I am obsessed with octopath 0. I will be honest the first five hours aren’t exactly the most riveting but I’m 10 in and can’t put it down. Once you get a full team of 8 it takes off
Ok so I recently did my top albums in that thread so I figured I'd do my top videogames of the year here Honkai Star Rail: Amphoreus Expedition 33 TitS remake Xenoblade x remaster AC Shadows BL4 Octopath 0 Avowed The Outer Worlds 2 Oblivion remaster Honkai has the edge over E33 simply because it's a story that has been expanded on since January of this year so it's basically been a continuously updated expansion. That and as a fan of Greek mythology, I found myself absolutely loving it. They attempted a Greek tragedy and they absolutely nailed it. I probably could have just done a top 5 but octopath and BL4 deserve recognition. Games I have yet to play from this year that I need to are Hell Is Us, Cronos, Death Stranding 2, and Ghost of Yotei. I'm sure the last two would have ended up on my list. Now that I think about it I think these are really the only 2025 games I played? I spend most of the year playing other gacha and catching up in the Trails franchise so a majority of my time was spent on older titles.
Peak and RV There Yet were great co-op experiences. Clair Obscur obviously incredible...and I have come around to loving Arc Raiders after initially losing interest. I'm usually late to the party on new games, I'm sure I will try some more out next year. My backlog is insane...
I have never played a gacha game, is Honkai a good one to start with? I don't think I'd have interest in spending time on multiple games, but I'd be interested in trying one or two to potentially put some hours into.
Clair Obscur was like lightning in a bottle. First ever game from a relatively small team, who was unknown. It's not like they had people from previous studios or something. RPGs themselves are niche, and turn based are even more niche in the year of our lord 2025. I remember when the price was announced, even people in this thread were doubtful it would turn out a success. I really hope the JRPG gods in Japan are able to study and understand what made this game work....turn based can still exist nowadays, it just has to be GOOD.
Honestly it really depends what your taste is. Honkai is a turn based sci fi RPG. Then you've got Wuthering Waves which is also sci fi but it's an open world action game with combat similar to Bayonetta. There's also fantasy based if that's more your taste. They also tend to be very anime, so depends on how much you can stand common tropes of anime lol. Another thing of note is, they can be time consuming with all the upgrading your character and weapon and skills etc. The good news is they're free so you can always see if one actually grabs you. It's entirely possible to play these without spending any money as the main story mode isn't difficult at all.
Seriously, when I was playing it when it was still CotC, as soon as Auguste appeared a meme was born. What a villain. Lol.