Corridors of Time, the song that plays when you first emerge on the floating islands of Zeal, is my favourite song of the game. It’s also the first song I remember noticing utilize stereo separation on the SNES. I remember thinking that was about as cool as it gets at the time.
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Haha not to completely hijack the thread, but earlier today I mentioned “the new tune” when getting to those exact floating islands and how that whole area rejuvenated my drive with the game. I took 2 screenshots of the islands :-p I found it ironic that my favorite time period is the one that gets sealed soon after :-p About to load the game back up, was playing before dinner. I also had noted how the Tyrano fight got me more curious about the plot, started wondering about cycles but my theories keep being wrong and that is a good thing I am very excited to read the different endings based on when you finish up the game once I finish the game, to put it all in context I assume.
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For posterity, here’s an archive of the 2025 results for Grouvee’s Game of the Year Poll!
First up, the Favorite Game from Other Years. With all games from every year besides 2025 in the running, no single title won out, but it looks like we played and loved a healthy mix of horror games, indies, RPGs, and Soulslikes:
Next up, the awards for specific categories during 2025! For Best Art Direction, the winner was Hollow Knight: Silksong:
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 wins for Best Soundtrack:
Clair Obscur wins again for Best Story:
Pipistrello’s devious yoyo ties with Donkey Kong’s destructive fists for Best Mechanic:
And finally for the specific categories, a smattering of Best Moments:
- “Raising my mutant rat son in Look Outside”
- “The revelation at the end of Act II in Expedition 33”
- “Final reboot in Citizen Sleeper 2”
- “Finding the cog room in Blue Prince”
- “Falling down the giant mudslide for what felt like an eternity in Baby Steps”
- “Gladius splits into three separate wolves midfight - Elden Ring Nightreign”
- “Shooting Hitler in the testicles in Sniper Elite Resistance”
And then we’ve got our Top Ten Games of 2025! Every response that came in was tallied and weighted (e.g. first favorites were worth more than fifth favorites), and what follows are the titles that made the biggest impressions on all of us last year.
At the top we’ve got some Honorable Mentions. There were a ton of games that just missed the cut by one or two points, including Powerwash Simulator 2, Monster Train 2, Deadeye Deepfake Simulator, Blippo+, and Kingdoms of the Dump.
Number Ten (tie): Look Outside and Donkey Kong Bananza
Number Eight: Hell is Us
Number Seven: Hades 2
Number Six: Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo
Number Five (tie): Octopath Traveller 0 and Blue Prince
- Jace on Octopath 0: “With a greatly expanded roster of characters and quality-of-life out the wazoo, [it’s] the best the series has ever been and the best classically-styled RPG of 2025”
- Jasyla on Blue Prince: “A game full of puzzles that I woke up every morning excited to play more of”
Number Three: Death Stranding 2
- Gamer_at_Law: “There is simply nothing like it, not in video games or in any other medium. It follows its own narrative and gameplay rules while somehow staying accessible and engaging. Streamlines and improves on the original in every way”
Number Two: Hollow Knight: Silksong
- BurningKirby: “Silksong left me frustrated almost as often as I had fun with it, but it’s a very polished experience that still managed to stand above all the other new releases I played this year”
Number One: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Cloudrim: “A magnificent tribute to and refinement of classic (J)RPG mechanics and story-telling, masterfully refracted into a generational piece of interactive art”
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