melts away all the bad vibes and leaves you with something incredible, something which I continued to go back to many times after I reviewed it and initially experienced all of its various modes of play.
Please check out our full review of Lumines Arise.
ISAIAH PARKER – Octopath Traveler 0
Octopath Traveler 0 left me stunned with its scope and intrigue. It’s a very long game, but one of the most consistently interesting Square Enix has ever made. The series’s concept of forging ahead and making what you will of each storyline is brought together beautifully by the darker storyline and the create-a-character system, which increases both stakes and immersion. If there’s any single RPG from Square Enix you should play for its story, I highly urge that you let it be this one. It treads a lot of ground that many RPGs dare not to.
This is also brought together by its excellent gameplay, combining the series’s traditional turn-based gameplay with an excellent progression system. Thanks to the far greater character choice and 8-member party system, there’s also a greater degree of experimentation and choice involved in how you overcome bosses and other challenges. As always, exploration is also a joy thanks to the series’ “go anywhere, even if it might kill you” approach to world design and progression. I think it’s solidly one of the best-ever Square Enix games. Viva la HD-2D!
Please check out our full review of Octopath Traveler 0.
ANDREW CAMAC – Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves
In the last few years, SNK have been making quite the triumphant return, and nothing signals victory louder than the return of the legendary wolves of South Town in Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves.
This already fairly robust title has only grown by leaps and bounds since its original release. There’s been a full free season of roster additions ranging from fan favorites such as Joe and Andy, to returning Art of Fighting bad guy Mr Big, along with the ever-famous Chun Li and Ken from Street Fighter. With balance changes throughout the year trying to change the meta and characters being released with full arcade ladders and story modes linking into the main narrative, SNK have been doing all they can to position this as part of the big boys.
Season 2 is on the horizon and the future of the Legendary Wolves and Fatal Fury have never been brighter. Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves is without a doubt my game of the year in 2025 (and from someone with the online handle of Powah Dunk did you expect anything different)?
Please check out our full review of Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves.
WES PLAYFAIR – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
What else is there to say about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the game that has (rightfully in my opinion) swept through the awards season like a wildfire? Well, it’s one of the very best RPGs I’ve played in my 20+ years of gaming. It has everything I want: an imaginative, vividly realized world to explore, exciting and deadly combat, and exactly the right balance of streamlining and depth, backed by a strong artistic vision and an all-time great OST. The ambitious story and characters are some of the most compelling and nuanced in gaming, and the voice and mocap acting set a standard of excellence that few games can match.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 also captures that special brand of magic found in the best JRPGs while forging its own identity. You can draw a line from games like Final Fantasy X and the Persona series to many of the ideas in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, yet it simultaneously feels fresh, thanks in part to a distinctly French identity and storytelling conventions quite different from the anime-adjacent fare found in most JRPGs. In a strong year with many worthy contenders, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 takes my game of the year crown.
Please check out our full review of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
Conclusion And Honorable Mentions!
Those were our top games of 2025, but there are certainly more worth mentioning. These are all absolutely worth checking out as well.
Hollow Knight: Silksong ended up as the runner-up for multiple writers at NookGaming. It builds upon everything Hollow Knight did to create an experience that is as breathtaking as it is unrelenting. Silksong is a game of considerable faith, not just in its narrative themes but in how much faith it has in the player to figure it out, no matter how uncompromising it gets in its difficulty and penchant to mess with the player. It looks and sounds fantastic, and its combat, bosses, platforming, and exploration are addicting. It plays to the strengths of the original Hollow Knight while improving on several aspects, and it’s completely unashamed of what it is as a game.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is my most played game this year, and it continues the upwards trend in quality that the hedgehog has been on for the past few years. Combining colorful and chaotic track design with a focus on a barrage of gimmicks and unexpected, random elements makes for a game where improvisation and creative vehicle builds are brought to the forefront. This is further brought together by the titular CrossWorlds mechanics, where dramatic shifts in location keeps races feeling ever-fresh. It’s been a blast playing it since launch, and I can’t wait to see how it might evolve further.
Monster Train 2 improves upon the original’s rock-solid foundation to deliver 2025’s best new roguelike deckbuilder. Gear up new factions and champions on the titular train out of hell as you lead the assault on the forces of heaven. Monster Train 2 embraces breaking things, offering a dazzling buffet of combos and synergies for building overpowered superunits and devastating spells, while a new deployment phase lets you get your monsters into play immediately and mitigates bad draws. Even with all the power at your fingertips, heaven can throw a serious counterpunch and send you back to the drawing board. But I could never resist the urge to fire up one more run and see what chaos I could create.
Hades II is more Hades, and that’s not a bad thing. While the story and characters don’t quite measure up to those of the groundbreaking original, Hades 2’s gameplay refines everything that worked in Hades. The roguelite action is as accessible and dynamic as ever, but with new and improved weapons, boons, and abilities alongside memorable bosses that force even a Hades veteran to learn some new tricks. Plus, the music, voice acting, and art are all top notch, and Hades 2 is as smooth and polished as the pearls you’ll dredge up from the depths of Oceanus.
Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian is a step closer to PlayStation 3-era Atelier with its deep alchemy system, while keeping some of the modern conveniences and preferences in mind. Experiencing all the slice-of-life scenes and seeing the fun dynamic between the two protagonists made for a fun time, while the serious plot in the background helped to keep me invested in the world. The sense of progression works nicely too, with there always being town management goals to meet, new areas to unlock, and alchemy recipes to discover and improve upon. It is perhaps one more for long-time Atelier fans with its crossover nature, but it should be a fun time for anyone who wants a laid-back JRPG but with plenty of item-building experimentation.
Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake brings to life two cornerstone RPGs with massively expanded stories and vastly improved gameplay. Staying true to the originals in their intent, while also offering the benefits of modern hardware and bigger scripts, they work alongside last year’s remake of DQIII to bring about a trilogy of superlative quality. I think a lot of players are going to be surprised at the sheer extent of how these games are improved. This is especially true in DQII’s case, which went from a decent footnote to arguably one of the series’ finest.
While there were plenty more great titles released in 2025, if you missed out on these, we hope you’ll give them a try.
Want to see some of the best games in previous years? Check out our previous GOTY lists. More into visual novels? We have top visual novel picks for each year too!
A gamer since the days of Amstrad and DOS and someone who has dabbled in a variety of professions. He enjoys a wide variety of genres, but has been focusing on visual novels and virtual reality in recent years. Head Editor of NookGaming. Follow him and the website on @NookSite.
