That is a funny thing to say when you just listed Time Stranger in your top 5 - very much an over expensive game with a bunch of predatory DLC stuff.

Everything there is just cosmetics with 30e Season Pass only DLC with game content (was it cut content from main game, i dont think so because story in first DLC have nothing to do with Main Story and you fight mostly new Digimons). As big fun of Digimon i had to have the game. But since then i dont buy games anymore, at least i wont buy new games anymore.

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Expedition 33 and nothing came close to it in my opinion.

Bananza and Mario Kart world where nice though, although I am not all that thrilled about the open worldness of every big new Nintendo title. Sonic Crossworld was refreshing in that regard. I have to complete Dispatch and Ghost to make a fair assessment of those games.

Only three games worth mentioning, haven't played much else from this year, and the few other things I tried weren't anything special.

1. Clair Obscur
2. Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter
3. Hollow Knight Silksong (haven't finished yet, so my opinion might still change, for better or worse. Great game so far.)

Haven't played many new games this year. Currently it has only been the Switch 2 launch title:

1. Mario Kart World

The three wise men are bringing Bananza and MP4 with them, but that will have to wait till next year.

Also got myself some 2024 deals to play around with such as:

• Neva
• The Plucky Squire
• Besiege
• Ace Combat 7
• Surmount
• Pepper Grinder
• Unicorn Overlord
• Heavenly Bodies

Im a PC gamer, so for me it's a 2025 release

For me:

5. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond – I haven't even played it yet, so I'm putting this here as a tentative placement, lol. It will be here by default when I play it, as it'll be the 5th game I fully play through from this year, but I hope I enjoy it enough for it to deserve this spot. Hopefully...

4. Hades II – Nice improvement over the original Hades in many areas, lots of diversity, just great stuff all round, I liked that the story went for bigger stakes but unfortunately the pay-off wasn't there. I was disappointed by the ending and haven't played much since, still a great game.

3. Digimon Story: Time Stranger – Just finished it last night, and maybe I should hesitate to rank it here due to recency bias, but honestly, I can see myself ranking it higher in the future. This game blew me away and had definitely my favorite ending/final boss of this year, and maybe of the past few years. It was a dream come true as a fan of this franchise. Wish I had played it in time to rank it in my Top 50 for this year.

2. Hollow Knight: Silksong – Neck and neck for 1st place here, I'll need more time to see how my feelings evolve over these games. Silksong had a few issues, I don't like it as much as the original Hollow Knight, but it was still absolutely amazing.

1. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – This feels maybe like the "least me" game on this list, and that's the main reason why I'm unsure about its placement here. The game is a masterpiece, but it's not one I have any personal bias towards. It feels like I was witness to a great work of art, but not one that spoke to me personally.

Oh wow, I had already forgotten these two. I haven't played them either yet, but once I have and look back at 2025, I suspect they might also do pretty well on my list. What an exceptional year in terms of releases.