The saying is “New Year, new me.” Too bad the “new me” also wishlists far too many games long before they come out. As we look ahead at the coming year of releases and beyond, we thought we’d look at the upcoming games the Phenixx Gaming staff are most excited about in the coming months and maybe even years given the number of delays. Without wasting more time, let’s get into everyone’s top picks from their bountiful lists!

Alexx | Penny Blood & Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines 2

For my Most Wanted picks, I went with an Indie and a AAA game for balance. Penny Blood is the successor to the Shadow Hearts franchise, which is one of the more underrated RPG franchises from the PS2 era. Meanwhile, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines 2 is the long-awaited successor of a wholly different classic. My picks are clearly representative of the adage “what is old can be made new again” but that doesn’t mean they aren’t worth it. Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines 2 has the benefit of generations worth of gaming enhancements and design evolution to make a whole new classic.

Meanwhile, Penny Blood has the benefit of kickstarting an entirely new alternate-history world with new characters and ideas that were spawned by a classic dark RPG franchise. I think it is fairly obvious why I’m excited about both. Plus, we need more dark-gothic-style RPGs in the industry right now.

Keiran | Nivalis

I set out the parameters for this Most Wanted article for our staff, and even now a week after making the suggestion, I’ve sat scrolling up and down my Steam wishlist to decide what I want most coming in 2025 (as far as we know). Split between desire and ambition, I’m left picking ION Lands’ Nivalis, a life sim in a breathtakingly well-lit voxel world that just reminds me of The Fifth Element or Blade Runner. We’ve seen it for a while, but I keep getting more excited about it every time I see or think about Nivalis.

With “your old pal Thaddeus retiring,” you are set to take over his noodle stand and live out whatever life you desire. Run the business, go out fishing, or grow your own “paradise” in the greenhouse, it is up to you, and by the way, there is a mysterious murderer. If executed well, Nivalis could be a small-scale example of what I wanted to see from Cyberpunk 2077. From stunning visuals to the ambitious amounts of freedom, I can’t stop thinking about Nivalis at least once a week, if not every day.

David | Sid Meier’s Civilization VII

On today’s edition of “Things that should surprise absolutely nobody,” a new mainline Sid Meier’s Civilization title easily tops my list of most-wanted upcoming games. This time around, it seems Firaxis is making some potentially risky changes to the “standard” Civilization formula, albeit with the noble goal of enticing players to finish more games of Civ than they start. Notably, each game of Civ VII will be split into three eras rather than the 8 eras that comprise a normal game of Civilization VI. At the start of each era, players can switch between different Civs and leaders that are best suited to help them accomplish their preferred victory condition.

There have also reportedly been major shake-ups in areas like the process of expanding your empire with new cities, managing existing cities, diplomacy, and the organization and micromanagement of military units. All of that comes alongside changes and updates that Civ fans have been requesting for ages now, a notable example of which is that Civilization VII will feature navigable rivers for the first time in the Civilization franchise’s history. This stuff might all sound daring to many Civ fans out there, but I’m pretty excited to see how well the gambles Firaxis has made in developing Civilization VII might pay off.

Matthew | Sid Meier’s Civilization VII

While Sid Meier’s Civilization VII is in my top ten most anticipated games in 2025, I am also cautiously optimistic about it. The reason for this is that I was let down by Civilization VI. The sixth main installment of the series had a lot of bugs that prevented me from playing the title, and by the time Firaxis patched the game, I had already moved on to better releases. Despite my personal experience with Civ VI, I am more than willing to give Civilization VII a chance. While it seems as if Firaxis is copying heavily from Humankind, time will tell how Civ VII turns out.

Mike | 500 CALIBER CONTRACTZ

It’s one thing for a game to have flair, but another for it to be positively oozing with style. Presented in the scope of mid-2000s grungy interwebz, this is a collect-a-thon platformer that escapes all the trappings of its source material. With fluid movement, hysterical black humor, and tons of secrets, one tiny level in its demo was enough to have me chomping at the bit for more. Solo dev Bryce Bucher has something special within 500 CALIBER CONTRACTZ, and I can’t wait to get my hands on this oddball title.

David | Monster Hunter Wilds

Even though I’ve only started getting into the Monster Hunter franchise over the past year or so, I’m looking forward to its upcoming newest installment, Monster Hunter Wilds. I’m reasonably confident there will be changes and updates to the slew of weapons potential hunters can use in their endeavors, in which case I’ll have to try out each weapon during a few hunts and determine which I might like best. I doubt that will be too much of an issue, though. I’m excited to find out what sorts of new monsters I’ll get to defeat while mockingly telling them I’m going to skin them and turn them into pants.

Keiran | Ground of Aces

At some point throughout 2023, it was argued that every man has thought about the Roman Empire every day. I think more about World War II, possibly because there is a two-foot tall wall between me, the English, and what was the Roman Empire. Set during a time when every young man was called a “chap” and in the case of David Stirling you could go jumping out of airplanes to create the greatest special forces, but before that we had the Bomber Crew(s) dogfighting over the channel and the Royal Air Force Firebombing Dresden.

In a quaint part of the nondescript local (due to the French tail-fin flag and type B and Post-War British roundels) countryside, Swiss studio Blandflug Studios AG’s Ground of Aces has you base building a remote air base during World War II. In a beautifully stylized art direction, the team behind Airheart – Tales of Broken Wings, First Strike, and Stellar Commanders have you building the air base from scratch as you manage resources, try to help your chaps out, and hopefully send Rommel into the dirt. It might not be the Battle of Brittan in name, but Ground of Aces looks to recruit you for the war effort.

David | Kingmakers

The premise of Kingmakers can be summarized thusly: You’re transported back in time to the era of armored knights and chivalry, except you have access to modern-day weaponry and vehicles which, as you probably expect, give you a massive technological advantage over any knights standing in your way. As per the gameplay trailers that have been released thus far, it looks like Kingmakers features gloriously destructible environments in addition to the enemies on which you can try out your arsenal. Kingmakers looks like a prime example of a game I didn’t know I wanted until I had it, and I can’t wait to try it.

Taylor | Avowed

The world of Pillars of Eternity is gorgeously written and built, but unfortunately, isometric RPGs aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. Obsidian Entertainment’s Avowed will take place in that same world but offer players a 1st or 3rd person action-adventure experience. As the studio’s first release since Xbox acquired the team, I expect and hope for big things from the masters of Western RPGs. Also, if you’re not averse to isometric RPGs and haven’t played the Pillars games, what are you even doing? Go, go, go!

Matthew | Split Fiction

It Takes Two continues to be one of my favorite games of all time, so I was very excited when I heard that its creator, Hazelight Studios, was coming out with another cooperative game. Split Fiction takes place in a simulated reality where two authors fight to break out of a machine that is meant to recreate the stories in their heads but is seemingly set up for more nefarious purposes.

Swapping between the medieval fantasy and futuristic science-fiction worlds, the gameplay of Split Fiction looks as great as It Takes Two. While the plot does seem a bit too serious, there still appears to be enough wit and humor in the writing to keep things flowing.

Taylor | Metroid Prime 4: Beyond

All signs point to both a Nintendo Switch 2 and the next entry in the Metroid Prime series releasing in 2025. As a launch title, it could be one of the best launch games for a new console since Breath of the Wild. After a new generation of fans spent time with Samus in Metroid Dread and the Metroid Prime remasters, I think this game could be the biggest release in the historic series.

Nintendo seems to understand what risks to take and where to stay true to what makes their main series special lately, and I think a bombshell Metroid Prime entry could be the strong start the Switch 2 needs to keep up the momentum for the company.

Edward | Doom: The Dark Ages

The latest two entries in the Doom franchise already have a lot that feels specifically catered to me as a person: A pulse-pounding metal soundtrack, intense action, crazy monsters, and over-the-top weaponry. Now you tell me the latest entry in the series is not only going to be set within a fantasy realm, but you can ride a dragon while carving through foes with a chainsaw shield. Yes, please I’ll be playing that on release!

Taylor | Fable

For me, Halo was why I bought an OG Xbox console, but Fable was my favorite game and series throughout the first few generations of the console family. A new Fable game, ripe with the humor and wit of the past entries, could be a massive success in an Xbox Games Studio lineup that really needs some megahits.

Of all the first-party Xbox games on the way, this could be the one that really primes the company for new heights heading into 2025 and beyond. Revisiting the old games today shows the series’ age, so with all of this time that has passed, a modern Fable could be what new fans need to join in on the fandom.

Edward | Pokémon Legends Z-A

I’ve been especially critical of the Pokémon series in the past but only because I’m hopelessly addicted to it. I understand the recent games are extremely poor quality, but I won’t lie I quite enjoyed Legends: Arceus. It shook up the formula in ways that I had always wished for and I am hoping that the sequel can take everything the first game built and expand on it.

I’m also a huge sucker for the lore of Pokémon, and the Kalos Region offers many potential plot points for an interesting narrative that ties up the many dangling plot threads left by Pokémon X and Y’s lack of polish. As always, I remain cautiously optimistic about a new Pokémon game, but I cannot stop being curious as to what Game Freak will do even if it does end in a spectacular flop most of the time.

Keiran | Sleight of Hand

Aside from choosing the first pick, deciding on what my third and final option would be has been really difficult. From Mars Tactics, COPA CITY, Cairn, The Precinct, Demonschool, and about 20 more options. What I decided on was RiffRaff Games’ Sleight of Hand, a third-person stealth action game with a twist. You play as Lady Luck, a witch-detective that has been pulled out of retirement for one last job – the thing is, Lady Luck not only smokes like the French, but she plays her cards like a true Slay the Spire player. Her special, almost Dishonored-like powers come from throwing cards.

Not only are the beautifully smokey, taboo-filled, rain-slicked, bend of 30s New York and European-inspired streets of Steeple City dashed with stunning neon, heavily stylized characters, and 1930s props. But the powers themselves are something that can only be compared to Dishonored when it comes to their stylization. There is nothing quite like Sleight of Hand elsewhere on my wishlist and that’s simply because it seems so unique; otherwise, it would be every third option and not on my list at all. Maybe I’m just a slut for Noir themes, a heavy dose of ambition, and a greedy amount of stylization.

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