The year 2025 has seen several heavy hitters in the gaming industry. We’ve got the fan favorite indie debut, Expedition 33, the top-tier sequel Death Stranding 2, an immersive RPG title Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, and more lined up for the Game of the Year nominations. And yet, when I think about the game that actually pushed the envelope forward in all aspects and stayed in my head long after I put the controller down, it was Hollow Knight: Silksong. The game is not just entertaining; it rewires your brain, making you think about what a challenge must really feel like. So, let’s explore why Silksong should be the one that deserves to walk away with the trophy.
Team Cherry Wins by Mastering Design, Not Chasing Scale
Most Game of the Year contenders this year have been all about big-budget games, slick cutscenes, clean UI, and high-definition, large-scale worlds. However, Silksong strips away all unnecessary noise, doubles down on pure design, and most importantly, focuses on the gameplay.
While Expedition 33 wins hearts with orchestral drama and big emotional storytelling, Silksong goes smaller and sharper. With whispered lore and strange rituals, the game doesn’t reveal everything to the player at once. Rather, you’re assumed to uncover the secrets as you keep progressing through the story.
Silksong isn’t just Hollow Knight with a new skin, but it has a backstory of its own that gamers have loved exploring. Where players had already known how Hades 2 would work, a fast roguelike combat, Silksong’s Hornet has a very different approach than Hollow Knight. Her diagonal strikes, acrobatic mobility, and aggressive healing create a completely different rhythm. It feels like dancing through the hostile labyrinth, rather than a dead kingdom.
Silksong Turns Every Difficulty Into a Conversation, Not a Wall
Let’s be real and accept that Silksong can be heavily difficult at times, and because of that, it has sparked rage posts and long threads on Reddit, with players ranting about the game’s difficulty. Instead of keeping difficulty as a slider or toggle button like in most games, Hollow Knight: Silksong makes it a core part of the adventure.
While playing boss fights in Silksong, you feel like playing actual duels. And, you don’t win by simply having more DPS, and more points or attributes. Defeating the bosses requires you to read through their attacks, find the perfect openings, and trust your instincts. Winning isn’t as simple as having better stats and passing through the levels; instead, you must learn how to play the game. After all, the game throws a real “git gud” difficulty at you from the get-go.
So, once you win a battle against a powerful boss or complete that impossible level, you’ll get over the “git gud” limbo since now you’ve improved your tactics, rather than feeling like the game is bent that way. And that is why the debate on Silksong being extremely hard misses the point entirely. Here, difficulty isn’t a barrier, but the game is designed in such a way that it will rekindle the feeling of satisfaction among gamers upon completing the levels.
No Other GOTY Nominee Rewards Curiosity As Deeply As Silksong
If Expedition 33 is an epic drama of 2025, Death Stranding 2 is known for its stunning graphics and narrative, Silksong feels like a dense novel that you can’t stop thinking about once you get into it. You will get lost for hours in the game levels and keep thinking about numerous ways you can complete it, even if, in the moment, it feels impossible.
Silksong feels a lot special when you try to go deeper into the game, especially when you keep asking yourself what would happen if I go here, if I jump down, and more. There are tons of hidden areas that don’t scream for your attention with ‘?‘ markers or hints. The true depth of the game gets revealed only when you try testing various things.
This is the kind of game design that Silksong offers, and it builds true obsession among gamers. Silksong might not be the safest pick of the year, nor might it be the one with the highest sales, or a game that someone’s grandma might pick up to play.
But, Silksong is a statement about where the level of games should be and what a core independent team of 3 developers can achieve by just having fun with minimal marketing budget. This is why, for 2025, Hollow Knight: Silksong is my clear and loud choice for winning the title of Game of the Year.
Who do you think should be your GOTY? Is it Silksong or is it another game? Tell us in the comments below.
