A long running sort of ironic Xenoblade theory has finally been laid to rest thanks to today's Nintendo Direct. The canon child of one of Xenoblade 2's main heroes has been unveiled, and it's not the crusty villain that much of the fanbase had been willing it to be.

A fresh trailer for Xenoblade Chronicles 3's Nintendo Switch 2 Edition was shown off today, highlighting more of the Heroes' Vault mode, which sees you take on waves of enemies while grabbing upgrades as you go, be it for your abilities or to bring new allies into the fray.

More excitingly, though, we've been given our first glimpse of the JRPG's upcoming new Hero. Her name is Shimmer – she's got blonde hair, a white outfit, and the Foresight ability… sound familiar?

We're going to get into some spoilers now for a revelation that comes at the end of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 – as well as a rather obvious observation about its Future Redeemed DLC – so proceed with caution.

At the end of Xenoblade Chronicles 3, we see a photo of an aged-up Xenoblade 2 cast, including protagonist Rex standing behind Pyra, Mythra, and Nia – each holding a child, with the implication that he's the father of all three. We meet Pyra and Rex's daughter, Glimmer, in the Future Redeemed DLC, and it's quite widely accepted that 3's co-lead Mio is most likely Nia's daughter, too. But what about the remaining blonde baby we see Mythra holding?

Well, with no concrete answers up to this point, fans have been… creative, with their theories. Perhaps the most common – though how seriously it's believed varies from person to person – is that it's one of Xenoblade 3's villains, Dirk, otherwise known as Consul D. He's, uh, not a nice guy. Even before becoming one of the Moebius (you know, the bad guys you're fighting for the entire game), he was a twisted, sadistic soldier. So what's the evidence of him being related to good guys Rex and Mythra?

He's blonde, I guess? There is a bit more to it than that, actually – folks have also pointed out before that he and Rex share similar ear shapes and facial hair, and have names with comparable meanings. Dirk is also lacking a significantly expanded backstory unlike many of the other baddies in the JRPG, leaving some to wonder if it connected to this larger plot point. For many, it's been more of a meme than anything – after all, he's hardly a likeable character, so willing it to be true is more funny than anything else.

Anyway, today, all of that has been debunked, and fans are mixed on the outcome. "Dirk Mythra kid truthers it's so over," one writes on Twitter, as another responds: "We fought hard it was a good run."

Others, however, are more welcoming of Shimmer's existence: "Finally that fuckass theory of dirk as mythra kid is disproven," one says. Another writes: "Thank God Shimmer finally exists because I was tired of the whole Dirk is Mythra kid BS Theory."

I, for one, am also accepting of Shimmer as our official Mythra Kid. Honestly, my only real problem is with her name. You're telling me that Rex really looked at two of his newborn children and said, "Yeah, that one can be called Glimmer and the other can be Shimmer"? …Actually, yeah, that tracks.

Xenoblade Genesis is coming in 2027, and it looks very different to Monolith Soft's last JRPG trilogy.

Persona 4 Revival might not be making any major changes to its characters, but the remake has still given Atlus the opportunity to "go more in-depth" with some of them, the game's producer reveals.

I spoke to producer Kazuhisa Wada at Gamescom last month, where I asked him about the previously announced changes to Yosuke – a party member with some homophobic dialogue in the original JRPG and its Golden re-release, which was obviously never going to make it into the remake without some serious alterations. Wada told me that "the characters are all the same people. We haven't changed any parts of their personalities," but that "we've adjusted dialogue to make it more modern and to be more effective telling the story."

Even if Atlus isn't changing anyone's personality, though, Wada now tells Eurogamer in a new interview that we can expect some characters to be further explored in the remake. "In a lot of ways, there has been something more we could explore with every character," he begins.

"Since Persona 4 came out, there have been a number of spin-off games that have been released, where we developed the characters and their personalities. So when we were making Revival, we took aspects of that and helped it to inform our characters and add detail and depth. For the team, it was Yosuke and Kanji that they really wanted to explore and go more in-depth with."

Art director Akane Kabayashi adds to this, noting that returning to the RPG made her realize that "Chie is forced to wear a lot of different hats and do a lot of different things. You can see that Chie and Yukiko are like 'double heroines,' but Chie is given a lot more stuff to do than Yukiko is, and it made me really respect that aspect of her."

I'm particularly interested by Wada highlighting Yosuke and Kanji here, especially the former. Going back to Yosuke's homophobia in the original – aimed at Kanji, as it happens – many had theorized that this could be recontextualized in Revival as internalized homophobia via a newly added romance route between him and the protagonist. After all, datamined voice lines from the OG JRPG suggest this was once meant to be an option.

However, Wada also told me at Gamescom that despite being aware of the fan demand for Yosuke romance, "we were thinking, if we did Yosuke, we kind of would have to do all the other male characters as well. And if we did that, that is a lot of work. So we were thinking about our time and schedule. I don't know if we could actually handle this, so we decided to let Yosuke float on by."

So, that theory has been debunked. Even if there's no actual romance route though, Wada's latest comments do have me wondering how Atlus has expanded on Yosuke's character, and if that aforementioned idea could have been explored without changing his social link. For now, we'll just have to wait until February to find out.

Persona 4 Revival is the best looking Persona to date, and after 1 hour playing, I'm already desperate to return to Inaba.

If there's one thing to know about me, it's that I can't resist a creature-collecting RPG. Despite that, the Dragon Quest Monsters spin-off series has somehow always managed to pass me by. But, with less than an hour played of Dragon Quest Monsters: The Withered World, I already know that I'm not going to let myself miss out for any longer come its December launch.

Dragon Quest games are never lacking in charm, and The Withered World is immediately full of it. Guided by a cute companion creature known as Fluffy, I'm quickly acquainted with the concept of befriending and battling with monsters and given a personality quiz to determine my first ally. Fluffy decides I'd be a perfect match for a Woebergine – the name speaks for itself. Not sure how I feel about that, to be honest, but it sure is cute, so I'll take it.

Befriend 'em all

After this, I make quick work of recruiting all the nearby monsters I can – I've completed too many Pokedexes in my career to waste time here. You can attempt to 'scout' a monster at any time during battle by using a 'show of force,' but as genre veterans will expect, it's more likely to work if you've weakened them first. I also find out the hard way that failing to scout a monster can leave you unable to try again in the same battle – you can't approach it like Pokemon where you can just toss as many Pokeballs as you like until one works – something I'm glad I discovered in the game's opening section rather than later on when a rarer, more desirable monster was on the line.

I say 'more desirable,' but right from the start, there are plenty of loveable creatures to encounter. I can't overstate how delighted I am to encounter a Fat Rat, who – you're not gonna believe this – is a rather rotund rodent. Very early on, I also run headfirst into a battle with a 'super strong enemy' – a Drakularge (shocker, a big dragon) – which immediately one-shots my entire team. Clearly, some things are meant to be returned to later.

With over 500 monsters to tame, you're not just limited to scouting new allies in battles to expand your collection, either. In a different section of my hands-on, I'm given free rein of The Withered World's synthesis system. A returning feature, synthesis allows you to merge two of your monsters together to form a new one, allowing you to pass on things like abilities in the process – think breeding for perfect IVs and Egg Moves in Pokemon.

Before synthesizing, you're shown what monster you're going to get, including whether or not they'll be a special monster. Some of the pairs and their outcomes make more sense than others – blending a Slime and Platypunk gives me a special Mottle Slime, for example, which half tracks, unlike my Skeleton and Platypup producing a Guaardvark – but I know the countless combinations here are going to have me constantly coming back for more to see what possibilities my monsters hold.

While it'd be difficult to form a real bond with anything in under an hour – especially with the knowledge that I'll be leaving it behind me in a room at Gamescom, never to be seen again – my main takeaway from my time with Dragon Quest: The Withered World is that I'm going to adore whatever my team of monsters ends up being. The punny names, the cute designs, the fact that your ragtag team follows you around as you explore the world – everything is designed to be as endearing as possible, and by god, it's working. I will do whatever it takes to raise my Cruelcumber to be a strong, reliable ally, and fight proudly by their side – whatever The Withered World's story has in store for me, well, that's just a bonus.

On your own quest to play more like this? Check out out best JRPGs ranking, or our games like Pokemon recommendations!

Final Fantasy Resonance's director says the upcoming throwback JRPG is part of a "resurgence" of turn-based games, though one that still has plenty of fresh ideas.

Wrapping up a chat with RPG Site at PAX, director Hiroto Furuya says we're in the middle of a "resurgence of turn-based RPGs and JRPGs" – which sounds pretty darn good to me. And if that sounds pretty darn good to you, the Final Fantasy Resonance devs hope the Final Fantasy Brave Exvius refresh might be of interest.

"Looking at the recent wave of things globally, it seems there's a resurgence of turn-based RPGs and JRPGs," he says. "It is kind of like being re-examined once more.

"We consider Final Fantasy Resonance as one aspect of that overarching wave or trend. I think there is something to note about the appeal of classic RPGs, and the fun of classic RPGs, really. We're trying to capture that through Final Fantasy Resonance – but not stop at that.

"We wanted to ensure that we're delivering a new experience, a new title, to audiences all around the world."

Having played the demo myself, I can see part of what Furuya means. Final Fantasy Resonance is very much playing the hits – you've got crystals, chocobos, and a mixture of magic and machinery. More to the point, though, there's a turn-based battle system with some deeper series cuts. There's an order to who moves next, but filling a foe's stagger meter shakes that up – and ensures you'll get a window to deal increased damage.

What I've most enjoyed, though, is that the visuals and action are really dialed up to 11. The art style remains the HD-2D style popularized by Octopath Traveler, though cutscenes, both mid-fight and in-story, really deliver a sense of spectacle.

Of course, when Furuya talks about the trend of turn-based RPGs and JRPGs, it goes beyond what Square Enix has managed to accomplish with the Octopath series and other HD-2D remakes. Atlus has been holding down that fort for a while with the likes of Persona and Metaphor: ReFantazio, and genre love letter Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has won so many awards it's hard to ignore. Speaking of awards, the J'RPG is only really rivaled in recent times by Baldur's Gate 3. I'm starting to think there's something to these turn-based games.

Final Fantasy Resonance appeals to my inner child like no RPG since Chrono Trigger.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake series director Naoki Hamaguchi is to thank for each member of the party having access to all of the FITS jobs from the start in Final Fantasy 7 Revelation.

As we approach the end of Final Fantasy 7's remake trilogy, Square Enix is introducing one of the biggest overhauls to the game in its third act. FITS is a new system which works as a job system seen in games like Final Fantasy 5, 12, and Tactics which in turn will allow you to tailor your characters to specific archetypes, with four available to be equipped.

During a PAX West 2026 panel (via Game8) Hamaguchi reveals that the original plan was to have each character unlock FITS throughout the game as unlocks for getting through specific milestones. So for example (my own, not Hamaguchi's), Tifa could be unlocked with Black Mage, Barrett gets Knight, and you would need to unlock the other classes with each. However, Hamaguchi says this is something he personally overruled, meaning once FITS is unlocked, each party member will have access to all four jobs.

However, FITS, true to its name, will also come with unique costumes for each character for every job, which brings back the eternal style vs usefulness quandary that every RPG player has faced some point in their life. Do I go with what looks the best, or do I go with the most efficient set?

Hamaguchi also announces that the team has included a skin system to the game separate from the FITS. So, if you want Tifa in her classic outfit compared to the loose sleeves look we've seen her donning during gameplay footage, you'll be able to do so. Perhaps even more excitingly, Hamaguchi says there will be bonus skins unlocked from side content throughout the game too, which hopefully means we'll get some good fanservice fits like Cloud and Tifa's Advent Children outfits or Yuffie and Cid's Kingdom Hearts looks.

Square Enix wants to turn Final Fantasy 7 into "an IP with an ever-evolving future" beyond the FF7 Remake trilogy.

Persona 1 and 2 remakes are "probably eventually" happening, series lead Kazuhisa Wada reiterates, who believes it's a creator's "duty to take the things you've done and make sure they're not lost."

Game preservation has been a particularly hot topic as of late following Sony's announcement that it plans to stop disc production for new PlayStation games from 2028. Though game preservation has been a continual challenge up to this point anyway, especially for older titles that naturally become harder to find and play over time, the idea that physical games are starting to be phased out by one of the main platforms is worrying, to say the least. Thankfully, though, plenty of devs are still committed to the idea of keeping their games accessible well into the future, and it sounds like Atlus is one of them.

Speaking in a new interview with Rock Paper Shotgun, Persona 4 Revival producer Wada talks about his thought process surrounding remakes and remasters, going back to Persona 3's 2023 comeback. "When we originally conceived the idea of Persona 3 Reload, we knew we wanted to do P4R as well; we had to put it on the backburner, but it was something we thought of at the same time," he begins.

"For me, I think a remaster or remake is some kind of cultural preservation. As a creator, it's your duty to take the things you've done and make sure they're not lost, and are still around in the modern day," he continues. "From that same perspective, Persona 1 and 2 are something we'll probably eventually do too."

This isn't the first time that Wada has brought up the possibility of Persona 1 and 2 remakes – in another recent interview, he stated: "I can't say for sure, but personally, I think it's something we should definitely do. I think we have to do it." The necessity in his tone here now makes a lot of sense given his views on preservation, and I'm sure fans won't be complaining. Just look at how folks reacted when Atlus announced new merch for the oldest games in the series earlier this year – admittedly, partly thanks to some very questionable phrasing that suggested a lot more than some new shirts being on the way.

Of course, there's no doubt that these titles feel the most dated and different compared to the modern Persona games, which also raises the question of how they'd be handled in any remakes. That's not to mention the fact that there are two Persona 2s, so in total, this would be a whole extra trilogy for the devs to deal with.

For now, it's likely that Atlus has its plate full with Persona 4 Revival and the upcoming Persona 6, but Wada's words here definitely bode well for the rest of the series.

Persona 4 Revival is the best looking Persona to date, and after 1 hour playing, I'm already desperate to return to Inaba.

Square Enix turned to Final Fantasy 7 spin-off film Advent Children to inform how the remake trilogy should look, partly because the developers believed fans found it to be the "ideal vision" of the OG JRPG.

As part of a PAX West panel that delves into how the trilogy was designed, Final Fantasy 7 Revelation director Naoki Hamaguchi explains why Advent Children was the "graphical goal."

"For many fans, we can say that Advent Children is remembered as an ideal vision of Final Fantasy 7," he says. "So, we wanted to bring the appeal of that visual piece to life as a game that gamers themselves could experience."

As a slide further explains, Square Enix wanted to 'gamify' the film experience so fans of the flick could experience its visual quality and atmosphere – obviously, in a more immersive way. A big reason is that devs believed the film "set a new standard" for Final Fantasy 7 in terms of character expression, especially in Cloud and Sephiroth's appearance, movement, and presence.

Naturally, part of the reason that Final Fantasy 7 Remake could look like Advent Children, despite being a game, is that the latter came out in 2005, so the capability of gaming graphics had plenty of time to advance. Still, it's an interesting visual reference. While the OG Final Fantasy 7 is as old as the hills, Cloud and the gang have appeared elsewhere in the years following that, offering a glimpse of what they might look like with an update.

Perhaps our closest was the opening scene, remade for the PS3 to showcase its graphical capabilities. To the great sadness of many, it was merely a tech demo and not an actual remake reveal, but the vibe was there. Additionally, Cloud has appeared in plenty of other fighting games, both Square Enix-led and not, which gave us a hint of what he could look like in an updated game. For years, a Final Fantasy 7 remake was merely a wishlist item for fans, not something Square Enix would commit to for a while.

How times change. Still, it's nice to see another reference to wider Final Fantasy 7 media, which Square Enix hasn't been shy of making, especially when it comes to what Final Fantasy 7 Revelation might include from the series broader offering – not just its visual style and quality. We will, of course, see what all of that includes when Final Fantasy 7 Revelation releases on April 8, 2027.

Square Enix wants to turn Final Fantasy 7 into "an IP with an ever-evolving future" beyond the FF7 Remake trilogy.

Atlus took everything it learned from Persona 3 Reload and went all out for Persona 4 Revival, according to series producer Kazuhisa Wada.

In a move that was a little controversial at the time, Persona 3 Reload actually remade the original Persona 3 rather than the expanded Persona 3 Reload release. Some content introduced in the re-release eventually made its way into Persona 3 Reload thanks to the Episode Aegis expansion (and a few unofficial mods), but things are different this time around.

Persona 4 Revival is a remake of Persona 4 Golden, not base game Persona 4. So, why the change? We asked Atlus' Kazuhisa Wada about the different approach in a chat from Gamescom. He explains "there was a lot that we wanted to do" with Persona 3 Reload, but since it was the team's first go at such a substantial remake, "we weren't really sure how much we could handle."

Eventually, Atlus decided to simply focus on "making the base experience just the best it can possibly be." The Episode Aegis arc was a section the team thought could come "later as something when we have the time to do it, we can give it the treatment it deserves."

Things were different by the time Persona 4 Revival rolled around, Wada says. "Marie's story was so inherent to the main story of [P4 Golden] that we couldn't release it later" like the studio did with Episode Aegis.

For context, the Episode Aegis expansion serves as a sort of epilogue to the base game, making it quite simple to add after launch. But Persona 4 Golden's addition of Marie is laced throughout the entire game. "So what we decided is, 'Let's take all the lessons we learned from P3R. Let's incorporate that in. All right, it's time to roll up our sleeves and it's time to go and put all the effort into making a full remake.'"

Persona 4 Revival will integrate Marie more naturally than she was in Persona 4 Golden: "She needs to be here from the beginning"

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation might be wrapping up a trilogy of remakes next year, but publisher Square Enix doesn't seem to be done with Cloud and his ragtag group of eco-warriors just yet.

In a PAX West panel called 'From Reunion to Resolve,' the trilogy's game director Naoki Hamaguchi spoke about his goals for the project and beyond. The Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy wasn't simply an opportunity to remake an all-time classic game - despite its name - but "an effort to pass Final Fantasy 7 onto the next generation," Hamaguchi says via a translator.

"We want to make this a work that creates new fans 20 or even 30 years from now," he adds. That's more or less the same impact 1997's OG game had three decades ago, though we'll need to wait a really, really long time to see if the FF7 Remake project ages as gracefully.

Whether or not the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy holds up in 2050, Square Enix seems to have more plans for its universe. The original game was followed up (and was arguably milked) with some great spin-off games, some horrid ones, some that have been totally forgotten, and even a lush animated sequel movie.

In what sounds like a similar approach, an on-screen slide says one of the Remake trilogy's goals is to "expand FF7's future" and "move beyond being a classic of the past and shape it into an IP with an ever-evolving future." That certainly implies more projects - games or otherwise - set in Final Fantasy 7's world. Nothing has been announced past Final Fantasy 7 Revelation and its two DLC packs, however.

Persona 4 Revival will take the time to introduce Marie into the story more naturally than she was in Persona 4 Golden, the expanded PS Vita version of the classic game.

One of the Velvet Room denizens, Marie isn't the most popular character within the fandom - she's a little withdrawn, she wasn't included in the base game, progressing her storyline is vital for accessing some late-game sections even though the game doesn't tell you that, and the way she's folded into the story was a bit awkward all those years ago.

But that's a criticism Atlus is looking to address with its upcoming remake, according to series producer Kazuhisa Wada. Speaking to GamesRadar+ in an interview from Gamescom 2026, the Persona lead explains the team needed to really "emphasize her place in the story" when retroactively slotting her in to Persona 4 Golden more than a decade back.

"So the way that we introduced her was made especially to be very, very noticeable, very obvious," Wada tells us, via a translator. "But for [Persona 4 Revival], she's a character who [has] such a central place within the overall story." As such, the developers know "she needs to be here from the beginning."

For Persona 4 Revival, expect Marie to get a "more natural, flowing entrance" - at least compared to her P4 Golden entrance, where the goal was to "make it so that she's very obviously doing what she's doing."

Months ago, fans already spotted what looked like all-new scenes featuring Marie, perhaps hinting she has a more substantial role in the remake than the moody poet who waits around for the protag to take her out.

While Persona 4 Revival serves as a mostly very faithful recreation, Atlus are taking a few creative liberties outside of the changes to Marie. For one, the studio recast the entire original English voice cast after struggling to get everyone back in the recording booth. Some of the dialogue is also being reworked to sound more "modern."

Persona 4 Revival boss knows you want to romance Yosuke, but you can't because then the devs would have to do that for "all the other male characters"

Square Enix just gave fans their most in-depth look at Final Fantasy 7 Revelation in motion yet during today's PlayStation State of Play, confirming an April release date and post-launch story DLC, but there was one detail JRPG diehards just can't get over: the showcase demonstrated cutscenes you can speed up. That's it. That's the controversy.

I know, I know, it's completely uncharacteristic for a community of online JRPG fans to dramatize a completely optional and seemingly harmless feature in a game like Final Fantasy 7, but alas, one Twitter user reacted to the news by proclaiming, "games are truly dead." That post has 1.7 thousand likes and a handful of comments largely in agreement. "They really did make a mode for larpers that watch YouTube videos at 2X speed," reads one such reply.

Now, to be fair, this particular reaction was in response to Square Enix advertising the fast-forward feature, and after reviewing that part of today's showcase, it definitely stuck me as a bit odd that it was such a focus. But I'll go out on a limb and say that games are probably not truly dead just yet, at the very least, not because Final Fantasy 7 Revelation has cutscenes you can speed up... just like Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth before it.

I will definitely concede that it's a weird look, and, if you look at it a certain way, it's even mildly insulting to Revelation's writers, since Square Enix is explicitly putting its fast-forward button on display instead of their work in a big trailer. But I do think the feature itself is on the same level as skippable written dialogue, which has been a thing in video games forever. I'll even put myself at great risk in comments sections by admitting I find it deeply annoying when dialogue can't be sped up. Still, everyone's entitled to their own unique feelings on this sort of thing, and I seem to be in the minority by simply not really caring all that much.

"look i'm excited about this game, but this functionality is absolutely an admission of defeat imo," reads a Bluesky post from Into the Aether host Brendon Bigley.

"okay i'm sorry but the 1.5x speed watching brainrot has gone too far if we're now doing playback speed for video game dialogue," says Game Informer video editor Eric Van Allen.

My best guess as to why Square decided to put fast-forwardable cutscenes on display today is that it was a response to the years of complaints about length and bloat in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy. These are massive games that demand a commensurate time commitment, and I'm assuming the fast-forward option is Square's answer to that feedback, whether it's appropriate or not.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation's physical edition comes on "one disc," and yes, there's a mandatory download before you can play.

Persona 4 Revival has big boots to fill, especially for me. Persona 4 Golden is my favorite game in Atlus's JRPG series, so I've been eager – though somewhat anxious – to see what the devs have done with the bubbly murder-mystery remake. Thankfully, an hour-long hands-on session with it at Gamescom 2026 has me thinking I might have been worried over nothing.

During my preview, I'm able to explore a handful of short sections from the opening hours of the JRPG, including some dungeon crawling, boss bashing, and enjoying daily life in Inaba. It's impossible to ignore the fuzzy warmth of familiarity as I watch beloved party members Yosuke and Chie awaken to their Personas and protagonist Yu Narukami explore the sleepy rural town that fans like myself have adored for the last 18 years. But this remake is more than a glossy new coat of paint. Quality-of-life improvements and tweaks are immediately apparent, and have me feeling confident that this will be the best way to experience Persona 4 come launch.

Inaba homecoming

Exploring dungeons is immediately a hundred times better than it was in Golden. Clunky sword swings completely missing Shadows in the overworld, leading to the enemies gaining the advantage in battle, is a thing of the past thanks to hitboxes that feel far more accurate. And you can now use your sword to defend from incoming Shadows, too – doing so will leave them stunned and let you get the upper hand, instead.

Similar to Persona 3 Reload, there are now new items you can smash with your sword while running around dungeons to restore small amounts of SP, too – a relief to someone who staggered through too many of Golden's dungeons after running out of SP-restoring items while refusing to call it a day. I also spotted a newly-added glowing path in the dungeons that led to the 'correct' way forward. I'm uncertain if this can be turned off, but I'd certainly hope so given that it was constantly on screen, and feels rather redundant given that you have a map of the dungeons anyway.

There are new additions to combat, too. Like in Persona 5, you can now Baton Pass to teammates after knocking an enemy down by hitting its weakness, allowing you to switch characters and hopefully strike even more weaknesses, making battles feel faster and more fluid than before. Although I didn't experience this during my demo, Persona 4 Revival also adds a new mechanic called Prime Time which lets you blast enemies with multiple attacks in a row, without costing any HP or SP to use your skills, and ignoring any resistances your foes might have. Prime Time also lets you whip out a fancy finishing move called Series Finale to deal some serious damage.

Visually, there's no doubt in my mind that this is the best-looking Persona game to date. Character models are more expressive than ever, both in cutscenes and during regular dialogue, and MAPPA's animated cutscenes (the studio behind the Jujutsu Kaisen and Chainsaw Man anime series) look spectacular.

Things sound pretty different, too – Atlus has an entirely new English voice cast on board this time around, and while it's an odd feeling to see these cherished characters return not sounding quite like themselves, from what I've heard, all the new performances are very strong. Paul Castro Jr.'s take on Yosuke, for example, manages to match OG actor Yuri Lowenthal's outgoing vibe perfectly, even if the two don't sound exactly alike.

What might take more getting used to for veteran fans is the new music. I'm already in love with Revival's new advantage battle theme, Prime Time Golden Hour Show, but I'm yet to adjust to the remade versions of old favorites like Time to Make History and Reach out to the Truth. I imagine this will come with time, but I'm sure I won't be the only one who'll go back to the original version's soundtrack for these songs in the future regardless of how new and shiny the remake is.

I may have only experienced a small snippet of the remake, but I left feeling more optimistic than ever about Persona 4 Revival. While it was a shame to learn from producer Kazuhisa Wada himself that Revival won't be adding the highly requested Yosuke romance route, from what I've seen so far, I don't think veteran fans are going to be disappointed with Revival – Wada also clarified that previously mentioned dialog changes won't alter "any parts" of any characters' personalities.

It feels like a long wait until that February 18 release date, but I'm more excited than ever to tune in.

If that's persona-lly too long to wait for your next adventure, our games like Persona 5 recommendations or best JRPGs ranking might come in handy!

Square Enix has detailed the Final Fantasy 7 Revelation Collector's Edition, and I hope you've got $350 to spare.

Over on the Square Enix store website, the publisher confirmed the contents and price for the Final Fantasy 7 Revelation Collector's Edition. To get the bad news out of the way, it's going to be $350, which already puts it on the high end for collectors editions – barring the really ridiculous ones. This is made even worse for the UK; it's going to be £350 even though that's not how conversion rates work at all (£350 roughly translates to $472).

But what are you getting for all of that? Obviously, the game itself, alongside the Deluxe Edition content which is set to feature two DLC expansions – one featuring Sephiroth and another starring Vincent and the Turks. On top of that, the Deluxe Edition features a CD mini-soundtrack, a hardcover artbook, and an exclusive steelbook with art from all three games in the trilogy. Each physical edition comes with a Magic: The Gathering card titled Final Showdown, too.

As for the Collector's Edition itself? You're getting the physical deluxe edition, and a separate box featuring the only exclusive addition. This is a statue featuring Cloud, Zack, and Sephiroth (who are 6.7 in, 7.1 in, and 7.9 inches tall, respectively), all posing with their weapons next to each other.

This collector's edition is only available for console players, with Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series X|S, and PS5 being the only options. So if you want to play the game on Steam, you might have to grab a console copy to get this statue.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation includes more spin-off characters, Naoki Hamaguchi says, and devs "thought really hard" about including more compilation references for the trilogy's finale.

Before Final Fantasy 14 gets its hotly anticipated new expansion Evercold, Square Enix has one final update in store with fresh Dawntrail content: Patch 7.56.

Patch 7.56 is set to arrive next Tuesday on September 8, bringing the series of Patch 7.5x updates to a close – and, of course, Dawntrail's bigger post-launch content.

Harboring the limited Beastmaster job, new main scenario quests, and much, much more, it's one heck of a release ahead of Evercold… a release that might just lead into the upcoming expansion itself with the introduction of a strikingly familiar pink-haired Miqo'te.

If you've seen the Evercold trailer, then you likely recognize Visna, the mysterious cat girl with icy eyes and a freckled face – something we don't even get to truly apply to our own Warriors of Light (yet, anyway).

Interestingly enough, Square Enix just updated its official media webpage for Patch 7.5, including Patch 7.56, of course, with new screenshots… and Visna herself appears in one of them, implying she'll be in-game before Evercold.

Not only that, but she seems to be donning a crossbow of sorts on her back – and, you know, that's pretty eye-catching, seeing as there are two new jobs coming in Evercold and we only know about the tank class so far: the Bastion.

Could the DPS underway be a crossbow wielder or something in that vein? Well, the image is certainly proving enough to spur all kinds of theories online.

Just take a look at Reddit, for one.

In response to a fan noting their surprise at "the Miqo'te NPC from the Evercold trailer" seemingly being introduced in Patch 7.56 and asking "she definitely can't be the new job, right," another explains that she might just be.

"You can actually spy a crossbow on her back," they write. "So it might actually be the new job." Further down, somebody else points out that Visna is holding a "wand" of sorts, too.

They suggest "the job will have crossbow and wand offhand and you carve runes with the wand which then grant either weaknesses/special attacks that either the crossbow or your bird can attack."

The "bird" they reference here likely stems from the popular theory that the new DPS class is a falconer of some flavor – but who knows? It's all just speculation for now, but it is intriguing to see the girl in Patch 7.56 screencaps… and her "weapon," if that's what it is.

We'll learn more next week, come Patch 7.56 and its shenanigans. There is the Beastmaster job to look forward to as well as more questing and the like, so it's not all mystery.

Magic: The Gathering swiftly learns the power of Final Fantasy 14 as a mommy cat lady overtakes its most popular commander card

Update: A big caveat has just come to light about Final Fantasy 7 Revelation's physical edition. On PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, the RPG will come on a single disc, and you'll have to endure a mandatory download before you can play the game.

This was confirmed in an official Square Enix announcement, which details that both versions come on "one disc" and in each case "an internet connection is required to download additional game data in order to play the physical version of the game."

It's not unusual for physical games to require additional downloads before you can play these days, but up until now the Final Fantasy 7 remake trilogy had been a notable exception to that trend. Both of the previous two games launched in multi-disc packages, which included all the data needed to play without any additional download. I'm glad that Revelation is still coming on disc, but I am disappointed that Square Enix is scaling back its commitment to physical collectors for the final piece of the trilogy.

Original story: It's official: Final Fantasy 7 Revelation will be released physically alongside the digital launch on April 8, 2027. The game's launch is coming well before Sony's planned 2028 cutoff for physical PlayStation discs, but director Naoki Hamaguchi had previously been cagey on the topic of a physical release. Yet I guess there was no reason to worry.

Square Enix confirmed the news in a tweet. "The promise has been made," the post begins. "Final Fantasy VII Revelation launches both physically and digitally on April 8, 2027."

That line about a "promise" is certainly intended as a tagline referring to the end of the trilogy, but it has an extra air of sincerity for collectors who've already added the first two parts to their shelves.

Both previous parts of the remake trilogy launched on disc, and some people – hi, it's me, I'm some people – even own those discs multiple times over thanks to a multi-gen release of the first game. I'm upset about discs going away for a wide variety of reasons, but it's at least nice to know I won't have to keep an empty box on my shelf where Revelation should go.

There's one big caveat for Nintendo collectors, however. As with previous releases of the remake trilogy on Switch 2, this one will come on a game-key card. Can't win them all, I guess.

Plenty of additional info on Final Fantasy 7 Revelation dropped alongside today's State of Play trailer, too. We've got an April release date, confirmation of two story DLC expansions, and a $350 collector's edition featuring more inches of Sephiroth than any of us can reasonably deal with.

Here are all the new games for 2026 and beyond you need to know about.

It's official – Final Fantasy 7 Revelation will be getting story DLC later down the line, with a two-part Story Expansion Pass confirmed for the JRPG remake.

As outlined in a PlayStation Blog post following Revelation's appearance at today's PlayStation State of Play, the "Story Expansion Pass will grant access to two story-centered DLC, with more exciting details on these to come at a later point!"

Over on Steam, there are a few more details to make note of – the first story DLC is titled Sephiroth, and is aiming for a launch sometime between winter 2027 and spring 2028. After that, the second DLC is called Vincent & the Turks, which has been given the same vague release window.

As well as being available separately, the Story Expansion Pass will be included in a newly announced Premium and Premium Plus Editions. Both of these fancy editions will grant 24 hours of early access to the main game, some in-game consumables, and an in-game accessory, while the Premium Plus version comes with some extras including a digital art book and mini soundtrack.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation's Story Expansion Pass was previously leaked via a third-party Epic Games Store database tool, though at the time it wasn't clear if it could have been a placeholder. With that said, Final Fantasy Remake trilogy lead Naoki Hamaguchi previously said, even before Revelation had been officially revealed, that the then-unnamed third part in the series could get DLC if there was "significant demand," so it only felt like a matter of time before its confirmation.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation launches "both physically and digitally" on the same day: "The promise has been made."

As much as I enjoy the high-fidelity visuals and real-time combat available in Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth, I'll always be a sucker for a pixel-art, turn-based RPG. Clearly, Square Enix also understands this timeless appeal because the publisher is on course to release Final Fantasy Resonance this year and, after playing it at Gamescom, it's now my most anticipated new game this year.

With its HD-2D aesthetic blending 2D sprites with 3D environments, Final Fantasy Resonance brings to mind games like Octopath Traveler, and instantly feels familiar if you're well-versed in classic RPGs. You roam around the world before the screen shatters and a battle begins, inputting commands and watching them play out in a sequence as you whittle down enemy health bars. However, Resonance isn't without a unique twist.

An RPG with Vision

The party I get to play with is made up of four original characters, with a variety of skills and elemental affinities, including Rain who deals melee damage with vigor, and Fina who boasts great healing spells. However, I'm most struck by the fact each hero has a Vision; a spirit character who supports them by sharing powers in combat. I'm told some Visions are new while many others are familiar faces from the Final Fantasy franchise, which makes sense as I'm staring at Cloud Strife from FF7.

These spirit friends, reminiscent of the Stands from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and the equipable characters in Fire Emblem Engage, can be unlocked by beating in-game dungeons known as Sanctums. Once selected, they diversify each party member's repertoire by adding new spells, increasing your options in battle.

Visions are most noteworthy when performing Resonance attacks – special moves that can be used once all enemies are staggered (denoted by a separate gauge to their health). Once their postures are broken, you can hit them with the titular flashy attack for huge damage.

However, if your character's Vision gauge is full, you can perform a Sweeping Resonance for even greater effect. I start off using Cloud's jaw-dropping Sweeping Resonance, the HD-2D graphics giving way to gorgeous, fully-rendered 3D models as Cloud furiously slashes through enemies.

Similarly, when The Warrior of Light from the OG Final Fantasy manifests in full 3D and brings destruction upon my enemies, I feel a giddy thrill that appeals to my inner child more than an ice-cold glass of Dr Pepper.

The combination of visual styles isn't the only way Final Fantasy Resonance so lovingly blends old and new. Being a classic-style RPG, the developer hasn't shied away from grinding as an in-game mechanic. That might put some players off, but you can toggle the speed of encounters to effectively half the time required to level up your party and Visions. It's a simple feature, but the difference it can make should not be underestimated.

In addition, my preview's dungeon comes complete with useful checkpoints for fast travel and resting, which are modern staples that I always appreciate. It also helps that the item names are all instantly recognizable to Final Fantasy veterans, from Hi-Potions to Phoenix Downs, creating a sense of familiarity that maintains momentum.

This isn't to say that nostalgia is vital to enjoying Final Fantasy Resonance. The turn-based combat is layered and exciting, and the pixel art shimmers like a California sunset. But to those of us of a certain vintage (old enough to have played those older pixel RPGs at launch, as well as catch the Jamiroquai reference in the last sentence), this game channels the era when Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 6 captured our hearts while still keeping our feet firmly planted in the here and now. It's a masterstroke and only Square Enix could have managed it.

Resonate with this preview? Then check out our best Final Fantasy games ranking or our best JRPGs list for more to play next!

Square Enix has confirmed that Final Fantasy 7 Revelation is going to release on April 8, 2027

The new PlayStation State of Play trailer for Final Fantasy 7 Revelation focused on the party members, with new looks at Cid and Vincent, who round out the original cast of Final Fantasy 7 characters featured in the original game. Not only that, but we got a new look at some of the areas featured in the final chapter, like Yuffie's home of Wutai.

More importantly, however, Square Enix confirmed exactly when we'll be playing Final Fantasy 7 Revelation: April 8, 2027, which is almost exactly seven years after the release of Final Fantasy 7 Remake on April 10, 2020.

Square Enix followed up this trailer with a deep-dive into the gameplay of Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, showing some of the open-world gameplay and the party channeling their inner Fortnite as they dive off the battle bus-flavored Highwind. We also saw some of the new traversal mechanics once you are off the Highwind, with Yuffie using a grapple gun to get around Wutai.

On top of that, you're also to choose your main character in the open world, with the player no longer locked to playing as Cloud. This extends into the side quests too, as Square showed off that these can play out differently depending on which character you choose to take the quest on as.

All that is to say, Square Enix heard that Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth was too big for some, and seems to have made it even bigger for Revelation.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation includes more spin-off characters, Naoki Hamaguchi says, and devs "thought really hard" about including more compilation references for the trilogy's finale.

Final Fantasy Resonance, the first Final Fantasy game presented in Square Enix's HD-2D style, is getting a demo later today, September 3.

Though announced at today's PlayStation State of Play live show, the Final Fantasy Resonance demo is expected on all platforms, which also includes Xbox, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC (Steam).

The demo is unavailable and unlisted at the time of writing. A PlayStation trailer confirms that the demo covers "the entire first chapter" of the game, with progress carrying over to the full game if you decide to buy in.

The trailer gives us a look at Sephiroth as he appears in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy – and, more importantly, Resonance's giant, pixel art, boss fight Sephiroth.

Sephiroth is the latest Final Fantasy icon to get the HD-2D treatment courtesy of Resonance. A suite of characters make combat cameos in summon-like Resonance attacks, with the likes of Final Fantasy 10's Tidus and Final Fantasy 7's Cloud already shown.

The HD-2D style was pioneered by Octopath Traveler then refined in the likes of the Dragon Quest remakes and, per our The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales review, some more recent outings. Resonance is both the next Final Fantasy game and the first entry to adopt this art style – and, somewhat confusingly, also technically a remake of Final Fantasy Brave Exvius.

Final Fantasy Resonance itself will be released next month on October 22.

Resonance returns to turn-based combat and random encounters, with producer Keisuka Nakashima arguing that the system allows for "truly memorable" battles.

The game exists largely because Nakashima and other Brave Exvius developers felt that the once-gacha-driven game is "too good to become unplayable" after its global end of service in 2025. As someone who's wanted a turn-based, HD-2D Final Fantasy ever since Octopath Traveler was released, I'm excited to see if

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation boss is "very much aware" you hate Chadley for being a socially inept doofus, but he will soon have "a very integral part" in the story anyway.

Much has been said about Persona 4 Revival's faithfulness to the beloved original JRPG from 2008, including its themes which some would say are more relevant than ever, but this isn't just a new coat of paint. For instance, the entire English voice cast has been replaced because Atlus struggled to wrangle the original crew, and now we're learning that some of the OG dialogue has been re-written to be clearer and more modern.

"When we looked back at older scripts that we wrote for older games, we realized that there's some places that we could have improved on the original, like 'oh we didn't phrase this so it's clear enough," Persona series producer Kazuhisa Wada, speaking through a translator, tells GamesRadar+ during Gamescom 2026. "There's information that we assumed people would be able to pick up on, but they didn't."

Honestly, just about anything released in 2008, whether it's a game or movie or TV show or hit song, should probably be examined and re-touched before being re-released in 2026. A lot has changed socially and culturally in those 18 years, so I'm not surprised to hear some conversations had to be tweaked for Persona 4 Revival. Still, Wada insists the essence of the conversations and characters involved remain untouched.

"Most of the changes that we made have been adjusting that to fill in those things that we'd always wanted to say, to get the point across in a more efficient and effective manner," he says. "So because of that, we have changed the way some characters have phrased some conversations. But the conversation itself is all the same. The characters are all the same people. We haven't changed any parts of their personalities. We've adjusted dialogue to make it more modern and to be more effective telling the story."

One thing that unfortunately won't be changing in Persona 4 Revival is the lack of gay romance options. Specifically, Wada told us he's aware of the calls for a romanceable Yosuke, but confirmed that has not been added because it would mean all of the other male characters would have to be romanceable too.

"I think we have to do" Persona 1 and 2 Remakes, says Persona 4 Revival producer

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation director Naoki Hamaguchi knows exactly what you were thinking as you played the existing two installments of the remake trilogy: get this robot pee pee pants Chadley off my screen now and forever, I banish thee. But you're going to have to try to adopt a more positive mindset. The unhelpful assistant humanoid Chadley is returning for Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, due in 2027, and Hamaguchi teases that the golden-haired nuisance might be more critical to your story than ever before.

"I am very much aware of the reaction some fans in the community had to Chadley," Hamaguchi says to IGN through an interpreter at Gamescom 2026. So far, the gnat with a baby face hasn't proved himself as "a particularly important character to the story," Hamaguchi continues. "I am very much aware of that opinion." But it sounds like Final Fantasy 7 Revelation will try to change it.

"In the previous game, in Rebirth, [Chadley's] role is such [that he was] kind of a guide, a tutorial, to lead people into all of the side content," Hamaguchi explains, "but his role has actually changed for Revelation." The conclusion to the Final Fantasy 7 remake trilogy will apparently contain "some scenes where he plays a very integral part, a strong role, in the main story itself."

Does this mean Chadley will finally learn how to read a room? The character was introduced for the first Final Fantasy 7 Remake part in 2020, simply because, Hamaguchi said at the time, "We wanted to include content in which [combat upgrades and modifier] materia could be obtained through mission rewards in parallel with the main story progression; considering lore, we came up with a role that would make him a researcher working for Shinra." As such, Chadley seemingly never had a reason to be pleasant to be around, and both he and Final Fantasy 7 trilogy players suffered for it.

Most recently, the lonely dweeb created an entire AI female version of himself, Mai, to increase his opportunities to talk to you. But though he created her, Mai hardly showed Chadley respect. That's no way for Chadley to live, and it's an unfortunate domestic scene for you to witness as an objective third party. What a miserable Chadley existence.

Anyway, Final Fantasy 7 Revelation will be the guy's last chance to act natural… or possibly even supernatural.

"I can't tell you right now whether he does become more powerful than Sephiroth or not," Hamaguchi says to IGN's joking question on the topic, "but you're going to have to see in the game. And I hope you look forward to finding out." OK, I won't.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation includes more spin-off characters, Naoki Hamaguchi says, and devs "thought really hard" about including more compilation references for the trilogy's finale.

A real joy of both Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth was seeing all the references to the universe as a whole. This tradition will continue in Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, according to director Naoki Hamaguchi, but he refuses to spoil any characters from across the original game's spin-offs that we might see.

"If I was to just come out now and say this character is in it, this character is in it would be a big surprise to people. So I can’t say that," he tells IGN. Boo! What he will say, though, is that an explicit goal here was to re-combine all the Final Fantasy 7 Compilation elements.

"The objective we have not just with Revelation, but with all three of the games in the Remake trilogy was to remake not just the original FF7 itself," he explains, "but to create a new version of the FF7 universe which includes all of the compilation, the side stories, the side content, spin-off titles within that content from the beginning."

Vincent Valentine's backstory from Dirge of Cerberus is part of his lore in Rebirth stands out as one example, but it's the side characters that are the most intriguing. Cissnei from Crisis Core pops up in Rebirth, and Zack Fair is alive as well, pulling him out of just being flashbacks for Cloud.

"I think that was a really nice surprise and people reacted very positively to seeing the compilation characters appearing," he says. "And rest assured, quite naturally that is going to continue into Revelation."

I should expect so. If I had to guess at who might show up, Veld and Elfé from Before Crisis would be interesting, and Genesis Rhapsodos seems likely, since the trilogy's leaned quite heavily into Crisis Core so far.

Hamaguchi doubles down on the idea that, since this is the trilogy closer, things will be bigger and better than before. "With Revelation being the finale, the culmination of the series, the team got together and we thought really hard about what kind of fan service things, what kind of ways people will be excited to see these characters and these references to the spin-offs appear in it," he explains.

"So rest assured that there is a lot of great stuff for people looking out for that."

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation director promises to "go even deeper" into Vincent's backstory since the JRPG's goth icon has been a mystery for 30 years

Blue Dragon – Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi's first RPG after leaving Square Enix – is finally free from the Xbox 360 thanks to a fanmade PC port.

Last year, a fanmade PC port of Sonic Unleashed helped open the floodgates for native PC versions of Xbox 360 games by using the new tool XenonRecomp. And while I'd mostly hoped the tool would be used for a WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2007 port (which, shockingly, actually happened), I imagine others were eager to get two of the Xbox 360's biggest RPGs made by the creator of Final Fantasy – Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon, both of which Sakaguchi said he wasn't really keen on bringing to modern platforms.

Sakaguchi left Square in 2001 following the box office bomb that was Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, and in 2006 he emerged with his first new RPG, Blue Dragon. Not only was this game a reunion between Sakaguchi and Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu, but also, it enlisted another RPG legend in Dragon Quest artist and Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama. This classic can now finally be played on PC.

As spotted by PC Gamer, re:Blue is a fan-made PC port of Blue Dragon released earlier this month, and it allows anyone who owns the original Xbox 360 game (which is currently still available on the Xbox Store) to dump their files and play an enhanced version on PC. The port features support for multiple aspect ratios, 4K visuals, keyboard and mouse support, and the ability to play the game at up to 120fps. Plus, re:Blue gives you access to in-game achievements, including new ones added specifically for the port.

So while Blue Dragon has technically been available through backwards compatibility on Xbox consoles for 20 years, I'm glad more people will now have a chance to play one of the Xbox 360's earliest crown jewels with the PC port the game has always deserved. It's a piece of Final Fantasy history. Let's get to Lost Odyssey next, thanks.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation director promises to "go even deeper" into Vincent's backstory since the JRPG's goth icon has been a mystery for 30 years.

While Persona 4 Revival is sticking to the original game pretty closely, developer Atlus has decided to make one fairly big change to the classic by replacing its entire English voice cast. Why? Series producer Kazuhisa Wada tells us it was kind of an all-or-nothing situation.

"The original game was originally recorded for the English cast, specifically, a long, long time ago," Wada tells GamesRadar+ in an interview from Gamescom 2026, per a translator. A decade-plus gap means some of the OG actors "are no longer in the industry" at all, while some of them are now popular enough that it's "really hard to lock down" their schedules.

For example, in 2008, Yosuke was voiced by Yuri Lowenthal - an actor most commonly recognized nowadays as the lead hero in the Marvel's Spider-Man games. Kanji's voice actor was none other than Troy Baker, who has since been in lead roles in everything from The Last of Us to Bethesda's Indiana Jones game. And Rise was voiced by Laura Bailey, whose gameography is too wide to even begin listing.

"So we realized we can't re-gather that whole cast," Wada explains. "So we're like, 'OK, I guess we have to kind of once again roll up our sleeves. Alright, let's start over. Let's get a whole new cast in and let's do our best.'"

Part of the decision came from Atlus developers having respect for "the work that the original cast did." Having a fraction of the original cast side-by-side with a few new voices might not have been ideal either, after all. "There was quite a few people who we weren't able to get and a number of people... we had so much trouble getting that was like, 'OK, maybe we should just start over.'"

At least one Persona 4 Golden actor was "deeply grieving" being recast in next year's remake.

Persona 4 Revival is a faithful JRPG remake because the original's only gotten more relevant: "We live in an age where information is everywhere"

Persona 4 Revival producer and Persona series veteran Kazuhisa Wada hears your cries for a romanceable Yosuke, but says Atlus cannot answer them.

Speaking with GamesRadar+ at Gamescom 2026, Wada responds to mounting hopes for Persona 4 Revival to introduce gay romance options and, in particular, flesh out an unused relationship with Yosuke that fans dug out of the original Persona 4 game files.

"I was aware that some people were talking online about, like, 'Oh, Yosuke,' and they were kind of hoping for that," Wada says via interpreter. "But we were thinking, if we did Yosuke, we kind of would have to do all the other male characters as well. And if we did that, that is a lot of work. So we were thinking about our time and schedule. I don't know if we could actually handle this, so we decided to let Yosuke float on by."

It goes without saying that a non-trivial number of Persona fans would love nothing more than for everyone to get the same treatment.

This may sound familiar to longtime Persona fans. Wada has apologized multiple times for a similar situation with Persona 3 Reload, which did not bring back Kotone, the female protagonist of Persona 3 Portable, to the disappointment of some fans. He offered similar reasoning in 2024: it would be too expensive.

Fortunately, devoted fans took it upon themselves to add Kotone into Persona 3 Reload themselves, even redoing every animated cutscene.

Persona 4 Revival does give Yosuke some special attention in other areas. A few of his scenes and lines were revised to be, as Wada put it, "a little bit more fitting for the world we live in now." A notorious homophobic comment to Denji is the clearest example.

Earlier this month, Wada argued that "we have to do" Persona 1 and 2 Remakes at some point, sparking hopes that the forgotten entries in what's now Atlus' biggest JRPG series will be revisited at some point.

Persona 4 Revival is a faithful JRPG remake because the original's only gotten more relevant: "We live in an age where information is everywhere."

Vincent Valentine's been somewhat of an enigma ever since the original Final Fantasy 7 introduced us to the brood-maxxing goth icon 30 years ago, but Final Fantasy 7 Revelation director Naoki Hamaguchi is promising that'll all change very soon.

"Unlike the other optional character Yuffie, [Vincent's] hometown and where he comes from wasn't actually shown in the original Final Fantasy 7," Naoki Hamaguchi explains during an official Gamescom livestream. Revelation aims to shed a little more light on the coffin-dweller, though. (Good spot, Genki!)

"So Vincent obviously is an ex-member of the Turks," Hamaguchi continues. "People know about some of his background, but rest assured that in Revelation we go even deeper into his backstory, and there will be some new reveals about things that he did in the past and what made him as a character that people have never seen before."

The Remake trilogy lead assures fans that anyone "looking to go even deeper into Vincent Valentine" will be quite happy when Revelation drops next spring. "We really have got the game in just the right place, and I can't wait to see people experience that."

The OG Final Fantasy 7 left things pretty vague for the brooding, sleepy guy. Vincent's subject to awful experimentation decades before the game begins and we get a little bit of insight into his tragic, potentially one-sided love story, but that aside, we know very little about what his life looked like prior to becoming a Shinra puppet. His arc also ends quite abruptly even if you do choose to tackle his late-game side quest, so there's plenty to expand on in the finale, on top of the Dirge of Cerberus references we've seen so far.

Talking on the character's combat style, Hamaguchi jokes he's actually "worried how well we've done Vincent in the game" because players "will just want to control Vincent and gravitate too far towards him and not the other characters."

It'll take a miracle to pull me away from Tifa's kickass combos, but Vincent might just be the one to do it. He can apparently transform into a horned beast at will to deliver devastating damage up close, before zipping back into his beautiful human form to spray enemies with bullets from afar.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation trailer at Opening Night Live is just the "beginning of our information rollout," Naoki Hamaguchi says: "We’ll be sharing much more in the months ahead"

Final Fantasy 7 remake trilogy overlord Naoki Hamaguchi can't believe he got to share the Gamescom stage with his hero, Geralt of Rivia – in spirit, at least, since developer CD Projekt Red used Opening Night Live 2026 to announce its unexpected The Witcher 3 refresh and expansion. And The Witcher 4 lead level designer Miles Tost feels the same way.

"The pleasure was ours," Tost writes in an August 26 Twitter reply to Hamaguchi. "Final Fantasy, especially 7 have a special place in my heart and I'm so happy I get to relive that through your and your team's hard work!"

Originally, Hamaguchi wrote on Twitter after Opening Night Live (ONL), "Sharing the final spotlight at ONL alongside The Witcher 3, one of my favorite games of all time, was a truly special moment for me.
It was a great honor to stand on the same stage as a game that has inspired me for so many years."

It's rare that you see developers as seemingly untouchable as Square Enix's Hamaguchi show that, in the cocoon of their living rooms, they're still fans who feel that knot of excitement forming each time a certain title screen comes up. It's nice!

Hamaguchi has always been generous in sharing his love for The Witcher franchise, though, spending the past few years emphasizing that The Witcher 3 is one of his major Final Fantasy 7 remake inspirations. In 2024, Final Fantasy producer Yoshinori Kitase even told fans that, while watching that year's Witcher 4 trailer at The Game Awards, "Hamaguchi was so excited when Ciri removed her hood, he almost stood up!"

So I'm especially glad for him to be at Gamescom this year, where he was also recently able to meet CD Projekt Red joint CEO Michał Nowakowski and show him some of Square Enix's upcoming Final Fantasy 7 Revelation. Hamaguchi says on Twitter about the experience, "It was a great honor to have Michał Nowakowski, Joint CEO of CD PROJEKT RED, stop by the Square Enix booth.

"Sharing the stage at ONL alongside The Witcher 3, one of my all-time favorite games, was already a special moment. Having Michał come by in person made it even more memorable.

"I was also very happy to tell him directly that The Witcher 3 continues to be one of the biggest inspirations for me as a game creator." Let us pray, now, for Hamaguchi's sake, that the new The Witcher 3 expansion Songs of the Past is just as sweet as he probably thinks it is when it launches in 2027.

Keep up with the entire Gamescom 2026 schedule.

Persona 4 Revival is sticking pretty closely to the original game because producer Kazuhisha Wada believes the classic has only gotten more relevant in the 18 years since one of the best RPGs first came out.

Speaking to the official Xbox Podcast, series producer Kazuhisha Wada tried to clarify comments he previously made about wanting Persona to feel a little bit like poison. He says he "wasn't referring to shock value or provocative content" with those comments - he simply wanted to leave folks with lingering questions that "encourages players to reflect on themselves," which is something the original Persona 4 has been doing for almost two decades.

To Wada, Persona 4's central themes "resonate even more strongly today" than they did in 2008. In typical Persona fashion, the game follows a group of high schoolers as they try to solve a deadly supernatural mystery, all while battling the deeper parts of their psyche that they've shoved into the crevices of their minds.

The game asks questions like "how do we confront the parts of ourselves we'd rather not see?" and "can we look beyond public perception and rumors to discover the truth in our true selves?" Questions that also hit a little harder in today's social media-obsessed world.

"We live in an age where information is everywhere," Wada explains. "It's easy to form judgments based only on appearances or what we just see. Because of that, I feel these themes have become even more meaningful over time." While the original game forced its point with TV screens as a motif, I can easily imagine phones serving the same purpose nowadays.

But, the developers at Atlus didn't want to change or sensationalize the classic game's story. According to Wada, the goal was preservation, only this time with a new coat of paint and a deeper "sense of immersion."

"If, as a result, the poison that has always been part of Persona 4 leaves an even more natural and lasting impression on players, then I would be very happy," he concludes.

Persona 6 producer doesn't want "to make games for the global market," only something "we ourselves genuinely find exciting"

Dragon Quest series creator Yuji Horii has spoken about how surprised he was by the overwhelming success of the series' third entry. After moderate success with the first two games, the third thrust the series into the spotlight in a way that Horii never expected.

In an interview with Famitsu that's been translated by GamesRadar+, Horii describes how he felt the series became a cultural phenomenon almost over night. "The first Dragon Quest was made in 1986, and two years later we made Dragon Quest 3," he says. "This was when it became a cultural phenomenon, but we were conscious that this might not last."

While Horii wasn't sure that the series would have the staying power, Dragon Quest has earned its status as cultural icon with the twelfth mainline entry in development, and dozens of spin-offs released. Dragon Quest 3 was truly the turning point for the series and it became impossible for Horii and his team to ignore the impact their game had.

"[DQ3's success] was completely unexpected," he explains. "Of course, I knew it had a chance [of being a hit] when we were making it, but I would have never believed that people would wait in line in order to buy it. I cycled out to Shinjuku to look at the queue, and everyone was lined up all night in the cold, and I remember thinking 'my bad'."

Despite queues reportedly up to 4km in length, Horii was apparently treated the same around the office. However, tensions were high when it was time to develop the next game in the series. "I was really worried about DQ4. Because DQ3 became such a cultural phenomenon, expectations for DQ4 were building up," he says.

Dragon Quest 7 was going to be an open-world game, series creator Yuji Horii says, but "the story fell apart" so the team had to "add some degree of order to it"

The teams behind Persona 6 and Persona 4 Revival have apparently never made games with the goal of appealing to "the global market." The fact that Atlus' RPG series about Japanese high-schoolers has traveled across the world is only a happy accident.

That's according to Kazuhisa Wada - the general producer of the entire franchise, including the upcoming Persona 6 and Persona 4 Revival - who recently spoke to the official Xbox Podcast about how he views the series' growing success in overseas markets.

"To see it [Persona] grow into a franchise embraced by players all over the world fills me with both pride and gratitude," Wada says. "We've been fortunate to receive an incredible response to each new announcement, not only from fans in Japan, but from players around the globe. It's something that reminds me every day that Persona has reached people across countries and cultures."

Despite Persona seeping into corners of the world Atlus might not have dreamed of three decades ago, Wada explains the team's "philosophy for making these games has never changed." The developers behind Persona have apparently always stuck to their guns and haven't tried to pander to particular audiences.

"Our goal has never been simply to make games for the global market," he continues. "Instead, we've always believed in creating the games that we ourselves genuinely find exciting. The fact that this approach has resonated with players around the world is what makes us happiest" - even if it wasn't always intentional.

Of course, Atlus definitely takes steps to ensure its games are playable worldwide, especially these days. Wada explains that the studio now puts a "greater emphasis than ever on localization, quality assurance, and our overall development structure."

But when making the meat of their games, the devs are instead focused on "carefully crafting stories that stay with players."

"I think we have to do" Persona 1 and 2 Remakes, says Persona 4 Revival producer

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation is expected to be slapped with an M for Mature age rating by the time it comes out next year, unlike FF7 Remake and Rebirth's slightly more tame ratings - and I'm guessing the inclusion of the bad-mouthed chain-smoker Cid as a permanent party member has something to do with it.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth both launched with T for Teen ESRB ratings. Neither game had anything too frisky aside from the occasional swear word or very rare sight of a katana going through someone's belly. Both games also sanded down some of the original's most explicitly violent moments - modern Sephiroths's rampage through Shinra Tower didn't leave the walls dripping in blood, for instance.

But for whatever reason, Final Fantasy 7 Revelation looks like it's doing things differently. According to an Xbox Store listing, the upcoming game has a tentative 'Likely Mature 17+' rating. The ESRB website explains the sticker means Final Fantasy 7 Revelation is "anticipated to be rated 17+" upon launch, which would indicate "intense violence, blood and gore, and/or strong language." The rating is subject to change closer to release, of course.

While Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's version of Cid definitely put a leash on the air pilot and his foul mouth, the fact that he's now a permanent and playable party member who's with you from the jump gives me some hope that Revelation's take on the character might be closer to his original incarnation: short tempered, sometimes downright rude, always full of smoke, and certainly M for Mature.

Final Fantasy fans had some other ideas of what could warrant Revelation getting a more mature rating than Remake or Rebirth, including but not limited to an intimate scene in the original game that'll make Aerith shippers mad and "Sephiroth hanging dong," which is probably (and sadly) not very likely.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation trailer at Opening Night Live is just the "beginning of our information rollout," Naoki Hamaguchi says: "We’ll be sharing much more in the months ahead"

Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii has revealed that 2000's Dragon Quest 7 was originally intended to be a completely open-world game, but was reworked to have some order to exploration after the story apparently "fell apart."

In an interview with Famitsu that's been translated by GamesRadar+, Horii talks about the development of different games in the series. When it comes to one of the most popular games in the series, Dragon Quest 7, he explains that it was originally intended to have an open design before it was decided that the story needed more linearity.

Unlike the series' games that came before it, Dragon Quest 7 featured a much larger world spanning many continents, and with that came the idea of the protagonist discovering and building the world's map. The plan was for this to be done in any order, but the idea was quickly scrapped.

"Because collecting maps is at the center [of Dragon Quest 7], in the beginning the stone shards were scattered all over the world," Horii explains. "It wouldn't matter which stone shard you collected, you'd still be able to progress the story."

However, in the final game, there are many points where you need a specific shard to progress, and this was decided for plot purposes. "We tried it, but the story fell apart," he explains. "We had no choice but to add some degree of order to it. There are some stone shards that can be obtained before or after others, but the ones related to important plot points have some order to them."

If Horii and his team had pulled it off, Dragon Quest 7 wouldn't have been the first open-world game, but it would have been one of the biggest at the time.

Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii says AI "hardly ever makes things up" anymore, even if it once made up that he works for Nintendo

Final Fantasy 7 remake trilogy director Naoki Hamaguchi says that the Gamescom announcements and trailer reveal for the final entry Final Fantasy 7 Revelation "marks the beginning" of fresh information about the game.

First unveiled at Summer Game Fest in June 2026, Final Fantasy 7 Revelation's Gamescom trailer is just the second released for the long-awaited game. However, Hamaguchi took to Twitter after the show to explain that the latest trailer is just the beginning of the game's upcoming announcements, with many more expected before the game's release early next year.

In the tweet, Hamaguchi says that the Opening Night Live trailer "marks the beginning of our information rollout," and continues that the team will "be sharing much more in the months ahead." While there is still plenty of time before Revelation's launch, we can expect a lot more information in the future.

The tweet is written in both English and Japanese and contains mostly the same information. The main difference between the two is that the English mentions information coming "in the months ahead," whereas the Japanese is vaguer about the time frame. However, distinctions like this are not uncommon, as Japanese is more contextual.

If you were titillated by the latest reveals from Gamescom, then it seems you will continue to eat well in the coming months.

Zack Fair has an even bigger role in Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, series director Naoki Hamaguchi says

Our new look at Final Fantasy 7 Revelation at Gamescom Opening Night Live was brief, but it did give us our first look at several of the finale's big Weapon fights. After months of speculation, Ruby Weapon, Emerald Weapon, and Ultima Weapon have all made their big debut, and these epic battles are looking spectacular so far.

We caught a brief glimpse of Emerald Weapon during a cutscene in Rebirth, but it appears the creature will play a much bigger role in Revelation, in line with the structure of the original game. Notably, the trailer shows what appears to be a real-time submarine fight against Emerald Weapon, which is certainly an expansion on its original appearance.

You can see all three creatures, and plenty more teasers on what to expect from Revelation, in the trailer below.

While the submarine did factor into the original Emerald Weapon fight in FF7, since it's how you reached the creature in the first place, there wasn't much in the way of direct combat aboard the vehicle. Director Naoki Hamaguchi previously alluded to the possibility of minigames at various points in these big fights, but he also told us that the main combat system would be "at the base" of the important battles. I'd say it's safe to expect that we'll be disembarking the sub to face Emerald Weapon directly by the end.

Notably, this is also our first look at Ultima Weapon (and yes, it's Ultima rather than Ultimate, as it's named in the original game). Fans were previously looking at free-to-play spin-offs for a potential hint at Ultima Weapon's design, but it looks like Revelation's take is a little different from that last iteration. We'll see it in full this spring.

Stay with us for more as the Gamescom 2026 schedule rolls on.

Now that we're one year removed from Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, a remake of 2004's The Legend of Heroes, Falcom is keen to carry on the same path. A direct sequel is coming, and more are on the way, it's just a matter of what those games will look like.

Toshihiro Kondo, the company's president, spoke about the current strategy in an interview with Gungho. "Since the Trails series has continued for over 20 years, I know it's not always easy to jump in from the latest title," he says, in a clip posted on Twitter.

"That's why we made Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter with beginners in mind, and our hope was for it to serve as an introduction to RPGs and JRPGs in general," he continues. "So seeing new players actually pick it up has been extremely encouraging for us."

It's a smart move. The Trails series isn't the most well-known in the RPG space when compared to the likes of Dragon Quest, Yakuza, or the monolithic Final Fantasy, and it's important for any ongoing franchise to create jumping on points.

This one worked, leading to Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter getting the go ahead. Now, there's a fork in the road: 3rd Chapter, or something else?

"2nd Chapter's development is now in its final stages, and the development team is already asking me if we're going to remake Trails in the Sky the 3rd or Trails from Zero next," he adds. "For newer fans, jumping from 2nd Chapter to the latest titles in the series, Trails Beyond the Horizon, I think, will still be a bit difficult, so in order for those players to continue enjoying the Trails series, we're hoping to continue the remakes for a while."

Why get in the way of a good thing? As you can probably guess, Trails from Zero is a prequel, which would contribute to the lore for newbies. Whichever is chosen, I bet it'll go down a storm, because once you're a JRPG sicko, you're always a JRPG sicko.

Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii says AI "hardly ever makes things up" anymore, even if it once made up that he works for Nintendo

Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii admits he's a fan of AI and of how much it's evolved over the years, saying it "hardly ever makes things up" anymore. He made these comments after being asked about the Gemini-powered chatbot that was recently added to the series' MMO.

The Dragon Quest series is credited with having one of gaming's first AI systems: in 1990's Dragon Quest 4, the player could give party members general instructions, and the AI then selected actions for each one. However, the series' latest implementation of AI has been far less popular.

Dragon Quest 10, the series Japanese-exclusive MMO, recently launched its seventh and final expansion, Lost Children of Time and Space, with a divisive addition. The expansion included a companion called Oshaberi Slimey – literally talkative Slimey – one of Dragon Quest's iconic blue slimes in a jester's hat. However, fans were disappointed to hear that Slimey works by using a Google Gemini-powered chatbot.

In an interview with Famitsu that's been translated by GamesRadar+, Horii explains his choice to implement Slimey and his opinions on AI in general. "Because nowadays AI is really smart, it's fun," he says. "It doesn't matter what I ask it, it hardly ever makes things up [anymore]."

AI often has issues with factual accuracy, as it often gives users an answer even if it doesn't have the necessary information. The game designer who is most commonly associated with Square Enix has had a similar experience. "Quite some time ago I asked AI about myself and it said I was 'a Nintendo employee,'" he says with a laugh.

He goes on to defend AI by saying, "It's evolving, and lately there are a lot of things you can do with it. Slimey is a conversational partner, so I think it lowers the barrier of entry to interacting with AI."

Like Final Fantasy 7 Revelation boss, Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii worries live streams may not actually sell games: "Some people will be satisfied by just watching"

Square Enix has detailed what we can expect from Final Fantasy Resonance's endgame trials, and it's sounding like everything a classic Final Fantasy should have and everything Final Fantasy 16's post-game could've benefited from.

Ahead of Gamescom Opening Night Live, Square Enix dropped a bunch of new screenshots from the first-ever HD-2D game in the series with fresh looks at the RPG's main cast, its gorgeous art style, and some of the classic Final Fantasy characters that can pop up to support you in battle - not yet including the series' most memorable hero, Ariana Grande.

But the most notable bit of info comes from a press kit dedicated to the game's completionist content. Top of the list are optional monsters and secret dungeons dotted across Final Fantasy Resonance's world map. Square Enix says these are completely "unrelated to the main story" and are built for players looking to "test their mettle" in extra-tough battles, per a recent press kit.

Slaying some of those tucked-away monsters will reward you with Magicite, the material that's used to unlock and upgrade those cameo Final Fantasy heroes. Pretty crucial for anyone looking to stock up on nostalgia and buddy up with all of the series' protagonists, then.

We also got new looks at Gilgamesh, the multi-armed swordsman who promises to repeatedly pester us across the adventure in a similar fashion to his recurring role in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. "A final battle awaits on a distinctly big bridge," Square Enix teases.

Then there's the "most formidable of foes" that waits near the end of the game: Ultima Weapon, the superboss that's frequently kicked many a Final Fantasy fan's butt over several decades and games. The fight apparently demands "perfect preparation," and our party will need to be at its best before taking on the massive baddie.

While Square Enix might have shown off a little too much from Final Fantasy Resonance's supposedly "secret" endgame content - I'm hoping for at least one or two superbosses we haven't heard about yet - it's still a major improvement over the last mainline game in the series, Final Fantasy 16, which had me practically starving for a real tough challenge or shocking surprise once the credits rolled. Until its two expansions eventually remedied that, at least.

Final Fantasy Resonance calls back to the JRPG series' most sweat-inducing challenge with the jump rope minigame from Final Fantasy 9

Dragon Quest creator and industry legend Yuri Horii says that he doesn't understand how live streaming games has become so popular, and he wonders if the practice helps advertise games or not. He believes that streaming fans are the result of a new type of light, or casual, gamer who just wants to see what a game is about without playing it themselves.

In an interview with Famitsu that's been translated by GamesRadar+, Horii discusses how much player tastes have changed when it comes to the types of experiences people seek out with games. He believes the gaming audience has split into two distinct categories: core gamers who want to know everything about their games, and casual gamers who skip through and want to finish quickly.

"In terms of more casual gamers, people have increasingly enjoyed game live streaming," Horii says. "In the past, just watching people play games all the time was not seen as a form of entertainment. Though saying that, I used to watch my friends play over their shoulders. But now live streaming has become really popular."

Displaying some truly powerful 'back in my day' energy, Horii admits that he doesn't understand the allure of watching someone else play a game over playing it yourself, even if the streamer adds interesting commentary. "It used to be unthinkable that the player would be the funny one and attract fans rather than the game," he says.

However, while the rise of live streaming means that developers now have a much bigger potential audience for their games, Horii is still unsure if it works as a marketing strategy. "It's really interesting to see how people play the games you made," he says. "But I don't know if it works as a marketing tool. Some people will be satisfied by just watching the live stream, and some will want to play after seeing it. I'm really not sure yet."

A similar sentiment was echoed earlier this year by Final Fantasy 7 Remake director Naoki Hamaguchi, who believes that streamers have changed gaming forever. He says that during development it's important to consider making games that people want to play rather than just watch.

Dragon Quest 9 has been trapped on the Nintendo DS for 17 years, and franchise creator Yuji Horii was "a little disheartened" to learn fans never wanted that.

Persona 6 is getting some kind of physical release on PS5, and some fans are taking it as a sign that Atlus plans to launch the long-awaited game before Sony buries PlayStation discs in 2028.

The news comes courtesy of an announcement post published by Sega Japan around the same time as the game's official reveal - June 8 - though it seems series enjoyers only recently caught wind of the small print tucked away at the bottom of the page: "Only physical copies of the PlayStation 5 version are available."

(It's worth noting Persona 6 may get a physical Xbox release outside of Japan, just as previous Atlus games have, since this presser comes from Sega's Japanese arm.)

While Persona 6 doesn't have a whiff of a release date or even a release window, Sony has announced that it'll stop manufacturing physical discs for new PlayStation games in January 2028. "Following this date, new games will be available on PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only," the console maker said, and as a small relief, "this transition has no impact on games that already released, or will be releasing, prior to January 2028 in disc format."

Many fans were then left convinced that developer Atlus has plans to put Persona 6 out before physical PlayStation discs become a thing of the past. "So it's releasing next year then," one Redditor writes. "If Sony goes digital as of 2028, it must be penned in for later in 2027," says another.

There's certainly precedent for two big Atlus RPGs coming out in the same year - Persona 3 Reload and Metaphor: ReFantazio were a one-two punch back in 2024 - so it's entirely feasible that Persona 4 Revival and Persona 6 could also launch back-to-back next year. Although I wouldn't get too excited about that prospect for now.

For one, Sony's announcement of a disc-less future actually came a whole month after Sega's blog post went live. Then there's the fact that "physical copies" could refer to anything from a full-on disc to a mostly empty plastic box that contains a download code - and publishers can still manufacture code-in-a-box copies after that 2028 deadline.

Details about the game itself and its launch plans are quieter than a foggy night in Inaba, but Atlus has said we can expect to hear more Persona 6 news after Persona 4 Revival drops early next year. We won't be kept in the dark for too much longer, then.

Persona 6 could release next year, Sega leaker hints, telling JRPG fans not to "read too much" into the teaser's lack of release window

After three long decades, Terranigma is finally getting a modern re-release. The Super Nintendo JRPG, which was developed by Quintet and published by Enix in 1995, was never released in North America and had never been re-released on a later platform. But now, publisher Clear River Games is bringing the beloved classic to modern consoles and PC.

The new version of Terranigma will be released on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2, Switch, Steam, and GOG in "early 2027," according to a press release.

Judging by the first trailer and Steam page, this will be a re-release that preserves the original game's look, feel, and gameplay – though the announcement notes that this version "thoughtfully adds to the original masterpiece, bringing a host of upgrades, tweaks and bonus features, designed to make the best, better still and provide an ideal point of entry for modern gamers."

Terranigma is an action RPG where you play as a boy who resurrects the Earth, charting its history from primordial evolution up through the modern day. Developer Quintet was known for Super NES classics like ActRaiser and Illusion of Gaia, and Terranigma is widely regarded as one of the best RPGs ever released on the platform. A shame, then, that its worldwide release was so limited.

Unlike many cult classic JRPGs, Terranigma actually was released outside of Japan – just not in North America. Nintendo published the game in Europe and Australia late in 1996, but by that time the gaming world was already obsessed with the newfangled 3D graphics of platforms like the PS1 and N64. Whatever plans might've existed for a North American version were dashed by the closure of Enix's US office, well before the Square merger, in late 1995.

Before the HD era largely standardized television formats worldwide, PAL TVs were fundamentally different from the NTSC televisions used in the US and Japan – most notably in the fact that they refresh 50 times per second instead of 60. That makes Terranigma's PAL-only release a problem for English-speaking players worldwide these days, since it runs at an improper speed that's out of line with the Japanese original.

Numerous fan patches and console mods have given RPG fans ways to play Terranigma over the years, but the rights situation around the game – with part of its ownership tied up with the original developers at Quintet, and part held by the modern Square Enix – meant that it had never gotten an official, modern port. And thus, there was never a way to officially play it in English at the intended 60Hz speed.

“I hope the themes of god and humanity, creation and destruction, and the atmosphere of the world itself resonate with today's players too," original artist Kamui Fujiwara says in the press release. "Not as a relic of the past, but as a living, breathing work. This moment has been long awaited and now it is finally here. I hope you will enjoy it with all your heart.”

Check out more of the best SNES games of all time.

Dragon Quest 9 was a Nintendo DS exclusive when it launched in 2009 – and it technically still is. Square Enix never set the RPG free, despite many of its fans' appetite for a remake, and it seems franchise creator Yuji Horii isn't worried about it – possibly because he's still hurting from fans' reactions to the DS game 17 years ago.

The RPG's emperor recently spoke to Japanese site Famitsu as Dragon Quest celebrated its 40th anniversary; Nintendo Everything translated a chunk of Horii's interview. In it, he discusses fans' response to Dragon Quest 9 being a Nintendo DS exclusive after experiencing the visual splendor of the first completely 3D Dragon Quest, Dragon Quest 8, in 2004. Their response was… not good.

"It made for interesting gameplay," Horii says about the Nintendo DS, "and I thought everyone would be surprised, but when we announced it, we had a lot of criticism, like 'What? On Nintendo DS?' At the time we were actually a little disheartened."

He explains that Square Enix was motivated to lock Dragon Quest 9 to the DS because its developers wanted "quick and easy play over local networks." He says that, "At that time there were not many games using local networks and it was difficult to do so. But with Nintendo DS, the moment you turn the power on you can connect with people."

Fans had been preparing themselves for Dragon Quest 9 to launch on technology with some muscle, the PS3 or Wii, maybe, as a contemporaneous Nintendo Life article suggests. So their jaws dropped through the floor and straight into Hell once Square Enix made the unprecedented announcement that, no, Dragon Quest 9 will be bound to the petite DS.

Forum discussions from around Dragon Quest 9's release reveal players' vitriol for the cute DS which I believe is innocent in all of this; it's not the console's fault it was made to be whimsical handheld and not a prehistoric Steam Deck. One 17-year-old thread on GameFAQs features players calling Dragon Quest 9 "really horrible" and "extremely boring."

But, with time, public sentiment started turning around. User Liamland says on a 12-year-old GameFAQs thread, "After playing [Dragon Quest 8] on the PS2, it would seem as if [Dragon Quest 9] on the NDS was a step down, from a graphics and sound standpoint. But ultimately the DLC content, multiplayer tag mode, and character flexibility of DQIX makes it arguably a better game than DQVIII."

"We thought that was an amazing system, and decided we wanted to make Dragon Quest 9 using that ability," Horii tells Famitsu. So Fans have grown to agree with him – though, they'd still really like it to be at least a little more free from the Nintendo DS.

"Is there any hope?" asks one Reddit thread wondering about the likelihood of a Dragon Quest 9 remake. The answer is, probably not – Square Enix has never spoken of it despite fans' incessant screams. After all this time, Dragon Quest 9's developers continue to be chased by the same problem: no one really wants Dragon Quest 9 to be exclusive to the Nintendo DS, and they never did.

RPGs like Dragon Quest 11 and Nier: Automata are heavily outsourced, Square Enix producer says, with surprisingly few devs in-house.

Turn-based JRPGs never went anywhere, but with games like Baldur's Gate 3, Metaphor: ReFantazio, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 scooping up GOTY awards like XP in a dungeon, their staying power has perhaps never been more clear. That wasn't the case just a few years ago, when former PlayStation boss Shuhei Yoshida advised Sandfall Interactive to avoid describing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, now among the most awarded games of all time, as a turn-based JRPG for fear that it "might lost the interest of many consumers." These days, Yoshida finds the irony of that advice in hindsight amusing.

"I advised them that if they described the game as a turn-based JRPG, they might lose the interest of many consumers," Yoshida tells GamerBraves. "I suggested that they come up with a new name for the combat system."

Without wading into the interminable debate around what makes a JRPG a JRPG, I'll just say objectively that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't strictly a JRPG because Sandfall is a French developer, but it largely fits the bill from a gameplay perspective despite a unique combat system labeled "reactive" turn-based, apparently based on Yoshida's suggestion.

Nowadays, "A lot of developers are now pitching new turn-based JRPG-like games to publishers. So, it's really funny," he says.

Somewhat ironically, there actually isn't a single turn-based RPG having released or about to release in 2026 that's really defining the zeitgeist in the way Clair Obscur or Baldur's Gate 3 did during their respective release years, but with Larian's new Divinity confirmed to be a turn-based RPG and Persona 6 on the horizon, that's bound to change eventually.

Ex-PlayStation boss doesn't know if Sony killing physical games is "such a big issue" since players need to download patches and extra data anyway.

August 11 was Final Fantasy VII protagonist Cloud Strife's birthday, according to Square Enix. While the manual for my original PlayStation copy of Final Fantasy VII says otherwise, I'm always down for celebrating the existence of one of my favorite video game protagonists, particularly one I've been collecting merch and toys for since the game originally launched back in 1997.

Back then, the best toys depicting the spiky-haired boy weren't as easily available as they are now. We had the Extra Knights Action Figure of Cloud and his posse, but finding them in stores was a rarer chance than getting Yuffie as your Gold Saucer companion in the original game. Now, there's a sky full of Cloud-based collectibles, from the Final Fantasy 7 Polygon toy set available for $72 at Square Enix that recreates his in-game model as a tiny figure among the rest of the party, to the massive 1/4 scale Masterline statue that costs $2,400.00 (Amazon), more than my entire Final Fantasy collection (games included) combined.

Do you want a plushie Cloud to hug and help deal with his never-ending trauma? That exists. Want a playmat depicting Cloud about to do some serious damage with his Buster Sword? You can get that too, and I've gathered them all below. If you want to get in on the belated birthday celebrations, there are plenty of Cloud collectibles to spend your hard-earned Gil on, and with Final Fantasy VII Revelation on its way, there's likely even more to come. *Insert fanfare jingle here.*

Want more Final Fantasy goodies? Check out this incoming Final Fantasy Origins of Light board game.

Much of Final Fantasy 7 Revelation remains a mystery, though fans are hoping that the social media activity of a Japanese icon who featured in some of the JRPG's spin-offs is teasing some big plans.

Over on Instagram lately, Japanese musician Gackt has posted an image of himself cosplaying as Genesis Rhapsodos, for whom he provides the inspiration and Japanese voice in the Final Fantasy 7 spin-off games Crisis Core and Dirge of Cerberus. What's more, the song playing in the background of the post appears in Dirge of Cerberus.

The cheeky social media is interesting for a few reasons, though there are some caveats. Gackt's connection to Final Fantasy 7 has been there for a long time, and it's something he often posts about. Looking at his Instagram page, he often posts old clips and performances – some of which include himself dressed up as Genesis. There have been a few times over the years that supposed teases lead to little.

However! Sometimes they do lead to something. As one fan on Twitter notes, just days before the Crisis Core remake was announced, Gackt posted about returning to a studio he hadn't visited in "over ten years" for some voice recording. Hm!

Either way, fans are speculating with excitement. Dirge of Cerberus is yet to get a remake, sure, though something else to consider is the timing, as fans wonder if Genesis might appear as a boss fight in the Remake trilogy's grand finale. Final Fantasy 7 Revelation boss Naoki Hamaguchi has spoken a few times recently about how the spin-off games and Advent Children film tie into the grand finale, and did so recently at Final Fantasy 14's Berlin Fan Fest.

"I see a great deal of that discussion," he said at the time to YouTuber Ashif’s Release Notes. "I've seen a lot of people discussing and speculating off the back of interviews with myself and with Kitase-san, 'Is the ending of this going to connect to Advent Children?'

"But it's not a question. I don't want to sit here and say it connects to this, it connects to that. But obviously, there are a lot of other titles within the VII universe. So, we're talking about Advent Children, we're talking about Dirge of Cerberus, Crisis Core. And we want to bring all of those in and make sure we're not leaving those out."

Hamaguchi goes on to say that "once we have all of those in place, we're looking towards the ending." The question the developers are theoretically asking themselves is "what kind of ending are we going to head for in Revelation that still has those ties?"

Naturally, you'll have to wait for Final Fantasy 7 Revelation to release next year to truly find out, though Gackt's social media activity isn't making the wait any easier.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation director says each character in the RPG only has 4 jobs because making games is so much harder now.

Persona 4 Revival producer and Persona series veteran Kazuhisa Wada says "we have to do" Persona 1 and 2 remakes at some point.

Speaking with GamerBraves, Wada maintains his position as the patron saint of the very few people who still remember that Atlus' most popular JRPG series did not begin with Persona 3, but rather with Revelations: Persona, Persona 2: Innocent Sin, and Persona 2: Eternal Punishment.

Asked about remakes of the original Persona games, Wada responds, "At this point, I can't say for sure, but personally, I think it's something we should definitely do. I think we have to do it."

Wada has worked with the Persona series and its origin, the Shin Megami Tensei series, for decades. Persona 4 Revival is his latest project, though after his lead role in both Persona 3 Reload and Persona 5 Royal, he's also expected to be part of Persona 6. Here in the post-Persona 5 Royal era of Atlus, which has seen Persona grow into a global hit, Wada has helped lead the charge on modernizing Atlus' classic JRPGs.

Giving the original Persona and the Persona 2 duology the Royal, Remake, or Reload treatment raises a few unique challenges. Firstly, we've got to come up with some more words that start with R for the titles. I hear Revelation and Resonant are in fashion this year.

Secondly, there's a reason most people only know this series from Persona 3 onward, and it's not just because it can be hard to even find a way to play the original games today. Persona 3 and its follow-ups introduced pretty major changes both mechanically and thematically, framing the loop that's become the bedrock for modern installments. The original games feel quite different, in some ways closer to early Shin Megami Tensei entries, which could make them difficult to update.

So far, Atlus' remake strategy has basically boiled down to making games more like Persona 5 Royal, from presentation to quality-of-life features. Persona 5 was basically the evolved form of Persona 3 and 4, so that approach worked for those games.

But trying to do that with Persona 2, for example, feels like telling someone to wear shoes as gloves. If Atlus did take on this challenge, I'd love to see how it balances the old with the new. Do you stay faithful to the oddness of early Persona and trust modern fans to adapt, or do you just keep the setting, cast, and story and view them through the lens of today's mechanics?

And for that matter, do you combine Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment into one big Persona 2 Revisited? There you go, Atlus; you can have that one for free.

As Persona 6 drives hype, Atlus' JRPG series sold another 1 million copies over Sega's last quarter.

The long-rumored Final Fantasy 9 remake is currently stalling despite being quite far along – at least for now, according to one report.

In comments made last month that are now doing the rounds of the internet, veteran games journalist Alex Donaldson of RPGsite and recently Respec delves into what's going on with one of the industry's most notoriously unannounced projects.

Per Donaldson, the Final Fantasy 9 project was a single game and was quite far along in development before it eventually ground to a halt. As of right now, the JRPG remake is no longer moving forward.

If you're feeling deflated, though, there is some hope. Donaldson notes that the new mobile Dissidia game was basically canceled for over a year before eventually being revived. Given that Final Fantasy 9's remake project has a lot of work already done, the same could happen here.

Mind you, "illustrations created as potential box art and as key art were just tweeted out for the anniversary," so you might not want to get your hopes up too much.

Donaldson's remarks came as part of a wider discussion of a Final Fantasy 14 Fan Fest panel featuring director and producer Naoki "Yoshi-P" Yoshida and Final Fantasy 7 Revelation lead Naoki Hamaguchi. Not only did Yoshi-P turn heads by saying that remakes of FF6, FF8, and FF9 would need multiple installments, but he also pointed out that fans want Hamaguchi to direct FF17, and what better praise of someone could that be?

In short, per Donaldson, the veteran Final Fantasy 14 boss has a habit of disguising a teaser as speculation.

For example, when showing off the MMO's Dawntrail expansion, he turned a few heads by saying the reason behind the FF9 nods was "a secret." If we're talking about rumored timelines, it's interesting that a Final Fantasy 9 remake was reportedly in the works at that point.

As such, his pointing out how difficult it would be to remake such a game at the moment can read as a soft confirmation that it's too difficult to press ahead with the project right now.

In a similar way, it's noteworthy that he would point out how people would like Hamaguchi to direct the next mainline Final Fantasy game, especially with FF7: Revelation due to wrap up the trilogy next year.

Of course, there's a reason certain projects aren't official: things can change. Games that make sense in one moment don't in the next, so even if something is teased, you might not want to look into something too much until it comes from the source itself.

Final Fantasy 9's own rumored remake is a good example of that in action. We first caught wind of the project as part of an infamous Nvidia leak that's slowly but surely confirmed the plans of many differing developers and publishers. Since then, while we haven't heard anything official from Square Enix, we have received the odd update from outside sources with decent track records.

Just earlier this year, for example, one such source said the JRPG project is on ice.

As ever, take everything you read with a pinch of salt as plans change, accounts conflict, and sometimes a random remark is just that, rather than a tease of what's to come. Still, if you were looking forward to the unannounced Final Fantasy 9 remake actually being announced, you may want to put it to the back of your mind for now.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth multi-platform push and Final Fantasy 14 Evercold hype give Square Enix a welcome win as profits surge over 88%

Things are looking good for Square Enix at the moment. Thanks in no small part to Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's staggered launch and Final Fantasy 14 gearing up for a new expansion, the company reported a huge increase in overall profits.

These numbers come from Square Enix's latest financial results, where it says the publisher has seen an 88.6% jump in operating income for the three-month period ending June 30. That's a pretty high margin, to say the least.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is listed as a specific reason for this, seeing as the blockbuster RPG arrived on Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox Series X/S in June. It had a "solid performance," according to the report, alongside The Adventures of Eliot: The Millennium Tales.

Staying with Moogles and Chocobos, then, Final Fantasy 14's been putting in a strong shift to boot. We're on the road to the next major expansion, Evercold, and the buzz is being felt in Square Enix's accounting. There's been "improved user activity" in the MMORPG of late, stemming from the " advance recognition" of what's coming.

Eorzea's been a hive of activity in recent months, with the active player count crossing the one million threshold for the first time since early 2025. People are ready for what Evercold has to offer, and they're getting their friends involved ahead of the expansion's rollout.

Of course, besides the MMO's latest chapter, we have Final Fantasy 7 Revelation coming in 2027. I'd expect these numbers to grow again once both of these mammoth releases are available. Just one other question: when's Final Fantasy 17 coming?

Final Fantasy 14 fans discover "Creepypasta Backrooms" area in Patch 7.55, and Square Enix is feeding into the horror: "If you're not careful and you noclip out of reality..."

A previously lost Final Fantasy 7 spin-off game has finally been saved and preserved more than two decades after its initial release.

Dirge of Cerberus - Lost Episode isn't the most well known game in the Final Fantasy 7 compilation. In fact, it's a 'midquel' of sorts to one of the most derided entries in the entire series, squeezing Dirge of Cerberus' shooter gameplay onto a mobile phone and letting us spend even more time with the ever-moody Vincent Valentine. But it's been completely unplayable for years... up until now, that is.

As reported on by Time Extension, video game preservationist Yuvi managed to get their hands on the rare game's data thanks to Naoya Shinota, a member of the feature phone preservation group Keitai Wiki, who just so happened to know a guy who was in possession of Dirge of Cerberus - Lost Episode and was looking to dump their old SD card.

"The only issue is that these SD cards are encrypted," Yuvi writes in their blog post, and the team didn't have access to a "special partition from the SD card to start the brute-force process to find the keys."

"This was the first time we have encountered such an issue, because normally we are the ones who have possession of the SD card, so we could get the secret key needed," Yuvi explains. The solution? Yuvi spent $900 to create a brute-force program and a GPU farm to help get it done.

"Now, I’m not going to lie and say it was still cheap; in total, this endeavour to save one game cost me well over $900 dollars, all said and done. But in my books it was well worth something we may have never had the opportunity of getting again," they write. I'd highly recommend checking out their blog for the full details.

It should be a good primer for Vincent Valentine's next big appearance as a playable character in Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, coming sometime next year.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation boss says the ending "might be fully faithful to the original" RPG, or "it might end up being something completely different"

Team Asano is remaining hush-hush about whether Octopath Traveler 3 is in production or not, but the developer knows how much fans want another sequel in the HD-2D prognosticator. It's just that a hypothetical Octopath Traveler threequel would need to be ambitious enough to justify its existence.

That's according to series producer Tomoya Asano, speaking to Dengeki Online in a celebratory interview for the Octopath Traveler series' eighth anniversary. (thanks for the translation, Automaton!)

While Asano's not saying much about the game's potential existence, he does recognize how much fans seem to want the series to continue almost 10 years on from its start. "We genuinely feel [fans' expectations], I just wanted to convey that," he says, though he's not able to share anything more concrete.

Should a Octopath Traveler 3 finally come to fruition – assuming it's not already in the oven – Asano says the developers feel they "cannot simply release something half-baked." A continuation of the franchise would need go all out. "If we're going to do it, we're going to push the limits."

Asano likely can't reveal anything about what's brewing in Octo Land, but he does hint that something is probably in the works, regardless: "Keep looking forward to what comes next."

Octopath Traveler first ushered in the era of HD-2D RPGs back in 2018, carving a road for everything from Dragon Quest's recent remakes to the upcoming Final Fantasy Resonance. Octopath Traveler 2 then continued the series' excellent turn-based fights and eight-sided narrative in 2023. And last year's Octopath Traveler 0 most recently adapted a mobile spin-off to insert town-building and eight-character combat to the series' formula.

What's next? 16 active party members? Even more branching story threads to pull on and juggle at the same time? A still-hypothetical Octopath Traveler 3 would have a daunting road ahead of it.

In the meantime, see if Octopath Traveler lands on our ranking of the best JRPGs.

Atlus' Persona series sold a million copies during the three months of Sega's last financial quarter. Hype for Persona 4 Revival (coming next February) and Persona 6 (coming sometime after) might have had something to do with the continued sales momentum, of course, but the series is also home to some of the best JRPGs ever made. Becoming evergreen sellers comes with the territory.

Publisher Sega recently published its financial results for the first quarter of its 2027 fiscal year, which runs from the beginning of April to the end of June 2026. The Like A Dragon franchise sold well over 600,000 copies in that frame, Sonic the Hedgehog neared a million copies sold, but Persona remained king with more than a million copies sold across all games in the series.

Those stats seem especially impressive considering the high-schooling, demon-slaying series didn't see a new game release during those three months. Persona 3 Reload was ported to Switch 2 last October, but there hasn't been a totally new entry in the franchise for a couple of years now.

Last we heard, earlier this summer, Persona had sold a whopping 30 million copies combined, with Persona 5 making up an absurd chunk of that pie.

Probably not coincidentally, Sega's last quarter took place during the reveal of Persona 6 and a deep dive into Persona 4 Revival, so the series was likely front and center in the minds of the JRPG-loving public. Now's a good a time as any to jump into the series for the first time or catch up on the classics you might have missed, after all.

Persona's momentum in general bodes well for Atlus since Persona 4 Revival doesn't launch until February, 2027, and we've been warned to not expect much from Persona 6 until after the remake comes out, either.

Are you prepping for Persona 6, too? Find out where to start with our picks of the best Persona games, ranked worst to best.