Haven’t gotten your fill of Video Game Town’s other GOTY content yet? You’re in luck! There’s even more to come this week. Today, you get to peruse the CEO’s favorites for 2025, Out CTO’s list is next, and then we’ll end the year with our meta list of what the industry on the whole picked for their top ten of 2025.
For now, let’s Jack in.
Honorable Mentions
- “Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor”
- “Borderlands 4”
- “Elden Ring: Nightreign”
- “Team Fight Tactics: Tocker’s Trials”
10. ‘Pokémon Go’ (But Only In Japan)
“Pokémon Go” came out in 2016, but if you’re in Japan, it feels like it launched last week. People continue to actively play it everywhere. Taking my first trip to Japan this year was made even better by being able to do raid battles to catch legendary Pokémon, or fighting for the glory of Team Mystic to take over as many gyms as possible. It truly felt like July of 2016 all over again.
9. ‘Elden Ring’ Seamless Coop Mod
Now this is the way “Elden Ring” was meant to be played! You can play with as many friends as you want. You don’t have to worry about being invaded by a sweatlord who hasn’t touched grass since the Obama administration. And, most importantly, you can just walk from Limgrave to Liurnia without having to severe the connection to the world, go to Liurnia yourself, find your friend’s friend sign, summon him back, and do all the other extra crap Fromsoft, in all their infinite wisdom, thought would by so integral to the game.
Easily the best form of “Elden Ring” anything.
8. ‘Fallout 76’
“Fallout 76” is the best Fallout game Bethesda has ever made, and it’s not even close. Every time I go back to this game, it just feels better and better.
Bethesda continues to add new biomes to the map, new enemy types, and new events. We all know the absolute embarrassment this game was at launch, but Bethesda has put in the work to not only fix the problems it had, but actually make it a truly enjoyable Fallout experience.
If you haven’t given it a chance since launch, I recommend giving it another shot the next time it goes on sale.
7. ‘Umamusume: Pretty Derby’
If you like gacha games, you already know why this game is on here. And if you love roguelikes and slice-of-life anime, you will enjoy this slice-of-roguelife.
“Umamusume” is a game where you go through a whole year of training your horse girl to win the various champions cups. Every character in this game is based off a real Japanese race horse with their stats and personality based off of their real-life inspiration.
It is really fun and wholesome — I highly recommend it.
6. ‘Pokémon Legends: Z-A‘
Look, I’m a Pokémon shill. What do you want from me? Gamefreak keeps putting out slop, and I will eat that slop up every single time.
5. ‘Stellar Blade’
“Stellar Blade” is the first dip into the world of AAA games from gacha game developer Shift Up, and they knocked it out of the park. The game tries to walk the line between the slower tactical combat of soulslikes with the flashy combos and special moves like “Bayonetta.”
The major differences depend on the difficulty you choose. Want more of a “Bayonetta” experience? Play it on easy. If you want more of a soulslike, play it on any other difficulty. A fantastic introduction to the soulslike genre, and the soundtrack absolutely slaps.
4. ‘Atomfall’
I kept hearing people calling this game “Fallout in London”. But it isn’t — it’s “Bioshock in London.”
Playing as a man trapped in the quarantined zone from the Windscale nuclear disaster, your mission is to survive. To do this, you will need to sneak around the small towns neighboring the Windscale nuclear powerplant, and work with shady people who all promise you the same thing: Escape.
It is up to you to decide who to trust and what you are willing to do to save yourself. This game was criminally slept on.
3. ‘Digimon Story: Time Stranger’
The best Digimon game ever made! “Digimon Story” is a creature collecting game that puts a distinct spin on the traditional creature catching genre. And no balls are involved, so the devs at Media Vision can sleep easy knowing the Nintendo lawyers will not be after them.
Now, I’m not a fan of turn-based combat, but the creature collecting side of this game and the quickness of the battles really help me overcome the boredom that often starts to set in while playing turn-based RPGs. Plus, it has been so nice seeing all the Digimon from the 2000s anime again!
2. ‘Wild Hearts S’
“Wild Hearts” is so good. The fact that the piss-poor PC port smothered the franchise in the its crib causes me physical pain every time I think about it. Do you like “Monster Hunter?” Play “Wild Hearts.” Play it on any platform that’s not PC. It is so good that I wrote two separate articles about it.
Please play this game!
1. ‘Monster Hunter Wilds’
‘Monster Hunter Wilds’ is so good that I made it to Hunter Rank 100 on both the Xbox and PC all within a nine-month period — over 200 hours across both platforms.
“Monster Hunter Wilds” was also plagued with horrible PC performance for those with low-to-medium specs. Other than that, the game is fantastic. It has the best feeling combat in the series, and is easily my favorite of the franchise.
Image credit: “Digimon Story: Time Stranger,” “Umamusume: Pretty Derby,” “Atomfall,” “Pokémon Z-A”
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