Best Narrative of 2025 - Article
by Taneli Palola , posted on 21 January 2026 / 1,962 Views
This year's Best Narratives are a mix of the new and familiar. Silent Hill f brought the old series back to prominence after many years of underwhelming or just bad releases. Split Fiction, though certainly a new name, fit very neatly into Hazelight Studios' portfolio as yet another excellent co-op experience with a focus on storytelling. Death Standing 2: On the Beach returned us to the original game's post-apocalyptic setting, as seen through Hideo Kojima's unique lens, to once again connect people together. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 created an emotional dark fantasy tale revolving around themes of loss, grief, art's role in humanity, and more. Finally, Deltarune Chapters 3 & 4 continued to expand on the narrative introduced in the first two chapters in a surprising and often emotionally resonant manner, which has kept players hooked for years at this point. Still, only one of these five can take home the top prize.
The Shortlist:
Silent Hill f
Split Fiction
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Deltarune Chapters 3 & 4
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
The Runner-Up:
Silent Hill f
For a long time, the Silent Hill series has basically been chasing the success of its early titles and trying to repeat what they did with greatly diminishing returns each time. For that reason alone, Silent Hill f felt like a genuine breath of fresh air, as instead of indulging in the act of imitating the games that once made the series beloved, it was bold enough to do something new and original with the premise. Leaning heavily into elements of Japanese folklore, the game weaves a story set against the backdrop of 1960s rural Japan and the strict patriarchal culture of the time, and places the player at the centre of everything.
The Winner:
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
It's probably not a huge surprise to most that the winner of the Best Narrative of 2025 award is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. No other game this year has managed to strike a chord with as many people as it did, and much of that is due to its expertly crafted story. It takes a hold of the player from its opening moments, and then doesn't let go until the end credits roll. The game is also not afraid to cut deep when it wants to, putting the player through more than a few painful moments across its runtime. The melancholy and the triumphant, the bleak and the joyous, it's all found here, in near perfect balance.
More Articles
Overhyped narration. Act 3 was a chore for me and it already started by the half of the game at act 2. Silent Hill f is much more deserving to my eyes.
Again, not surprising. I think there is a certain aspect given to the performances of the actors to put the narrative forward and it's their voices and facial acting that truely put forward the desperation and confusion. I will note on a more personal thing, it shows how good the narrative was because I hated one of the characters in the game, which is half why I haven't yet gone back to it after completing it, and it shows how good the writing was because of that from my perspective. Better that then feeling nothing at all towards them.
Clair Obscur isn't my choice because of the ending, but I've yet to play enough of these to say for certain which is most deserving. For now it's Deltarune which was incredible in Chapter 4, if it keeps this up it will be one of the best narratives in games when all is said and done.
I honestly think Act 3 ruins the narrative. The game raises a Blade Runner scenario (are these people real?) and solves it with Wizard of Oz logic (it was all just a dream, time to go home!).
Was Dispatch too late? It's probably my favorite story of the year.
I loved Split Fiction as a game, but the narrative was honestly pretty bad, it had the same issue as It Takes Two where the lead duo just weren't likeable at all
