By Nelson Schneider - 01/25/25 at 04:19 PM CT
Welcome back to MeltedJoystick’s mostly-annual feature where we take a look at the most exciting titles slated to be released over the course of the coming year. While these titles frequently don’t come out when expected thanks to delays, when they do, they either horribly disappoint OR find their way into the MeltedJoystick Games of the Year list. Let’s take a look at the most promising titles coming in 2025!
1. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
“Clair Obscur” is titled after a French artistic term, not a woman’s name, as English speakers might assume. This game is a brand-new original IP – and inaugural effort – from France-based Sandfall Interactive, and is being published by the London-and-Singapore-based conglomerate of Indie developers known as Kepler Interactive. It could have extensive Euro-jank, but the developer’s stated goal is to provide a “high fidelity turn-based RPG,” a genre which they consider “neglected by AAA developers.” Well, I certainly agree with their intentions and goals, but whether this game lives up to expectations depends entirely on the execution.
2. Revenge of the Savage Planet
“Journey to the Savage Planet” was one of the most enjoyable 3D ‘Metroid’ clones out there, easily outdoing even the best of Nintendo’s official efforts. Unfortunately, the developer, Typhoon Studios, foolishly got into bed with Google Stadia, and terrible things happened to them as a result. Thanks to the collapse of Stadia, Typhoon disbanded after only one game. Fortunately for all of us, the original staffers at Typhoon were able to form a new studio, Raccoon Logic, and reclaim the IP rights to the ‘Savage Planet.’ Now that all of the paperwork is out of the way, the team at Raccoon Logic has been able to get back to making games, and if their previous efforts are a valid measure of what to expect from their next game, it will be a heck of a good time.
3. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
The other big 3D ‘Metroid’ game coming out in 2025 is an actual ‘Metroid’ game, published by Nintendo and developed by the Japanese titan’s main Western developer, Retro Studios. “Metroid Prime 4” has its work cut out for it, both because it seems like it’s been in Development Hell for-EVAR, and because, outside of the first game, the ‘Metroid Prime’ sub-series hasn’t been particularly… how to I say this kindly?… good. We’ll have to see if this Switch launch title that will actually end up as a Switch 2 launch title was actually worth the wait.
4. Split Fiction
Hazelight, the development studio behind cooperative smashes like “Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons” and “It Takes Two,” is back with yet another cooperative-by-design two-player experience. “Split Fiction” aims to push the boundaries of Big-G Genre by exploring the adventures of two fiction writers – one who specializes in Fantasy, the other in Sci-Fi – who get trapped in their works and must cooperate to survive and escape. Considering how great their past games have been, we have high expectations for more of that same quality… however, with both main characters being women, we might get some forced 4th Wave Feminist messaging shoved down our throats.
5. Ghost of Yotei
So, Sony managed to land a success by ripping of Ubisoft’s Sandbox formula for “Ghost of Tsushima.” Now the PlayStation platform-master is forcing its slave-studio, Sucker Punch, to start churning out sequels before the audience gets tired of the formula. But, oopsie! Sony didn’t get the memo that Gamers are overly sensitized to anything with a whiff of Feminism, Gender Ideology, Intersectionality, or Race Theory about it, and releasing a sequel with a female samurai as the lead is going to set off a LOT of alarm bells. But, hey, I haven’t even played “Ghost of Tsushima” yet (hopefully this Summer), and Chris says it’s great, so maybe “Ghost of Yotei” will be able to stand on its own merits.
6. Crimson Desert
Huge Fantasy Sandboxes remain popular. Heck, “Skyrim” is HOW old and still sells a butt-load and racks up huge concurrent player numbers to this day. But we would use something new. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of new Fantasy Sandbox games try to take inspiration from From Software’s shitty design playbook and end up flopping – because From Software Cultists will only accept such levels of jank and bullshit from their chosen god. “Crimson Desert,” though, looks like it will have everything desirable in a Fantasy Sandbox with none of the undesirable filth seeping in through a poorly-maintained sewer. But looks can be deceiving.
7. Dungeons of the Amber Griffin
It seems like I’m the only member of the MJ Crew who loved Dungeon Crawlers. Ever since Almost Human made a splash with their ‘Legend of Grimrock’ games, Dungeon Crawlers have been more present in modern gaming – on PC at least – than they have for a long time. Unfortunately, having played quite a few of these, most of them are low-effort or amateur projects that don’t stand up to the classics. “Dungeons of the Amber Griffin” doesn’t really appear to change any of that… BUT it’s one of the few Dungeon Crawlers designed to be played in Virtual Reality. With the rumored near-term drop of the Valve Index 2 (codename: Decker and Roy), this game is the type of thing I would pick up as a launch title.
8. Borderlands 4
The MJ Crew loves playing ‘Borderlands’ games together… even when they aren’t particularly well-designed and are full of more cringe-inducing writing than ever before. Thus we’re ALL looking forward to the opportunity to plow through a brand-new planet in the ‘Borderlands’ universe, picking up and throwing away approximately 80 quadrillion trash guns before finding one we like. “Borderlands 4” promises to be the first fully open-world game in the series, with a fresh, new story arc. We just hope the writers got the message that Woke is out of fashion so they don’t ruin the plot, narrative, and characters with excessive DEI tropes.
9. Sunderfolk
The last time Chris and I played a game with as much hardware tomfoolery as “Sunderfolk,” it was “The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures,” which required the use of MY Gamecube, MY Game Boy Advance SP, MY original Game Boy Advance, and TWO of MY Link Cables. Regardless, it was a heck of a good time, and “Sunderfolk” aims to bring back that kind of personal-and-shared-simultaneous experience, only in the format of a tabletop RPG. Players’ characters will ‘live’ in their smartphones, joining together for adventures on a shared screen. It’s a really unique idea that could be an amazing iteration on cooperative role-playing, or a giant pain in the ass.
10. Judas
Not to be confused with the crappy $3 Horror game on Steam that came out in 2017 (which IsThereAnyDeal does indeed do… constantly), “Judas” is a spiritual successor to both the original “System Shock” and the ‘BioShock’ series, which was, itself, a spiritual successor to “System Shock 2.” The original director and idea-man is involved, and the game is coming from his start-up studio, Ghost Story Games, so it should be everything fans of his previous work could want… HOWEVER! There have been rumors circulating that “Judas” won’t just be a spiritual successor to the previous ‘Shock’ FPSes, but draws unfortunate Rogue-ish inspiration from more recent things like “Returnal” and “Deathloop.” If it’s a straight-up ‘BioShock’-like game with a creepy atmosphere, interesting lore, and cool powers to wield, I’m interested. If there’s even a whiff of Roguelik/te about it, into the toilet it goes.
