It’s all been leading to this. In a year with so many great releases, which one did the Siliconera team pick as the best of the best? Honestly, we didn’t expect this one either.
These awards represent the consensus of the Siliconera staff. For more of the year’s award selections, check out our Game of the Year 2025 archive.
Blue Prince
Sure, sure, Dogubomb’s Blue Prince is one of the best games of the year, a generational release for some members of our staff and a great example of why game devs should play more good board games. For sure. And of course, it’s structured so masterfully that it has players who have never been achievement hunters going after all the game’s trophies. We’ve all talked about that. But given that this may be the last time we get a chance to ask: when are y’all patching in Dirigiblocks? We want to see it.
Hades II
For a game that shares so much DNA with its predecessor, it’s wild how fresh and different the gameplay itself feels. Its systems intersect in fresh ways, and the constant shifting of options makes something as simple as fighting a few enemies in a room feel different every time. Very few games these days are for everyone, especially in the indie space, but we’d be hard-pressed to find someone reading this who shouldn’t give Hades II a try.
Winner: Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
Well this was wildly unlikely.
We here at Siliconera have done a lot of reporting over the years on Level-5, especially in its modern era of mass development headaches and constant delays. And with Fantasy Life in particular! But the team got the game over the finish line and out to the public eventually, and — though the seams from patching together pieces from the many development shifts are clearly visible — the resulting game is a ton of fun. Congrats to the developers for all their efforts along the way: Fantasy Life i is the Siliconera Game of the Year 2025.