Most Wanted Remakes or Remasters - Part 1 - Gaming Thoughts

With so many games getting fantastic remakes over the last few years (Final Fantasy 7, Persona 3 Reload, The Last of Us, etc), it got some of us on the team asking: what would be the next game or set of games we'd love to see get the remake or remaster treatment? We put a quick set of guidelines to the question:

 

- The game has to be older than a decade

- Hasn't had a remake / remaster in the last decade

- We agreed we could bundle games (similar to how people view the Pixel Remake of the Final Fantasy games as part of our wish lists)

- Don't pick something that has been announced as forthcoming

- Pick up to 3 titles (so you'll see the number of participants go up as we move from last to first place in our list of desired titles)

 

That was it - but of course, there's always deviations from the expected and unexpected takes from the team. We wound up with some pretty great internal conversations around it in our team's Discord channel. Let us know if there's anything you wish you could see remade as well! 

We will be posting these over the week in a trio of articles, leading up to our team's most desired remakes. So let's start off with some of the ones that barely made the cut or honorable mentions.

Richard

Bomberman 64, Bomberman 64 the Second Attack, and Bomberman Hero. 

The N64 group of Bomberman games were another set of games that really defined my childhood. I'd love to see these get a remake with some updated graphics, maybe some more content, not that they really needed it, and maybe adding a bit of the co-op function that they had in The Second Attack. I actually have always really loved the 3D adventure Bomberman games, and I would jump on these in a heartbeat if they made a comeback.

Honorable Mention: Tales of Phantasia. This Tales title has gotten a remaster before, but this needs a modern 3D format with co-op to match modern Tales titles. A great Tales title that gets overlooked way too often.

Pierre-Yves

Breath of Fire 3

The king of kings. Drops mic

Seriously though, you would be hard pressed to argue against that statement.

There are a lot of good games out there, but Capcom's Breath of Fire 3? It had it all. Great accessible gameplay, a story that unfolds over two time periods and believable characters with depth of personality all wrapped up into one package. Breath of Fire 4 and 5 didn't come close to this one. We won't take about the mobile only BoF6.

I would love to see a remake of this masterpiece.

Honorable Mention: Lunar Silver Star Story and Lunar 2 Eternal Blue

This would have been a VERY different list had we not gotten the following trailer back in late September. But if these weren't incoming? They would be right after Breath of Fire 3.

Both of these titles were great. While remasters in their own rights from the Sega CD and Sega Saturn over to the Sony PlayStation, they more than deserve the love with the epic-ness that they bring to the JRPG table. 

  

Hamza

Fallout: Van Buren—the legendary canceled game

We'll call this one my wildcard entry. As a die-hard Fallout fanboy (with 300+ hours across the isometric and FPS titles combined), I can’t help but dream of what could have been. Van Buren was supposed to be the third mainline entry in the franchise, but it was shelved to make way for Brotherhood of Steel and eventually Fallout 3.

Two key designers from Van Buren—Chris Avellone and Josh Sawyer—later worked on New Vegas, which is widely considered the best in the series. Given their track record, these two clearly have what it takes to deliver a near-perfect game. They’ve already incorporated many aspects of Van Buren into New Vegas, so why not let them revisit the project and finally give it the remake it deserves?

Mike

Valkyrie Profile 

This is another classic RPG that has yet to be released beyond PlayStation systems without being converted into a full-out hack and slash mimicry to the classic game. Yes, Valkyrie Elysium is a great title but it pales in comparison to the absolute wonder and splendor of the original game formula as the writing, story telling and beauty of the original has yet to see a release on platforms beyond PS4 and PS5

Remaining as a top tier all time favorite RPG of my own, perhaps there is some bias in this choice. Well worth playing through or hoping for a steam release for those without PlayStation systems laying about.

Honorable Mentions:

Resident Evil: Outbreak
Parasite Eve
Driver

Nick

Phantasy Star I - IV

It's interesting that the Final Fantasy games have gotten numerous touch-ups and re-releases, but the Sega equivalent series, Phantasy Star, has not received the same attention. Now, maybe Phantasy Star I shouldn't be on this list because it did get the SEGA Ages re-release on Switch, but the others have not (though II has landed in a couple of Genesis collections over the year). It would be great however, to see all four titles get a nice graphics touch-up, released together with some quality of life updates as the last game in the series, Phantasy Star IV, is a masterpiece that first released in 93 on the SEGA Genesis.

Valerie

Siphon Filter

So, through my colleagues here at Chalgyr I learned about the game Siphon Filter. From Wikipedia: "The plot centers on special agents, Gabriel Logan and Lian Xing, who are tasked by the United States government to apprehend Erich Rhoemer, an international terrorist." I've not played this one and would like to. So, for my last remake request would be this game for PC. I'm just not built for those consoles. Give me a mouse & a keyboard and I'm good to go. Or, if that old joystick of mine can be implemented, then yay! We'll be ready to rock!

Jim

.hack//INFECTION - Part 1, .hack//MUTATION - Part 2, .hack//OUTBREAK - Part 3, .hack//QUARANTINE - Part 4

Here's another Bandai Namco game series on the list. They already released a remaster of the .hack//GU games back in 2017, but I also really enjoyed the original games. They have a really good story and span four games! If they ever do remaster or a remake them, I hope they include the anime that came with each game, as it ties in with the game and was also really good.

Honorable mention

Fatal Frame 1-3

I'm a big whimp yet I play games like this. I was probably a little too young when I played the original Fatal Frame. I remember it freaking me out so badly that I called my grandmother and talked to her just to get my mind off the game! Now back then I rented the game thinking it would be something like ghost hunting like the TV show Ghost Hunters, and boy was I wrong. I did end up beating all three PS2 games though. Some creepy stuff did happen when I was playing them, but that's a story for another time. Tecmo Koei should show more love to the originals and remaster or remake them. They are some of the best horror games on the PS2.

Honorable honorable mention

Rule of Rose & Kuon

So I have rented and played Rule of Rose back in the day, but I never did play Kuon...so why you might ask am I adding them to this list... Well, I would like to play them, but there is no way I can pay $1000 each! So a remaster or remake of these hidden gems would help anyone who never got a chance to play them.