These Should Be the Next 5 RPG Remasters
This has been a good few years if you’re a fan of classic JRPGs. Between full on remakes of beloved classics (such as the phenomenal Final Fantasy VII Remake), long overdue localizations (like Trials of Mana) and remasters that upscale the games we love (Final Fantasy VIII Remastered and Grandia II HD Remaster) there’s a goddamn bevy of unforgettable RPGs waiting to be played. Whether it’s your first time playing through Tales of Vesperia or your 30th, quarantine is a great time to catch up on some classics.
So since we’re on the subject, here’s 5 more RPGs we wanna see remastered (or remade entirely).
Note: In this case, we consider a remake to be a complete reimagining of the original title following the same general framework, while a remaster is a port of the original game with updated textures, models, and minor gameplay tweaks.
The Legend of Dragoon
Original Platform:
PS1, 2000
What Was It?
The Legend of Dragoon was essentially just Sony’s take on the Squaresoft style of RPG. Pre-rendered backgrounds, 3D battles, melodramatic plot, and a blonde, spiky-hard protagonist. It was about as shameless a clone as you could find, but came late enough on the PS1 that it took all the best parts of the games that inspired it and wrapped them in one of the console’s best looking packages. Dragoon‘s highlight was the battle system, a twist on the turn-based formula that prompted players to time their button presses during attacks to initiate combos. The Legend of Dragoon was not the most original RPG on the PS1 but was a great game in it’s own right.
Remake or Remaster?
A full on remake would be the dream, wouldn’t it? The combo-focused battle system could turn into something special with today’s technology, and Dragoon‘s bright fantasy worlds would be a dream in HD. The Legend of Dragoon often aspired to more than it was able to actually accomplish – such as the Dragoon transformations that looked cool but lacked usefulness in combat – that could be rectified with a more modern design. At the very least we could do with a cleaned up translation, as the original is very much a product of it’s time.
Panzer Dragoon Saga
Original Platform:
Saturn, 1998
What Was It?
Panzer Dragoon Saga was the Sega Saturn’s swan song; a massive, cinematic RPG that was the equal of Final Fantasy VII. Taking the strange and mysterious world of Panzer Dragoon and Zwei and bring it to an RPG, PDS featured a unique mix of real-time and turn-based combat and full voice acting, in addition to a story and general gameplay that was wildly different from the popular RPGs of the time. It’s extremely low print run (and subsequent rarity) outside Japan combined with it’s universal critical acclaim has afforded PDS an almost mythical status.* It’s often considered to not only be far and away the Saturn’s best game, but also one of the best RPGs ever made.
*Considering copies regularly sell for $1000+, the game has never been ported, and Saturn emulation is notoriously difficult, this is most definitely the least played game on this list.
Remake or Remaster?
Considering PDS was a fully 3D game on the Sega Saturn, a full on remake is pretty much a neccesity. This wouldn’t even be unusual for the series; a complete remake of the original Panzer Dragoon was released earlier this year. Most everything else could stay just as it was back in 1998, but with the content and quests included that were originally cut during development.
A remaster wouldn’t be possible even if we wanted one. Sega is rumoured to have lost the source code ages ago, and the difficulty of Saturn emulation has ensured that Panzer Dragoon Saga has remained trapped on it’s original console.
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
Original Platform:
Gamecube, 2004
What Was It?
The second game in Nintendo’s Paper Mario series, the only series on this list that’s still getting new entries.* It takes a 2D Mario to a 3D world as he meets friends and uncovers the mysteries of the Thousand Year Door. TTYD continues with the more action-focused battle systems of past Mario RPGs and features one of the most entertaining localizations ever seen in a videogame. The Paper Mario series went in wildly different directions after this entry and never seemed to recapture the same magic.
*Paper Mario: The Origami King is due to be released on July 17 for Nintendo Switch.
Remake or Remaster?
TTYD has aged like fine wine, so we’ve gotta go with remaster on this one. The colourful graphics, wildly creative worlds, fun combat, and incredible script still hold up today, so other than a resolution bump everything can stay exactly as is.
Breath of Fire 3/4
Original Platform:
PS1, 1998/2000
What Is It?
The flagship RPG series from Capcom, a company not traditionally known for their RPGs. The Breath of Fire series started on the SNES, but it’s golden age was on the Playstation. The series as a whole had a relatively simple plot, following a man with the power to turn into a dragon and his adventures to save the world. What I liked best about the Breath of Fire games, however, was how much they reminded me of simpler times. Their 2D sprites overplayed on fully 3D backgrounds, colourful graphics, and straightforward yet engaging plots seemed like a refined version of SNES RPGs, an alternate future where RPGs continued along that path rather than becoming the serious, high-budget, CGI-filled mega-productions like the massively popular Squaresoft games.
Why did I pick two games instead of just one? In my mind, they belong together. They’re both similar and both remind me so much of their forebears that they are inseparable in my mind.
Remake or Remaster?
With their cartoony stlyle, Breath of Fire 3 and 4 don’t need full remakes. In fact, changing too much might ruin what I consider to be their primary appeal, which is that nostalgic look into the genre’s past. So in my mind, some updated textures are all that’s needed to keep the games looking and playing good on, say, the Nintendo Switch.
Skies of Arcadia
Original Platform:
Dreamcast, 2000
What Was It?
Sega’s ill-fated Dreamcast wasn’t exactly known as an RPG powerhouse, but the cream of the crop was Sega’s very own Skies of Arcadia. Taking place on floating islands in the sky, Skies was a fully 3D, turn-based RPG following a group of pirates in their fight against an evil empire. The somewhat generic plot was carried largely by the strength of it’s characters and imaginative world.
Remake or Remaster?
Skies of Arcadia deserves a full 3D remake, but the more realistic option would be an upscaled remaster (like fellow Dreamcast RPG Grandia II). The game did see an enhanced release on the Gamecube as Skies of Arcadia: Legends that added a bunch of content and fixed some of the original’s biggest flaws – such as the absurd random encounter rate – at the cost of lower sound quality. Combine the fixes and new content with the higher sound quality of the original version along with a slick new resolution and updated textures and you’ve got the definitive edition of one of the most charming RPGs to ever play on a console.
These are only 5 RPGs that deserve a release on modern consoles, but not the only ones. It’s a big genre with a long history, so what other classics from the past would you like to see remastered? Let us know!
