It’s that time of the year again when we talk about our picks for game of the year. A momentous event for the gaming community as well as the developers. As everyone sits down with their asses clenched, contemplating what gets crowned.
Well, we are not official judges for the Game of the Year show. But we sure did sit down to list our picks for this year.
GOTY 2025 Picks
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Let’s talk about the big one first, Expedition 33, as a game of the year has no doubt been on everyone’s mind. Since it dropped this year, most people in the community have completely made up their mind about it winning.
This isn’t just a potluck RPG turning out to be really good on release. The story behind the development of Expedition 33 is equally inspirational, which also makes it a top pick.
The game was developed by Sandfall Interactive, a studio that was just formed out of people with no prior game development knowledge. But still, everyone knocked it out of the park. Truly a testament to inspiration for independent game devs.
ARC Raiders
According to Social Media, ARC Radiers is pretty much the game that is in direct opposition to Expedition 33 for the Game of the Year spot. This all started when popular streamer, Shroud, said the community has to make sure ARC Raiders wins over Expedition 33.
So essentially, it has become a duel between the single-player community and the multiplayer community. But who wins is not for us to decide. What we can tell you is that ARC Raiders is a worthy contender.
The game is developed by Embark Studios, and it takes place in a post-apocalyptic future world. A race of robots named ARC has taken over the world, making humanity recede into hiding.
Dispatch
Now that we have talked and gone over the two heavy hitters for this year, it’s time to wind back. This is the right moment to discuss the surprise comeback for narrative choice-based games since the Telltale days.
Dispatch is the newest release and has taken the gaming community by storm with its incredible narrative. You play as a dispatcher who was a former hero and is in charge of a team of reformed misfits. It’s your job as the leader to see that everyone gets their deserved character development.
Adventure games may have been a thing of the past. But Telltale Games had revived the genre with their new style of titles in recent decades. The torch is being carried ahead by AdHoc studio, which deserves all the praises and is our pick for Game of the Year.
Hades II
Picking Hades II as a Game of the Year contender was honestly a no-brainer. This title further builds upon everything that made the first game incredible. But it does so in a way that it’s not the same game.
Hades II sets it apart in enough ways so that the first game still feels fresh. You play as Melinoe, the daughter of Hades and sister to the protagonist of the previous game, Zagreus. Your play style has changed a lot; rather than becoming a fast brute force, you are an exceptionally skilled caster.
You raze your way through the underworld’s labyrinth in order to seek vengeance against Chronos. The Titan has done unspeakable things to your loved ones, which you’ll have to find out for yourself by playing the game.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
While people keep fighting over the prior titles, the guys at Warhorse Studio may just swoop in and take away the main award. It seems like a refresher is needed, but Kingdom Come: Deliverance II released early this year and has been a major blast.
The first game established itself well enough as an RPG set in historically accurate medieval times. Amidst all the hurly burly of medieval-style fantasy games, Kingdom Come: Deliverance quickly became a household name in 2018.
The second continues to do the same, and with even better reception. With twice as large a world and more merriment to make or mistakes if you may. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is our pick for the game of the year contender.
Digimon Story: Time Stranger
We mentioned quite a few role-playing games on this list that are contenders for game of the year. Now let’s turn to Japan, which houses some of the greatest RPGs ever. This time, it’s an uncommon candidate in our eyes, Digimon Story: Time Stranger.
While it is true that usually Pokémon is the game helming the honorary titles when it comes to major monster taming releases. This time, Digimon may have surpassed the franchise by a mile.
Time Stranger continues the Digimon Story franchise with a new setting and characters. More Digimons to tame, enormous levels to explore, and absolutely stunning visuals. There was no shadow of doubt as to which monster tamer we were going to pick this year.
Silent Hill F
Can’t have a game of the year list without a good horror thrown in for the mix. Resident Evil had been dominating this position for quite a few years. Until the Silent Hill franchise finally broke out of a long-running curse and made a big comeback with a remake.
Now it was time to take things up a notch with a new and original release. Something that would further continue the series and serve as the new main entry. That game was Silent Hill F, and it knocked it out of the park this year for us.
The success of the game should not only be credited to the developers at Neobard studios, but also to the author, Ryukishi07. Hopefully, with this, he has inspired more people to chase after his works of psychological horror in the visual novel medium.
Hollow Knight Silksong
If one game had a mandatory game of the year slot open every year as people waited for it, then that would be Hollo Knight Silksong. It almost feels like everyone had been waiting for generations for it to be released.
But jokes aside, the spot was well deserved, because Silksong released with flying colors. It crashed every digital storefront as soon as it dropped on release day. PlayStation, Nintendo store, and Steam were rendered inaccessible for at least an hour before we could even buy the game.
It instantly became one of the cheapest single-player releases with enormous amounts of consecutive players. You bet we were going to put Hollow Knight Silksong on our list of picks for game of the year.
The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy
Geoff Keighley is not someone to put two JRPG titles on the Game of the Year nomination list. But we will, because how can we forget about The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy. Unfortunately, it looks like it’s going to stay a sleeper hit within its own niche fanbase.
We reviewed this game earlier this year, ranting about how this game is the perfect collaboration project (until AdHoc and Critical Role also came around). A development team combining the minds of Kazutaka Kodaka and Kotaro Uchikoshi was a match made in heaven for Danganronpa fans.
The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy proves that through and through with its enormous amount of quest lines and replayability. We simply had to add it among our picks for Game of the Year 2025.
Blue Prince
Every year, there is one wild-card indie entry. This year, we are going to put Blue Prince as one of our picks for game of the year. These wild-card indie entries aren’t just to tip the balance for the show. But they are actual games that deserve the attention that they wouldn’t get otherwise.
Blue Prince garnered a pretty niche fan following after its release and has stayed so. But it did pique attention from official coverage sources, which praised it enough. The sad part is that most people still don’t know about this game.
But there’s a good side to that as well, which means you get to experience this genuinely good indie game for the first time.
