Branching Path: Dave Francisco’s Top 10 Games of 2025

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2025 was a challenging year, both for the video game industry and for me personally. Because of everything going on, I ended up playing a lot of older games, or titles specifically chosen for their nostalgic appeal. Honestly, it was probably good I couldn’t fully participate in the RPG Site’s game of the year discussions, as I didn’t have enough time to properly experience many of the leading contenders.

Despite a busy schedule, I managed to find time to play some great games that came out in 2025. Here’s a quick list of my top picks.

The Honorable Mentions

This section is for games I enjoyed a lot but didn’t have enough time to fully experience, or that deserve a mention even if they weren’t quite among my top picks of the year.

  • Umamusume: Pretty Derby – If you’re the kind of dweeb I am, with little time to spare for games about actual sports, Umamusume’s diabolical blending of cute anime girls with no less than horse racing brings the joy and pain of sports-watching to the dweeb-like-me audience. There’s something real and true about the exhilaration of watching the horsegirl you trained for the last hour or so take first place at the Arima Kinen despite struggling with training failures and debilitatingly slow metabolism. 
  • Stories from Sol: The Gun-Dog – The PC-98 was before my time when it comes to gaming, but even without that background (besides a few Windows ports of PC-98-era adult games), one can see the sheer love that went into The Gun-Dog’s presentation. The story itself also feels somewhat vintage in the best way, tapping into that vein of military anime-inflected sci-fi that feels underutilized in contemporary games and anime series. I’m excited to see where Space Colony Studios sets its next set of Stories from Sol.
  • Skin Deep – The last few years have seen an excellent run of killer immersive sims emerge from the indie space, but for my money nothing hit quite like Skin Deep, which combines a nonlinear focus on being Die Hard or McGuyver in Space with developer Blendo Games’ goofy sense of humor and unique aesthetic. Nina Passedena should be an all-time game protagonist.

10) Suikoden I & II HD Remaster: Gate Rune and Dunan Unification Wars

Last year, I followed RPG Site’s guidelines and left out remasters and certain remakes from my top picks. However, the re-releases this year were too impressive to ignore, especially considering my preference for revisiting beloved games. The Suikoden I&II HD Remaster Gate Rune and Dunan Unification Wars collection was especially deserving of recognition, as these games had been long overdue for an update. Konami’s remaster was subtle, focusing on quality-of-life improvements, bug fixes – including finally fixing the Earth magic! – slightly improved artwork, and a refined English translation.

Despite its age, the HD remaster brought Suikoden back into the spotlight for modern gamers, and it suggests we might see more Suikoden games updated in the future – unless Konami focuses all its efforts on the new game, Suikoden Star Leap, which appears to be a mobile gacha title.

9) Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles

Along with Suikoden 2 and Final Fantasy VI, Final Fantasy Tactics is one of the console RPGs that most shaped my gaming tastes. I didn’t fully understand how brilliant it was until I played it again as an adult, when I was finally able to grasp all of its complex details.

Square Enix’s remastered version of the game is a great return to form. While it cuts some content from the original Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions, it brings the game to new platforms with a user-friendly interface and helpful features that speed up gameplay. Though it’s hard to call this the ultimate version without a specific character class I really enjoyed, it’s still a fantastic game that I highly recommend.

8) Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road

Here at RPG Site, we sometimes jokingly refer to a game as the “super game.” This originally came from Sega’s internal codename for a big, ambitious project, but I think it also fits games like Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road, Level-5’s incredibly detailed and over-the-top anime football RPG. As Josh mentioned in his article, Victory Road really makes you believe football is the most important thing in the world, and it delivers all the excitement you’d expect. The fact that it’s also a really good RPG, covering everything you’d see in a typical sports anime, is just a bonus. Similar to Umamusume, Inazuma Eleven genuinely loves its sport, and that passion shines through, making it a fun and easy game to recommend even if you’re not a football fan.

7) Dispatch

I’ve really been missing games like this one. I used to love Telltale Games, and when the company closed a few years ago, I feared we wouldn’t see that kind of story-driven experience again. Thankfully, former Telltale employees have been working at other studios and starting their own projects, and we’re now seeing some great results. Dispatch is a particularly impressive example, cleverly turning superhero stories into a workplace drama – it’s arguably one of the best games to follow the classic Telltale formula. It also looks and feels more polished than many older Telltale games, making it just as enjoyable to watch as a high-quality animated show as it is to play, with choices that truly feel impactful.

6) Avowed

I’ve been really impressed with every game Obsidian has made in the Pillars of Eternity universe. The first one felt like a welcome return to those classic RPGs I grew up with, and Deadfire, while not as popular, took that same feel to a brand new, awesome world – and added ships! Now, Avowed does something similar by switching to a first-person perspective, and you can tell they learned a lot from making The Outer Worlds. Honestly, it’s been a blast exploring some of the coolest fantasy locations I’ve seen all year. It’s a good length adventure, I really liked the characters I played with, and the first-person melee combat is easily one of the best I’ve ever experienced. Avowed might not reinvent the wheel, but it absolutely delivers on everything it sets out to do.

5) Ghost of Yotei

Staying true to what fans enjoyed in the original, Ghost of Yotei feels very much like a second take on Ghost of Tsushima by Sucker Punch. It leans even harder into the classic samurai films that inspired it, all while maintaining that beautiful, fantastical depiction of Japan’s northern frontier (Hokkaido). While the story of grief and revenge wasn’t groundbreaking – it’s a common theme in many big PlayStation games – strong acting and the sheer joy of exploring a stunning version of Japan and battling enemies kept things engaging. Plus, playing the shamisen and befriending a wolf companion were nice additions.

4) Assassin’s Creed Shadows

While Ghost of Tsushima and its earlier game felt almost like fantasy due to their distance from reality, Assassin’s Creed Shadows felt more grounded in history, even though it openly embraced a dramatic, cinematic style. The game’s depiction of Japan – particularly its forests, environments, and changing seasons – is incredibly vivid and impressive. Plus, Shadows improves on the core gameplay of recent Assassin’s Creed games, making it the most accessible entry in the series since Origins.

3) Dragon Quest I&II HD-2D Remake

Square Enix has been releasing RPGs with a unique retro-modern style, and honestly, it’s thanks to that trend that I finally discovered the Dragon Quest series. Artdink did an amazing job of updating a classic game while still keeping what made it special, allowing a new generation to appreciate it. While these remakes are different from the originals, they’ve helped me understand why so many people have fond memories of the Erdrick trilogy. I still have the main theme stuck in my head!

2) Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy

You sometimes play a game and feel like nothing similar exists today, but that’s usually not the case. Tastes change, and games often become less popular or blend into new genres, only to reappear again later on.

Despite its extremely long playtime and varying quality across different storylines, *The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy stands out as a unique game. It’s a massive adventure game that truly lives up to the name of its developer, “Too Kyo” Games.

1) Death Stranding 2: On the Beach

While Death Stranding 2 isn’t a bad game, it doesn’t quite reach the heights of the original, largely because the first game was so unique and groundbreaking. Death Stranding felt complete as a standalone experience, and I wouldn’t have minded if it had ended with a memorable, final twist, allowing the developers to move on to new projects. It was a game that didn’t necessarily need a sequel.

Honestly, I’m so happy this sequel actually happened. It really let Kojima do his thing – you know, bring in all his famous friends, show off his amazing taste in music, and just create something totally unique and on a huge scale. It’s the kind of artistic freedom you rarely see, and I really appreciate that he got to do it.

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2026-01-04 22:58