All the video games you started but didn't finish in 2025

If the commenters on this site and Defector's Twitch chat are to be believed, I have a lot of issues, but there's one that bothers me every day. terrible At the end of a video game. I'm just a fucking perfectionist, that's who I am. I played a lot of games in 2025. I owe it to The Backlog for forcing me to continue playing the game when I was itching to start something else, regardless of who I am. I'm proud of that effort. I completed all but one of the Backlog games, which were so average that I couldn't spend any more time on them. That game is in the list below.

Other than the game I completed for The Backlog, I have not completed anything else. one Games all year round. That game is Claire Obscur: Expedition 33won numerous awards at the end of the year and became the subject of excruciating debate. (I wrote about that game as well. It's not like the charm of a full blog did much to help me finish it; it was also just a really good game.) Other than that, a rough tally of my libraries on Switch, PS5, and PC shows that there were 26 games I started this year but didn't finish.

This is no good! I've spent hundreds if not thousands of dollars on video games this year. In my defense, most of these games were cheap to begin with or were on sale for less than $20. And there are many more games than the 26 below that I bought but never even installed. There are many reasons why I stopped the game before reaching the end credits. Some people have lost interest because they were too overwhelmed and felt like they were going through the motions (Tactics Ogre Reborn) or simply because the game peaked earlier (fire emblem engage). For others, I just stink playing the game (Hades, Hades II, Hollow Knight, Elden Ring). And unfortunately, in a series of games, I ended up getting distracted by the next thing. world of warcraftas I often do (Disco Elysium The playthrough number worked fine at 7 until the new number. oh season has come).

What they all have in common is that they've run out of steam. I can't play multiple story-based games at the same time, so I need to be able to maintain momentum without getting FOMO in other games. Sometimes that FOMO comes from just seeing a random social media post about a game and thinking, “Oh, I need to play it now!” (rogue trader, 100 lines) — If there is a closing prayer. As you can see, I fail horribly at this almost every time.

However, that doesn't mean I haven't been able to enjoy the game this year due to unfinished runs or work commitments. I think I enjoyed gaming more this year than any year since 2020. This is because I think my purchase of the Steam Deck last December has made gaming on the couch much more achievable, and I've been able to balance gaming time with, well, time watching just about any game.survivor For hours. I felt like it was a great balance and I played some great games, but oh well. I wish I could have completed some of the games below.

Come to think of it, this list could have been even longer if it weren't for the common sense rules I imposed on myself. To qualify, games had to meet three criteria:

You need some kind of specific ending, so games like Europa Universalis V and team fight tacticstwo games I've played hundreds of hours on this year don't count.
I don't think I've ever finished the game, even in the past few years. You may not have completed your 2025 save final fantasy ixbut it's my favorite game of all time, and I've completed it dozens of times.
I had to play the game in question for at least 4 hours. Why 4 hours? I don't know, it just felt that way. This alone really disqualifies me. persona 3 reload (Currently playing, playing time is 102 minutes) heavy rain (Please leave it alone since it was on sale, and the playing time was 37 minutes).

With all that in mind, here's a list ranked by how much fun I enjoyed it.