18 Indie Games that are Better than Most AAA Major Releases

Last updated December 31, 2025.

There’s been a massive explosion of amazing indie games in recent years. Having an alternative to the massive AAA games is always a good thing and many of these indie games are even better than most AAA releases now.

A lot of them are pretty incredible success stories as well.

Here are our top indie games that you need to check out right now! No matter what kinds of games you like to play we guarantee you’ll find something here that you’ll love.

Sea of Stars

Sea of Stars is an absolutely incredible JRPG heavily influenced by Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG and a little bit of Golden Sun. If you like any of those games you absolutely need to play this.

The game has a great turn-based battle system with timed hits as well as encounters that almost turn into puzzles as you have to figure out the best combination of attacks to “Break locks” and prevent enemies from using their attacks, delay their turns or things like that.

It’s also got some of the best pixel art and lighting we’ve ever seen in any video game.

The soundtrack is amazing as well and it now has a large free DLC expansion that expands the story and is a ton of fun as well.

Read our full review of Sea of Stars here.

Chained Echoes

Chained Echoes is another absolutely incredible indie JRPG inspired by games like Xenogears, Final Fantasy XII and Chrono Trigger.

If you’re looking for a dense, complicated story very much inspired by Xenogears, deep customization and gameplay, tons of secrets and fantastic pixel art then you definitely need to check this one out.

And get the DLC expansion as well because it’s even more of what makes this game so special.

Read our full review of Chained Echoes here.

Quartet

Quartet is a fantastic indie JRPG heavily inspired by Final Fantasy VI and Live a Live. If you enjoyed the old school pixel art Final Fantasy games, especially VI then you absolutely have to check this out.

The story is surprisingly excellent with just the right amount of seriousness and humor.

The game features 8 separate characters, four pairs, each with their own stories that beautifully come together later on.

There’s a turn-based battle system where you can freely swap out characters and you’re encouraged to mix and match abilities to almost break the game (making one character attack 16 times on their turn for example).

Read our full review of Quartet here.

Tunic

Tunic emerges as a masterful blend of exploration, puzzle-solving, and combat, wrapped in a visually stunning and musically captivating package.

This game stands out for its ingenious storytelling through discovery and environment, inviting players into a rich, enigmatic world filled with secrets waiting to be uncovered.

With its homage to classic adventure games infused with fresh, innovative elements, Tunic is celebrated as not just a game, but a profound artistic expression that resonates deeply with its audience, making it an unforgettable journey for every player.

Read our full review of Tunic here

Eastward

Eastward is an absolutely fantastic sort of top-down Zelda-ish game. It’s got an amazing pixel art style, amazing music and the most heart I’ve ever seen in any videogame ever. The characters are all incredible, their dialog is incredibly well written with a lot of fun and humor.

There’s really nothing quite like this game and if you’re at all a fan of games like the 2D Zeldas or Earthbound you should definitely check this one out.

You can read our full review of Eastward here.

Death’s Door

Death’s Door is made by the same team that made Titan Souls. Gameplay-wise it’s kind of like a 2D Zelda game combined with elements of Dark Souls. It’s a bit more difficult than the average game but not quite as punishing as Dark Souls.

The story follows a young crow who works as a Reaper collecting souls of people who have died. The story is pretty unique with lots of super creative and interesting characters as well a fantastic world to explore.

The art direction and soundtrack are top notch too.

This was easily the best game we played in 2021 and you can read our review of Death’s Door here.

Hollow Knight

Hollow Knight is easily the best Metroidvania game we’ve ever played and one of the best games period.  Team Cherry absolutely knocked it out the park here.

The hand drawn artwork looks incredible and the world is a joy to explore and very well designed with secrets hidden everywhere.

The controls are super tight and the combat and platforming feels amazing. All of this is combine with excellent music and sound as well.

It’s got some Dark Souls elements and the difficulty is a bit higher than your average game but if you’re at all a fan of Metroidvanias then you need to pick this up.

For $15 you get 40+ hours of an amazing game which is an absolute steal.

Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling

The Paper Mario games are a very unique series with quite a following but most Paper Mario fans will tell you that Paper Mario 64 and The Thousand Year Door for the Gamecube are really the only good ones.

That’s because in later installments they pretty much stripped out all the RPG elements and interesting characters. The series now is a pale imitation of what it could be.

Fortunately though Bug Fables is essentially a traditional Paper Mario game in everything but name. It’s got similar gameplay, combat and follows a delightful cast of bugs in a fantastic story. If you’re at all a fan of the early Paper Mario games you need to play this.

Read our full review of Bug Fables here

Stardew Valley

Stardew Valley is an incredible game created by a single developer over a period of 4 years. It’s also the greatest Harvest Moon game ever made.

Tired of working a soul-crushing corporate job you move out to your grandfather’s old dilapidated farm and work to restore it to its former glory by clearing the land, planting crops, raising animals, etc. If you’ve ever played a Harvest Moon game then you know what to expect.

Stardew Valley adds so much more though. There’s mining, fishing, combat, excellent characters, quests, an over-arching goal to save the town from being taken over by a mega-corporation and tons of secrets.

Plus the developer is still working on the game putting out free updates including adding in multiplayer and a ton of other features.

This game also costs around $15 and is an absolute steal at that price if you’re looking for a more relaxing, go at your own pace sort of gaming experience.

Outer Wilds

Outer Wilds is an incredible game and the less I tell you about it the better. You really need to go in blind and experience everything yourself. I will give a few basic details though.

It’s sort of a puzzle game where you’re exploring a little solar system with realistic physics. There are some very interesting planets and things you’ll encounter along the way and it does some very interesting things with its gameplay and puzzles that I can’t say anything about without spoiling everything.

Just take our word for it and go get this game.

Hyper Light Drifter

Hyper Light Drifter is a gorgeous 2D action game with elements of games like Dark Souls and A Link to the Past.

The game was created by a developer with a serious heart condition and parts of the game reflect that.

The combat and gameplay is excellent, the world is a joy to explore and full of secrets everywhere. Interestingly enough there’s no text in the game at all. The entire story is told through little scenes of pictures and that includes text from NPCs.

It’s a little bit on the difficult side but if you keep at it you’ll succeed and have a fantastic experience.

Read our full review of Hyper Light Drifter here.

Undertale

If by now you still haven’t played or even heard of Undertale then what are you even doing?

This is sort of an indie version of Earthbound on the Super Nintendo. It’s an RPG with a charming and hilarious cast of characters and very meaningful story.

In its battle system you have the option of defeating enemies but you can also play the entire game without having to kill a single enemy which is very unique. You may want to aim to do that but we won’t say anything else for spoiler reasons.

The game also breaks the fourth wall in some very interesting ways but you’ll just have to experience that part yourself.

Enter the Gungeon

Enter the Gungeon is a fantastic Rogue-Like full of quirky humor that you’d expect from a Devolver published game.

You make runs through  “The Gungeon” with the ultimate goal of getting the gun that can shoot the past.

The gameplay is super tight and fun and you’ll find hundreds of unique and fun to use guns throughout your runs.

If you’re a fan of Rogue-Likes at all then this is probably our favorite and what we’d most recommend.

Subnautica

Subnautica is easily the best survival game we’ve ever played.

You crash land your spaceship in the ocean on an alien planet and have to survive. You collect resources, build bases and gradually expand out from your crash site and explore the planet.

There’s an overall mystery going on that you have to solve as you ultimately try to escape.

The atmosphere in this game is amazing. They created a fantastic whole underwater eco-system of fish and various underwater creatures, some of which can be quite terrifying when you encounter them the first time.

It’s also a ton of fun gathering up various resources, crafting materials and building bases.

If you enjoy survival base-building games then Subnautica is one of the best.

Fez

Fez is an older Indie game, one of the originals you could even say, but it still holds up amazingly well today.

The game is a 2D platformer/puzzle game and the main gimmick here is that while the world you traverse is in 2 dimensions it’s actually a 3D environment that you can rotate 90 degrees. When you rotate the world the 2D plan you are interacting with changes completely.

This leads to some interesting puzzles and a very unique way of interacting with the level environments.

There are some crazy extra puzzles that took the entire Internet a long time to solve. That’s an interesting story in itself but at least you can get a bit of help completing absolutely everything now.

Dead Cells

Dead Cells is a very unique combination of a Rogue-Like and a Metroidvania.

You make runs through this world which is divided up into different sections such as sewers, dungeons, castle walls, forests, a crazy green house and other fantastic environments. Then each of these areas is assembled with 2D Metroidvania pieces that are randomly generated each time.

Even though everything is randomly generated though certain chunks will be the same each time and there are lots of secrets hidden there.

The combat is really well done and there’s a huge variety of different weapons, traps and items you’ll randomly find throughout your runs that you can use too.

Baba is You

Baba is You is a completely unique puzzle game that’s kind of hard to explain but once you start playing it and everything clicks you’ll completely get it.

You basically control a character and push around different elements of the level to try to get the flag at the end.

The interesting thing is that there are rules, almost like programming rules, in each level and you can push them around to change the rules and help you to solve puzzles.

Just watch the trailer above and everything we’re talking about will make more sense.

If you like using your brain and you’re looking for a genius-made puzzle game definitely check this one out.

Hob

Hob is a fantastic little game from the makers of Torchlight 1 and 2 although it’s nothing like either of those games.

The closest thing I could maybe compare it to is something like A Link to the Past.

It’s got action combat and a gorgeous world to explore. The main sort of gimmick in this world is how everything’s kind of assembled by different machines.

You’ll go deep underground into a dungeon and end up raising a giant chunk of land in the overworld where you can explore further. It’s a lot like how the different locations rise up in the opening to the Game of Thrones TV show if you’ve ever seen that.

Hob didn’t get a huge amount of attention but it’s a surprisingly fantastic little indie game and one of our favorites.