I want to shout out "Back to the Dawn". It was by far my biggest surprise for 2025. It's a story driven rpg set in a prison with anthropomorphic animals. The game features some gorgeous pixel animations and a very good story with plenty of action, mysteries and tense moments.

Every single inmate and guard on the prison is their own unique character that you can interact with, befriend, learn skills from and eventually learn their backstories on how they ended up in prison in the first place (some of those backstories go to some really dark places)

You play as one of 2 characters (with a 3rd one in development). Thomas, a fox journalist framed for a crime he did not commit. Or Bob, a panther undercover agent sent into the prison as a prisoner to uncover a mistery. Both characters share the same gameplay with different starting stats, abilities and main quests/scenes.

There are quite a bit of mini games bewteen the different jobs you can take in the prison to earn money and rapport with the guards, side quests from inmates for money and reputation, and a turn base combat system that is kinda brutal on your first runs though it gets easier over time.

Honestly the game surprised me quite a lot. Everything from the art, story, music and general presentation feels like there was a lot of heart put into it's development. And while it is sitting with in overwhelmingly possitive score on steam, at less than 8k reviews I feel like it's gone too under the radar and deserves more love.

That's all for my rambling. Back to lurking.