CD Projekt looks set to include multiplayer features in Cyberpunk 2, years after similar plans were scrapped for Cyberpunk 2077.
A posting for the role of Cyberpunk 2’s lead network engineer lists the job’s responsibilities as including the need to “develop and optimize multiplayer systems, including matchmaking” with an aim to “address challenges related to latency, bandwidth usage and server performance.”
Applicants will also need to work “closely with game designers, gameplay programmers, and other departments to integrate network features seamlessly,” the job description continued, to “play a pivotal role in designing and implementing the network architecture and online systems.”
As expected, the role is primarily based out of CD Projekt’s Boston studio, where work on Cyberpunk 2 is now underway, while the company’s Polish teams focus on The Witcher 4.
The prospect of Cyberpunk 2 finally achieving the studio’s multiplayer ambitions therefore should not be surprising — though until CD Projekt confirms the features officially, there’s always the possibility these could fall by the wayside once again.
“We really needed to look at what were the priorities for Cyberpunk [after it launched],” Cyberpunk 2077 senior quest designer Philipp Weber said back in 2022. “The priority was that the main experience will run for the people in a really good state, and essentially, the switch of priorities meant that other R&D projects had to go away. With Cyberpunk, we wanted to do many things at the same time, and we just needed to really focus and say, ‘Okay, what’s the important part? Yeah, we will make that part really good.’”
Last week’s Apple Event provided a first look at mobile gameplay from upcoming 3D RPG and strategy game Arknights: Endfield, alongside confirmation of the title’s early 2026 release.
The GRYPHLINE game, set in the same world as the studio’s tower defence hitArknights, featured in a segment showcasing the iPhone 17 Pro. The gameplay demo was shown running on the next-generation A19 Pro chip, which enabled the combat sequences to play out super-smoothly, while the hardware-accelerated ray tracing and 16-core Neural Engine helped the vibrant visuals of the AAA title to shine.
Apple’s post-event press release also exclusively revealed an early 2026 release window for Arknights: Endfield. Following its appearance in the showcase, the game has since featured on multiple Apple channels, from the official website and Apple Newsroom, to other promotional materials for new products.
This high-visibility, pre-launch inclusion indicates Apple’s confidence in the game’s quality and its strong performance on mobile devices – a significant step as previous demos for the exploration, real-time combat and base-building centred game had focussed solely on the PC version. This included a technical test running back in 2024, and a closed beta that took place earlier this year, allowing players to have hands-on experience of the updated combat and AIC factory system.
Arknights: Endfield has enjoyed a major presence at headline gaming events and conventions throughout 2025, including Japan Expo, Anime Expo andgamescom. GRYPHLINE has confirmed that this run of high-profile appearances will continue with a showcase at the Tokyo Game Show (September 25-28).
The Chinese developer is gearing up for a busy Q4, as its 2-4 player co-op puzzle shooter POPUCOM lands on Nintendo Switch. Originally launched on Steam and the Epic Games Store in June, the candy-coloured title – in which you are summoned to an unknown planet to embark on a playful enemy-slaying and puzzle-solving adventure with your friends – featured in the September 12 Nintendo Direct, which revealed a Holiday 2025 release date.
User-made mods should not be considered prior art, Nintendo has argued, as part of the company’s lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair.
Nintendo’s claim appears to be an attempt at blocking Pocketpair from using popular Pokémon mods as evidence that the franchise’s patented gameplay was already being featured in other games elsewhere.
The argument put forth by Nintendo — essentially, that mods require a separate base game to function, so therefore are not art by themselves — has raised eyebrows across the games industry and among Pokémon fans alike, with many suggesting it could have far-reaching consequences if accepted by a judge.
Writing in Games Fray, which first reported the development, games industry reporter and legal analyst Florian Mueller described the suggestion that gameplay ideas or innovations featured in mods were not viable as prior art as something that showed “utter disregard for the enormous creativity” of many mod makers.
Additionally, and perhaps more concerning from a legal perspective if accepted, the ruling could potentially open the door to mods being considered “fair game” for patent thieves, who could swoop in and incorporate the same ideas into full game releases — which would then be protected.
“Patents are a special monopoly granted by the governments of the world to encourage creative invention,” business lawyer and creator of the Virtual Legality podcast Richard Hoeg told IGN today. “If something already exists in the world, some new person is not allowed to claim they invented it and get that protection.
“We call everything that already exists ‘prior art,’ and it would be ludicrous to exempt any piece of game design from that category simply because of how it’s stood up in the software. The mechanism for access shouldn’t really matter. It exists. It makes things like it in the world non-novel and thus not subject to protection. We don’t give out monopolies to second place.”
Will Nintendo succeed with its claim? Mueller suggests it is unlikely, as courts typically reject any attempt to narrow what can be considered prior art — with Nintendo taking an “extreme position” here. But time will tell, as the lawsuit shows no sign of winding down.
While Nintendo’s legal threats continue, Pocketpair is busy putting together Palworld’s big 1.0 release, due at some point in 2026. In the meantime, development will focus on removing “jank” from the game, communications director and publishing manager John “Bucky” Buckley said earlier this week, though a smaller winter update is still planned.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
On January 20, 2026, students at the University of Tennessee will attend the world’s first Grand Theft Auto college history class. That’s right: we got a GTA college history class before GTA 6.
‘Grand Theft America: U.S. History Since 1980 through the GTA Video Games’ was devised and will be taught by history professor Tore Olsson, who eagle-eyed IGN fans might remember from our coverage of his Red Dead Redemption American history class — another world first. Accompanying that course was Professor Olsson’s book, Red Dead’s History, and its audiobook narration by none other than Arthur Morgan actor Roger Clark.
It turns out, Professor Olsson had planned to launch his class with GTA 6 firmly under his belt, but Rockstar’s high-profile delay to May 2026 dashed those plans — just as they did those of so many video game publishers. So, with what will no doubt be the biggest entertainment launch of all time waiting in the wings, Professor Olsson will soldier ahead.
In this wide-ranging interview with IGN, Professor Olsson discusses why Grand Theft Auto was the right choice for a history class after Red Dead, what the GTA games get right and wrong in their portrayal of contemporary America, and the place of GTA 6 in the class. But perhaps most important of all, we ask the question: will playing the Grand Theft Auto games count as ‘studying?’
IGN: What’s the basic idea behind this class?
Tore Olsson: Video games are great at conjuring fictional worlds, but they also impact players’ thinking about real-world times and places. And just as Red Dead Redemption 2 has shaped folks’ perception of the nineteenth-century American West or Ghost of Tsushimahas informedtheir vision of feudal Japan, millions of people around the globe imagine contemporary America through the lens of the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Just think of how many GTA veterans have recognized landmarks in Los Angeles and New York thanks to their hours in Los Santos and Liberty City!
In my class, I take seriously GTA’s fictional representation of the United States: its characters, its urban and rural landscapes, and its storylines. And I use that world as the framing device for a serious history class that examines what’s actually taken place in the United States over the last half-century. The class is much more about American history than the games themselves, but GTA provides the framework that structures our exploration of the past. My hope is that after the class, students will never look at these games, or modern America, the same again.
IGN: The Red Dead Redemption series, which you’ve worked with in the past, is obviously historical in its framing. Few people think of the Grand Theft Auto games in the same way. How can the GTA games’ contemporary setting serve as the backbone of a college history class?
Tore Olsson: Of course, most folks wouldn’t put GTA in the same category as games set in distant eras, like Red Dead, Assassin’s Creed, or Kingdom Come: Deliverance. But because the franchise is now nearly 30 years old, and because some of the early titles were set a decade or two before their release date, the games capture a particular historical epoch: the United States from 1980 to the present. Vice City Stories (set in 1984) and Vice City (1986) cover the 1980s. San Andreas (1992) and Liberty City Stories (1998) speak to the ‘90s, and then 3, 4, 5, and soon 6 provide different snapshots of the twenty-first century.
I really believe that the years between 1980 and today mark a distinct and cohesive era in American history. If we want to understand the divided and unequal U.S. of today, we have to grapple with what’s happened in that time. 45 years ago, the political fires that burn so hot today were much cooler. Most Americans got their news from the three TV networks – ABC, NBC, and CBS – which presented a very centrist spin on controversial topics. In 1980, the average CEO earned about 25 times the salary of their rank-and-file employees; today it’s nearly 400 times as much. 45 years ago, just over 5% of Americans were immigrants; today the number surpasses 15%. And the U.S. prison population quadrupled between 1980 and 2005.
In many ways, the America of today is unrecognizable from its 1980 version. In my class, we’ll explore how all of this came to change – and we’ll use the fictional world of the GTAgames as the window for this exploration.
IGN: What do the GTA games get right in their portrayal of contemporary America? What do they get wrong?
Tore Olsson: Unlike Red Dead Redemption and other historical games, the GTA franchise is a satirical parody of the past (and present), rather than an attempt at faithful recreation, which means it’s almost a waste of time to list what it gets wrong. But just for fun… here’s a few. Every GTA game depicts an America plagued by violence and criminality. This is rather ironic given that homicide and car theft, as two examples, plunged dramatically from the early ‘90s until the pandemic. The games imagine an America largely without suburbs or traffic. (Have you ever actually visited L.A.?) They present a society where most women seem to find their primary employment in sex work, and where people of color are often gang members. It’s not hard to see the flaws (and ugliness) in such a portrayal. Or what about the fact that no vehicle seems to have door locks?
But I find the games much more interesting – and useful in the class – when their parody rings true. For example, Los Santos, Liberty City, and Vice City are each home to bustling container ports – what 5 calls “the orifice of American capitalism” – that often sit near rusting manufacturing districts. This is spot-on: arguably no technology was more transformative of post-1980 America than the shipping container, which facilitated the global outsourcing of U.S. industry. Or there’s GTA’s radio stations, where much of the games’ sharpest social commentary takes place. In 4 (set in 2008) and 5 (2013), we encounter a highly polarized media landscape where rival political commentators spit acid at each other from separate stations. But the talk radio of the Vice City and San Andreas era are very different: here, an assortment of weirdos debate each other on a single station. It’s an interesting (and perhaps unintentional!) reference to how in 1987 Ronald Reagan began the deregulation of television and radio with the repeal of 1949’s “fairness doctrine,” which paved the way to overtly partisan networks like Fox News and MSNBC.
IGN: Can you give an example how you plan to use the games’ storylines to teach historical content?
Tore Olsson: I’ve invested more hours than I care to admit in playing these games, and I’m eager to use their plots and characters to teach big historical topics. I’m perhaps most excited to use San Andreas, set primarily in a fictional Los Angeles of 1992. As many know, the game follows Carl “C.J.” Johnson as he returns to the West Coast, seeking to evict drug dealers from his neighborhood and then free his brother from prison, while crooked cops seek to derail his plans. The narrative climax of the game comes when these police officers are found innocent of their crimes, which triggers a vast urban rebellion against the miscarriage of justice. “Los Santos will burn tonight,” declares an in-game news anchor ominously.
It’s probably obvious to many that this drama is an allusion to the L.A. Riots of April and May 1992, one of the most significant turning points in contemporary U.S. history, but also one that is widely misunderstood. Explaining the origins and meaning of this violent convulsion is a key goal of my class. Most folks understand the 1992 riots as a knee-jerk reaction to the videotaped police beating of Black motorist Rodney King and the near-total acquittal of the officers charged. But that explanation lacks backstory and context, some of which San Andreas hints at, but much of which is absent from the game.
Immigration, policing, capitalism, drugs, government policies – these are all towering dilemmas of contemporary America. And it’s my plan to use GTA’s allusion to them as the entry point for a history that I hope will be fresh and timely to many students.
IGN: How can a less-than-serious video game be the foundation for a serious college class?
Tore Olsson: It might surprise or even shock some folks to learn of a college class built around the fiction of a video game, and especially this franchise. But video games have by now moved from the margins to the mainstream. Other forms of pop culture have made the same journey before. 50 years ago, it would have been unthinkable to find a “history of rock’n’roll” class at a college or university, thanks to the music’s edgy and risqué reputation. Today, that exact course is one of the most popular at my institution. Perhaps a generation from now we’ll see many more courses built around the digital fiction of games.
When it comes to GTA’s unique brand of unseriousness, I’ve certainly played enough to become familiar with its cynical, irreverent, and crude sense of humor. Sometimes this is amusing; often it’s not. In my class, I’m steering clear of the games’ most distasteful satire. Instead, I’ll be emphasizing the elements that are most evocative of big social, cultural, and political paradoxes – of which there’s plenty.
And from day one, I’ll take great pains to establish that this is a serious college class that will handle weighty and difficult topics, which we’ll always approach with sensitivity and respect. I’ll make clear that my classroom is a professional environment for students, nothing like their friend’s basement where they may have played GTA for the first time. I’m confident that my 20 years of experience teaching challenging subjects – and my four years of working through such material via the Red Dead games – have prepared me to navigate the unique demands of teaching through a complex piece of pop culture like GTA.
There’s also the question of GTA’s nihilistic violence, which has been the subject of controversy many times during its career. In no way do I celebrate or endorse that digital bloodshed. Indeed, the core message of my course is profoundly anti-violent, revealing the common humanity and strivings of all Americans. My hope is that students will walk away from this class with the understanding that Americans are divided today because powerful forces profit from that division, and that a more harmonious future is possible.
IGN: Has there ever been a class like this before?
Tore Olsson: Not really! Certainly there have been other college classes built around pop culture, whether Taylor Swift or HBO’s The Wire, and there are other historians who teach using video games – though it’s fairly rare to see instructors frame a class around one particular game franchise. There’s been a game design course at a Canadian university on GTA, but its goals are very different from what I’ll do as a historian. I’ve searched far and wide but have come across no previous examples of instructors in traditional disciplines who’ve made these games central to a class – which is rather surprising, given how astoundingly popular GTA has become in the last two decades.
IGN: Are students required to buy or play any of the games? Will playing the games count as ‘studying?’
Tore Olsson: I bet many students would embrace that kind of studying! But no, I’m afraid they will be disappointed on that count. As with my previous courses on Red Dead Redemption, I don’t require students to own or play the games during our semester. I’d be anxious asking cash-strapped students to buy a pricy console or gaming PC plus the games themselves. And I never examine students on the fictional content of the games; there’ll never be an exam question about Trevor Philips or Niko Bellic.
However, that’s not to say that the games will be absent from the class – far from it. I begin each lecture by showing game footage or screenshots on our topic of the day. Sometimes I’ll pull out a controller and briefly play on my laptop and projector – perhaps loading shipping containers in the Port of Los Santos – before proceeding to the core historical content. I expect many students will be familiar with the GTA franchise, though ultimately their knowledge of game lore won’t do much to earn them an A. Yet I do hope that their passion for the games’ fictional world will inspire a similar dedication for learning the history that informs the games in the first place.
IGN: What is the place of GTA 6 in the class?
Tore Olsson: I had originally hoped that it would be a major part! I first began planning this class more than a year ago, when GTA 6 was scheduled for release in late Fall of 2025 – well-timed for the start of our semester in January 2026. Of course, the recent delay to May 2026 made that impossible. So yes, that’s why we got a GTA college history class before we got GTA 6! (I really hope 6’s release date doesn’t fall during Spring final exams week, because I’d be very worried about my students’ ability to concentrate…) I certainly plan to integrate the new game into future versions of the course, but for now I’ll have to rely on the older games. Thankfully that’s a ton of material.
IGN: Is it a coincidence that you’re turning to another Rockstar game after RDR, or is there something unique about that developer’s game formula that allows a historian to base a course around?
Tore Olsson: I don’t think it’s a coincidence. Few developers rival Rockstar in terms of the granular detail that goes into their games. But I also think Rockstar is rather rare in their eagerness to comment on the social fabric of American life. Their games – from L.A. Noire through Red Dead through GTA – are all interested in saying something about the unique strangeness of the American experiment. What they say is sometimes thoughtful, sometimes not – but that they’re trying is fascinating.
IGN: What advice do you have for folks who are curious about your class but are not students at the University of Tennessee and can’t enroll in it?
Tore Olsson: First off, follow me on social media – on X/Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok – where I’ll be sharing regular updates about what we’re doing in the class, and my thoughts on GTA 6. I loved the work of adapting my college class on Red Dead Redemption into a book for wider audiences, and it was a dream to work with Roger Clark as the book’s narrator. So I’m very much considering the possibility of doing the same with ‘Grand Theft America’ – perhaps with an equally perfect audiobook narrator? Stay tuned!
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Fortnite maker Epic Games will allow creators to sell in-game items through its platform — and earn a better cut of sales than via Roblox.
The announcement comes at an interesting time for Fortnite as a whole, which has seen lower than average player numbers for its core battle royale modes over the summer. At the same time, Roblox’s player count has spiked thanks to trending hits like Grow a Garden and Steal a Brainrot.
Now, Epic Games is doubling down on encouraging creators to its platform, after several weekends where a Fortnite version of Steal a Brainrot soared in popularity. Next up for Fortnite’s third-party offerings will be the ability to sell items directly, with a better cut of the sales than in Roblox handed over to creators.
In a blog post on the announcement, Epic Games highlighted that it will hand over 50% of the V-Bucks value of purchases made in third-party experiences after store/platform fees, raised to 100% through the program’s first year (until December 31, 2026). Taking those store/platform fees into account, that translates to creators earning 37% of in-game sales, doubled to 74% for the first year. In comparison, as Epic Games itself points out, Roblox offers 25%.
The message here is clear: come launch your game on Fortnite’s platform and you’ll earn more money per dollar spent — and considerably more to start off with. It’s a similar tactic to one Epic Games has used before, to encourage developers onto its Epic Game Store rather than Steam. But it’s worth remembering that, while a better percentage, Fortnite’s player numbers are far below those of Roblox — meaning that while creators might earn less per dollar spent, they may still see far more money made.
Alongside this announcement, Epic Games has also announced a tweak to its creator payouts for engagement in third-party experiences, with better rewards for those who are detected as bringing in new or lapsed players. Here, it feels like Epic Games is clearly pushing creator content as a way to widen its audience further, rather than something that simply offers current players new things to do (another challenge it has faced over the past few months, with new additions in various battle royale offerings feeling like they’re just shuffling existing players around modes).
The push to highlight creator-made content will continue with the introduction of a “sponsored” block on Fortnite’s main screen, Discover, where creators will be able to pay Epic Games for placement. Long-term, Epic says it will use 50% of this revenue for its creator engagment payouts, though this will be boosted to 100% of the revenue for the first year. After that, Epic Games will keep the other 50%, for use covering server costs, safety and moderation tools, and R&D. “In recent years, Epic has been investing and operating the business at a loss,” the company noted.
Another change that better angles Fortnite towards its creator-made experiences will be the long-awaited launch of the game’s “thin client”. Beginning on mobile and PC, players will be able to download a smaller version of Fortnite with just its popular Blitz Royale mode included, along with the ability to play creator-made games. Other modes — even including Fortnite’s main battle royale — will then require additional downloads, if desired. It’s a smart way to get people playing trending hits like Steal a Brainrot without requiring a larger download than necessary. But it’s also feels like an eye-opening shift in priority for the company, and an acknowledgement Fortnite’s core Epic-made modes may no longer be the game’s hottest draw.
Fortnite has changed repeatedly over the years, from PVE zombie experience to battle royale, to a metaverse-y platform full of other genres. And while Fortnite’s next transformation isn’t wholly unexpected — the percentage of players in creator-made modes has been rising for years — it feels like it may be its most dramatic yet. There’s no suggestion that Fortnite battle royale is going away, of course, and there’s good reason to think its lucrative battle passes and live events will stick around for a long time yet as a differentiator to other platforms, as well as a way to introduce more IP crossovers. But with the growing focus on creator-made content — and the sheer number of players now engaged with it across Fortnite and Roblox — the game’s next era looks clear.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds‘ street date has reportedly been broken by some retailers, and the physical copies getting into fans’ hands seemingly confirm what’s coming up in the upcoming DLC via a leaflet nestled inside — including one character we didn’t yet know about: Mega Man.
What the leaflet doesn’t reveal is when we can expect to play, committing only to a broad “coming soon” window. But as we already knew that additional content from fan-favorite franchises like Minecraft and the inimitable SpongeBob Squarepants are coming in October and November, respectively, it’s possible the DLC logos have been listed in order, which could suggest we’ll see the Mega Man DLC ahead of TMNT and Avatar Legends, possibly in January if its a monthly schedule.
CrossWorlds is, of course, going up against Switch 2 exclusive kart game Mario Kart World, which has so far resisted adding guest characters from outside Nintendo’s portfolio. Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is due out on both the Switch and the Switch 2, so it looks like fans are getting some old-fashioned Mario vs. Sonic rivalry when Sega’s effort launches later this month.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
For over 35 years, the Final Fantasy franchise has captivated fans with its anthology storytelling, keeping things fresh in its magical fantasy world by continuously introducing new characters and stories. The Final Fantasy games are mostly standalone, meaning you can jump into them in any order because they each have a fresh story. In general, Final Fantasy games tend to be set somewhere between the past and the future, staying connected with the same overarching, universal themes: a group of young heroes gathering to fight a great evil threatening their world while exploring their internal struggles and relationships with each other.
If you’re new and want to get into the Final Fantasy series, there are technically 16 numbered games, a few direct sequels, and a prequel to the first game. Each numbered game has its own stories, characters, and world to dive into, though a number of remakes and remasters can make things confusing at a glance. It sounds like a lot, but we’re here to help you make the journey a little smoother.
Looking at the Final Fantasy franchise as a whole can be overwhelming as most of them have hundreds of hours of content to play through. If you want to ease yourself into the franchise, we recommend starting with Final Fantasy VII. This game left an indelible mark on the game industry for having the easiest gameplay and combat systems to get the hang of, especially with the Limit Break system, and giving us the most memorable characters, like Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, and Sephiroth. Its popularity inspired Square to create Kingdom Hearts in collaboration with Disney so that some of its characters could interact with Disney characters. If you want the OG experience, FFVII is available on Steam and has been re-released for most consoles, including Nintendo Switch.
Square Enix is in the process of remastering Final Fantasy VII in three separate parts: Final Fantasy VII Remake hit consoles back in 2020, while Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth just launched on PC following its console release in 2024. A third and final part to the remastered trilogy is currently in development. Gorgeous graphics, endless minigames, and awe-inspiring motion capture performances make these Game of the Year-nominated remakes our recommendation of where to start with Final Fantasy in 2025.
How to Play Final Fantasy Games in Chronological Order
If you want to do a deep dive into the Final Fantasy franchise and play all of them in chronological order, here’s the full list. That said, there is no direct continuity between the Final Fantasy games, so I’d recommend trying out the game with the story that seems most interesting to you.
1. Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin takes place in the kingdom of Cornelia, a dark fantasy world version of the setting of the original Final Fantasy game. Jack Garland and his companions and fellow Warriors of Light, Ash, Jed, Neon and Sophia — each carrying a darkened crystal representing earth, wind, fire and water — set out to find Chaos and destroy him, restoring light to the world. Despite what the prophecy foretold about the heroes, each Warrior grows skeptical about their role.
You can change characters’ jobs on the fly, but with Jack as the player character you can only switch between two positions. No matter his job title, Jack has a decisive finishing move that crystallizes enemies and shatters them to restore a portion of his magic meter once the enemy’s break gauge is depleted.
Centuries after the events of Stranger of Paradise, Final Fantasy introduces four new young Warriors of Light, each of them carrying an orb representing the four elements that have been darkened by the four Elemental Fiends. At first, they’re tasked by the King of Cornelia to rescue Princess Sarah from the evil knight Garland, but their journey expands to defeating the fiends and restoring the orbs to their former glory, thus saving the world from eternal darkness.
Final Fantasy gets its name from series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi’s threat to leave the games industry and go back to university if it didn’t sell well, and Square Enix dealing with the notion of the game being its very last due to the threat of bankruptcy. Ultimately, the game sold over 1.3 million copies worldwide and grossed over $21 million, saving both the company and Sakaguchi’s career.
In Final Fantasy II, Firion, Guy, Maria, and Leon become orphans after the Palamecian Empire destroys their hometown and kills their parents, rendering them orphans. They join the Wild Rose Rebellion and, under the guidance of Princess Hilda, who initially deemed them too young to join the army, journey to stop Emperor Mateus’ plans to take over the world with his hellspawn.
Unlike the first Final Fantasy, the sequel had no character creation or job system because Square wanted the game to be more story-driven rather than filled with heavy gameplay mechanics. This game is notable for introducing a couple of staples that would forever define the series: chocobos and the recurring inventor character Cid.
Another group of four orphaned teens — Arc, Refia, Luneth, and Ingus — are drawn to a crystal of light in the Altar Cave after an earthquake hits the village of Ur. The crystals grants the youth a portion of its power, their first set of jobs, and instructs them to restore balance to the world.
Final Fantasy III is the first numbered game in the series to feature the job-change system, allowing players to change how the characters would battle monsters throughout the game. Instead of staying in one job or class, they could explore other job options and see which one suits each character. The 2006 Nintendo DS remake retained the elements of the original game, but gave the characters more well-rounded personalities.
Final Fantasy IV centers on Red Wings captain Cecil Harvey, who questions the King of Baron’s motives after he and his knights steal the Water Crystal in a raid on Mysidia. After the king strips him of his title as punishment for disloyalty, Cecil sets out on a quest with Kain Highwind and the allies they meet along the way to stop the sorcerer Golbez from seizing the other crystals in order to save the world.
This game introduced the Active Time Battle (ATB) system, which allows characters to perform a move when their gauge is full. Whereas a party is limited to four people in the previous games, Final Fantasy IV allowed a party of five characters.
Adventurer Bartz Klauser comes across a fallen meteor and finds four strangers, including King Tycoon’s daughter Lenna, and set off on an adventure to save the Crystals from falling apart, a phenomenon caused by Exdeath, an entity trying to free himself from imprisonment and gain the power of the Void. The group becomes Warriors of Light and focuses their attention on defeating Exdeath and stopping the Void’s energies from plunging their world into darkness.
Final Fantasy V expanded on the job system, giving players more than 21 jobs to choose from. To make the job system even more interesting, you can combine a skill you learn from a certain job with a different skill from another job in order to defeat challenging dungeons and bosses.
Set in a steampunk-style world filled with technology resembling that of the Second Industrial Revolution, Final Fantasy VI centers on a rebel faction known as the Returners fighting the Gesthalian Empire, which gained the power to take over the world by experimenting on magical creatures known as Espers. The Returners, including amnesiac former imperial soldier Terra Branford, work to free the regions under Gesthalian control using the magic they seek out and put a stop to the empire’s reign.
Final Fantasy VI, which was released as Final Fantasy III in North America and heavily censored due to Nintendo of America’s policies at the time, has 14 playable characters to choose from throughout the story, making it the largest cast in the series’ history. It also deals with mature themes of immoral military dictatorship, use of chemical weapons in warfare, the pursuit of a magical arms race, personal redemption, and the renewal of hope and life. This is also the first Final Fantasy game to not be directed by Sakaguchi, who handed the reins over to Yoshinori Kitase.
Set in Midgar seven years before the events of Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII centers on fresh-faced SOLDIER Zack Fair, who is assigned to look for missing SOLDIER and defector Genesis Rhapsodos, who went off on a rampage for reasons unknown. During his search, he discovers Genesis’ origin, Project G (or the Jenova project) and how it’s connected to the two aforementioned high-ranking SOLDIERs, and eventually battles him and other products of the project, which involves injecting Jenova DNA into them.
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII was notable for exploring the sensitive side of Sephiroth, the most successful SOLDIER beloved by everyone before he went insane after discovering the unnatural circumstances of his creation and quickly fell from grace, as well as some of Cloud Strife’s life as a SOLDIER before leaving Shinra Electric Power Company. It was originally a PSP-exclusive title, but managed to get remastered as Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in honor of the 25th anniversary of Final Fantasy VII.
In one of the most iconic games of the series, ex-SOLDIER turned mercenary Cloud Strife joins Avalance (led by Barett Wallace) in the fight to stop Shinra from lining the company’s pockets by mining all the mako from the planet to use as an energy source. Cloud initially fought for personal gain and to keep a promise he made to Tifa Lockhart when they were kids, but eventually developed friendships with other members of Avalanche, including Aerith Gainsborough, and works with them to save Midgar from both Shinra and Sephiroth, who was hellbent on destroying the planet in order to be reborn as a demigod.
Afters its original release in 1997, Final Fantasy VII grew so popular that most of its characters appeared in the Kingdom Hearts series and spawned the CGI sequel film, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. It also spawned the full-blown and critically reclaimed remaster, Final Fantasy VII Remake, which will be released in three parts. The first Final Fantasy VII Remake was released in 2020, while Final Fantasy VII Rebirth came out on Leap Day 2024. Little is known about when we can expect the third and final game in the trilogy.
In this contentious follow-up to Final Fantasy VII, a group of young SeeD mercenaries led by Squall Leonhart (or Leon, as he’s known in the Kingdom Hearts series) help out a group known as the Forest Owls, an endeavor that escalates into a conflict by Sorceress Edea, who has seized control of a powerful military state and intend to destroy time itself. As they fight to stop Edea, Squall struggles with his role and falls in love with Forest Owls leader Rinoa Heartilly.
Final Fantasy VIII still incorporates ATB as part of its gameplay, but it overhauled the character leveling system. As far as spell-casting goes, the game threw out the Magic Points-based system, making characters collect, draw, and create magic from items to power themselves up using the junction system instead. This is also the first game to incorporate a vocal theme into its soundtrack with “Eyes On Me” by Hong Kong pop star Faye Wong.
In the first Final Fantasy game of the millennium, a thief named Zidane Tribal is tasked with kidnapping the Princess of Alexandria, Garnet Til Alexandros XVII, as a part of a war wage against the neighboring nation of Lindblum. His thief troupe ends up becoming the princess’ guardians, and Zidane teams up with Garnet to defeat her mother, Queen Brahne, who started the war.
Despite Final Fantasy IX being released in 2000, when most game franchises transitioned from 2D to 3D graphics by then, Square Enix designed the game to look like a retro-style RPG. However, it still managed to render CGI graphics for the characters and everything else in the world of Gaia.
Final Fantasy X is one of the most beloved games in the series next to Final Fantasy VII — and we’re not just saying that because it’s the first Final Fantasy game for the PS2. The story revolves around star blitzball player named Tidus, who is taken to Spira — a world inspired by the South Pacific, Thailand, and Japan — by Auron after his hometown of Zanarkand is destroyed by a colossal monster named Sin. He joins summoner Yuna and her guardians on a quest to defeat Sin and bring about the Calm after learning its true identity is Tidus’ missing father Jecht.
This game replaced ATB with the Conditional Turned-Based Battle system that uses an Act List in which characters’ turns are determined by their stats. It also introduced a new leveling system called the Sphere Grid, which sets characters down a specific path with stats and abilities and allows them to unlock all their abilities once it opens up.
In the follow-up to Final Fantasy X, Yuna becomes a sphere hunter and a member of the Gullwings, comprising Rikku and Paine. She sets out to find Tidus — or at least, a mysterious man who looks like Tidus — but gets caught in a political conflict that the Gullwings must resolve before it escalates to a war involving a secret weapon that was built to destroy Spira.
In addition to being the first game in the series to be an official game sequel, Final Fantasy X is also the first to feature an all-female cast and have multiple possible endings. It brought back ATB, but enhanced it to allow characters to interrupt enemies while preparing to attack. It also introduced dresspheres and the Garment Grid, which allow characters to change their character class mid-battle to alter the course of the battle.
14. Final Fantasy XI
Square Enix took a page out of World of Warcraft and made Final Fantasy XI an MMORPG instead of a regular console game. Players could customize their characters and make it into one of many races of being roaming the land of Vana’diel — Humes, Elvaan, Tarutaru, Mithra, Galka, etc. The plot revolves around defeating a demonic leader called the Shadow Lord, who rose from the ashes of the Crystal War and sent his beastmen armies off to terrorize the land, albeit in a less organized fashion.
Support for the PS2 and Xbox 360 versions of Final Fantasy XI ended in 2016, but fans can still play it on PC. Rumors circulated last year that the game would shut down, given that it’s over 20 years old, but director Yuji Fujito stated that that was not the case. In other words, it’s still alive and well and beloved by many retro Final Fantasy fans.
Final Fantasy XII is set in the kingdom of Ivalice, where the Archadia and Rozarria empires are fighting an endless war with each other. When Dalmasca is annexed by the former nation, Princess Ashe forms a resistance movement and meets Vaan, who dreams of becoming a sky pirate, teaming up with him to rally against the tyranny of the Archadian Empire.
Final Fantasy XII took three years for Square Enix to develop after Final Fantasy X-2 was released, and it paid off. It won several Game of the Year awards and spawned the Nintendo DS sequel, Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings, in 2007. Over a decade later, the remastered version of the game, Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, released on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Windows.
Lightning, the series’s first female protagonist aside from Yuna in Final Fantasy X-2, is a former soldier living in the floating world of Cocoon whose sister Serah goes missing after she’s branded an enemy of Cocoon by the government, Sanctum, for coming in contact with a god-like creature from Pulse. As Lightning searches for her sister, she’s joined by a band of allies to rally against Sanctum for authorizing a purge on citizens who also came into contact with Pulse, leaving the fate of the world at risk.
This game wasn’t received well not because it had a female lead, but rather because it had confusing battle systems — Command Synergy Battle and Paradigm Shift — and linear maps. Even so, it was well-received and spawned two more direct sequels.
Three years after the events of Final Fantasy XIII, Serah takes the lead and teams up with Noel Kreiss, a young man from the distant future, to travel across time and space to find Lightning. Meanwhile, Lightning finds herself in Valhalla, a realm between death and chaos at the edge of time in the distant future, ruled by the goddess Etro, who she protects as a knight during a war with Caius.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 retained the Command Synergy Battle and Paradigm Shift systems, but they were improved upon to make battles flow better. Mog Clock was added to the mix, which prompts players to attack monsters on the field before time runs out to gain the upper hand in battle.
In the last installment of the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy, Lightning awakens from her 500-year hibernation to discover that the world is about to end in 13 days. She is chosen by the god Bhunivelze to save everyone, but along the way she learns the truth about the world’s fate and Bhunivelze’s real motives.
Players slammed this game because it featured a ticking clock that signifies how long you had until the game was over, putting a strict time limit on missions and side quests. Its saving grace was the heavily modified version of the Command Synergy Battle system, which employed real-time features, like freely taking control of Lightning’s movements and attacks.
Final Fantasy XIV has several storylines, but the main one involves the player character traveling five years into the future to escape the destruction of Eorzea at the hands of the primal dragon Bahamut. They enter Eorzea in the Age of Calm and work to rebuild the land, but must deal with the threat of invasion by the Garlean Empire.
The circumstances surrounding Final Fantasy XIV’s development were pretty complicated — especially since it’s the second MMORPG title in the series. The original 2010 game was embroiled in controversy because it was released in an unfinished state, although its servers remained active until November 2012. The next year, Square Enix released Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn with favorable acclaim.
Of course, Square Enix hasn’t forgotten about its MMORPG. Dawntrail, the fifth expansion for Final Fantasy: XIV Online, launched this past July, and more expansions and updates are sure to come in the future.
The previous installment revolves around Noctis, a prince from the kingdom of Lucis is set to marry his childhood friend Lunafreya when he goes on a quest to rescue the Crystal from Niflheim, who stole it during an attack on the Lucian capital of Insomnia, killing his father in the process, on the eve of peace negotiations between the two empires. During his journey, he learns of his destiny to use the Crystal’s powers to save the realm of Eos from eternal darkness.
Final Fantasy XV received critical acclaim for its stunning visuals, gameplay — like driving around the world in the Regalia and the Active Cross Battle system — and its visceral soundtrack, including a rendition of “Stand By Me” by Florence + The Machine used as the game’s theme song as well as a few contributions from Afrojack. The game spawned a few spin-off games, the anime series called Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV, and a feature film Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV.
The latest Final Fantasy game in the franchise has arrived, and it has essentially redefined the series. With a third-person action style and fast, reflexive combat, there are a lot of new things to love about Final Fantasy 16.
If you’re wondering whether or not you can hop right into the series with this game, the answer is a definitive yes. While the gameplay may be quite different than previous titles, the characters and story fulfill that core Final Fantasy feeling.
How To Play The Final Fantasy Games By Release Date
If you want to play the Final Fantasy games in the order in which they came out, here’s the list of games by release date. Keep in mind that most titles were released in Japan first, followed by the U.S. at a later date. The first six games are remastered for the Nintendo Switch in Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster.
Final Fantasy – December 18, 1987 (JP) / May 1990 (NA) – Famicom/NES
Final Fantasy II – December 17, 1988 (JP) / April 8, 2003 (NA) – Famicom, PlayStation
Final Fantasy III – April 27, 1990 (JP) / August 24, 2006 (NA) – Famicom, Nintendo DS (remake)
Final Fantasy IV – July 19, 1991 (JP) / November 23, 1991 (NA) – Super NES
Final Fantasy V – December 6, 1992 (JP) / October 5, 1999 (NA) – Super Famicom, PlayStation
Final Fantasy VI – April 2, 1994 (JP) / October 11, 1994 (NA) – Super NES
Final Fantasy VII – January 31, 1997 (JP) / September 7, 1997 (NA) – PlayStation
Final Fantasy VIII – February 11, 1999 (JP) / September 7, 1999 (NA) – PlayStation
Final Fantasy IX – July 7, 2000 (JP) / November 14, 2000 (NA) – PlayStation
Final Fantasy X – July 19, 2001 (JP) / December 18, 2001 (NA) – PS2
Final Fantasy XI – May 16, 2002 (JP) / March 23, 2004 (NA) – PS2
Final Fantasy X-2 – March 13, 2003 (JP) / November 18, 2003 (NA) – PS2
Final Fantasy XII – March 16, 2006 (JP) / October 31, 2006 (NA) – PS2
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII – September 13, 2007 (JP) / March 28, 2008 (NA) – PSP
Final Fantasy XIII – December 17, 2009 (JP) / March 9, 2010 (NA) – PS3, Xbox 360, PC
Final Fantasy XIII-2 – December 15, 2011 (JP) / January 31, 2012 (NA) – PS3, Xbox 360, PC
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII – November 21, 2013 (JP) / February 11, 2014 (NA) – PS3, Xbox 360, PC
Final Fantasy XIV – August 27, 2013 – PS3, PS4, PS5, PC
Final Fantasy XV – November 29, 2016 – PS4, Xbox One, PC
Final Fantasy VII Remake – April 7, 2020 (PS4) / June 10, 2021 (PS5) / January 22, 2026 (Xbox, Switch 2)
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion – December 13, 2022 – PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC
Final Fantasy XVI – June 22, 2023 – PS5 / September 17, 2024 (PC)
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth – February 29, 2024 – PS5 / January 23, 2024 (PC)
Upcoming Final Fantasy Games
While this longstanding saga isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, we’ll probably have to wait a couple more years for word on Final Fantasy 17. Square Enix has admitted that FFXVI and FFVII Rebirth both underperformed in terms of sales, though Part 3 of the remake is still in the works and tentatively targeting a 2027 release window.
Going forward, it’s pretty likely we’ll see more remakes, especially as Square Enix pushes for a multiplatform strategy. The most recent Nintendo Direct confirmed that Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade will be making its way to Switch 2 and Xbox on January 22, 2026.
We’re also getting a new remake from the Tactics sub-series, titled Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles. The remake comes with new content in addition to a number of enhancements, including full voice acting, for the original PS1 game. The Ivalice Chronicles is set to release on Switch 2, Xbox, PS5, and PC on September 30.
Magic: The Gathering has seen some big leaps in popularity, but this next one across the New York skyline, courtesy of a crossover with Marvel’s Spider-Man, might just be one of the biggest.
The new set (which will be standard legal, by the way), officially debuts on September 26, but you can play it earlier at a prerelease event if you can find a participating location near you.
Here’s all you need to know about what it is, when you can play, and what to expect.
What Is A Prerelease Event in MTG?
Prerelease events are a way in which players can go hands-on with a new set, usually the week before launch.
They use cards from the upcoming set (in this instance, Spider-Man), and allow you to get a bunch of cards, hopefully find some synergies, and maybe even make new friends.
The nuts and bolts may vary depending on where you’re playing (contact your local game store to see if they’re holding an event), but with Magic The Gathering the basics are as follows:
Open a prerelease box
Spend some time building a 40-card deck from the cards in the box
Play against other players in a 1v1 match where each player has 20 life
Winning games can earn you a few bonus packs
What’s In a Prerelease Box?
A prerelease box for Marvel’s Spider-Man contains the following:
6 Play boosters
1 Rare or Mythic rare foil
1 Cardboard Deck Box
1 Spindown Dice
While Wizards of the Coast has a handy page that offers a few deckbuilding strategies for prerelease, I have one extra piece of advice: Bring sleeves.
The included deckbox is handy, sure, but it’s a good idea to carry a few sleeves in case you end up finding a potentially valuable card that you want to add to your collection or sell later.
When Is Magic: The Gathering’s Spider-Man Prerelease?
Prerelease for the Spider-Man set kicks off on Friday, September 19 – one week before the set launches in full.
It runs throughout the week, so be sure to check for events right up until September 25.
Can I Buy Other Magic: The Gathering Spider-Man Products At Prerelease?
I can’t speak for every store, of course, but only WPN (Wizards Play Network) stores can sell Magic products for the new set on prerelease weekend.
Everyone else, including stores like Amazon, will need to wait another week.
Lloyd Coombes is an experienced freelancer in tech, gaming and fitness seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar and many more. He’s a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife’s dismay.
When setting out on my fourth journey of leaping across rooftops while slicing zombies in twain via the Dying Light series, I’d wondered if I’d feel any less joy from this violent survival horror-parkour this time. But after another 40+ hours of tucking and rolling I’m pleasantly surprised to say it’s still loads of fun, despite the basics not having changed much at all since 2022’s Dying Light 2: Stay Human. This trip through undead Eurasian cities and countrysides does up the ante somewhat by having you play as a human infused with a monster’s DNA, giving you the ability to rip people’s heads off with your bare hands. That’s as satisfying as it is unsettling, and it’s still absolutely horrifying to get caught out at night and get swarmed by Volatiles you’ve no hope of defeating. The only major disappointment is that The Beast doesn’t add a whole lot aside from its hulking out mechanics, and after a decade of games with few innovations, that hasn’t left room for a ton of surprises. Still, there’s something to be said for a reliably entertaining series, and I happily dug my fingernails through every side quest and climbing puzzle I could find.
This sequel continues the story of the first game’s protagonist, Kyle Crane, who through a series of quite gruesome events he’s been transformed into a half-man, half-beast monstrosity capable of leaping 50 feet in the air and screaming so loud it makes the undead take psychic damage… so, still very weird. There’s not much more than that to the paper-thin plot, which has you squaring off against the world’s most generic Bond villain and mad scientist on a revenge quest that goes down exactly like you think it does, but it’s at least a good enough excuse to hunt down bosses and engage with the side quests that are usually better written and sometimes downright silly. Plus, even though the story is about as minimum effort as it gets, the characters you meet and befriend along the way are at least memorable enough that I didn’t feel like skipping the lengthy conversations where you get to know them.
As you sprint toward your final confrontation (which took my completionist self about 40 hours, but could pretty easily be done in under 20), you power yourself up by hunting dangerous, genetically modified zombies with super powers called Chimeras and injecting yourself with their blood. This is where the main new mechanics of The Beast comes into play, like the ability to shoulder-charge through a crowd of zombies without breaking a sweat and really silly ones like one where you can change directions in mid air by yanking on your grapple hook with obscene force. Turning yourself into a Hulk-like abomination in the pursuit of revenge makes for a neat twist to an already awesome framework, and being able to throw down your machete and punch 20 zombies to death in the span of 10 seconds is quite satisfying.
If you’ve played a Dying Light before, the majority of your time will feel familiar.
That said, even this is a fairly small tweak to the established Dying Light blueprint, as you only get to go full werewolf every so often after you’ve charged up your rage meter from taking and dealing damage. For the rest of the time you’re still swinging lead pipes and running away from Volatiles per usual, so if you’ve played a Dying Light game before the vast majority of your playtime will feel quite familiar. That’s by no means a bad thing since it’s a reminder of some good times, but it does seem like a bit of a run/jump/slide down memory lane.
One other thing that makes The Beast distinct from its predecessors is the boss fights against souped-up infected that unlock your new abilities. The first time you come across each of these encounters it introduces a new type of baddie that then starts showing up in the wild, like a fast-moving skeletal zombie that leaps through the air, dances on top of lesser undead, and tackles you with sharp claws in the blink of an eye; or another where a muscular, brutish ghoul gains the ability to turn invisible, leaving you frantically looking over your shoulder and listening for growls in the dark. They’re cool the first time, but by the end of the campaign it feels a bit like they ran out of steam because they start rolling out variations of the same bosses you fought prior, like a muscular, brutish zombie whose only differentiated by his gas mask and weakness to poison. Still, they’re always at least entertaining highlights along the way – I mean, who doesn’t love a boss fight?
The open-world valley of Castor Woods is the new setting you’ll spend all your time in while seeking your revenge, and it combines time-worn elements we’ve seen in other Dying Light games into a cozy little package. It’s got spacious rural areas reminiscent of the original’s The Following expansion, as well as a city area with plenty of stone structures to scramble up. Castor Woods is fairly small compared to the sprawling maps of Dying Light and its first sequel, and you can definitely see the roots of The Beast being originally conceived as an expansion to Dying Light 2 when you run into the mountains that box you into a circular area that can be crossed by car in a couple minutes, but that’s not such a bad thing since they make good use of the space they’ve got without large expanses of emptiness padding it out.
It also includes what any good Dying Light game needs: When in the major urban area I was reminded of the virtues of sticking to the rooftops and leaping from place to place to avoid the hordes below, and while stepping out into the woods and swamps that make up the majority of the map I tried my best to make use of cars to bash my way to my destination and avoid getting caught out in the open. Like a lot of The Beast, everything about Castor Woods is perfectly acceptable while also not doing a whole lot to stand out, but I still made plenty of new memories while leaving a terrifying path of destruction in my wake.
Finally, I do have to hand it to Techland for making The Beast the most technically sound Dying Light game yet – I was able to get through without major or consistent bugs along the way. I played on my high-end PC, so likely got just about the best experience one could hope for, but it’s notable that aside from one crash and a bit of pop-in here and there, it was a pretty smooth ride throughout – and that’s with me having mostly played before the day-one patch, too. There were a few annoying moments where I got stuck in a vent due to some buggy geometry and couldn’t progress through the area until I’d jiggled my character around for a couple of minutes, and a few times where my character got stuck in the environment at the worst possible time and jeopardized my mission, but these were rare enough situations that they didn’t make me want to hulk out and throw things at the screen.
Over the past decade, video game remakes have become more and more prevalent. Most years see at least one major remake attempt to rekindle the nostalgia of old fans and show new players the achievements of days gone by. And while there’s an argument to be had about games being stuck in the past, we can’t deny what a thrill it is to see our favourites of yesteryear given a modern makeover. Remember when Final Fantasy 7’s Cloud was six purple polygons and a yellow spike? Well, he’s a supermodel these days. (The spikes are still there, thankfully.)
But what are the qualities of a good remake? That’s an increasingly difficult question. Once upon a time it was enough for a remake to simply update something with modern graphics. But as the games industry has evolved, so have tastes and gameplay systems, and thus remakes have changed, too. Now a remake can offer a truly new experience to both long-term and new fans, with fresh new takes on decades-old ideas. The very best remakes are carefully-observed balancing acts that find the sweet spot between faithful recreation and exciting new ideas. In some cases, that’s the game exactly as you thought you remembered it, now unshackled from old hardware limitations. In others, its radical recreations that provide an alternate vision of the original’s core idea.
With all that in mind, let’s explore the very best video game remakes. These are the 15 strongest examples of remakes, judged not by their overall quality as games, but by how each project achieved its new, upgraded ambitions and brought new perspectives to old classics.
15. Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver
Pokemon Gold and Silver, though only the second in the long-running Pokemon series, are the only entries that allowed you to travel across two different regions and collect 16 badges instead of the standard eight. That meant two “end-game” challenges to conquer, two sets of Legendary Pokemon to collect, 16 different gym leaders to defeat, and more. The enhanced Nintendo DS remakes bring that sprawling journey into full color and utilizes the superior hardware to seamlessly bring improved music, better UI, and WiFi capabilities. With the addition of new content like the National Dex, increasing the total Pokemon from 251 to 493, the grueling battle frontier, and everyone’s favorite, the Pokeathlon mini-games, there is so much more to explore.
More importantly, HeartGold and SoulSilver introduced to the Pokewalker, the original Pokemon Go, which allowed you to take your favorite Pokemon outdoors and gain levels by walking around… or cheat by shaking the Pokewalker. Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver added new life to the classic adventure, reimagining the original experience with fun and challenging additions to appeal to both new and returning fans.
14. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
Following the mammoth success of Breath of the Wild, Nintendo did a complete 180 for its next The Legend of Zelda project. Rather than the grand and ambitious open world of Hyrule, it looked back to the compact and twisty overworld of 1993’s Link’s Awakening. The 2019 version of this Game Boy classic is near enough a beat-for-beat remake, just reimagined with a delightfully cute toy town aesthetic. This faithful approach means that the distant memory of one of Link’s earliest adventures is fully restored, now elegantly elevated thanks to its seamless map and more easily-navigated dungeons. A number of quality-of-life improvements are the cherry on top, including the ability to mark important discoveries on the map, and doors that remain open after being unlocked (seriously, you wouldn’t believe how frustrating that one was back in the ‘90s.) This Switch remaster does unsuccessfully try something new with the lacklustre build-your-own Chamber Dungeons system, but everything it recreates it does so with an enchanting touch.
13. Live A Live
Plenty of wonderful games are deserving of remakes, but none perhaps needed one as much as Live A Live, the 1994 Square Enix RPG that preceded Chrono Trigger and laid the groundwork for not only that game, but numerous beloved classics that followed. Live A Live’s unique structure, following seven characters from different eras through distinct vignettes, was groundbreaking both back in the day and once again in the 2022 remake, to say nothing of the ways in which it ultimately threads its themes and overarching narrative through its separate parts.
The 2022 remake gave Live A Live a desperately-needed makeover in gorgeous HD2D and reorchestrated its fantastic soundtrack, all while keeping its wonderful story intact with its first-ever localization outside of Japan. In a final flourish, Live A Live’s remake adds a small but massively impactful piece of new content in its final hours that throws its ending into a hopeful new light, and makes its emotional conclusion all the more powerful.
12. Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater
The philosophy behind many remakes is unlocking ambitions that were once hindered by technological limitations. Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater makes the interesting decision to embrace those limitations – its sprawling Soviet jungle remains divided by load screens, the scope of its playspaces defined by the limits of the original PlayStation 2 hardware. You’ll see the term “faithful remake” used a lot through this list, but none are as faithful as MGS Delta – this is a PS2 game in PS5 clothing.
But what a PS2 game it is. Arguably the pinnacle of Hideo Kojima’s career, what was once a groundbreaking stealth game is now an enduring classic, thanks to its playful approach to Cold War espionage and its dramatic, cinematic story. Snake Eater has been iterated upon many times across the years, and MGS Delta collects together years of improvements and enhances them all with incredibly glossy modern graphics and an updated control system that finally turns Snake into the nimble operator he was always meant to be. This may not be a revolutionary remake, but it does a solid job of preserving perfection for a brand new generation.
11. Black Mesa
There are a number of remakes on this list that were developed by studios that didn’t create the original game, but there is only one that was developed by fans of the original. Black Mesa is a complete remake of Valve’s Half-Life, created by enthusiasts and officially supported by the original developer. And you can easily see why it won that support: this is a truly phenomenal rebuild of one of the most important first-person shooters of all time. It captures the distinctly creepy atmosphere and excellent combat that made Half-Life such a pioneer, while also augmenting almost every level with something new, be that a reimagined combat encounter or a Half-Life 2-style physics puzzle.
But it’s the final missions that really make Black Mesa a vital part of the Half-Life story. The original game’s final arc, set on the world of Xen, is infamously a bit of an under-developed slog. Black Mesa completely redesigns that final stretch, eliminating the tedium and injecting a sense of creative, alien wonder. And while it’s true that Black Mesa took so long to create that, by the time of its release, it already looked dated, that’s only true if you consider it from a purely technical standpoint. Take one look at Xen, or the eerie abandoned corridors of the titular facility itself, and there’s no denying that Black Mesa is an artistic triumph.
10. Final Fantasy 7 Remake
It may literally be in the title, but Final Fantasy 7 Remake is more than just a remake. It’s also a reimagining of the 1997 JRPG classic, a reinterpretation of its achievements, and – somehow – also a sequel to the game it recreates. Oh, and it also only covers around the first 30% of the original story, which has been transformed from a brief journey through the city of Midgar into a massive, 30+ hour adventure. This approach certainly isn’t for everyone, but you can’t deny the ambition of this lavish project.
This first chapter of the three-part Final Fantasy 7 remake is a stunningly gorgeous RPG that gives new life to some of gaming’s most memorable characters and settings. With all that extra time, it successfully expands upon the story and weaves in new plot threads, such as robust backstories for members of the Avalanche team, more believable relationships between protagonist Cloud and his new buddies, and a better sense of life in the Sector 7 slums. On top of all that, it also completely revamps the combat system, creating a brand new, action-heavy, real-time system that feels both exhilaratingly new and highly evocative of the original game’s turn-based battles. FF7 Remake’s approach is exemplary, and makes many other games on this list feel more like remasters than remakes.
9. Shadow of the Colossus
Shadow of the Colossus was a landmark achievement when it hit the PS2 in 2005. Developer Team ICO built a lonely, desolate, deeply affecting world using hardware that could barely render its vision. While the game itself undeniably stands the test of time, it’s clear to see that technical performance and visual clarity held back the studio’s incredible ambition.
Fast-forward 13 years and Bluepoint Games crafted an incredibly faithful remake, focused on overcoming those technical limitations so that the soul of the project could achieve its true ambitions. With a much steadier framerate, gorgeous graphics, and a commitment to keeping the events, systems, and mechanics of the original intact, Bluepoint absolutely hit it out of the park. It was such an achievement, in fact, that it won the studio the chance to remake Demon’s Souls, as well as laid the groundwork for its acquisition by PlayStation.
8. Demon’s Souls
After reaching the heights of Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne, it was hard not to see 2009’s Demon’s Souls as the ageing, hollowed precursor to FromSoftware’s mighty success story. But it was undeniable that a fantastic, paradigm-shifting game remained, and Bluepoint Games’ 2020 remake of Demon’s Souls was a project dedicated to making those qualities shine again. It completely stripped away the technical shortcomings that held the PS3 version back, while adding several subtle quality of life upgrades that succeeded in modernizing the game to the point where if you’d never played the original, you could very likely be fooled into thinking that this was the latest entry in the Souls series as opposed to the very first one.
While Bluepoint managed to stay completely respectful to the original vision in many ways (it is, for the most part, the exact same game just with modern, photo-realistic graphics and refreshed animations,) the alterations made to the art style and design of some locations wasn’t fully embraced by some fans of the original. Nevertheless, Demon’s Souls helped elevate what was already one of the best games of the PS3 era and bring it to a whole new, post-Dark Souls audience.
7. Metroid: Zero Mission
The original Metroid was a groundbreaking NES game back in 1986, but when looked at through a modern lens, it’s hard to argue that it holds up. Fortunately, Metroid: Zero Mission exists. Developed 18 years later, rather than opting for a 100% faithful remake with a couple of modernization tweaks, Metroid: Zero Mission is instead a game rebuilt from the ground up using the original Metroid as a blueprint for its story and level design. By allowing itself to explore beyond the boundaries of the source material, Nintendo was able to draw new inspirations from the more modern 2D Metroids, like Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion.
Zero Mission is now over 20 years old, and so the idea that it’s a “modern” version of Metroid is something of a bygone era. However, it remains an expertly crafted reinterpretation of one of Nintendo’s best ever games, and is both young and strong enough that it still holds up to this day – not only as one of the best Metroid games, but also one of the best remakes.
6. Resident Evil 4
Capcom has become somewhat synonymous with the idea of remakes, having now rebuilt no less than four of its Resident Evil games. Among them is the legendary Resident Evil 4 – Leon S. Kennedy’s action-packed descent into the Las Plagas-infected Spanish countryside. Of all the games Capcom has reinvented, Resi 4 was the one least in need of a refresh, but despite that, the RE4 remake is an astonishing feat that helps elevate an all-time classic.
Purist fans may have been annoyed by the erasure of the original’s more eccentric ideas, but they have been replaced by an altogether darker, more horrifying tone that syncs Resident Evil 4 with Capcom’s other recent remakes. It also benefits from snappier, more energetic combat, complete with an excellent knife parry that makes fighting both the Armadura enemies and the Krauser boss battle much more intense. Perhaps most importantly, it vastly improves Ashley, both in terms of her depiction and the mechanics around protecting her, eliminating any sense that Resident Evil 4 is an annoying, multi-hour escort quest. Combine all that with an incredibly handsome graphical makeover and you’ve made a masterpiece feel even more essential.
5. Persona 3 Reload
Fans of the Persona series are no strangers to new versions of the beloved Atlus RPGs arriving soon after their initial release – Persona 4 Golden and Persona 5 Royal both added significant social link, story, and dungeon additions, for example. But in terms of a full-on remake, Persona 3 Reload is the first to have undergone a complete overhaul. Reload took the game’s foundational bullets and rechambered them into a much more stylish weapon — one that borrowed the best-in-class UI and menu systems of Persona 5 and rebuilt its colorful high-school surroundings and spooky shadow realm from the ground up.
Perhaps its most exciting addition is the way Reload tweaks Persona 3’s battle system. Informed by the series entries that came after it, combat is a much more enticing prospect, thanks to the introduction of new skills, the ability to directly control each party member and shift between them baton pass-style, and the brand-new Theurgy system that allows for Personas to perform devastating Ultimate attacks. All of these changes, among others, breathed new, exciting life into an already treasured RPG, meaning Reload is now the definitive way to Persona 3.
4. Silent Hill 2
Team Silent’s original Silent Hill 2 is rightfully considered one of the most affecting survival horror games of all time, and Bloober Team’s 2024 remake does nothing to diminish that. While the PS2 original has an incomparable, unsettling atmosphere thanks to its technological limitations, the remake uses modern graphical and sound techniques to generate a complimentary oppressive tone. As you explore the strange, abandoned town of Silent Hill, you can’t help but let the dread creep in.
Bloober’s creation is incredibly faithful to the original game, following the same plot beats and exploring the same environments, but its new over-the-shoulder camera both pulls you deeper into its terrifying world and makes combatting the town’s grotesque inhabitants more intuitive. Those combat enhancements can really be felt in the boss battles, which are now reinvented as terrifying engagements rather than repeating the attritional slogs they once were. But really it’s the modern presentation of this bleak story that really makes Silent Hill 2 a vital remake: actor Luke Roberts breathes fresh new life into protagonist James Sunderland, providing a deeply troubled, nuanced performance that anchors this tale in inescapable grief and guilt.
3. Resident Evil
When it comes to faithful remakes that largely stick to the core design established in the original and focus instead on bringing everything else up to modern standards, there aren’t many games better than the original Resident Evil remake. The “REmake” adheres to everything that was intrinsic to the original, from the pre-rendered backgrounds, to the tank controls, to the limited inventory that forces you to make tough decisions on what to keep and what to toss. All these may be incredibly familiar for those who were there back in 1996, but they’re polished up to beautiful new standards. It may have old ideas, but it plays fantastically… which is impressive, considering this remake is already much older than the original game was when it was made.
But Resident Evil isn’t just a shinier version of its source material. It also adds several entirely new features that change up the experience and give it its own identity. Whether it’s the terrifying addition of dead enemies resurrecting as powerful Crimson Heads (unless you have the foresight and resources to burn the corpses) or the brand-new plot thread involving the horrifying Lisa Trevor, Resident Evil’s remake shines because not only is it a faithful remake that brings a PSOne classic into a modern light, but also because of the ways that it separates itself from that classic to become something even better.
2. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
After having successfully pulled off a radical re-imagining with the first game in the trilogy, Square Enix faced a more daunting challenge with the second chapter of its Final Fantasy 7 remake project. It needed to recreate the most expansive section of the original game, redesign a huge variety of locations (including a whole theme park), add a number of new characters, and re-stage one of the most important emotional beats in RPG history. As with its predecessor, not all of these ambitions are met equally, but Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is nonetheless an incredible, transformative achievement.
The most immediately impressive factor of Rebirth is its scope. While it doesn’t totally leave Remake’s linear structure behind, much of Rebirth takes place in sizable open hub worlds. While there is a touch of the Ubisoft box-ticking about them, they’re elevated by a smart approach to exploration that introduces a brand new gimmick with every zone, from buggies to planes to Chocobos that can climb walls and glide across chasms. It’s a smart reinvention of the original game’s freely-explored-but-ultimately-empty overworld. But it’s the continuation of Remake’s story and emotional core that makes Rebirth so strong – these modern interpretations of the core trio of Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith are among Square’s strongest-ever characters, and their journey here – which feels more authentic to the original than Remake’s more expansive efforts – is unforgettable. Oh, and that overhauled combat system? It’s even better here – perhaps the best Final Fantasy has ever had.
1. Resident Evil 2
Resident Evil 2‘s remake took what the original did so well – its labyrinthian level design, its disgusting enemies, its omnipresent sense of dread – and molded it into a horror game designed for modern audiences. The Raccoon City police station is cleverly reworked and expanded upon, enemies are faster, deadlier, and more unpredictable, and gorgeous lighting casts shadows over nasties waiting to grab you unawares. And, of course, the static camera angles and tank controls are traded in for third-person, over-the-shoulder shooting, which truly transports the PS1 classic into the modern era.
Perhaps Resident Evil 2’s biggest achievement, though, is the way Capcom has played with the original’s most iconic encounters. When you think you’ve got a terrifying moment figured out, Capcom twists it ever so slightly, removing any certainty as you slowly make your way through its carefully curated collection of memories. This is a remake designed to both terrify you in today’s horror landscape and scratch that nostalgic itch, and miraculously achieves both right until its breathless end. And even though multiple other Resident Evil remakes have arrived since, this remains the ultimate gold standard for video game remakes.
And that’s our pick of the 15 best video game remakes. Did your favourite make our list? Did we rank your best pick a little too low? Let us know in the comments.
