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Best PS5 Games of 2025: Complete Rankings & Reviews
Look, 2025 was a weird year for PlayStation gaming. Sony spent most of the year breaking its own rules, launching exclusives on Xbox and PC like it was going out of style. But here's the thing—all that platform-hopping doesn't mean the PS5 suddenly stopped being a place to play incredible games. It just means the calculus shifted.
We're living through a strange era where console exclusivity is basically dead, but individual consoles still hit different. The PS5's raw horsepower, its stunning library of Japanese developers, and yeah, okay, the fact that some games still play best on the hardware still matters. Even with the wall between ecosystems crumbling faster than a sandcastle at high tide, the PS5 delivered some genuinely outstanding experiences in 2025.
I spent most of this year grinding through PlayStation's catalog—some of it great, some of it trying way too hard to be cinematic, all of it telling us something about where console gaming's headed. These aren't just the games that sold the most copies or won the flashiest awards. These are the games that made me think differently about what the PS5 is capable of, games that surprised me, games that absolutely slapped in ways I didn't see coming.
TL; DR
- Death Stranding 2 dominates as the year's most ambitious exclusive, building brilliantly on its predecessor with genuinely innovative gameplay.
- Ghost of Yōtei proves Sucker Punch can refine rather than reinvent, creating a sequel that feels like the original should've been.
- Final Fantasy Tactics remaster reminds us why strategy RPGs became an obsession for an entire generation of gamers.
- PlayStation Portal cloud streaming quietly became essential hardware for anyone with a PS5, fundamentally changing how you access your library.
- Metaphor: Re Fantazio and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth prove that Japanese developers are still pushing creativity harder than anyone else in the industry.
Death Stranding 2 leads with a rating of 9.2, praised for its improvements over the original. Estimated data based on typical review scores.
Death Stranding 2: The Weirdest Game Still Getting Better
Here's the weird part about Death Stranding 2: the original Death Stranding was so aggressively strange that it basically had nowhere to go but down. Yet somehow, Kojima Productions managed the impossible—they made the sequel weirder while simultaneously making it way more comprehensible.
The premise is still absolutely bonkers. You're a delivery person in a postapocalyptic world, trudging across landscapes with packages strapped to your body. That's it. That's the game. No combat, no stealth sections, no boss battles with alien monsters. You walk. You balance your cargo. You navigate terrain. You solve environmental puzzles by deciding the optimal route to your destination.
But Death Stranding 2 doesn't just repeat that formula—it evolves it in ways that feel genuinely fresh even if you sank 60 hours into the first game. The shift to Australia gives Kojima a completely different aesthetic to work with. Instead of icy mountains and dense forests, you're navigating red deserts, sandstorms that actively try to knock you off your feet, and environments that feel fundamentally hostile in new ways.
The Gameplay Loop Deepens
There's this moment where you're traversing a particularly nasty section of desert, wind whipping around you, and you realize the game isn't punishing you for the environment—it's teaching you that the environment itself is a puzzle to solve. Do you take the main path and risk getting caught in sand dunes? Do you go around and add five kilometers to your delivery? Do you use specific equipment or upgrades to handle the sandstorm differently?
That's Death Stranding 2 in a nutshell. Every delivery isn't just about getting from point A to point B. It's about understanding how the world interacts with your character, your cargo, and your available tools. The game respects your intelligence enough to give you options and let you figure out what works.
The cast of characters reads like a who's who of Hollywood: Elle Fanning, George Miller, Léa Seydoux, Margaret Qualley. It's ridiculous. But it works because Kojima uses these actors not as marketing gimmicks but as actual characters with depth. The story somehow manages to be even more inscrutable than the first game while also feeling more grounded.
Why It Matters
Death Stranding 2 is important because it proves Kojima can make a sequel that respects what made the original special while actually improving on its structure. The first game's pacing occasionally dragged. The sequel moves faster, respects your time better, and gives you more reasons to actually care about your deliveries beyond the mechanical satisfaction.
It's also a masterclass in how to make a PS5 exclusive that justifies the hardware investment. The visual fidelity is stunning, sure, but more importantly, the game's systems and scale feel like they're specifically designed for what the PS5 can do. This isn't a game that plays fine on older hardware—it's built for what's possible now.
For a game about walking, Death Stranding 2 is absolutely riveting. That's basically the highest compliment you can give it.
Ghost of Yōtei: Refinement as Revolution
Sucker Punch's first Ghost of Tsushima was so good that the studio faced an impossible situation with the sequel. Do you dramatically shake things up? Do you play it safe? Do you make the same game with a new coat of paint?
Turns out, Ghost of Yōtei picked the third option and somehow made it work better than it has any right to.
The game takes everything from Ghost of Tsushima—the combat mechanics, the open-world structure, the samurai code premise—and polishes every single element until it gleams. It doesn't reinvent the wheel. It builds a better wheel and puts it on a car that actually wants to go somewhere.
The Story That Actually Lands
Where the original Ghost of Tsushima played things a bit loosey-goosey with narrative, Yōtei has a legitimate revenge tale that gives the entire open-world experience structure and purpose. You're not just wandering a beautiful landscape for the sake of it—you're chasing someone, building toward something, and the game respects that dramatic throughline.
The protagonist's arc feels earned. The supporting cast is more developed. The motivations make sense even when the game is doing something completely insane plot-wise. This is what happens when a studio gets a second shot at a formula and actually uses it to tell a better story.
Combat That Feels Lethal
The sword combat was already excellent in the first game, but Yōtei refines it in ways that make individual encounters feel more tactical. Enemy types have more defined weaknesses. Your stance system feels less like you're cycling through options and more like you're actually adapting to threats in real-time. The flow state you get into during combat encounters is addictive.
There's a particular moment where you're facing off against a group of opponents, and the game's animation quality and hitbox precision suddenly make you realize you're not just fighting enemies—you're choreographing a dance where one wrong move ends in genuine consequences. That's the sweet spot for sword combat in video games, and Yōtei nails it repeatedly.
The Open World That Actually Respects Your Time
Open-world games love making you busy. They load you down with markers, side quests, collectibles, and busywork that sounds interesting until you realize you're just doing the same thing repeatedly. Ghost of Yōtei avoids most of this trap by being deliberate about what activities are worth your time.
That hot spring relaxation section from the first game? Still here, still weirdly meditative, still somehow more valuable to the game's pacing than any combat encounter. The bamboo cutting minigame that lets you focus on one task and breathe? Still here, still excellent. But the game also knows when to get out of your way and let you just explore for the sake of exploration.
The environmental storytelling is phenomenal. You're walking through a landscape and stumbling upon places that tell stories without dialogue, without cutscenes, just through visual design and environmental detail. It's the kind of world design that makes you want to explore every corner.
In 2025, PS5 games emphasized performance and exclusive features, while also focusing on accessibility and cross-platform availability. Estimated data.
Final Fantasy Tactics: The Remaster That Proves the Point
Listen, if you've ever been in a room with actual Final Fantasy nerds and asked them to rank the games, you've already seen how this plays out. Someone will immediately say Final Fantasy VII because it's 1997 and that's still the only one most normies know. Someone else will make an impassioned argument for VI, or IX, or maybe—if they're feeling spicy—VIII.
But ask any actual hardcore FF devotee which game is objectively best, and you'll get the same answer: Final Fantasy Tactics.
Square Enix released a remaster in 2025, and finally playing it (and yes, I'm embarrassed that took until 2025), I understand the zealotry.
The Job System Is Just Broken Good
Final Fantasy Tactics has a job system that's so absurdly powerful you'll eventually create units that are basically walking nuclear weapons. This isn't a flaw in the game design—it's the entire point. The game is aware you're going to break it. It encourages you to break it. And then it designs encounters that require you to break it in increasingly creative ways.
Take the Arithmetician class. This job can cast any learned spell instantly and without requiring mana. Without any drawback besides its painfully slow movement speed. So you pair it with the White Mage and suddenly you have a unit that can heal everyone to full health every single turn while also dealing massive damage. That's insane. The game knows it's insane. Everyone knows it's insane. And that's why it's brilliant.
The number of viable solutions to each encounter is absurd. You could spec out your team to use magic, physical attacks, status effects, elemental damage, or pure support magic. You could focus on speed or defense or just raw damage output. The game doesn't force you into one playstyle—it celebrates the fact that you're going to figure out some strategy and lean into it hard.
A Story That Understands Class
What blew me away most about Tactics isn't the job system or the tactical combat mechanics (though both are genuinely excellent). It's that the story is a genuine political narrative about class conflict, the power of nobility, the way institutions protect themselves, and what happens when someone on the outside tries to change the system.
Ramza is just a guy. His family falls from grace. He gets caught up in a religious conflict that's actually about power and manipulation. The game gradually reveals that everything he thought he was fighting for is a lie, that the real enemies are the institutions and the powerful people protecting the status quo, and that changing anything requires you to burn everything down.
For a PS1-era strategy RPG, that's genuinely sophisticated storytelling. It's also why the game still hits harder than most modern narratives. It's not trying to be edgy or shocking. It's just telling a story about systems and power that happen to reflect real-world dynamics.
Why the Remaster Matters Now
Final Fantasy Tactics could've gotten a half-hearted remaster that just bumps up the resolution and calls it a day. Instead, Square Enix actually invested in making the game better. The UI is clearer. The translations are improved. The overall presentation is sharper. But the game itself remains untouched, and that's the right call.
What's remarkable is that a tactical RPG from 1997 somehow plays better and feels more fresh than most strategy games released in the last five years. The level design rewards experimentation. The job variety creates emergent gameplay. The story makes you care about your decisions. That's timeless game design.
PlayStation Portal: The Hardware Sideswipe
Here's where Sony genuinely surprised me this year. The PlayStation Portal is a device that should've been a novelty item, the kind of thing that tech journalists buy and then forget about. Instead, Sony updated it with cloud streaming capabilities, and suddenly it's basically essential hardware.
For $200, you get a dedicated handheld device that can stream games from your PS5. That's not revolutionary on its face—Nintendo Switch exists, Steam Deck exists, you can already stream to literally any device with a screen and a network connection.
But here's the thing: PlayStation Portal is specifically designed for the job it does, which gives it advantages over the generic solutions.
The Experience Actually Works
Streaming games over Wi-Fi is always going to be janky, right? Not really. With a good home network and a PS5 hardwired to the internet, the PlayStation Portal handles cloud streaming with almost zero perceptible latency. Games feel responsive. Fast-action games don't become unplayable slogs. It's genuinely impressive.
The screen is sharp, the ergonomics are solid, and the button layout is familiar because it uses PS5 controller architecture. You're not learning a weird new input scheme or dealing with a screen that makes everything look muddy. It just works.
But it's the catalog that makes it genuinely useful. Sony supported the Portal with a massive list of streamable games—over 2,000 titles. That's enough to actually replicate the experience of owning a PS5 handheld. You're not limited to a handful of games optimized for streaming. You can basically take your entire library with you.
The Bigger Picture
What's interesting about the Portal is that it signals a shift in how Sony thinks about their ecosystem. They're not trying to lock you into playing on a specific box in your living room anymore. They're trying to be available wherever you want to play.
This probably meant cannibalizing some TV time. Maybe it's meant fewer people buying PS5s because they realize they can just stream games everywhere. But it's also a more honest assessment of how people actually consume media. We don't stay in one place. We want entertainment in the bedroom, on the couch, on the toilet, on the bus.
The Portal acknowledges that reality instead of fighting it. For PS5 owners, it's a genuinely valuable device. For people on the fence about PlayStation, it's a compelling reason to buy in—you get access to a massive library without needing a console in every room.
Metaphor: Re Fantazio and the Persona Legacy
Astlibra Revision 1 came out a couple of years ago and basically proved that Atlus understood what made Persona games special. Then Metaphor: Re Fantazio came along and just said "okay, but what if we made that even better?"
This isn't a Persona game, technically. It's a spiritual successor that borrows the DNA of Persona 5, the school/social link structure, the stylish presentation, and the incredible soundtrack sensibilities. But then it takes all that and remixes it into something that feels genuinely fresh.
The Concept System Hits Different
Instead of monsters or personas, your characters use "Concepts"—basically equippable archetypes that grant different abilities and stat distributions. You find Concepts in the world, you can upgrade them, you can combine them. It's like if the Persona fusion system and the Job system from FFT had a baby.
What's brilliant is that this system actively encourages you to experiment and adapt. A boss giving you trouble? Switch your Concepts around, try a completely different approach, and suddenly you're dominating. That flexibility makes the strategy combat way more interesting than the typical JRPG "grind levels until you're strong enough" approach.
A Story About Fascism (Yes, Really)
The plot involves a medieval-style empire, a fascistic regime, and your band of rebels trying to overthrow it. That sounds generic as hell, but Metaphor executes it with actual intelligence and nuance. It's not just "authoritarian bad, freedom good." It actually explores how charismatic leaders manipulate people, how systems perpetuate themselves, how collective action becomes necessary when institutions are corrupted.
The characters all have depth. Their motivations make sense. Their arcs feel earned. This is JRPG storytelling at its best—ambitious, earnest, willing to tackle bigger themes while still giving you incredible character moments.
The Presentation Is Unhinged
Atlus's art direction is just stupid good. Every menu is designed with care. Every piece of UI is stylish without sacrificing functionality. The music absolutely slaps in ways that will have you listening to the soundtrack on repeat for weeks. The voice acting is stellar. Everything about this game screams that the developers cared deeply about every detail.
It's the kind of presentation that makes you realize how much modern games can feel soulless when they're just checking boxes instead of actually creating something with identity.
The PlayStation Portal scores high due to its dedicated design and extensive game catalog, making it a strong competitor against established devices like the Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck. Estimated data.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth and the Side Quest as Art Form
Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios released Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth in early 2025, and it's somehow even more chaotic and weird than the previous entry in the series.
The main plot involves the yakuza, crime syndicates, and serious dramatic stakes. And then you'll spend three hours managing a virtual convenience store, or playing a fishing minigame, or getting distracted by some random side quest that's somehow more entertaining than the main story.
That's Like a Dragon in a nutshell. It's a game that understands that side content doesn't have to be a distraction—it can be the actual draw.
The Side Content Is Legitimately Great
Most games treat side quests as filler. Like a Dragon treats them like they're just as important as the main story. Some of them are moving personal narratives. Some are absolute comedy gold. Some are both simultaneously.
There's a side quest about a woman trying to reconnect with her estranged son that hits way harder than most games' main plots. There's another one about helping a dude perfect his ramen recipe that's somehow both funny and genuinely touching. The game has this weird ability to make you care deeply about the most random characters.
Character Arcs That Actually Matter
Infinite Wealth has a massive cast, and somehow every single character gets development that makes sense. The protagonist's journey is personal and earned. The supporting cast all have their own arcs that intersect with the main plot without overwhelming it. This is surprisingly hard to pull off in big ensemble narratives, and the game nails it.
The writing is smart enough to be funny without being silly, dramatic without being overwrought, and character-driven without losing sight of the bigger narrative.
Persona 3 Reload: Remaking a Classic
Atlus remaking Persona 3 was a huge risk. The original game is beloved by its core fanbase, and remake projects always have the potential to piss people off. But Persona 3 Reload proves that respecting the source material while modernizing the experience is absolutely possible.
What Changed and Why It Matters
The core story remains intact, but the presentation gets a complete overhaul. The graphics look phenomenal—this is one of the best-looking games on PS5 when you factor in the sheer detail and care in the character design. The gameplay gets streamlined in ways that respect the original while making things feel less tedious.
The social links (now called "Bonds") have expanded storylines. Characters feel more developed. The game respects your time better than the original while somehow maintaining the pacing that made Persona 3 special.
The Soundtrack Is Even Better
The original Persona 3 soundtrack is iconic. Atlus listened to that feedback and created new arrangements that enhance the classics while adding entirely new tracks that fit the modernized aesthetic. The result is a soundtrack that feels both nostalgic and fresh.
Helldivers 2: The Cooperative Phenomenon
Arrowhead Game Studios' Helldivers 2 became a massive multiplayer phenomenon this year, proving that sometimes the best gaming experiences come from unexpected places.
It's a straightforward top-down co-op shooter where you and your squad drop onto alien worlds, complete objectives, and try to survive until extraction. On paper, it sounds generic. In practice, it's incredibly addictive.
Why Cooperation Actually Works
Most shooters focus on competition. Helldivers 2 focuses on the idea that you need to work together or you die. That creates fundamentally different dynamics. Instead of trying to out-kill your teammates, you're trying to keep them alive. Instead of fighting for the most eliminations, you're coordinating strategies.
The emergent gameplay from pure cooperation is surprising. A successful run requires communication, positioning, resource management, and actually caring about what your teammates are doing. That's way more engaging than most multiplayer experiences.
The Live Service Done Right
Helldivers 2 has a live service component, but it doesn't feel exploitative. New content rolls out regularly without the game trying to squeeze you for every dollar. You can progress without spending a dime beyond the initial purchase. The cosmetics exist but don't affect gameplay in any meaningful way.
It's refreshing to see a live service game that doesn't feel like a second job. You want to play Helldivers 2 because it's fun, not because you need to hit daily login milestones.
In 2025, PS5 game development was primarily driven by creative vision (50%), with less emphasis on market demographics (20%) and technical innovation (30%). Estimated data.
Star Wars Outlaws: Ambition and Execution
Massive Entertainment's Star Wars Outlaws is ambitious in ways that don't always work perfectly, but the ambition itself is worth celebrating.
It's a Star Wars game that focuses on a morally gray character navigating a crime syndicate, making deals, and trying to survive in a galaxy that doesn't care about the Jedi or the Rebellion. That's a perspective Star Wars hasn't really explored at this scale before.
The World Feels Alive
The planets you visit all feel distinct and lived-in. NPCs have routines. The world reacts to your actions. This is open-world design done with actual care and intention. You're not just checking boxes—you're existing in a world that feels like it would keep spinning if you weren't there.
Where It Stumbles
The game isn't perfect. Mission design occasionally feels a bit rote. Some stealth sections are more tedious than they should be. The story doesn't always stick the landing as hard as it could.
But here's the thing: the ambition is admirable. Massive Entertainment tried to create a massive Star Wars game with real depth and scope. It mostly succeeds. The failures are in execution details, not in concept.
Tekken 8: Fighting Game Excellence
Bandai Namco's Tekken 8 is the best fighting game on PS5, and honestly might be the best fighting game currently available period.
The combat is deep without being inaccessible. The roster is massive and actually balanced. The single-player content is substantial and interesting. The online netcode is solid. Everything about this game feels like it was designed by people who genuinely understand fighting games.
The Competitive Scene
Tekken 8 has a legitimate competitive scene with prize pools, tournaments, and a community that actually cares. That's become rarer in fighting games, and it speaks to how well this game was designed.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: The Midgar Conclusion
Square Enix's Final Fantasy VII Rebirth wraps up the Midgar-focused portion of the Remake project, and while it's not quite as tight as the first game, it's still an ambitious, gorgeous JRPG that respects the source material while doing its own thing.
Combat That Feels Dynamic
The turn-based-but-not-really combat system continues to evolve in satisfying ways. You're switching between characters, managing cooldowns, building toward powerful spells. It's fast-paced without feeling overwhelming.
Death Stranding 2 enhances its predecessor by deepening environmental puzzles and aesthetic diversity, making the gameplay more engaging and varied. Estimated data based on gameplay descriptions.
Dragon's Dogma 2: Fantasy RPG Ambition
Capcom's Dragon's Dogma 2 is a game that should've been better than it is, but what it is is still pretty damn good.
It's an open-world fantasy RPG where you can tackle quests in basically any order, magic actually has weight and consequence, and your hired companions (pawns) feel like actual party members with personality.
The Pawn System
Your pawns level up, gain skills, develop personalities. Other players can hire your pawns, creating this weird economy of AI party members. It's a genuinely interesting system that most games would overlook.
Silent Hill 2 Remake: Horror Done Right
Blomhouse's Silent Hill 2 remake was controversial among horror fans, but objectively it's a phenomenal horror experience. The psychological dread, the environmental storytelling, the way the game makes you feel like you're losing your mind—it's all excellent.
The Audio Design
Horror lives in sound design, and the Silent Hill 2 remake uses audio in ways that mess with you in the best way possible. Ambient sounds, musical choices, the absolute absence of sound at key moments—everything is precisely calibrated to create unease.
Alan Wake 2: Narrative Ambition
Remedy's Alan Wake 2 is a game that swings for the fences with its storytelling. It's not always successful, but when it hits, it hits hard.
The narrative structure is deliberately confusing and metafictional in ways that require actual thought from the player. The writing is intelligent. The themes about storytelling and reality are genuinely interesting.
Final Fantasy Tactics is often ranked highest by hardcore fans due to its complex job system and strategic depth. (Estimated data)
The Gaming Landscape Shifted in 2025
What's interesting about 2025's PS5 releases is that they reflect a fundamental shift in how the industry thinks about consoles and exclusivity. You can play most of these games on other platforms, but the PS5 versions are still special in various ways.
It's not about artificial scarcity anymore. It's about having good reasons to own specific hardware. Better performance, specific features, or simply the fact that a game was made with that hardware in mind.
Sony understood something important: you don't need to restrict access to make people want your console. You just need to make incredible games that are worth experiencing on the best hardware available.
What's Coming Next for PlayStation
Looking forward, the pipeline is solid. There are several confirmed projects from major studios, potential collaborations with publishers who've worked with PlayStation before, and the usual mystery box of "games we haven't announced yet."
The PS5 Pro released late in 2024 and is showing what's possible with the additional processing power. Expect 2026 and beyond to see more games that really lean into what that upgraded hardware can do.
The real question is whether exclusivity continues to disappear. Some insiders think Sony might eventually abandon the exclusive model entirely, going full Xbox-style multiplatform releases. Others think they'll keep a handful of first-party titles exclusive while allowing most other games to live on other platforms.
Either way, the PS5 has established itself as a platform with legitimate depth and a library worth caring about. That's what actually matters.
The PlayStation Portal Changed How We Think About Handheld Gaming
One of the year's most underrated developments was Sony's commitment to the PlayStation Portal. Not as a replacement for home consoles, but as a genuine extension of the ecosystem.
This opens up some weird possibilities. What if you could play your entire PS5 library anywhere in your house? What if you could hand someone the Portal and let them jump directly into a specific game without touching the console?
These aren't revolutionary features, but they are quality-of-life improvements that add up to a genuinely better experience.
How to Choose Your Next PS5 Game
Given the absurd amount of great games available, how do you actually decide what to play?
If you want the weirdest gaming experience possible, Death Stranding 2 is your answer. If you want something that feels polished and refined, Ghost of Yōtei. If you want to understand why strategy RPGs became obsessive for an entire generation, Final Fantasy Tactics.
For multiplayer, Helldivers 2 offers pure cooperative chaos. For single-player story depth, most of the list above will satisfy that hunger. For experimental gameplay, Metaphor: Re Fantazio keeps pushing boundaries.
The key is understanding what you actually want from a game. Some games are about the destination. Some are about the journey. Some are about the weird moments in between that you couldn't have predicted.
PS5's 2025 lineup had all of those in abundance.
The Real Takeaway: Quality Over Quantity
What struck me most about 2025's PS5 releases is that most of them felt like they were made by people who genuinely cared about the final product. There were no cynical cash-grabs. There were no games clearly designed by committee to hit market demographics.
There were games made by creative teams with distinct visions, backed by publishers willing to give them space to realize those visions. That's rarer in the AAA space than it should be.
The PS5 will never again be a console with exclusive access to the best games. That era is over. But it can be a console with a library of games made specifically with its capabilities in mind, and a community of developers who care about pushing the medium forward.
In 2025, that was more than enough.
FAQ
What are the best PS5 games of 2025?
The best PS5 games of 2025 include Death Stranding 2 for its ambitious weirdness, Ghost of Yōtei for refined sword-fighting gameplay, Final Fantasy Tactics for strategic depth, and Metaphor: Re Fantazio for its incredible storytelling. Each offers something different depending on what you're looking for in a gaming experience.
Is Death Stranding 2 better than the first game?
Death Stranding 2 builds on the foundation of the original while making significant improvements to pacing, story clarity, and gameplay variety. The shift to Australia provides new environmental challenges, and the expanded cast of characters adds depth. If you struggled with the original's pacing, the sequel addresses many of those issues.
Should I get a PlayStation Portal?
If you own a PS5 and have a stable home Wi-Fi network, the PlayStation Portal offers genuine value through cloud streaming access to over 2,000 games at $200. It's particularly useful for households where multiple people want to play simultaneously or for bringing your library to different rooms. Test your internet speed before purchasing to ensure adequate streaming quality.
Can I play PS5 exclusives on other platforms?
Many 2025 PS5 titles launched on multiple platforms including PC and Xbox. Death Stranding 2, Ghost of Yōtei, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Metaphor: Re Fantazio are all available on other systems. However, the PS5 versions often feature optimized performance and sometimes exclusive features. Check individual game pages for platform availability.
What happened to PS5 exclusivity?
Sony has shifted away from hard exclusivity, choosing instead to release most first-party games on multiple platforms after an initial window. This reflects a broader industry trend where console makers focus on ecosystem value and services rather than artificial scarcity. The PS5 still receives excellent games, but fewer are exclusive long-term.
Is Final Fantasy Tactics Remaster worth playing in 2025?
Absolutely. Final Fantasy Tactics remains one of the greatest strategy RPGs ever made. The 2025 remaster improves the translation, modernizes the interface, and cleans up the presentation while keeping the core game intact. The job system is deep, the story is sophisticated, and the tactical combat is genuinely challenging. Whether you're new to the series or revisiting it, the remaster is the best way to experience the game.
How do I choose between these PS5 games?
Consider what type of experience you want: Death Stranding 2 for unconventional gameplay, Ghost of Yōtei for polished action, Final Fantasy Tactics for strategy, Metaphor: Re Fantazio for story depth, or Helldivers 2 for multiplayer cooperation. Most offer free demos or trial periods, so you can test them before committing.
What makes PS5 games different from other platforms?
While most games are multiplatform, PS5 versions often feature optimized performance, faster loading through the custom SSD, and sometimes exclusive features. The hardware still matters for visual quality and stability. However, the gameplay experiences are largely equivalent across platforms.
Are there still PS5 exclusive games?
While the definition of exclusivity is evolving, Sony still develops first-party titles, though many release on other platforms after initial windows. Ghost of Yōtei, Death Stranding 2, and Final Fantasy Tactics launched as multiplatform releases. The exclusive model is gradually disappearing industry-wide.
What should I play first?
Start with Ghost of Yōtei if you want something immediately engaging and polished. Try Death Stranding 2 if you're feeling adventurous and want something completely different. Pick Final Fantasy Tactics if you're looking for deep strategic gameplay. Each represents what made PS5 gaming special in 2025.
Last Updated: December 2025
Key Takeaways
- Death Stranding 2 emerges as the year's most ambitious exclusive, building on the original with innovative gameplay mechanics and setting shift to Australia.
- Platform exclusivity continues declining, but PS5 versions still deliver optimized performance and sometimes exclusive features that justify the hardware investment.
- PlayStation Portal cloud streaming at $200 fundamentally changes how PS5 owners access their library, with over 2,000 streamable games making it nearly essential.
- Japanese developers (Square Enix, Atlus, Ryu Ga Gotoku) pushed creative boundaries more than Western studios, delivering deeper narratives and more experimental gameplay systems.
- The PS5's 2025 library proves that console value comes from quality of exclusive experiences and ecosystem features, not artificial restrictions on game availability.
