August 2025’s PlayStation Plus Essential Games Have Been Revealed

Whenever I publish one of these subscription service update articles, I always manage to come back to a statement like, “It’s a really varied lot this month,” but this time I really mean it. Admittedly, last month had a bit of the same energy, with Diablo IV, The King of Fighters XV and Jusant rounding out July’s group, but August has the eclectic mix of a Soulslike with a soft boy protagonist, an online zombie survival game, and an anime arena fighter. Varied, right?

As announced on the PlayStation Blog, the PlayStation Plus Essentials games for August are Lies of P, Day Z and My Hero One’s Justice 2. All three games are hitting the service on August 5.

The use of characters that’ve slipped into the public domain has largely been shitty horror films that use the name for nothing more than publicity, so folks were right to be sceptical of a Soulslike based on Pinocchio, of all things. As it happens, not all properties that are released into the wild are squandered, because Lies of P turned out to be a stone-cold banger. Heralded by many as the true sequel to Bloodborne, this fast-paced and devilishly difficult action game is definitely a real boy. We gave Lies of P a 9 in our review, praising both its tight combat and entrancing world.

Day Z feels like one of those games that needs no introduction these days, but let’s assume there are a few among us who haven’t heard of this zombie juggernaut. Dropped into a massive, dense open-world map with little more than the clothes on your back, you’re asked to scavenge and survive as roaming zombies look to bring you to a permadeath end. Unfortunately, the shambling undead are only part of the problem, as up to 59 other survivors are looking to keep their hearts pumping as well, often with you standing in their way of doing so. It’s brutal, it’s unforgiving, and it’s a genre staple.

Real talk, my only anime vice is One Piece, so I have no idea what I’m talking about when it comes to anything else in the genre. That said, I do know that anime fans get around an arena fighter that lets them smash together their favourite characters, so I figure My Hero One’s Justice 2 would be a slam dunk, but that might only be the case for the die-hards. From the various reviews that make up the game’s overall score of 68 on Metacritic, it seems as though a lack of meaningful content hurts the overall experience. With that said, if you’re a huge My Hero fan, this would be the ideal time to jump in, have your fill, then jump out.

If you haven’t downloaded Diablo IV, The King of Fighters XV and Jusant, you have until August 4 to do so. As always, please remember that you can add these games to your library and download them later if you don’t have any precious space on your hard drive.

Which game will you be downloading first? What games would you like to see in September? Let us know in the comments or on our social media.