July 2025 New Games Thread

[Violentvixen]

The basic idea is to list new games that you are interested in, as well as games you are potentially curious about or want to give wider attention to. You can briefly describe them or ask other people to help fill you in. The hope is that regular threads like these can act as a collective filter/discovery mechanism to help people decide what is worth checking out.

"New games" means any new title that is being released or ported this month in any capacity (not "backlogs/what you are playing this month"). The angle here is sharing your anticipation and promoting game discovery (as opposed to sharing comments about a first playthrough in progress - that belongs elsewhere).

• If you want a handy list that covers most of the major upcoming games of the month, here are lists of upcoming games:
  • Giant Bomb
  • Wikipedia
  • GameInformer

Here are the subscription service lists for this month:

Gamepass

• Little Nightmares 2 July 1
• Rise of the Tomb Raider July 1
• Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 July 11
• Abiotic factor July 22
• Wheel World July 23
• Wuchang: Fallen Feathers July 24
• Grounded 2 July 29 (might be a beta only?)

PS+

• Diablo IV | PS5, PS4
• The King of Fighters XV | PS5, PS4
• Jusant | PS5
• Lots of PS+ 15th anniversary things

Feel free to post other lists or list videos that you find useful.
If there is already a thread on TT about a game, please add a link to it.

Final request: If you are the first person to mention a game please provide (at minimum) a short sentence description. (If it is a very big AAA release though, then don't worry about it.) This is a good convention that makes the thread more useful as a discovery mechanism, and especially helps out anyone who doesn't follow the news as closely as you.

 

[WildcatJF]

I'll be getting Donkey Kong Bananza for sure. Very excited to have this spiritual Incredible Hulk Ultimate Destruction successor!

 

[Sarge]

I'll be getting Donkey Kong Bananza for sure. Very excited to have this spiritual Incredible Hulk Ultimate Destruction successor!

Ditto! I reserved my copy last week at the GameStop, and am very much looking forward to it. And IH:UD is a great comparison point from everything I see, with that addictive Mario Odyssey gameplay as well. I can't see it not being good.

 

[Violentvixen]

Shadow Labyrinth is a spooky looking 2D sidescroller that has Pacman and that's bonkers. I don't know if I'm going to buy that one because I don't like metriodvanias that much, but I'm really curious about it. Hoping it comes to Gamepass eventually.

Wheel World was originally announced as Ghost Bike a couple years ago. I'm still not 100% sure what you do in the game and Annapurna went through some changes since then but I like the look of the newer trailer better and the music in both so will keep an eye on this one.

It also appears Doronko Wanko is coming to Switch. This game has been free on Steam for a while and is an absolutely stupid good time. You're a Pomeranian trying to get the house as messy as possible. Apparently they're adding more stuff to the game on Steam along with the Switch release on the 24th, so I might revisit this because it's just so bizarre and it's free and I couldn't stop smiling while I played.

 

[Bongo]

No way would I miss Donkey Kong Bananza, the action-adventure game from Nintendo featuring fully deformable environments and monkeys.

I might have to wait a bit longer for the PC release, but Monument Valley 3 is a sure thing for me based on its predecessors. A calm indietronic puzzle game based on navigating various Escherian optical illusions.

 

[Sarcasmorator]

I might give Diablo IV a try, III was the last one I played. I dropped off Blizzard stuff after the Bad Story about the workplace culture and abuses, so idk. Might not.

This month will be mostly catching up on things I already have until the end, when it's my birthday and I might get Bananza or something.

 

[4-So]

Diablo 4 is a different trip than Diablo 3. D4 is a seasonal game. It has a story and so on but after that story is finished you are left with whatever the seasonal content is; seasons must be purchased, although there's a free route as well. (Season 9 starts today.) Like other seasonal games, a few things will be carried over between seasons but for the most part you leave behind the "borrowed power" of the previous seasons and you cannot replay seasons (although seasonal bosses tend to be carried onward). Each season is reset and while you don't have to play on the seasonal realms, that's where most of the action is. Per the seasonal dynamic, characters from prior seasons are moved to the eternal (read: non-seasonal) realms, and to participate in the on-going season, you must start a character from level 1. (I know D3 also has seasons but D4's implementation feels more like Overwatch 2's or something like that, with the in-game shop and its microtransactions just peeking over the edge. I've made my peace with it but it's pretty fucking meh.)

Anyway, yeah. Different vibe than D3. Nowadays, I mostly use D4 as a reason to listen to music. Mute the in-game music and sounds, load up an album on Tidal, veg out for an hour or so, and then go play something else. Anything else.

 

[Paul le Fou]

Ooh, Eiyuden is on PS+ now! Just picked that up, along with Jusant. Huzzah!

 

[lincolnic]

I'll be getting Donkey Kong Bananza for sure. Very excited to have this spiritual Incredible Hulk Ultimate Destruction successor!

Yes, thank you. From the moment they first revealed the destructible world mechanic I said "oh, this is that Incredible Hulk game that was super fun." And now it's Donkey Kong Ultimate Destruction made by the Odyssey team? I can't wait to play it.

 

[Octopus Prime]

Besides Bananza, which is a given;

Artificial Dreams in Arcadia is a Touhou spinoff that leans hard on SMT for inspiration and while I’m indifferent to the former, i love the latter and I’m really fascinated by the premise

Spydrop is a Metal Gear ‘em up that has PS1y visuals and I’m real interested in seeing how it shakes out

 

[Sarge]

Artificial Dreams in Arcadia is a Touhou spinoff that leans hard on SMT for inspiration and while I’m indifferent to the former, i love the latter and I’m really fascinated by the premise

Yeah, that's where I was at on it - don't love or hate Touhou, but this game was super cheap on Steam a while back so I couldn't pass it up.

Spydrop is a Metal Gear ‘em up that has PS1y visuals and I’m real interested in seeing how it shakes out

I am very intrigued - going to keep an eye on it.

 

[Bongo]

I'm now also very curious about Spy Drops. It's channeling Metal Gear Solid 1 in a big way, and the twist is that it has procedurally generated sneaking missions. Peace Walker and The Phantom Pain both convinced me that multiple small missions is a better structure for a sneak-'em-up than one big mission. However, retrying and perfecting your approach is also important, so I'm hoping it's not a roguelite or anything like that.

 

[Peklo]

Earthion comes out the end of the month, to the delight of all Ancient-heads.

Similarly, Cotton Reboot! High Tension! arrives at month's end, being a sequel to 2021's Cotton Reboot! that spearheaded the series's revival and newly widespread availability in modern times. Any game in the series is pretty much a lock for me on sight, but I'm expecting lots of chaotic overflow goofiness like Reboot!'s systems and presentation exhibited.

Mado Monogatari: Fia and the Wondrous Academy returns the series from slumber, but it's a tentative interest I have for it for a few reasons. One is that the series's prior game, 2013's Sorcery Saga: The Curse of the Great Curry God is one of the most boring roguelikes I've played, and that Idea Factory/Compile Heart acting as publishers and rights-holders for any given project is usually an interest-killer. The nominal point of intrigue for this game is that RPG mavericks Sting developed it, but that too might be an awkward fit for the typically breezy and uncomplicated games Mado Monogatari has traditionally defined itself by. Is there really demand for Sting to hold themselves back from byzantine excess?

Might double-dip for the aforementioned Artificial Dream in Arcadia just to show support for one of my favourite games. Catch up on it in its thread.

 

[Alex]

Ooh, Eiyuden is on PS+ now! Just picked that up, along with Jusant. Huzzah!

I am curious about Eiyuden! I might wait for a sale though, because my PS+ expires in a week and I don't intend on renewing it.

 

[Sarcasmorator]

might as well nab it just in case, since you'll still have it on the account if you ever change your mind. you could play for a day or two and see if you like it.

 

[Alex]

might as well nab it just in case, since you'll still have it on the account if you ever change your mind. you could play for a day or two and see if you like it.

oh that's actually a really solid point, what if I pay cash money for it and I hate it?

 

[Baudshaw]

I didn't vibe with Eiyuden, but I think you could like it.

 

[Peklo]

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers looks like your standard soulslike, and while I don't play all of those, god forbid, I play enough to eyeball which ones settle in acceptably enough for my interests. A fem protagonist goes a long way, and a non-embarrassing aesthetic helps too. Hoping for the best with this one.

 

[Bongo]

The third DLC episode for Rise of the Golden Idol, entitled The Age of Restraint, just dropped.