Cool Games I Played in 2025
Last year happened! Isn't that something? I feel like I hit rock bottom every other week last year, and there was so much bleakness in the world too. Things probably wont be looking up for a while but we have games as a means of providing a spot of warmth. I did play a lot of really awesome games last year and I'd love to take a chance to talk about some highlights that made my year a little less terrible.
Mirror's Edge
Technically one of the first games I played ever. though it was the ipod version. I must've been around seven when I played that but after fifteen (god) long years of it being in the outer corners of my mind, I finally sat down and played it. Great game! So many cool things to talk about here.
The start does a really good job at dropping you into the world and naturally introducing the characters in a way where you feel like you already know them. It doesn't take too much time to explain the factions at play and instead lets you get right to running.
Mirror's Edge's main draw, its movement, feels wonderful. All incredibly responsive and is backed by amazing sound design, covering every step and the rustling of Faiths clothes. It's a slight letdown that by halfway through the game you get less chances to "just run" and have to deal with a lot more "look for where you're going", or combat segments. Which aren't too bad either but there's a flow you kinda begin to miss. Possible skill issue since it turns out a lot of things have a second, less obvious but swifter way through. Those are really fun to notice.
Last point I want to properly touch-up on here is combat. You can choose to either use your "parkour kung-fu" to take down opponents, or you can disarm them and pick up their weapons. Did you know this is my favourite shooter? I enterred most fights by finding the weakest guy, knocking him out, and using his weapon to clean up the rest of the bad guys. There's a disarm mechanic here too but its really tight to use, to the point where it feels kinda broken. Music for the game rocks btw!
UNBEATABLE
Hey, this game came out! I'd been loosely following since a friend showed it to me back in 2020 and over that time expectations had just shot higher with each new cool and awesome song or trailer. It managed to meet and beat those expectations!
It's all awesome! Every character, moment, song, and set-piece just gush with the full development cycle worth of love. It's all so alive! You can go into a random corner off the path from where you're meant to be and you'll get a funny interaction that makes you give a small, genuine smile. The charts all feel super punchy too! I'd like to say more about it but I've usually been too scared to touch rhythm games so I've nothing to compare it to or sense of language to use. I've also only gone through the last chapter once, on an unfinished build and was really distracted by a headache, so my thoughts are incredibly half-baked. I would've been playing it instead of writing this, with the passing of the year but I'm too skittish to sit down and play an entire 6-10 hour game in one sitting on this new years passing.
A really nice thing about UNBEATABLE is that I was actually part of a playtest! It was really late-stage, as in after the initial release date late-stage, so I don't think anything I said would've been too-too, if at all impactful/helpful, especially combined with it being my first rhythm game, meaning I couldn't really say much on the gameplay systems. I'm still really thankful for the opportunity. If life didn't have an array of sucker punches lined up behind any door I try to open, I'd ideally be doing this for a lot more games. Shows me I need to play a lot more games so I can be prepared if I'm ever given such an opportunity again. (Haha any game dev reading this hmu <3<3)
Arcade mode rules btw. Most of my playtime comes from there.
Umineko
I don't read often and when I do it's usually reading the first chapter and a half of something on a train ride home, before shelfing that book and forgetting about it. I used to read a lot of manga too, but way less overtime, having only read two in the first quarter of the year. All this to say I'm not the best or most attentive reader, so it took me very much by surprise when Umineko gripped me by the throat and managed to make me read the first nineteen hours in two sittings over two days! please ignore me taking about six months to read the rest
I know I'm talking about games here but it's eaten me up from the inside and out. Huge recommendation for those who like mystery and are willing to make the what took me a hundred and thirty hours time investment. Willard is my fictional husband btw get your own k thanks ^^.
I Am Your Beast
We're gaming again! I first saw posts about this game when it released. I wishlisted and promptly forgot about it until the UNBEATABLE breakout edition announcement. I feel kinda silly for not giving it attention sooner.
I Am Your Beast feels like an adrenaline high. Everything's incredibly snappy. You spend two minutes in a level, probably dying repeatedly, and then you lock in like someone put a microchip that makes you god in your brain. It has the weapon pick-up system I liked from Mirror's Edge, but it's in a MUCH faster environment that forces you to be really calculated with what you're doing. Soundtrack for all of this bangs btw. It probably has some hidden frequency that activates the brain microchip.
There's a really nice story for this game too. Oddly enough in a game where you feel good for shooting your gun well, you get really attached to Harding's desire to not have to shoot at all. It's pretty much all little audio logs between levels and they do fantastic jobs at making the characters feel real.
The games short, about six hours or so but you'll likely find yourself playing it in a lot of bite-sized chunks over the course of a week. Cool challenge stuff if you still want more from it.
Final Fantasy XIV Online
Is this cheating? I mean I'm always playing this one. I moreso want to talk about things I did in the game in 2025 here.
For starters, cruiserweight! I loved this tier despite not clearing. It's definitely a step-up from light-heavyweight in terms of both difficulty and encounter design. Theyre're full of character, and fun enough for me to not get tired of them but I sincerely hope next tier I don't have to spend two weeks per fight minimum ever again.
Forked Tower of Blood. I was progging real good when my group went into m8s despite me having a lot of trouble with the prior fights. How did that happen? I did week two prog of Forked Tower with ulti project people, which is what I want to talk about here. I spent two weeks in two vcs with people waaay out of my league in terms of skill, but it was incredibly fun time and I learned a lot from them. Effectively studying ahead, learning to understand a mechanic instead of how to resolve it, vod review etc etc. Things like that which any seasoned raider would tell you. If not for a three year long D&D campaign wrapping up, I'd probably say that was the most fun I had this year.
The Unending Coil of Bahamut (Ultimate). I was playing monk instead of my usual sage here, a nice chance to play something different before next tier sends me back to healer jail. It's an older fight, the design is incredibly different from anything else I'd done so far in the game, but by god I hope they do some of those things again because this fight is awesome! It was a nice chance to flex the knowledge I had been given while progging Forked, which yielded amazing results. Outside of initial Nael confusion it made my personal prog go so much smoother than it had for the savages or dips into ultis my group had done before. Studying is awesome! Here's to another fruitful year with this game, hoping to get UWU, TEA and DSR done after savage <3.
Honorable Mentions
Dread Delusion
The second and third areas here rock so much. I'm usually not a fan of oblivion-style rpgs, as evident by a fnv playthrough thats gotten 10 hours in tiny bits over the year but I fucked heavy with the vibes here. I'd take a look if you like games like that.
Dark Souls I and II
Replayed these two. DS1 still rocks. I did a killer build with the lifehunt scythe that let me three-shot most bosses. DS2... I don't hate it anymore. I still have a mountain of issues with it but I've started to get that lifegems are awesome.
Risk of Rain 2
I found my roguelike. If I have an hour or two to kill, I'll open it up and do a run. There's a lot of small objectives to go for and just chasing these down can take you in deep, especially with the recent Alloyed Collective expansion giving you way more to do in a run. A Moment Whole is one of the coolest places ever.
Motorslice (Demo)
Apparently the game was meant to release last year but got delayed? I'll be waiting with great excitement. It was a short demo I found in steam nextfest and it's really promising. Cool techy girl with a chainsaw and robot companion so the vibes are there. I super urge you to check this one out. I've not played Shadow of the Colossus but imagine that game on a construction site.
Deltarune
I missed a lot here, which I really want to go back for. I found a lot of extended sequences a tad frustrating, and some fights way too difficult but it turns out I was just missing a lot of equipment. As in I was basically still using the starting stuff. Even though I left with an initially sour taste, people talking about this game have made up for most of my youtube background audio. Turns out if you go off the beaten path, there's a lot to look for and do. If I finished the survey program when it first came out I would not have left my undertale phase. I'm looking forward to replaying this after I'm done with savage.
Grobnopolis | Last Days (Demo)
I don't remember too much of this one but it's another demo, and I like giving demos attention. It fits in a barrel of a lot of ps1-esque thrillers vibe-wise but that barrel tends to have a lot of good stuff in them, if the tastes of the wider internet are to be trusted. There's a really cool oppressive atmosphere here.
Pokemon Violet
I'm not far in this one but I'm really happy with it. I was sorely disappointed by sword/shield but I'm loving Paldea. It's got enough life to make up for what Galar lacked.
Lies of P
Ending with a banger here. I'm not far in this one but I'm already in love. It's so clearly built of the soulsborne DNA while also containing enough to make it become it's own very distinct game. It's really nice to be stumbling against bosses and still be learning in a soulslike again. I'd probably have finished it by now if not for savage prep, and wanting to learn scholar consuming me. It's in a bucket with Higurashi and Pokemon Violet of things I'll be picking at during not-raiding days probably.
Wrap up
I played a lot of cool games this year! Following a lot of people who do, or did game journalism and also managing to get a taste of some behind-the-scenes stuff for games, I really really really wanted to take a chance to talk about games. It's fun when you get to talk about things you like and it turns out you can just click a button and start typing.
I've also watched a lot more movies this year, but I'm waaaay underequipped to talk about them. Movies are awesome, the one that stuck with me the most this year was probably Sorcerer(1977). I think Long Day's Journey into Night(2018) would also be there but it's one I sorely need to watch again.
Happy gaming! I had a lot of fun writing this, even if its not on par with any of those big names I follow. I'll get more cool with words someday <3. You'll be hearing from me again when next something burrows its way into my brain like the Baldur's Gate tadpole.