5 Forgotten Square Enix RPGs That Deserve a Comeback

Sq. Enix is synonymous with unbelievable role-playing video games, due to sequence like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Kingdom Hearts. However only a few video games are fortunate sufficient to take pleasure in that sort of longevity. Over time, the corporate has launched loads of video games that had monumental potential, however for one motive or one other, did not flip right into a long-running franchise or are practically inconceivable to play as we speak.

Listed below are a handful of Sq. Enix RPGs that deserve a comeback, whether or not it is merely a port for contemporary {hardware}, an attentive remaster, or a full-on remake. These video games might not have been forgotten by followers, however all of them have suffered a little bit of neglect from the developer-publisher, for one motive or one other.

1

Parasite Eve

Lengthy earlier than Insomniac’s tackle Peter Parker “actually made you really feel like Spider-Man,” Parasite Eve had Manhattan. Set in December 1997, the sport follows police detective Aya Brea as she tracks a mutant entity known as Eve in areas just like the Pure Historical past Museum, Central Park, Chinatown, the Chrysler Constructing, and Carnegie Corridor. Eve has an uncommon energy — she will be able to trigger the mitochondria in folks’s cells to “awaken,” main them to spontaneously combust. The story is a sequel to Hideaki Sena’s fashionable novel of the identical identify and a part of a worldwide late-’90s surge in recognition for Japanese horror. It was constructed on a modified model of the Last Fantasy 7 engine, and was described by modern critics as a mash-up of that recreation and Resident Evil.

Parasite Eve impressed a pair sequels — 1999’s Parasite Eve 2 and 2010’s The Third Birthday for PlayStation Moveable — however the unique feels particularly ripe for rediscovery as we speak. The 2 video games that impressed it are extra fashionable than ever, and the action-oriented fight system was forward of its time. Heck, Sq. Enix might repeat historical past and use the FF7 Remake engine for a reimagined Parasite Eve.

2

Bloodmasque

Picture: Sq. Enix

Would you play a splashy, trendy Sq. Enix RPG set in an alternate model of Nineteenth-century Paris that is been taken over by vampires? I certain would! Because it seems, that recreation already exists, and it is 2013’s Bloodmasque. Downside is, it launched solely for touchscreen Apple units just like the iPhone and iPad, which might be why you have not heard of it. Final September, Last Fantasy Ways: The Ivalice Chronicles director Kazutoyo Maehiro told me that he’d written in depth lore for the Bloodmasque, which he labored on as a state of affairs designer.

“I wrote about 3,000 years price of Iore for that recreation. That is the primary time I heard that identify in such a very long time — I mainly simply remembered it myself. However now that I’m remembering it, I do really feel it is a recreation that might perhaps be attention-grabbing to launch, even these days,” Maehiro mentioned. “The intention for that recreation, we actually wished to have the ability to make it so you possibly can have the story happen at any time limit, from a chronological perspective. So yeah, I had depicted or written out the story of the historical past of those vampires all through a really lengthy course of time, finally into outer area.” Let’s reboot this concept! The kids yearn for extra Bloodmasque!

3

Xenogears

Squaresoft

Sport builders have been taking daring inventive dangers all through the late ’90s, and Sq. Enix was no exception. First conceived as an early pitch for Last Fantasy 7, Xenogears is notoriously overambitious and really clearly unfinished. (Assume FF7 meets Neon Genesis Evangelion, and you will get a way of the vibe.) The final half of the sport performs extra like a visible novel interspersed with occasional boss fights. Regardless of that, it was a industrial success that drew widespread important acclaim. At one level, Sq. considered making a sequel, however scrapped these plans to make the flop CGI film Last Fantasy: The Spirits Inside as a substitute.

Creator Tetsuya Takahashi went on to create the Xenosaga and Xenoblade Chronicles video games at Monolith Gentle, so the Xeno sequence is alive and effectively as we speak. Even so, it will be unbelievable to expertise a 3D remaster of this daring 1998 recreation — and ideally one that truly contains some dungeons and fight within the second half. Do not maintain your breath on that, although. Last Fantasy 7 Rebirth director Naoki Hamaguchi just lately commented that a Xenogears remake would be a huge undertaking: “Remaking one thing that got here from that period, as an skilled one that has gone by the [FF7] Remake sequence, feels like a tricky recreation to make.”

4

Last Fantasy Sort-0

Picture: Sq. Enix

The discharge of each mainline Last Fantasy recreation will inevitably be accompanied by a whole lot of navel-gazing from the inventive leads about how the sequence can proceed to be related to fashionable audiences. (See: FF14 and the rise of MMORPGs, FF15 and the vogue for open-world environments, and FF16 as a Sony-esque character motion recreation.) Again in 2011, the creators of spin-off Last Fantasy Sort-0 posited “what if the future of Final Fantasy was actually Persona?” Then the sport got here out and Sq. Enix determined the reply was an emphatic no.

Sort 0 follows a bunch of 14 college students at an elite college who should stability the humdrum calls for of college life with escalating supernatural threats. Just like the Persona video games, there is a calendar system and classmate bonds, however its storytelling hews nearer to Last Fantasy 6 by specializing in an ensemble solid as a substitute of 1 most important protagonist. Certain, there have been parts of the sport that did not fairly work, just like the real-time technique “Regional Dominance” sequences. Even so, it appears like we’re lacking out by not having some sort of recurring Sq. Enix franchise that takes place in a magical college. Sort 0 obtained an HD remaster again in 2015, however we’re lengthy overdue for a brand new entry on this subseries.

5

Chrono Set off

Picture: Sq. Enix

You knew this was coming. Broadly hailed as probably the greatest RPGs ever made, Chrono Set off was developed by the creators of Dragon Quest and Last Fantasy, Yuji Horii and Hironobu Sakaguchi. It featured artwork by Dragon Ball and Dragon Quest’s Akira Toriyama and music by legendary composer Nobuo Uematsu. Again within the day, Sq. (no Enix then) known as them the “Dream Crew,” they usually weren’t incorrect. This iconic 1995 SNES title featured 13 endings and an unforgettable solid. It additionally launched the idea of New Sport+ and nonetheless has the very best time-travel mechanic in any online game, interval.

Again in 2022, Sq. Enix launched Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Version, a remaster of the PS1-era sequel to Chrono Set off. That prompted hypothesis that the corporate was engaged on a remaster of the unique recreation for its thirtieth anniversary in 2025. Welp, that window has come and gone. At current, it is inconceivable to purchase a replica of this traditional RPG for any fashionable console — it is solely out there for Steam and cellular units. Ever because the firm launched HD-2D with 2018’s Octopath Traveler, followers have been clamoring for a Chrono Set off remake on this luxurious artwork type. We’re right there with them.