By Nelson Schneider - 12/14/25 at 03:42 PM CT
Well, 2025 certainly was a year, wasn’t it? While we got to enjoy the *michaeljacksoneatingpopcorn.gif* spectacle of “AAA” Industrial Gaming beginning its long-overdue implosion, we were expected to sit by like the *doginaburninghouse.jpg* and say, “This is fine.”
Of course, some of us are more stubborn than others, and this year’s docket of exemplary games contains... absolutely nothing new! 2025 was a year where remakes, remasters, and compilations absolutely dominated in a way they’ve been trying to do for years, with the 5 most intriguing releases of the year ACTUALLY being releases from many, many years ago. Let’s dive in!
1. Suikoden I & II HD Remaster: Gate Rune and Dunan Unification Wars (Multi)
This HD remastered compilation of the two best ‘Suikoden’ games – originally released in 1996 and 1999 – illustrates the sad state of RPG development. Konami, who stopped publishing new ‘Suikoden’ games in 2009, still hasn’t been able to top the war epic of these two intertwined games, and it’s absolutely amazing that the pachinko-obsessed publisher remembered it enough to give a new generation of budding RPG fans the opportunity to experience them.
2. Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake (Multi)
Like Konami, Square-Enix has been failing incredibly hard lately, with their last mainline ‘Dragon Quest’ game, “Dragon Quest 11,” being released back in 2018. While the series did at least go dormant on a high note, unlike ‘Suikoden,’ Square-Enix’s other attempts to recapture the classic feel and unique magic of their Golden Age RPGs have all failed, causing them to go back to square (no pun intended) one. And that’s essentially what they’ve done with this compilation of the first two ‘Dragon Quest’ games – originally released in 1989 and 1990 – giving them not only revamped visuals, but deepened storytelling (which doesn’t take much, when the NES originals were as deep as a carbon nanotube) and revised gameplay, all in the desperate hope that, by retracing their steps all the way back to where things started, they’ll figure out where they went wrong.
3. Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles (Multi)
“Final Fantasy Tactics” – originally released in 1998 – was the first Tactical RPG to really put the genre on the map. Yeah, ‘Shining Force’ and ‘Ogre Battle’ had been out there for a while, but neither of them had the name recognition to make people go gaga for an RPG combined with an overly-complicated hybrid of Checkers and Chess. “The Ivalice Chronicles” is a remake of a remake, with “The War of the Lions” being the second go-around for this particular game, but which reached only a highly limited audience by virtue of being a PlayStation Portable exclusive in 2007. While “The Ivalice Chronicles” doesn’t have new content like “War of the Lions” did, it still rebalances things to make the experience of playing through “Final Fantasy Tactics” in 2025 less painful than dental surgery. Finally, Ramza doesn’t have to sit in a corner for 10 hours Yell-ing at himself to gain Job Points!
4. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered (Multi)
Originally released in 2006, “Oblivion” was the world’s introduction to Medieval Fantasy Sandbox games, and it did so on a truly epic scale. Sure, there were 3 previous ‘Elder Scrolls’ games, but only one of them was released on a console during the Console Gaming Golden Age, and that was the Xbox exclusive “Morrowwind,” so obviously nobody played it (LOL, Xbox). With the 2025 remaster, “Oblivion” gets not only a visual overhaul, pushing the envelope with Unreal Engine 5, but a slew of small tweaks and improvements over the original release, helping to sand down some of the rough edges that can make playing a 20-year-old game feel arduous at times. Too bad Bethesda/Xbox/Microsoft didn’t give this update away for free to people who already own the original.
5. Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Switch)
Rounding out the best games of 2025 that did NOT actually come out in 2025, is a Nintendo compilation, because if Nintendo didn’t win something their fanboys would set fire to the MeltedJoystick HQ, and nobody wants to deal with their whining. Nintendo has always been prone to re-releasing their old games with extra content and small improvements that totally make it worthwhile to buy them, again, at full-price. Unfortunately, while “Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2” is either the second-best or third-best ‘Mario’ game on the Nintendo Switch, the publisher, in its thoroughly modern corporate hubris, didn’t bother to add anything particularly new or improved to these games which originally released on the Wii in 2007 and 2010.
Honorable Mention: Clair Obscure: Expedition 33 (Multi)
Well, we couldn’t let our cynicism completely cover our eyes to new games. While there were a couple of okay releases and a couple more overhyped, bandwagoned turds, the only 2025 new release that really got the Crew fired-up was “Clair Obscure: Expedition 33.” Unfortunately, this brand new Turn-Based RPG has some fatal flaws that mean it can’t quite stand toe-to-toe with the ancient RPGs that topped this list: It’s too French, for one, and to make matters worse, it’s completely infested with QTE-style timed button presses for everything. Still, an Indie RPG made by ex-“AAA” developers formerly employed by Ubisoft taking the gaming world by storm is noteworthy, even if it did so in an annual environment where it didn’t have a lot of competition. Let’s hope that between “Expedition 33” and “Baldur’s Gate 3,” the “AAA” c-suite copycats will rediscover how to make decent games.
