DualShockers’ 2025 Game of the Year Awards: Best Hidden Gems

As 2025 comes to a close and awards are being tossed out for releases like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Hades 2, it's always important to remember that there are a lot of games that didn't get their time in the spotlight. After all, there's only so much room during Game of the Year discussions.

In a year filled with some truly memorable experiences, some of the best games sadly went under the radar. It's not easy being a hidden gem, but it is rewarding in its own unique way.

While these games didn't get a shiny award, or appear on stage in front of hundreds of people, they still touched people's hearts. For all the pomp and circumstance that surrounds the game industry during this time of year for its biggest games, some of the most fascinating games of the year emerged hidden just beneath the surface.

These hidden gems are spectacular in their own fascinating way. They may not have the star power, but they're all worth playing regardless.

10 Luto

First-Person Frights

The unfortunate cancellation of Silent Hills back in 2015 gave an entire generation of gamers a permanent scar. Its parting gift, however, was PT.

This short first-person horror experience has inspired countless developers to create full, long-form experiences. This year, that took the form of Luto.

Exploring the shifting, constantly evolving house of Luto is one packed with subtle changes in the atmosphere and environment. Each step you take in Luto affects the game world in some way.

The hallways of Luto seem to get slimmer with each step, as the game funnels you into its densely packed environments at a merciless pace. The sense of dread, imminent extinction and paranoia are present at every turn of Luto, and it's one of 2025's most outstanding horror experiences.

9 Pipistrello And The Cursed Yoyo

The Rise Of Zelda-Likes

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. That's what makes Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo such a beautiful experience, as it draws its clearest roots from classic Zelda games.

The evolution of Zelda-likes has been fascinating, and Pipistrello is perhaps the one that has done it the best. It really understands what makes design and functions within a game like this work.

Combat is sharp and impactful, as swinging the yoyo around has a tactile edge to it. It uses an old trick of flash frames to create a sense of punchiness to each hit that really brings the flow together.

Pipistrello also relies on smart puzzle design, endearing music and intricate level structure. It's one of the best action-adventure games of the year.

8 Without a Dawn

Minimalist Visual Novel

If you grew up during a certain era of video games, chances are that you have at least a few fleeting memories of vintage text-based adventure games. While that style of game isn't necessarily on the rise, Without a Dawn feels like it's evoking pieces of that long-lost genre.

Using ASCII art to generate its visuals, Without a Dawn is a haunting mood piece that focuses on some pretty intense subjects. Not a lot of games delve deep into the themes of mental health and self-harm, but Without a Dawn is fearless in that respect.

Its dark, dingy visuals and minimal sound design are incredibly affecting. It may not have the bombastic personality of some games released this year, but it's one worth diving into.

The Revival Of The Doom Clone

Shooters come and go each year, as it's a genre so unbelievably crowded, that standing out is next to impossible.

With Metal Eden, however, you have something truly special. It is especially impressive considering how tricky it is to create a shooter that feels as good as the big boys of the genre.

Metal Eden easily stands toe-to-toe with the best of them, creating glorious raw, unfiltered fury and chaos.

Combat isn't its only strength, as it has all the best feelings of a classic movement shooter, as well. Using the grappling hook is spectacular, and Metal Eden's impressive use of speed to convey its violence is just lovely to look at.

6 Blue Prince

Goodnight, You Blue Princes Of Maine

2025 was a great year for puzzle games. Among the many excellent games released in that genre this year, one of the most criminally overlooked was Blue Prince.

Blue Prince is the magnificent debut of solo developer Tonda Ros, where players control a man named Simon. After being gifted his late great uncle's estate, Simon's journey becomes one of confronting the unusual shifting realities that await on the inside.

The way Blue Prince uses roguelike and deck building systems to craft its puzzles is fantastic. Different colors of rooms have unique effects, and learning how to use what the game gives you in order to proceed makes up some of Blue Prince's most satisfying moments.

5 Demonschool

Back To School

As Persona found itself shifting away from the top-down perspective that defined the franchise's early days, indie games have been picking up where Atlus left off. In particular, Demonschool recreates that vintage Persona charm while also forging ahead on its own.

This addictive strategy-RPG evokes classic tropes from the genre's past, combining them with a hip, modern setting. It's an intriguing setting, and one that developer Necrosoft Games took full advantage of.

On top of that, combat feels outstanding. The pace and flow of it is excellent, and the level of strategy at work leads to some visually striking combat sequences.

Demonschool isn't just a Persona clone. It's a hyperactive teen drama on steroids, and it's one of 2025's most unique games.

4 Bionic Bay

Die, Die Again

Cinematic platformers are starting to come back into vogue recently, which is nothing but a good thing. Thanks to the developers Mureena Oy and Psychoflow Studio, another entrant has thrown their hat in the ring.

Bionic Bay is an evolution of a genre that has been in need of one for a long time. A lot of cinematic platformers rely on killing the player over and over again, but Bionic Bay is focused on giving you abilities not just to mitigate that, but to make each challenge more rewarding.

The art direction and presentation is stupendous. There's a level of sincere care and commitment to the visual design that just pops off the screen beautifully.

3 The Alters

Send In The Clones

Science fiction is where we often go to find stories that speak to something deeper and more profound. It's an area of fiction where social themes are the most prevalent.

Developer 11 Bit Studios certainly seems to agree, as The Alters concocts a fascinating story of science clashing with thought-provoking questions. It feels like a classic science fiction novel come to life.

Managing clones, resources, threats to an already unstable space station, the number of responsibilities are innumerable. It's the kind of game that you will start with the intention of playing for an hour, only to realize it's now 3am, losing all sense of time.

2 Sword Of The Sea

Journey Meets Tony Hawk

Sword of the Sea is the latest in a long lineage of games that dates all the way back to 2012's Journey. Several developers of that game left to form Giant Squid, where they would continue their legacy of beautiful, atmospheric masterpieces.

With Sword of the Sea, it feels like this talented team has perfected their unique voice. The sense of increasing scale is one-upped only by its staggering art direction.

Very few games ever reach the level of feeling and control that is seen in Sword of the Sea. The level of polish, detail and artistry on display is simply fabulous.

1 Fretless: The Wrath Of Riffson

Let's Rock, Baby

The indie scene is a great place to go for RPGs. It has powered some absolutely brilliant entries in the genre over the years, from Undertale to Disco Elysium.

Fretless: The Wrath of Riffson is the latest in that line of classics, as it pairs up a quirky tale of musical rebellion with furious, fast-paced combat. Music is a powerful tool, and that's something the developers took to heart.

There were a lot of cool indie RPGs this year, and Fretless is one of the best you can play today. The sprite work is phenomenal, and the game's use of music is one of the most inventive of the entire year.