9 classic games we’d love to see get a remake

Remakes have been happening for decades, but only in recent years have they started to push the boundaries and reintroduce some amazing games from the past to an audience that may not have given them a chance. The graphical boost is nice, of course, but it’s the quality of life changes and accessibility that make remakes so exciting. Who wants to spend hundreds of dollars on old hardware and rare cartridges that probably don’t even work with your TV anymore to play one or two games?

There’s always a fear that going back to a classic game for a remake will ruin what made it special. While I can’t say that isn’t a possibility, we’ve had more examples recently of the opposite, even when the remakes made dramatic changes to the original. Just look at Resident Evil 2 Remake and Final Fantasy 7: Remake and Rebirth for stellar examples of how a remake can modernize a title without losing the spirit of what made it special decades earlier. There are plenty of remakes on the horizon, but these are ten classic games I personally want to see remade over anything else.

1 Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

The gold standard for Metroidvanias

Symphony of the Night is still just as playable today as it was when it was released on the PlayStation 1, and is arguably still the king of the Metroidvania genre it helped pioneer. To this day, you can see the influence this game has had on games of all genres, such as an extensive map you are free to explore, upgrades that allow you to access new areas, and tons of secrets that only observant players will discover.

For a remake, I would want a more drastic change in this case. Let’s bring the castle to life in 3D this time to really immerse ourselves in the world of vampires and monsters. Keep the structure the same but add in some new areas, secrets, and abilities that take advantage of the 3D space to give it a fresh appeal. We’ve seen the potential of what this could be in some form with Bloodborne, but now we need to go all the way.

2 Parasite Eve

Forgotten gem

Squaresoft (which would later become Square Enix) was firing on all cylinders in the PS1 era, releasing some of the best JRPGs on the market. Nestled between those juggernaut releases was a curious hybrid of a horror game and RPG based on a somewhat obscure novel called Parasite Eve. That formula ended up working out better than it had any right to, but it has been left to languish on the old console.

Remaking Parasite Eve should take a mixed approach to changing things up while remaining faithful. I believe the turn-based gameplay is core to what makes it unique and tense, but we can do away with the fixed camera angles and prerendered backgrounds. RPGs set in modern-day (well, modern-day for 1998, anyway) are still a rarity, and the more grounded tone could draw in a wider crowd.

3 Chrono Trigger

Bring it to the future

I can’t believe I’m still asking for this. Where is the Chrono Trigger remake!? I’m not saying games like Live A Live don’t deserve a remake too, but in terms of fan outcry, I can’t think of many games besides Final Fantasy VI that beat Chrono Trigger. I don’t think there’s such a thing as a perfect JRPG, but Chrono Trigger sure does make a strong case for it.

I’m not asking for the world here. Let’s give it the HD-2D treatment and keep everything exactly the same. Of course, I’d welcome some new side quests, items, secret bosses, or whatever on top of that, but the core game is so tight and well-crafted that it doesn’t need much of anything added to it. The characters, plot, world, combat… it’s superb and is a crime to not be brought up to modern standards.