The JRPG is in the midst of making its big comeback to the forefront of the mainstream scene, and a big reason why is the appearance of HD/2D remakes.
Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Is Already Japan’s Best-Selling Game Of 2024
Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D became Japan’s best-selling game of 2024 within its first week.
We’ve seen a handful of successful titles using this art direction already, but many more deserve the same treatment, and here are ten that we think should get it.
10Breath of Fire IV
Re-ignite the Flame
Breath of Fire IV
Breath of Fire is one of the moreunderappreciated PS1 classic JRPGsthat falls by the wayside in the wake of giants like Final Fantasy. Despite that, it had quite a lengthy run and still has devoted fans to the franchise who would like to see more from the IP.
While we may not be seeing a new game in the franchise any time soon, there could definitely be some revisits to the past here.
You can take your pick of which game you want to see, butBreath of Fire IVis definitely the golden goose.
It’s the most evolved game in the franchise in many ways, from the art style to the combat, and the storytelling is something that hadn’t really been seen at the time.
The split narrative between Ryu and Fou Lou was fascinating as we’d never really taken control of the main villain in this way before, and it helped make an otherwise by-the-numbers tale stand out in a big way.
It was a 2D/3D hybrid of a game when it came out, but with its mostly 2D roots, giving it the HD/2D remake a la Dragon Quest III would be an amazing thing to see.
9Valkyrie Profile
The Most Unique JRPG Ever
Valkyrie Profile
Valkyrie Profileis a must-play for any JRPG fan, but it’s fair to say it hasn’t aged the best.
With its 2D, side-scrolling nature, brutal combat, and unforgiving time progression system, the game can be quite the hassle to get through.
However, if you can handle the tough nature of the game, you will experience a profound and mature game that poses thoughtful questions constantly, hasthoroughly engaging stories,and some great combat to boot.
As one of the best examples of an interactive turn-based combat system, you control each character with a separate button, and your timing on when you attack or follow up a previous attack determines everything from the damage you do to whether you break the enemy’s defense or not.
It’s a lot darker than most of its contemporaries, and Lenneth’s journey to assemble a force fit to fight in Ragnarok is as compelling as it gets.
The beautiful art style would be a perfect contender for the HD/2D remake treatment, and considering this was an Enix title, Square Enix has to know that they’re sitting on a massive success if they pull the trigger here. We’re waiting, hopefully not until Ragnarok.
8Final Fantasy Tactics
Unrivaled in the Genre
Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy Tacticsis one of the best games in the series and possibly the best strategy RPG ever made.
Throughout the years, Square Enix has updated and remastered this one over and over, from a Game Boy Advance version to making it playable on an iPhone; we’ve seen no shortage of Ramza and friends lately.
However, we still haven’t seen the full remake treatment like many others have gotten.
Yoshi-P Is Right, We Need Another Final Fantasy Tactics
He’s right, it’s about time for Final Fantasy Tactics to make a grand return!
A full HD/2D remake of Final Fantasy Tactics would be incredible, matching a game like Triangle Strategy in graphical grandeur while providing even more depth regarding character building and storytelling.
The game still looks good today, but getting that new coat of paint on it, along with some longtime-needed QOL features and bug fixes, would be a great way to introduce these gems of the past to current players.
The gameplay is straightforward but incredibly deep, allowingtons of customizationon how you want your party to look.
It also has one of the more mature plots of the series, dealing with political issues, and it feels very much like a Game of Thrones-type story in JRPG form.
You can’t go wrong with this one, and it has to be one of the games to get this treatment sooner or later.
7Persona 2: Innocent Sin
Darkness In The Classroom
Persona 2: Innocent Sin
Before Persona 5 took the series to new, unseen heights, back in 1999,Persona 2released and wasrelatively underappreciated.
This was a very different kind of Persona game than we are used to. Before the stylized, high-energy tone of the recent games, Persona 2 was far more measured and dour in its tone.
It resulted in a story that approached some really dark themes and overall, feels like a more mature version of what the series would eventually become.
The classic Persona combat is here, involving characters possessing Personas during combat along with the ability to talk to pretty much any enemy in the game during battle.
While the game was released in 1999, it still was largely 2D, with its character models on a 3D plane. The graphics were fine, but nothing special, despite having some intriguing environments to play through during the game.
If you’ve seen what games like Octopath Traveler can do with this method, you’ll easily understand why this game would be perfect for the HD/2D transformation.
6Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen
Ogre Battle: The March Of The Black Queen
Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queenis one of the more interesting games in JRPG history, and it was released during a time when video games were just trying to get their footing in terms of how much they could offer the player.
Ogre Battle pushed that boundary far beyond what many expected, creating a war sim on screen that hadn’t been done before.
The gameplay has you controlling an army, sending units into battle, and then deciding what tactics to use before watching your unit fight it out with the enemy.
If this sounds familiar, it’s because Unicorn Overlord brought back this gameplay style just this year and did so with aplomb.
Now that we know that this style of gameplay is appreciated once more, giving the originator of it the full HD/2D remake treatment would make perfect sense and revive a long-dead franchise that was probably released ahead of its time.
These days, it’s considered a cult classic, and a healthy number of fans are waiting for this dormant series to make a triumphant return.
5Tales of Destiny II
A Tale Worth Retelling
Tales of Destiny 2
The Tales franchise is ripe for mining when it comes to remakes, but no game deserves one more thanTales of Destiny 2.
Following the tale of the previous game’s protagonist’s son, Kyle, you experience a grand story that involves all sorts of classic JRPG themes like time travel and war, and the story is a huge standout that showed Tales was a game that could stand up the other titans in the genre.
The combat was the highlight, using a system very similar to Star Ocean 2, and the results were the same. The action-based system introduced interactivity in a more thorough way, almost resembling a fighting game at times during its many battles, and it all worked so well.
One issue, though, is that the combat screens were often too crowded, making it hard to see the action.
With the HD/2D treatment, that can be remedied by giving the characters a full battlefield to roam so that things don’t get so cluttered.
It’s got a highly unique art style, too, so a remake of that nature would have to be careful not to make it overly pretty, as the gritty nature of the art was part of what made this game such a joy to play through.
An Adventure Like None Other
Grandiais another JRPG series that has been long dormant and needs a wake-up call, and an HD/2D remake of Grandia would do the trick.
It’s one of the best JRPGs of all time and grasps the feeling of setting out on an adventure better than any other game at the time.
The story, of course, grows to epic proportions, posturing as you as a savior of the world on a journey to uncover an ancient civilization, but the music and the art tell the story just as well as the plot does.
The combat system is a huge standout here, introducing unique things like movement, enemy canceling, and other strategic elements that weren’t a common thing in the JRPG landscape at the time.
It’s stilla pleasant playthrough to this day, but as you can see, the graphics could use a new coat of paint.
It’s certainly not the longest game in the genre either, but getting to revisit this world like we have gotten to with Dragon Quest III recently would be quite the thrill.
3Xenogears
I’m of the mind thatXenogearsneeds afull-on remake, not just an HD/2D one, but while my dreams continue to be dashed year after year, at least Square Enix could revitalize one of the best games of all time.
Xenogears follows Fei in his journey from a humble villager to discovering the nature of life itself, and there are some heavy themes at play here, such as existentialism, religion, reincarnation, and more.
The combat system has always gotten some flak, and it could certainly use some sprucing up, especially on the on-ground combat sections.
It uses an interactive battle system mixed with turn-based that has some great ideas but could definitely sharpen its execution.
While it’s a revered game, it has one of the most brutal random encounter rates imaginable and can be a tough one to play through today because of it.
The story is unparalleled though and worth the price of admission alone, so if they could replicate it while fleshing out the infamous disc 2 portion of the story, we’re looking at gold here folks.
A fresh look at this game with the same treatment that Star Ocean 2 got would be brilliant, mixing 2D and 3D environments to give this story new life and hopefully, get the juices flowing for a full on remake one day.
2Final Fantasy VI
The Last of its Kind
Final Fantasy 6
Final Fantasy is a series filled with classic games and for many, the best of the series isFinal Fantasy VI.
This sprawling tale has so many iconic characters and moments that it’s hard to count, and it has one of the best villains the JRPG genre has seen to this day.
The party is among the best for a JRPG as well, with Terra, Edgar, Shadow, and so many others making up a wildly varied group of fighters who all get a ton of character development throughout.
The combat system was also innovative at the time, with interactive Limit Breaks and a variety of different ways to build your characters.
Square Enix has released this one multiple times, including a pixel remaster and multiple ports, but it deserves the full HD/2D remake treatment.
The world in Final Fantasy VI is a vastly intriguing one, but it’s clear that the game’s ambition was outdone by the technical limitations of the time.
Getting to explore the World of Ruin in the way it was meant to be would be an incredible gaming moment, and seeing Kekfa get a bit of a glow-up so that he’s not just a cackling colorful ant on a screen would also be appreciated as well.
They’re sitting on an untapped gold mine here, and while they seem to be shelling out HD/2D remakes at breakneck speed, this phenomenal game is somehow being left by the wayside.
1Chrono Trigger
Chrono Trigger
While I may prefer the sequel, there is no doubt about it thatChrono Triggeris one of the best JRPGs of all time.
The amazing music, creative characters, and mysterious worlds you’ll explore throughout a gamut of different ages are things that have never been done before in a game and have rarely been done since.
Leaping from the Stone Age into the far future, all while having a cohesive and tightly knitted plot, is a work of art that all types of media should look at and praise.
You follow Chrono and friends on a journey throughout time to stop the terrifying force known as Lavos and the trials and tribulations you’ll go through to achieve that, which is one of the more complex and twisty plots out there.
The combat system here is also great, allowing characters to team up for huge attacks, and it has one of the best, if not the best, battle themes of all time.
However, Chrono Trigger was originally an SNES game, meaning it’s growing a bit long in the tooth.
While the grittiness of the graphics is part of the charm, seeing these amazing landscapes redone in the HD/2D way issomething that gamers have dreamt of for years now.
We know the Chrono series is likely done, but that doesn’t mean that Square Enix should ignore one of their best games ever.
It’s a relatively short experience, too, meaning that a remake treatment shouldn’t be too staggering of an effort.
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