There are a lot of games that got the remake or reboot treatment as of late. The games include Panzer Dragoon, Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3, and the VR reboot of Resident Evil 4. I’ve been enjoying seeing old and new fans get a chance to play these games for the first time. I loved seeing the changes with Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 from the original. It made the games feel new to me versus playing the same game just with enhanced graphics and more gore. With these reboots or remakes, I have been thinking of what games should have a chance to shine. I won’t lie – there were some issues with making this list, and I found it a bit difficult to narrow the list down. I decided to cover my top games that I would honestly love to see return in some fashion to the newer systems.
Shadow Hearts is just a game series that I wish more people would have played on the PS2. It’s the type of game that once you play it, it sticks with you like glue even years later. The game has memorable moments that had me staring in disbelief and holding in my laughter. For example, meeting the grand papillon, Frank the American ninja, the tragic but hilarious story of Li Li, and Margarete’s pink underwear. The gameplay completely had me hooked with the judgment ring; once I got the hang of it, I was enjoying the game a lot more. The series is amazing and full of memorable moments with fantastic characters. Yuri and Alice certainly stand out and rival any of the couples in Final Fantasy games. Watching their love blossom was a real highlight in the games. I also felt such sadness as Yuri dealt with his grief, something I appreciate even more so with my loss of my dad. I truly love this series a lot and would love to have another go with Yuri and the gang. And, maybe know if Haley found his dad.
Shining Force is the game series that got me into strategy games such as Fire Emblem. The game’s plot was simple to follow but greatly improved with the future installments. What drew me to this game was the gameplay, which was equal parts frustrating and rewarding. Each battle could take me ages as I would see how far or close the enemies or the boss was to move each character and level them up before moving on to the boss or the next section of the plot. The cast of characters each had their unique style and it was easy to find my favorites. I tried to find a balance with my teams. I just ended up trying to use all the characters to get them promoted which resulted in longer battles. There have been many games similar to this over the years, but after Shining Force III for Saturn, there has never been another game with this style of gameplay. I think it would be great if Sega brought back Shining Force as Fire Emblem has created new fans of this genre. It’s genuinely been missed. I know I miss it.
Skies of Arcadia is an RPG that blew me away when I first played it ages ago. I can’t recall there being anything remotely close to being an air pirate for the Dreamcast or other systems. The game set itself apart by having you search for all locations including landmarks. It was both frustrating and rewarding since I had to search high and low while having battles with enemies. However, once I found the area or landmark, it was easy to travel back if needed. I was also completely engrossed in the airship battles that served as some boss fights. It made recruiting new crew members a must to upgrade the ship. Otherwise, it was certain doom. The cube version did offer some new characters and some competition in uncovering the hidden places or ruins for the bounty. It made this game feel new with minor updates from Dreamcast to Cube versions. I do wish it was available again. After all, blue rogues are forever!
Eternal Darkness Sanity’s Requiem is a survival horror game that terrified me and made me fall more in love with survival horror outside of Resident Evil games. This hidden gem focuses on the psychological trauma of being exposed to evil and what that evil can do with your sanity. All characters have a sanity meter that will hinder or be an asset when traveling through the very corners of hell. There are many characters in this game that offer a degree of difficulty. The main issue I had is with their sanity meters. Depending on the characters, most had high sanity and others had low sanity. It made trying to navigate each section more troublesome even with the use of a strategy guide. This was also the scariest game for the Cube right next to the remake of the original Resident Evil. It had me on edge from the get go and wouldn’t let go. One of the things that this game did was pretend to delete your Gamecube save data. I immediately shut off my system only to find out that it never happened. All that work had to be redone from my last save. My only gripe is that there was never a sequel to this game where the ending hinted at one. I feel this game could be a wonderful series if only it had a chance. This game is needed after Silent Hill was ended by Konami to fill in a different type of survival horror.
Wild Arms is this weird RPG series that focuses on the wild west fused with magic and sci-fi elements. It worked so well and made the series stand out as one of a kind on the original PlayStation console. All the games are vastly different, similar to Final Fantasy, which made getting into any of the games a lot easier. The game mechanics are similar to playing Final Fantasy just with different names for items and spells. My favorites in this series are parts two, four, and five. But I do love them all. I feel that this series has a lot to offer JRPG fans, especially fans of mecha and role-playing. There’s still a lot that this series has to offer. The plots of each game can be a mixture of heart-wrenching stories followed by weird storylines which only served to make this game stand out. This series should shine again. After all, there has never been quite a series like Wild Arms.
This is my list. There are so many more games that scream remake or remastered that it was hard for me to narrow down my list. I would love to know your thoughts. What games would you like to see make a return on the newer systems?
esperdreams 