My Top 5 Favorite Games I Played in 2025

Giving games that didn’t release this year some love!

December really went by fast. As the end of the year approaches, it’s time for everyone’s personal Game of the Year lists to be released and I am no exception. Though, I do some things differently. I do my Top 5 as I do have a hard time picking which game I loved the most and I do two lists. One list for games that purely came out in the current year, aka Game of the Year, and another list for games that didn’t come out in the current year. After all, why not give some love to games I also enjoyed playing this year but didn’t come out this year. And today I’m going over the games I enjoyed the most that didn’t come out this year. I honestly knew four of the five games I wanted to put on this list, but man was it a tight run between three games for the last slot. I was a bit devastated this time around though. There was a game that I really wanted to include, but when I rechecked the release date for the version that I played it came out this year. And sadly, it did not make the cut for my GOTY list. If I didn’t play the console version it would have made this list, but alas I didn’t play the Steam version so it could qualify.

I already made references to what qualifies a game to make this list, but here’s the rules that I go by:

1. It had to be games I completed (though endless games do get a pass if I played any)
2. It couldn’t be a game that was on any of my previous lists
3. It can’t have a release date for this year
4. The release date for the version I played counts as its release date for my list (like if the Steam release was last year, but it got a console port this year, it counts if I played the Steam port).
5. This is a strict Top 5 list (no runner ups or ties!).

With that out of the way, let’s get into the top 5 games I played this year, that didn’t release in 2025, in no particular order:

Steven Universe: Save the Light

I am still so upset that the Steven Universe games got delisted without warning right before Christmas. I was literally going to buy both games after being hesitant over hearing how buggy they were and then I found them suddenly gone. Luckily, the second game in the Steven Universe game series, aka Save the Light, got a physical release so I was still able to play it. Which also made me more sad because I really enjoyed Save the Light. Despite wanting to play the Steven Universe RPGs for a while, I went in with low expectations and the game actually surprised me a lot. The story was good, I liked exploring the various locations, the puzzles were good, the combat was enjoyable and challenging, the bosses were well made, and the playable characters synergized pretty well. I did also really like the art style here and the voice acting was so good. You can tell this team knew how to make a great RPG and it does really seem like they were fans of the show. It’s terrible that the Steven Universe RPG trilogy were suddenly taken down as you can tell that this one was at least made with a lot of love and, as you can see, it managed to make this list.

The Forgotten City

I still remember how interested I was when this game was first being shown off and then how excited I was when I spotted the game in store. I had no idea this released on Playstation, and at the time I didn’t have a Xbox, and buying it without a second thought. Granted, I didn’t play it immediately, but I did play it this year and I loved it so much. You can definitely tell this was originally a Skyrim mod and I did have some nitpicks, but this is a really enjoyable game with an interesting and engaging time loop story. Also, special shout out to the game having an auto follow for moments where you have to follow characters.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

If you told me last year that I would absolutely love this game I wouldn’t have believed you. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown was a game where the first trailer I saw did not make a good first impression for me and I didn’t really pay attention to it after that as I don’t play many metroidvania games. It wasn’t until I saw it at the store at the lowest price it was ever at before I thought about it again and I grabbed it after watching two short videos. I would say this was a bit of an impulse buy, even though I waited a week, as sometimes buying a game that doesn’t leave my mind does backfire on me. However, I am so glad that I ended up buying The Lost Crown. I loved this game right out of the gate. This game feels so satisfying and fun to play, I loved learning all of the lore and backstories, I found it to be a really well crafted metroidvania and I loved exploring Mount Qaf, there were some really cool story moments, and they absolutely nailed the visuals and soundtrack here. Not to mention the map where they added a really unique mechanic with the memory shards where you can take a screenshot of your screen that you can reference when you look back at that map icon. I’m not kidding when I say that this is a mechanic that is so life changing that it’s hard not to wish every other metroidvania had this. The tailend of the game is the weakest part of this game, but everything else ended up being so top notch and I couldn’t stop playing. I’m so sad that we most likely will never get a sequel.

However, I did buy the DLC and I did not enjoy it at all. I’m not holding this against the main game, but man the DLC disappointed me.

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective

Last year a DS game made it to this list and it turns out a DS game is making it to this list this year as well! Ghost Trick is one of those games that everyone raves about, especially since this came from the mind of the creator of Ace Attorney. As someone that loves Ace Attorney, I had to get this game and of course the remaster got announced a couple months after I bought a DS copy for more than I probably should have. Though, I don’t regret playing this game the way it was originally intended. Anyway, Ghost Trick ended up to be an amazing game. I was a bit worried it wouldn’t live up to all the hype and it easily did. Ghost Trick has a really interesting story that handled the time travel aspect so well that there’s no plot holes, the characters are well written and memorable, and the gameplay was unique and enjoyable. It also has Shu Takumi’s unique style while also feeling different enough from Ace Attorney that you don’t really compare the two. I am so glad I played Ghost Trick on the DS as it definitely lived up to all the hype.

Grand Theft Auto V

I am going to be really cliche with this one, but I really did like GTAV. I know this game has issues, partly due to rewrites, circumstances that happened during development, and due to Online being such a success (and I’m so salty Rockstar cancelled the story DLCs); but I can’t deny that I had so much fun playing this game. This was honestly the first GTA game that really hooked me and one that I ended up finishing. I was not going to do everything (like hunting down all the letter or spaceship parts even though there’s guides showing you where every piece is at), but I honestly really enjoyed the story and gameplay. The story really ended up hooking me and had me engaged wanting to find out what happened next. I really liked how the story was structured, how it was told, and really liked how the stories of Michael, Trevor, and Franklin connected. I also really liked the dynamic they all had as well as the side characters. In terms of if I have a favorite main character, I like all of them equally *pulls Franklin aside and whispers” you’re my favorite. I also ended up enjoying the gameplay a lot. There were a mission or two that I didn’t like (like the yoga mission where Amanda and Fabien are so annoying), but I had so much fun that I didn’t notice the criticism that I saw others had towards the missions here. I did also think the heists were fun and I liked how you could take different approaches and how your crew affected it. I know the various criticisms people had over this installment and how a lot of people prefer previous installments like GTAIV, but at the end of the day what matters is that I really liked the game. It took me 12 years to finally play GTAV, which I mainly picked up on a discount as I was listening to lore videos, and I’m glad I did. I didn’t play Online, but I’d say Story Mode is worth playing and the ending was pretty satisfying even knowing that Online continues the story.