My Most Anticipated Board Games Of 2025!

0:00 hey friends it is Jenna what is up and welcome back to the board game garden and welcome to my most anticipated games for the upcoming year which is 2025 which I've been so excited to film this video I have way too many games that I'm looking forward to I do want to share with you guys some games that I covered here on the channel if you guys have watched the channel over the past year you would have seen me do previews on quite a few of these releases from 2025 um so I am going to give you guys some recommend recomendations based off of the ones that I have played I also have a few honorable mentions of 2025 releases that I have played I did not feature on the channel as of yet but they're ones that I have played and I do want to mention as well and then we are going to get into my top not 10 but 12 uh most anticipated games of 2025 that I have not played I have never even seen these games on the table I don't think actually I've seen quite a few of these on the table but I have not played any of these and I'm very very much so looking forward to possibly getting a chance to play them in the very near future so yes or at least throughout 2025 but anyways if you guys want to hear all about these games then just keep on watching give this video a big thumbs up if you enjoy Also hit that subscribe button down below if you yet to do so we'd love to have you here in the garden please comment down below any other games that I should have my eyes out for games that you're anticipating for 2025 I'd love to know those down in the comment section so put those down

1:30 there also please let me know how the video is for this I have my new lighting set up and my new camera and I am pretty happy with it as of what I'm seeing in the viewfinder and for like my tests and stuff so yes let me know how it looks for you guys and yeah without further Ado let's get into my top most anticipated games for 2025 shall we all right so before we get into the 12 games that I am personally anticipating I do want to like I said mention all of the games that I have already played that are being released in 2025 that either I've just played or I've played and featured on the channel in a preview um but let's go through all of these I'm just going to do a big list of them and I will put pictures on the screen or I'll do a little side thing we will see but the games that I've played that I am so excited are going to be coming out in 2025 that I recommend you check out that I have played personally first one is going to be Critter kitchen I cannot wait to get my final copy of this I am so excited Critter kitchen was one that I had the opportunity to feature on the channel last year and I have gotten the opportunity to play a few times as well I went to California and did some content for cter kitchen um for cardboard Alchemy and I did some stuff for Lucky Duck as well and we actually played a seven player game of kurter kitchen which was so much fun and I cannot wait to try the solo mode of Critter kitchen I cannot wait to just see the final product get to play it

3:02 with more people I feel like this is a game that can be played from you know new people in the hobby all the way to veterans that have been in the hobby for a long time so I'm very excited for that one another game that I'm really looking forward to coming out in 2025 that I did some content on is tend by Ivy Studios this one is so much fun and I can already tell you guys now that this game is probably going to be within my top games because I loved it that much um I cannot wait for that one to come out another one is Ada's dream or adah's dream that is a game from aliat games that I cover that I really enjoyed and I'm very much so looking forward to a final um copy of that or final version of that seeing that um and how it looks and everything it was a very fun like dice placement game which I really really enjoy um two from Garfield games are coming out in 2025 which are the Anarchy and Scar BR I covered both of those and loved those story fold Wildwoods is another solo only game kind of a campaign game I'm not 100% sure if that one will be coming out in 2025 the campaign was late 2024 I think it was in like November December so not 100% sure if that will be out in 2025 or maybe early 2026 or late 2025 but very much so looking forward to seeing that full campaign at there we also have the um wizards of the Grim War expansion that I covered pretty early on in 24 that I'm so excited for really enjoyed that Dragon eclipse from awaken

4:34 Realms I really love that's like a solo campaign kind of creature fighting game which I loved um luier from uh pavon games really loved that the old king's crown is like a trick-taking kind of battle game which was really cool that I covered rise of Babel I really enjoyed it was like a deck building game we also have Ember Leaf which I really enjoyed Flo which is been a long time coming but hopefully that one will be out in 2025 and then lastly we have a knitting circle from flat out games which is a little bit of like a cozy sequel to Calico which I really enjoyed um but that is kind of a list of games that I recommend from the games that I've done preview for I think I will do after I finish my list of 12 just telling you guys about a few honorable mentions that our games that I didn't feature on the channel but were games that I had the opportunity to play once in 2024 that I'm very much so looking forward to playing more once they come out in 2025 so I will give you guys those after my list of 12 but yeah that is everything for my recommendations let's get right into my 12 games that I am personally anticipating for 2025 all right so getting into my anticipated games of 2025 I do have a screen recording going on my laptop so I am going to kind of show you guys the BGG page for each of these just so you guys can see what the game looks like I will show you guys a few of like the images as well so you guys can get a better feel what uh game

6:06 I'm talking about but I have them all up in my tabs and there are 12 different games that I'm going to chat about today so the first one you guys can see on the screen now is snow planner so this has been a game that I've known about for a while but I do believe that it was only available in Asia and I think maybe now it is coming over to North America I'm not 100% sure why it is saying it's a 2025 release because literally when Francis and I were in uh Japan I saw this at a board game store and almost bought it but I didn't have enough space for it and I have seen it in the past even before we went to Japan so I think maybe the 2025 release is that it is getting released more widely and here's hoping that means that it might be more readily available in uh North America specifically Canada I would love that um but yeah snow planner looks like it is a dice placement game um it says snow planner is a dice placement game for two to four players it says two to four players but it does say one to four players at the top where it actually has the player count so I think there is a solo mode which is mainly why I'm interested in this um but um you are each taking on the role of managing an inn Near Snowy Mountains players take turns placing a die on the game board and once all dice have are gone the round ends so it's like a dice worker placement game kind of you will invite guests to stay at your hotel with them paying you

7:37 at the end of the round and ideally staying additional lights so that you don't have to find more guests by placing tiles on your board you upgrade the hotel increasing bonuses and earning more income dice can also represent employees who gain your resources with their work time additional dice can be earned both permanent and part-time that sounds so much fun it's just so cute it looks like it's like a like a snowy in like on the ski hills kind of Vibes and you are kind of managing that in and having your different customers that are out uh skiing and whatnot I think it's very cute and again it's been one that I've seen many many times and it's been one that I have been interested in for a long time so that is snow plan moving on to to number two this is a game that I saw and initially I wasn't like super interested in it but this is kind of a spin-off of another game that I absolutely love which is railroad Inc but this is railroad tiles which is one to four player so you can play this one solo and it is a tile placement version of railroad ink so if you guys do not know what railroad ink is it is a a rolling right whereas this one here is a tile placement game so instead of rolling the dice and then putting in the

9:08 different roads and railroads and stuff you're going to be placing tiles and just loving uh railroad ink so much I immediately was like I would love to check this out I feel like it would be a very cozy game um just like railroad ink is and kind of become one of like my comfort games cuz railroad Inc is very much so that to me so yes you guys can see here some of the pictures but it is very much so just a tile laying game where you're going to be connecting those highways and railroads and probably going to be scoring in similar ways um just like in railroad Inc so that is my number two railroad tiles all right moving into number three this is a game that just by the cover I like fell in love with this game I think it looks absolutely gorgeous and so cute and cozy the game that I'm talking about is Parks and potions and honestly there was a point in time where I like took this off the list because I was like no this is too easy of game I don't know if I'm super interested but honestly thinking about it I put it back on because I actually really enjoy games that are just very simple very easy cozy games sometimes when I'm playing a solo game or even like a multiplayer game I just want an easy game so I was like you know what I'm going to put this back on the list because I honestly do think that I would enjoy this um it is a 1.75 weight and it takes 15 to 30 minutes so I was like okay it doesn't take very long it's

10:39 just a very cozy simple game that looks absolutely beautiful and I do really think that I would enjoy it so parks and Potions is a kind of potion making game in a way um I will go back to the page in a second but like just looking at the pictures of this I just love the way it looks it kind of looks like a contract fulfillment game you are getting these different like potions that you're then putting onto these different cards that need specific colored potions in order to have them be fulfilled but it says parks and potion plays over five rounds um each representing a day of work the game is divided into phases where players roll dice to discover flowers to extract um manage their inventories and use potions to fulfill objectives and cure animals um so it is like a contract F fulfillment type game with some dice rolling and I'm assuming there's going to be some sort of like objectives and stuff that you're going for but yeah I am really looking forward to this one even if it's a very simple game uh honestly we just need some simple games sometimes so that is my number three parks and Potions all right so going to to the completely opposite end of the spectrum we have a very heavy game that I am very much so looking forward to um solely based on the the fact that this game looks like it just has a bunch of mini games and I've discovered over the past few years that I really enjoy games that offer just a bunch of mini games you can kind of go into um so the game

12:10 that I'm talking about is called the sixth realm so this is by final fron tier games which I do believe that they're the same publisher that made Merchants Cove and I really enjoy Merchants Cove so when I saw the sixth realm and just kind of the the look of it the way it was on the table um and just like looking into a little bit of the game play I think this will be one that I really enjoy it plays one to four players so it does have a solo mode and it is a four out of five um in complexity so this is quite a bit more complex than parks and potions and it looks absolutely beautiful there's just like so much going on on the table and all of these different individual kind of areas which are the kind of mini games like I said so I'm really really looking forward to this one it looks so good there's a lot lot of really good um pictures on here of it but each player has their own kind of player board with different things going on and then like I said the board has a ton going on as well my dogs have decided to join me hi how's it going how's it going babies but yes that is number four the sixth realm moving on to number five which I've kind of cheated and I've done number five as two different games but they are both kind of similar themes coming from the same publisher which is 25th Century games and my number fives are stargazers and Observatory so these are two games coming to you from 25th Century games

13:42 stargazers is I believe a Tian game and then Observatory is a uh rolling right if I'm not mistaken um it might be a flip and right but yeah Observatory you are doing something with the night sky it's a r and right I love rolling wrs I love stars and planets and stuff like that so this one I am very much so looking forward to uh there are no pictures of these games on uh BGG so unfortunately this is all I have to show you guys but Observatory looks like this and then stargazers looks like this wow look at that amazing that's all I have to show you but just know they're both about stars and planets in the night sky uh stargazers is a tile laying game which I love and then Observatory is a rolling right which I love and I'm not 100% sure if either of these have solo modes unfortunately stargazers does not and Observatory does Observatory plays one to five players awesome so yes those are my number five number six is a game that I saw the cover and immediately I was like I know this is my My Vibe of game you guys will be able to tell by the cover as well but this game is called forestry it is a little bit of a heavier I think like Euro game um if I'm not mistaken it actually doesn't have a

15:13 weight here on BGG yet and it also doesn't have any pictures of this on BGG either it only has the cover which you guys can see here it looks wonderful it's just a bunch of people um planting trees which I love oh actually there is pictures okay amazing so we do have like a hexagon grid map here which looks very cool um I actually don't know a ton about this game I just really loved the kind of theme of this one with the like preservation and stuff and planting trees and that sort of thing um I'm not 100% sure if this is the first game from this publisher but it is um players take on the role of forest stewards dedicated to sustainable Forest management the game challenges players to balance the demands of harvesting resources and fulfilling contracts with the need for Environmental Conservation which I love I love that um there is action points area movement chaining contracts um and then also hexagon grade we've already seen that and then we also have worker placement with the different worker types which I love the sound of so that is forestry my number six moving on to number seven this is a game that was announced by Jamie stagmire of stonem games and this one seems like it is a big sprawling project that he's been working on for a really really long time and is super proud of um but this is a game called Vantage so it says

16:45 cooperatively explored entire planets open ruled From firstperson perspective so I don't really know what firstperson perspectives means but I know like firsters like shooter games are like you could you're looking from the person's perspective which I don't really understand that in a board game sense but we will just have to see when it comes out but this is 1 to six players and honestly I am just interested in this one because of the fact that Jamie has worked on it for so long and has like really high hopes for it so um also I've never really gotten into like an open world game um before so I'm very much so looking forward to possibly trying this one out and seeing how it is I'm not 100% sure what to expect with this one I do think it's going to be very like story heavy and it just has a lot of cards so I feel like it's just going to be a game that you are exploring the area and kind of going through cards and story but I feel like this one might be a good one to jump into possibly I'm just for this one I'm mainly just interested to see more about it um and then see if it's kind of something that I would be interested in playing so that is my number seven video Advantage moving on to the next game this is my number eight and this is a game called Mercurial alcha I think is how you pronounce that second word um but there is the original game called Mercurial which I've recently tried and I've really enjoyed that one and this is

18:16 kind of a sequel to that game it's designed by the same person it is a different publisher but I don't know if maybe um good games publishing is the publisher of maerial maybe they are going to pick this one up a little bit later in the process but little sentence below the title here says cultivate fantastic flora and craft wondrous elixir in this game for one to four Alchemists so right away just like the magic theme and being an alchemist um creating these different um potions or Elixir and then cultivating the like ingredients for it has always been something that I've really enjoyed so I'm really looking forward to checking this one out I don't really think there's any pictures of this one we have a tentative cover here which I think is really cute I love the characters on the cover and then the mechanics that it has listed here um there's quite a few of them actually there is deck bag or pool building we have follow mechanic hand management Market multi-use cards simultaneous action selection variable player Powers variable setup and worker placement so all of those just have me very interested and liking murial already I am really looking forward forward to seeing what this one uh kind of changes with the base game and these two games are completely different from what I can see based off of like the mechanisms and stuff but they are from the same designer so I'm interested to see kind of the differences between the two games um and checking out Mercurial

19:47 elcha which is my number eight number nine is a game that I believe I actually saw at packs unplugged and I wish that I went to the booth cuz I kind of just saw it from afar and I thought the look of the game was absolutely stunning but I didn't actually go up to the booth and check out the game but the game that I'm talking about is called stem and branch and this is a game for one to four players it looks absolutely stunning and the theme around it is I believe the Zodiac kind of calendar it says St branch is an approachable strategy card game inspired by the animals and elements of the 60-year Eastern zodiac calendar so I don't know if you guys can see the well you guys can see I'm going to put it in the video but this is the cover here um which I think is absolutely gorgeous um we have this uh and then I don't really know what this is but you have all of the different cards and I guess you're placing things I honestly could not tell you anything about gameplay I know that it is a card game I know that says multi-use cards and open Drafting and I always love a good card games so uh yeah I'm very much so looking forward to stem and Branch I've heard some good things I think I heard um Jay from cardboard East I think he was chatting about it briefly um Jay if you're watching this please let me know how stem and branch is because I really like the look of it and I want to

21:17 try it so that is my number nine stem and Branch moving on to number 10 this one I interested in based off of the theme as well as the designer and this game is Coming of Age which this is coming from Luton NOA which I do think I've heard of that publisher before but the designer is Danny Garcia which Danny Garcia has designed uh Barcelona um what is that one game that starts with an A arboria he's also designed Arbor also daoshi which I haven't played daoshi yet but I really want to play that one but knowing that Danny Garcia has made these amazing games really has me interested in this one and then also it has this really cool theme of kind of like The Game of Life in a way that has always been a theme in games that I've really been drawn to I have a role in right that I've been wanting to play called your best life that has kind of that theme also I've always wanted to play a game called The Pursuit of Happiness which is kind of based around that like growing up there's also a game called adulthood from brotherwise games that I really want to play as well um and it has that theme of like you living someone's life and growing up and doing all of the things that you would um growing up kind of like in The Game of Life I am really excited for this one it looks very cool um the only mechanism that it has listed is dice rolling so that really doesn't give you a lot um but I am hopeful that

22:48 it's going to be a good one um and I'm really looking forward to checking it out so that is coming of age and yet again there is no images all you have is the the cover here so that's that's all I can that's all I can show you all right so moving on to the last two games the first one is one that I have not heard anyone talk about it looks like a very simple game but honestly like like I said with um parks and Potions I just I really enjoy a nice simple game so uh sometimes you just want that but this one just the look of this game and the Vibes of this game has me I need this game I don't know if is coming from diso studio and Ben W Turpin is one of the designers which is kind of cool he's the designer of Welcome to but this is another roll and right um but the game is called Daydream and this is the ultimate like cozy game I love the way this looks so so much this is the cover here it is a girl in the clouds sitting being cozy with a book and a cup of coffee and her C hat and H I'm just so obsessed with this um basically you are rolling Dice and then putting numbers into rows in columns which is very simple I will say but can we just talk about how beautiful this like sheet is where you're going to be writing in the different numbers and stuff and then

24:18 you're also going to be collecting these different cozy objects and stuff I just love the way this looks so much I just can't get over it uh it's it's going to be a simple game it but it's it's going to be a cozy game that's all I know and I'm really really looking forward to uh trying this one out again I don't really know if this is going to be available in North America or um how readily available it's going to be um cuz it's from a publisher that I don't think I've ever heard of but yeah it just looks adorable and I really really want to get my hands on it so that is my number 11 Daydream all right and my last game number 12 is a game that is from U Rosenberg and I think I I heard Tyler and Ilia from cover talking about this game and it's a possibility that this one might just be releasing in Europe in 20125 and it might not be getting to us here in North America until 2026 or something like that but this is coming from a publisher um Alby which Alby uh had tea garden and Galileo galet um which I still don't know if I'm saying that correct um but they have done a few games also a game called witchdom I really need to see if I can get those two games uh te garden and witchdom CU those were like two of my highest most anticipated games for packs unplugged and I didn't end up getting them so uh anyways Garden Lake is number

25:49 12 this is a game like I said coming from U Rosenberg and it published by Alby and this game looks absolutely beautiful just B B off of the cover it looks gorgeous it being uh from U Rosenberg I'm very um intrigued by it it is a grid coverage open drafting Square grid tile placement game says Garden Lake offers a relaxing and rewarding experience yes please players build their Garden Lakes with water lies and koi fish using Penton tiles I don't know what that is but I don't think they're polyon know I think they're a different shape um the catch is is that um on their turn players always Place one tile but they can earn additional tiles by completing various objectives which allow them to chain moves and strategize their way to Victory I am very interested um but yeah hopefully this one is coming to North America in 2025 fingers crossed but this does sound like a Classic uve Tile L game that's cozy and satisfying and I would love to check it out so that is my number 12 Garden Lake all right so quickly before I end the video I did want to give some honoral mentions of some games that I did get the opportunity to play once in 2024 and I am looking forward to playing them more in 2025 the first one is going to be tea witches this one is one that I've

27:20 already seen a few other people talk about and I was fortunate enough to be able to play this at PX unplugged I played one full kind of round of this and I loved it so much T witches is coming from the op and it is designed by Manny Vega artist is sandera Tang so this is the duo that brought you flamecraft and the look of this game already just has me I love the worlds that Sandara kind of creates and I love the characters and just how adorable the kind of environments are that she creates so yes really really looking forward to playing this one more I really enjoyed the gameplay when I did play it um there's a little bit of push your luck where you're going to be flipping over these different um like customers that you're going to be serving and each person is going to have their own kind of tea shop and you're going to be Brewing these different customers um drinks that they are like asking for and you're going to have the main board where you're going to be doing some worker placement and based off of where you place your little tea kettle you are then going to um have different kind of sets of movement in order to move the fountain to get the different colors of tea that you want into your workers if that makes sense so each worker has a spot for different colored te's and then you're going to be able to have a certain amount of movements to uh turn the fountain and

28:53 then also to move in the different tea into your worker placement um little workers and then you're going to be able to gain those tea into your board or onto your board and you're going to be able to do some like tile placement I'm doing an awful job explaining this it is definitely more of a um complex game than flamecraft which is something that I've been looking for um I really enjoy flamecraft but I do find it pretty simple which is great um but yeah this one's a little bit more complex and it has a lot going on with different objectives that you're going for for you can put different tiles onto your board that allow you to kind of chain things and do different things on your board with this tile placement and giving you more spaces and ways to place your tea into your tea house in order to store it to then um you know give or serve to your customers um so yeah really really looking forward to playing that one more I do think that the op is going to be releasing it at Gen Con of 2025 so super excited for that and then a few other games that I wanted to mention one being um Great Western Trail El Paso I did get a chance to play that one at paack unplugged as well just played a few rounds of that or like a shortened game of that I really liked it uh Great Western Trail has always been a game that I enjoyed I played a few times I did sell our copy just because it was really hard to get to the table and this one is a more condensed um kind of version of it it's still like a fairly

30:24 longish game it takes like an hour to an hour and a half for a full game um but it's definitely more approachable and easier to get to the table than uh base game of Great Western Trail and then also El Paso does have a solo mode as well so very much looking forward to trying that out um also another game one from kids table board games is layers it is a two-player head-to-head kind of uh what's that game Battleship esque game in a way where you're going against each other and you have a secret layer that the other players trying to go through they can't see um also crafting the cosmos from Office dog I loved that one played that one a full game of that one at Pax unplugged and then lastly we have the Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring trick-taking game which I have been playing quite a bit cuz I did get a copy at Plax unplugged that one is getting released very soon um I think sometime in later January so super excited for that one to be released and for you guys to check it out because that is a trick-taking game cooperative trick-taking game that you can play play solo which I've been loving solo so definitely recommend those ones there but yeah I think that's going to be everything for this video hopefully you guys enjoyed hopefully it's not too long hopefully it's not too yappy hopefully the audio and how this looks is good um but yeah if you guys enjoyed please give this video a big thumbs up also hit that subscribe button down below if You' yet to do so we'd love to have you here in the garden like I said in the intro

31:54 please leave any of your anticipated games down in the comment section there are so many others that I'm anticipating I could have made a list of like 50 games but I can't do that so I had to narrow it down to my top 12 um but I would love to know yours down in the comments and maybe we can chat about all the other ones that I am anticipating as well so yeah I love you guys so so much remember you are somebody's freed to smile and I will see you in the next board game video bye friends