Hello, and welcome to part 2 of my favorite games of 2025 ranking. Here, I will go over the games I actually managed to finish, and had a great time with. Let's get into it:
At number 10 is Zenless Zone Zero, Mihoyo's third big budget gacha game after Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail, completing the trilogy of Mihoyo's gacha masterpieces. Coming into 2025, I wasn't sure if I would even play Zenless. I ranked it rather low on my 2024 list, and while I had fun with it for a bit, it didn't grab me, and I didn't see myself sticking with it long term.
But then, in early 2025, Zenless announced a big update, a reboot of sorts. The TV mode, controversial for many, was being removed and replaced with simple platforming levels ala fall guys. Additionally, a free limited 5 star character was being given out. Version 1.4 of Zenless was big, and encouraged discussion of the game in gaming circles. I decided to use the opportunity to give the game another go. I had much story content to catch up on since I hadn't played since launch, and had some new characters to build and experiment with, so why not. Let's see how this game is.
I was surprised at how much Zenless was able to hook me from this moment. It did so for a couple key reasons. First, the combat is so fun and satisfying for a casual action player like myself. Second, I got quite lucky on the gacha and grabbed some excellent characters that were fun to play Third, the story was actually quite good and had moments that hit me hard. Finally, and my god, the best part about this game, and why I stuck with it for much of 2025, is how much it respects your time.
As I said in my write up of Genshin in the first part, nothing turns me off of a gacha game more than learning that there are long story quests to be completed if you want to catch up. My least favorite part of gacha games is how much of a time sink they are. They pressure you to play them every day, doing dailies, weeklies, limited time events, and mandatory story content. It can add up so quickly, and the more gachas I play, the more I've realized that the most important element to me in a gacha, is how much it respects your time.
Of Mihoyo's gacha trilogy, Zenless is easily the one that does this the most. All of the story quests are nice and short, normally only taking a few hours to complete. This makes it easy for players that fall behind to catch up, but this respect of time extends to everything in the game. Dailies are unbelievably short, they take less than 5 minutes, and most of the grinding you need to do for resources to build characters is all done in the same place. It is so quick and easy to just jump in, do some quick grinding, and be done for the day. Zenless is so easy to play compared to every other gacha I've tried, and this is why I fell for it this year.
This respect of time comes from Zenless's smaller and more intimate focus. Unlike Genshin, Star Rail, and other gachas like Wuthering Waves, Zenless creates a small and intimate world for you to just vibe in and relax. The game rarely if ever releases new areas to explore, instead spending patches fleshing out the characters and small locations you can roam around in, and it does wonders for making the world feel real and alive. The music is also phenomenal at creating a relaxing and chill vibe that just makes it a fun game to hang out in.
It's great, this year I was surprised to find that I've fallen in love with Zenless Zone Zero. However, in being a gacha game, I did get burnt out on it during the 2.1 patch, so I have been MIA with it for around 5 months now. However, I am planning to make a return in January, since a character I am highly anticipating will release, and there are rumors the game might be giving away another free limited 5 star. I don't know how long I'll stick with it, it is a gacha game after all. However, I am not afraid of lots of story content to catch up on like I am mihoyo's other games, and that is why I am happy to put Zenless Zone Zero at number 10 on this list. I was certain for the first half of the year that this would be my favorite gacha of the year, and nothing could top it. But then...
I love gacha games. Despite my many reservations towards them, and many problems they have, there is just something so magical about a gacha game releasing, and taking the entire games industry by storm. Because they are free and anyone can play them, when they blow up, they blow up like no other game. I'll never forget in 2020 when Genshin Impact released, and nearly every single person I knew was playing it. It is insane how much these games can capture the gaming community, and how big and alive the communities it creates can become. I was unsure if I would experience something like Genshin anytime soon.
However, it only took five years for that to happen again, when Uma Musume, a game that had been out in Asia for years, finally received its English/Global release this year, and lit the internet on fire. I knew of this game, most anime fans know of the silly anime horse girl racing game, but none of us anticipated how big its English release would be. It was insane seeing this game that I had no initial interest in blow up, seeing big streamers give it a chance and fall way more in love with it than they expected, seeing my friends give it a chance and come to enjoy it, it was incredible. I tried it, and like many, I fell head over heels in love with it. The dialogue is excellent, the presentation is top notch, the gameplay is simple yet addicting, and my god, the horse races are so incredibly hype. You can tell that so much time and effort went into making those races get your blood pumping, and holy hell did they do it well. There were so many races that were fun to watch and actually got me jumping for joy and running in circles, it was unforgettable.
Uma Musume is such a good game, it's so fun to play, but what was really interesting about it, to me personally, is that it was the first non-Chinese gacha game I had played. In a sense, it is one of the older gacha games, the ones before Genshin Impact released and changed everything, so learning about how it works, and how gacha games used to be, and still are in some cases, was fascinating. Unlike the big budget gacha games, the scope of musume is so much smaller, it isn't even trying to be a AAA game. However, where I looked down on these games in the past due to their lower budget, I now understand how this genre was able to grow so quickly before Genshin. Uma Musume, like other gachas, embraces its smaller scope, and intentionally tries to create a nice and easy experience that doesn't waste your time and is just, well, fun to play.
One thing I absolutely adore about Musume is how it doesn't have any mandatory story content. The story is very optional, you can skip everything if you want and will be fine. There is no grand adventure to save the world together that requires you to remember tons of little details, it is a simple game about horse girls that want to be the fastest and love running, and the struggles that come with that. This means it is so easy to take a break from the game, but it also means that you can just ignore the story and enjoy the gameplay. After sitting through god knows how many hours of cutscenes in Mihoyo's gacha games, this meant the world to me.
Of course, this could only work if the gameplay was great, and let me tell you, Uma Musume's gameplay is fantastic. The gameplay functions in three basic elements: stories told through cutscenes (which you can ignore, and I did), training umas correctly in the best stats to get a great build (the main mode of the game), and races, where you race the umas you've built in exciting matches. These three elements: story, building, and races, all come together in the core of the game: career mode. In career mode, you spend three years with your uma of choice, using support cards of your choice, to train them and help them get through their personal story to be the best uma. Think of career mode like Persona 5, but only the social parts of the game, in which you plan out how to spend each day, and then watch cutscenes bonding with umas, seeing their character growth and progression, and at particular checkpoints, embark on close races to see if your career can continue and you were able to build your uma well enough. If you can successfully get through all three years and clear all mandatory races, then congratulations, you've cleared this uma's career.
You might remember that in my Persona 5 Royal review, I loved the social half of that game, but disliked the dungeon half. When I realized Uma Musume is basically the half of Persona I loved without the bad half, I fell in love immediately. The career mode is so fun because every week you have to pick what to do, and there is no right answer. Tons of randomness changes up how every run goes, being able to get a better build after each try feels great, and the stories of these umas are surprisingly excellent. I was floored at how many of the career stories touched me, and there were even a few that got me real emotional. These umas, that are trying their best to succeed and are struggling with things we can all relate to in this cold dark world of ours, they are wonderful, and the game does a great job at selling you on each character. I love how grounded the stories are, compared to games that are about epic clashes of worlds or what not, these are just personal stories about characters trying to grow and improve in a competitive world. They're great, and importantly, there's great variety among the stories, making every uma's character arc worth experiencing.
Now, I'm sure you might have some questions. Didn't I just say I don't like stories in my gacha games and prefer to skip them? I did, and I do skip all the event stories and character stories in Uma Musume. But the career mode stories are different. Unlike the event and character stories, the career stories are directly tied to the gameplay, making them more personal and relatable since they will be effected by your choices throughout the career. The story explains why you are working with this uma for 3 years, what their goals are and why, and it gives meaning to the training and racing gameplay you put your uma through. It connects the gameplay to the story, which does wonders in getting me invested.
What's even cooler is how the gameplay and story effect each other. Each uma has different base stats and preferences, and different goals in their career, and this determines where the key races in the career are. Every uma has different races you will be competing in, and sometimes completely different goals, like amassing a certain number of fans through racing, rather than winning a particular race. What's even cooler, is that in these important races, the placement your uma gets actually effects the following cutscene and how their story and your next goal progresses. If they get first versus third in the race, they will respond differently, and on rare occasions it can even change the path their career takes. There's just something satisfying about seeing the result of your gameplay efforts affect the story.
But wait, there might be another, larger issue you have with what I'm saying. I just said that Uma Musume is fun because you build umas in a run mode constantly, and even though you're replaying the same mode over and over, because you are using different umas, racing in different races, and going for a higher score, it is satisfying. That sounds a lot like a rougelike, which I just said I don't like in my Hades entry. Dear reader, you are correct, and I am proud of your critical thinking skills to pick up on that. Uma Musume is basically a rougelike, and it has me wondering if maybe, actually, I can like the genre. But why, dear reader, have I loved Uma Musume, but disliked Hades?
Let the comparisons begin, sorry Hades fans. In general, I think Uma Musume is just a much better rouge like, at least when it comes to changing up the gameplay. In Hades, when you use a different weapon or build, you're still fighting the same enemies and bosses and playing in a pretty similar manner. In Uma Musume, using a different uma drastically changes things up. Like I said, each uma has a vastly different storyline, which is way more than anything Hades does in its runs, and as I said above, the objectives and how you build your uma can vary pretty wildly. You will build an uma who's goal is amassing fans very differently from one who's goal is to win a particular race. Even more, depending on what particular race you want to win, you will be building your uma very differently.
There's also just, a lot more randomness. You can get random events in which your uma is feeling great and gets a major stat boost, or you can get events where your uma suddenly gets sick and you have to spend weeks doing nothing to recover. Your build is also affected by randomness: the support cards you choose to use, not all of them will show up in your run, it is random which ones show up and which ones don't. Even the storylines of every uma has randomness, as they all have tons of optional story sequences that can occur and will change stat boosts or losses. Hades just doesn't have as much randomness, there aren't rooms that are amazingly good for or amazingly bad, like events in uma musume are, and you would never, say, randomly get sent backwards or forwards in the worlds.
There's also just more do than runs in Uma Musume. While the career run mode is the main part of the game, it's not the only part. As I said, there is the racing mode, in which you use the umas you've built in a variety of different races with different objectives. There's also the story mode, which again, I've largely ignored, but if you want more lore and story stuff, it's there. Hades really disappointed me because there's just not a lot to do outside of runs. Characters barely have anything to say to you, and you can't use your builds for like, epic battles or races or something.
One last thing and I will stop kicking Hades. It is a bit unfair to compare the two, Uma Musume is a gacha game, which means it is constantly adding new characters and support cards to change up how you do runs, and how you can build your umas. However, let's just, take uma musume at launch and compare the two. When Uma Musume launched, it had 26 characters players could roll. Sure, you won't get all of them, but on both of my accounts, from doing only 20 pulls on the character banner, I amassed a roster of 15 umas. The game also launched with over 100 support cards. Again, players will not roll them all, but from doing 30 pulls on the support card banner, both my accounts amassed approximately 30-35 cards (you get a free 10 pull when you start playing, so that would be 40 pulls). This is on the lower end of what players start out with, because creating an account will give you something like 70+ rolls instead of 50.
My point is, 15 umas and 30 support cards gives you so many different ways to play and build in career mode. Hades gives you 6 weapons, SIX! Imagine if Hades had 15 weapons and you didn't have to wait until much later in the game to customize your build outside of randomness. It would be a much better game.
This has been a very long write up, so I will conclude by saying that Uma Musume is really really good. The writing is great, the storylines of the umas are fantastic. They are short and sweet and don't require a large amount of time. The core gameplay of strategizing how to spend your training time is simple yet addicting and fun, as there are no right options so you will constantly be debating what to do each week. The amount of ways you can change up how you play is astounding, and the races are so exciting: even though I've been playing the game daily for nearly 6 months, I still get excited when a race is close. It was easily my biggest surprise of the year, and I would place it higher if not for being a gacha game. I must admit, while I have enjoyed these 6 months, I am starting to feel some burn out, and will be taking a break from it. But if you, my dear friend, are curious about this wild phenomenon, then I implore you to please give it a shot. You will not regret it.
With the gacha games out of the way, we can move on to the Nintendo games, starting with Super Mario Bros Wonder. This is the latest 2D Mario game, and the first that isn't Mario Maker or New Super Mario Bros coded. The game was hailed for its originality, beautiful art style and presentation, and inventive and fun level design through the new wonder mechanic.
You know, I really don't have much to add. I also enjoyed those things, and had fun with Mario Wonder. It was a great time, I love me some 2D Mario. But I also can't say that Wonder left much of a strong impression on me. It was fun, the wonder mechanic was cool, and...yeah. I would have enjoyed getting to play it online with friends, but I was unable to. I was also disappointed that they changed multiplayer so that you cannot bump into other players, as I loved the chaos that comes with that.
But overall I must admit, I can't think of a whole lot to say on Mario Wonder. It was great, the badge system was cool, I didn't have any major issue with it. But it also didn't have any moments that really hit me and left a positive impression. It was fun, I recommend it if you want a fun time.
The me of one year ago said that I enjoyed the first half of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, but wasn't particularly impressed with it. Unless the game greatly improved in its second half, I would likely leave it off the 2025 list.
Well friends, I am happy to report that in fact, after finishing Echoes of Wisdom, I actually found the back half of the game to be a notable improvement over the first half, and came to enjoy this game quite a lot, such that I'm placing it on this list at number seven. Echoes of Wisdom is a really interesting fusion of the 2D Zelda formula and the new systems established by Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The result of this is the echo system, which allows players to create tons and tons of enemies and items all around the world in any way they'd like. It gives players an insane amount of freedom.
While giving players so much freedom carries the risk of making obstacles easy to overcome, the later dungeons of Echos of Wisdom do a fantastic job at creating enemy and puzzle challenges, and have what actually feel like traditional Zelda dungeons, which the series hasn't seen in a long time. They were a lot of fun to navigate and complete, and led to a strong showing that ultimately left me with a positive impression of the game. I'd say I enjoyed it more than Tears of the Kingdom, and considering that was my #5 game in 2023, while this is only #7, I am happy to say that I played a lot of fantastic games this year, and am feeling proud to play video games. Echoes of Wisdom ended up being an excellent game, with a fascinating mechanic that led to a unique kind of Zelda, feeling both new and old. It was fun, and I will remember it fondly.
6. ??? (TBA)
Do you have a game that you have tried to complete multiple times in the past, but never quite been able to finish? A game where you come to know it's first half so well, while the second half for years remains an allusive and alluring mystery? That is my history with Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones, and with its release on the Nintendo Switch Online this year, I finally got to complete it. At last, I could peer behind the curtain of a game I've always enjoyed and always wondered about its conclusion, and could finish what is now one of my favorite Fire Emblems.
As a Fire Emblem fan that dislikes perma death and plays these games for the story more than the tactical gameplay, I loved Sacred Stones. It is one of the easiest Fire Emblems before Awakening, which released in 2013, and is one of the first games in the series to have a world map, random enemy encounters, and a split path, in which the two main characters go in separate directions, and which one you choose to follow will change the second half of the game and its story.
I really like Sacred Stones, I would call it my favorite of the pre-Awakening Fire Emblems I have played. I love that it has dual protagonists and switches between their perspectives in the first half, before uniting and then letting you choose which way to go in the second half, creating instant replay value for seeing what lies in the other path. I love the world map, it contextualizes the world and its story so much better than not having one, and I loved learning about all the different kingdoms and their peoples. It's classic Fire Emblem at its best.
But what really surprised me, and what I came to love about Sacred Stones after finishing it, is the villain. I don't normally get attached to the villains of Fire Emblem games, as they are often evil dragons from a thousand years ago that are not morally grey in the slightest. But the villain of Sacred Stones is, in fact, morally grey, and a complex character that I came to empathize with. What's more, they have a personal history and relationship with the protagonists, which added a great feeling of tragedy to the entire story and its climax. I'm used to Fire Emblem stories ending on a real upbeat and positive note, so the more melancholic tone in the back half of Sacred Stones, plus the complex and personal villain, really touched me. I love when villains are not evil in every way and have some sympathetic traits, and I love when they have a personal relationship with the protagonists, it makes the confrontations with them feel more meaningful.
Sacred Stones has pretty much everything I love in a good Fire Emblem: the gameplay was great and maps were fun, the writing was lovely and the characters were endearing, and the story that tied it all together made for an excellent game that I was personally very happy to finally complete, after so many years of trying and failing. I highly recommend it to anyone curious about the Fire Emblem series.
This concludes part 2 of my favorite games of 2025. Hope you're enjoying this, as there are still 4 (+1) more games to talk about, and I cannot wait to conclude this wonderful year of video games.
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