Are we going to get more remasters from Square Enix’s overwhelming catalogue of classic PlayStation role-playing games? The Final Fantasy maker isn’t ruling it out following the apparent success of the series’ Pixel Remaster anthology, telling shareholders it’s still “considering” bringing other games like Final Fantasy Tactics, Xenogears, and possibly even Vagrant Story back from the dead.
As first spotted by VGC, Square Enix was asked about its plans during its latest business meeting. “Are there plans to remaster other past titles?” asked one shareholder according to the company’s official transcript. “Personally, I would like to play Xenogears.” Wouldn’t we all? The Dragon Ball Z meets Gundam mech fighter RPG mixed wild sci-fi storylines with heavy religious, political, and philosophical themes and laid the groundwork for the Xenoblade Chronicles games,
Square Enix has stopped short of confirming anything, but provided a glimmer of hope to older fans who have been waiting to see more of their favourite PS1 RPGs get repackaged for modern platforms. “We will refrain from sharing information about new titles, but we are considering various ideas within the Company and hope that you will look forward to forthcoming announcements,” the company stated.
It would be easy to brush off if not for the continuous swirl of rumours around games like Final Fantasy IX and Final Fantasy Tactics. The massive Nvidia leak from a few years ago, which has been right about everything so far, pointed to FFIX getting a remake and FF Tactics getting a remaster. Two other games in the leak — Chrono Chross and Tactics Ogre — have already received their HD ports, making it feel like only a matter of time until Square Enix announces the rest.
Square Enix has also already released HD remasters of Legend of Mana and Saga Frontier. Surely Xenogears and Vagrant Story, a gothic dungeon crawler written and directed by Final Fantasy Tactics’ Yasumi Matsuno, wouldn’t be left out of the mix? It would be fine to bring games like Parasite Eve, Brave Fencer Musashi, and Threads of Fate to the PlayStation Plus Premium’s library of PS1 classics, but the others deserve a bit more TLC.
The mileage on Square Enix’s HD remasters has varied. The Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster collection only got improved fonts after tons of fan backlash, and the upscaled smoothing on some of the graphics looks absolutely heinous. But it’s honestly a price I’m willing to pay for modern accessibility options and new voice acting, at least if it’s as good as what was featured in last year’s Tactics Ogre remaster.
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