The Rogueies: Ryan's Choice

2025 has been a pretty catastrophic year for a lot of different people, myself and my family included. And it was an extremely hard year for our industry and the people who make the games we cover.

But the games themselves were good. They were very, very good.

So when I was narrowing down my list of things that I really enjoyed in 2025, I originally put 11 games on the list. Then 12. And then 13. Because it's my list at my website, goddammit. Whose gonna stop me?

Eventually I realized I was moving too close to my top 20 games, which I have on a super secret google doc after listing out all like 85+ games I've played in 2025. I eventually cut back down to 10, because I didn't want to write 20 blurbs because I have a three year old and don't have very good sleep habits to begin with. Plus it's just cleaner this way.

Huge shoutout to BALL x PIT, Absolum, and The Rogue: Prince of Persia. Check those games out.

And now, onto my list.

#10: Dispatch

Dispatch hits on two things people have grown tired of: Telltale-style games and superheroes. But through a really delicate mix of irreverence and almost painful sincerity, it makes space for itself as a narrative game and a new entry into the superhero genre.

It's a game that doesn't work if even one piece is out of line. But the vocal performances are all incredible, the writing is great, the dispatch mini-game mechanic is a ton of fun, the art is beautiful, and the episodes are really nicely paced.

Outside of enjoying the cast of Critical Role generally, I would never have picked this as a game I was even looking forward to this year. But I loved it and wasn't ready for it to end by the time I reached the final episode.

Games that surprise me always tend to land on my lists, and I really look forward to seeing what AdHoc do next.

#9: Hollow Knight Silksong

Honest to god, I'm a little surprised to see Hollow Knight: Silksong on my list. I was having a pretty bad time for most of my journey here. It's a game I bought because I knew people were going to be talking about it (and hey, I was right about that one). But as someone who never really clicked with the original Hollow Knight, I was more excited for this game to come out because I wanted people to shut up about it, rather than play it myself.

Well, I played it. And I really did grow to love it. This game is special, even in the ways it's mean and hateful to the player. It's beautiful and brutal, and the game flows in such a unique way. The fact that it's not the most beautifully melancholy game of the year is only because one of the games here is very French.

Silksong didn't "click" with me until the third act (which is really far into the game, by the way). In the prior acts, I logged on every day saying "this is the last chance, game," and every day I logged off thinking I was done. But it called to me, because it's incredibly well crafted, and because Team Cherry had their own vision that they stuck to. They loved the game even when I didn't, and that passion is what eventually led me to understand what all the Hollow Knight fuss is about.

#8: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

I remember being unreasonably excited for Expedition 33 from its initial trailer. Folks at the old job thought it looked cool, but nobody (even me, who thought it was gonna be rad) could predict how it would land with people. Obviously it didn't resonate with me as much as some other games on this list (and the gaming community as a whole), but it still far exceeded my expectations.

There's a lot that could be said about Expedition 33, and I imagine the staff will be saying a lot of those things in the "this should've probably won more stuff last year" category in 2026. But more than anything it's just an astoundingly creative game. All of the monsters are so unique looking, and the concept of the game's story instantly feels like something you haven't seen before. That creativity is what I think has resonated most with people.

The best part about Expedition 33 is that it will (hopefully) inspire more AA games to get made. And it'll teach studios the lesson that a brand new IP with a really creative team can be a huge success.

#7: Blue Prince

There are a few puzzle games that captured me the way Blue Prince did in years past; stuff like Return of the Obra Dinn and the Golden Idol series. But none of them made me an actively bad employee the way Blue Prince did.

I'd load up a run around lunch at the old job, finish at the tale end, and then have a run going in the background of work for probably the rest of the day. But it was fine, because everyone else there was doing the same thing.

There is a flow to Blue Prince that is inherently different than most other puzzle games – like the exceptional The Roottrees Are Dead from early in 2025 or the most recent Séance of Blake Manor, both of which takes after Obra Dinn and Golden Idol and would be on this list if this were a top 20. But because Blue Prince is a roguelite, it's as much about solving the puzzle as it is about lucking into the perfect combination.

This luck-based puzzle solving can be a little frustrating, but the game does such a good job of giving you tools to manipulate and navigate that RNG that it became just another kind of puzzle to solve (this changes in the very endgame, but we're not talking about that).

It's one of the smartest puzzle games in years.

#6: Hades 2

Hades is one of the greatest action games ever made, and easily captured players far better than most AAA games in the same genre. So how do you possibly follow that up with a sequel?

That seemed to be Supergiant's question from the very beginning with Hades 2, and they absolutely nailed it. From the first time I played Hades 2 in early access, I felt that potential, and there wasn't a single moment in the entire EA window where I felt like it was falling behind the original. That's impressive enough for a standard sequel, but living up to Hades? Come on.

If Hades 2 commits any sin, it's that it's a little safe and more (even if it's better) Hades. That is not a problem, and is exactly what I wanted, but it's also partially why it's not at the top of nearly as many GOTY lists this time around.

Even so, it's impossible to imagine my list without Hades 2 featuring prominently. I definitely fall into the camp of people who want to see something brand new from Supergiant the next time around, but they're so damn good at what they do that they could put out a Hades game every two years for the next two decades and every one would probably make it onto my GOTY list that year.

#5: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle feels like it should've been the most shocking game of last year. It's a movie game based on a franchise that hasn't been good since before I was born. Historically, the odds aren't great there. But the second they announced MachineGames would be developing Indie, I knew it was going to be perfect. And I was right.

The end of 2024 was just the herald of the shit show that 2025 became. But The Great Circle was such a welcome distraction from it all. It's simultaneously cozy and extremely prescient – there was no greater time to be punching out some fascists (except right now, because the present is always the correct time to punch a fascist). And I inhaled every journal entry and collectible there was.

It was a game I immediately wanted to share with my dad, who I have fond memories watching Indy with as a kid at home and then as a teenager at an all-day movie marathon hosted by our local theater. I told myself that I needed to remember this for GOTY 2025, as it wasn't eligible for our old site's awards because of how late it came out. And when my dad and I went to see The Last Crusade when it came back to theaters earlier this year, I was reminded that – as much as I love that movie – The Great Circle is somehow the best Indy has been since Raiders of the Lost Ark.

And that's why, 13 months later, it's here.

#4: Donkey Kong Bananza

Donkey Kong Banaza is so damn good that it prompted me to hook up my Wii U and 100% Donkey Kong 64 immediately after.

That's all you need to know.

#3: 9 Kings

9 Kings came out of nowhere for me at a super weird time. It was the end of May, and Jeff and I were just about to launch Big Friendly Guide, our guides-based blog that eventually led to Rogue. I had just been laid off from my dream job of 9 years, my wife had been laid off three weeks before and was in the interview process for a new job (which she got, hurray), and I was about to travel to Bungie for a preview trip I initially booked for my former employer.

I genuinely do not remember how 9 Kings came into my life, but I think I just checked Steam and found it. And man, this little thing has grown on me month after month since I first played it. I cannot remember an early access this aggressive, with new characters and even entirely new modes every few months, and significant patches every two weeks or so.

And even without that new content, the strategy of it all is so tight and fluid that even failed runs lead to an immediate restart to try and get that win.

I don't know how much longer 9 Kings has in early access, and 2026 is looking to be an incredible year for games already. But if you told me that, next December, 9 Kings is my #1 games of 2026, I would shrug and probably agree that that sounds pretty plausible.

Run, do not walk, to play 9 Kings.

#2: The Bazaar

When I was in college, League of Legends was my obsession. I had it so bad (even though I sucked bad and never got above Gold), that when my longtime bestie and former co-worker Austen Goslin and I backpacked through Europe in college, we had to stop at an internet café for a few hours and play some matches. And this was on a trip where we went to the EU League esports studio to watch some games and sat in our hostel in Paris while watching the League competitive league on my iPad.

The Bazaar is the first time I've been that consumed by a game since I stopped playing League in 2019 or so. For the first 10 months of 2025, I played at least one game every single day. And I was absolutely terrible for most of that time. But it's the first of my obsession games I've ever been truly good at and, eventually, reached max rank.

I wish it wasn't so extremely difficult to describe The Bazaar – although I've tried – because it would be one of the biggest games ever made if it wasn't. But alas, instead it's just a fantastic game that regularly gets infused with new content every few weeks and is still teasing new heroes to come in 2026.

And just as a bonus, it's such a good game to play for parents, as I can run it on my laptop while my daughter and I watch SpongeBob on Saturdays, and I can get up anytime to get her a drink or a snack. Plus she loves opening treasure chests after I win.

But speaking of parent games ...

Ryan's Choice: Death Stranding 2: On the Beach

I have no problem admitting that I was emotionally manipulated by Hideo Kojima in 2025. And if Death Stranding is what we get from that, he's free to emotionally manipulate me every day.

I was a fan of the original Death Stranding, even before all the great Director's Cut edition stuff. But Death Stranding 2 just elevates the series to another level. The performances are just so damn good, and the delivery-based gameplay is even better than the original. I have OCD, so getting to build out this incredible world that allows me to become a super-efficient delivery boy in the apocalypse? Thank you, Mr. Kojima, may I have another?

But what Death Stranding does well across the board for all, it does even better for parents, in my experience. It's a game about the deep fear and anxiety of losing a child, and what happens to someone when that anxiety becomes real.

My daughter is a little older than Lou at the start of the game, but she does have that light blonde hair. And I'm not sure I've ever been hit harder by a game. It pulled me into the world and had me willingly empathizing with Norman Reedus, which is an incredible feat on its own. I'm not "this media is making me upset, I have to stop," but I almost turned it off during a particularly traumatic cutscene in the first two hours.

It's rare that games truck in grief so effectively – although it is funny that this and Expedition 33 came out in the same year, as it also nails its melancholy grief narrative – and Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is therapeutic in its approach. It's beautiful for parents, but that's only a piece of what makes the game so great. It just happens to be the perfect time for it to hit me this hard. I'm not sure I've been as emotionally invested in a game since Mass Effect 3, which came out a few months before I graduated high school, as I was preparing to say goodbye to all of my friends.

And that's why Death Stranding 2 is my personal Game of the Year.