Souls Like Strings

John Wick in watercolor

Why

• Every frame is a beautiful painting
• An emotional story supported by a stellar soundtrack
• A lot more 'gameplay' than Gris
• Movement and combat feel satisfying

Why Not

• You somehow hate the art style?

Impressions

This is the second game from Nomada Studio, the team behind Gris, another absolutely beautiful game telling an emotional story in watercolor. I really cannot overemphasize how beautiful this game is, the screenshots are impressive but still don't do justice to how it feels to play. If you were picky you could call Gris a...

Why

Why Not

Impressions

The best games I played in 2025, many of which were not released this year.

Honourable Mentions

Slay the Spire, which I put more hours into than Silksong (!?) this year, despite already having hundreds of hours in the Switch version.

Shady Part of Me for baiting me into playing a puzzle game with French voice acting and a cool art style.

Florence for getting me into short indie games with gameplay designed to elicit a specific feeling.

The List

10. Paradise Killer

For the PS1 era vaporwave vibes and charmingly sinister setting.

9. Inscryption

For breaking...

Somehow lives up to its tagline

Why

• Hades was a GOTY contender and this is a noticeable improvement
• Lovable cast of new characters plus some returning favourites
• Melinoe feels very different to Zagreus while keeping the same gameplay concept
• Amazing art, story and soundtrack
• Supergiant is great at making a roguelike that feels like it isn't
• Spectacularly well-handled difficulty curve

Why not

• The sheer amount of great content could be overwhelming in the early midgame

Impressions

Similar to Silksong, this is a godlike sequel. If you liked or were interested in the first...

Adventures of Tom Sawyer & Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.

I'll probably see these very differently in a few years

Two (mostly) cozy books about the escapades of the titular boys in 1840s Missouri. The first is a more lighthearted romp from Tom's POV, while the second picks up soon after the events of the first and follows Huckleberry on quite an adventure down the river.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Much of the first book is spent establishing Tom as the absolute epitome of boyhood through a series of short stories where he...