11 classic games that deserve a Final Fantasy VII-style remake

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11 classic games that deserve a Final Fantasy VII-style remake

Forget remasters. Gone are the days where developers could stretch new textures over old games and call it a day. These days it’s all about remakes, raiding the late ‘90s and early ‘00s for games that need more than just a new coat of paint.

Resident Evil 2 set the bar pretty damn high, allowing old fans to relive a beloved game the way they remembered it, while also creating a thoroughly modern horror game for newcomers. It’s not on PC (yet), but by all accounts Square’s Final Fantasy VII Remake does the same. Activision created slightly more faithful remakes with Spyro and Crash Bandicoot, and is doing the same with the upcoming Tony Hawk 1+2. The Black Mesa Project injected new life into Half-Life. 2K’s releasing a Mafia remake this summer.

Who’s next? What other games should get the Resident Evil 2 treatment? We’ve put together a list—not just games that deserve a remake, not just games that would benefit from a remake, but ones where a remake seems actually feasible. And yes, that means you’ll find few games the size of Final Fantasy VII on this list, because I think even Square underestimated the scope of that undertaking at the outset. That means that as much as I’d love to see a Fallout 2 or Knights of the Old Republic or even a Longest Journey remake…well, I’m not holding my breath.

Tomb Raider

tomb raider Square Enix

Tomb Raider actually seems one of the most likely candidates for a remake. The reboot trilogy, begun in 2013, culminated in a post-credits sequence that strongly hinted at a remake’s existence—at least originally.

Patched out at release, the original ending showed off Lara Croft’s dual pistols and a letter from Jacqueline Natla, antagonist of the original Tomb Raider. These details were removed by the day one patch, perhaps to prevent speculation about this very remake. And yet…what if? It’d certainly make sense, after three games spent “becoming” the Tomb Raider, if Crystal Dynamics or Eidos rolled straight into remaking Lara Croft’s earliest adventures.

Of course, this would also be the second such remake, as Tomb Raider: Anniversary already served the same purpose back in 2007.

Devil May Cry

devil may cry Capcom

Terrible cameras are the downfall of so many games from this era. Devil May Cry is one of them. After Devil May Cry 5 last year I tried for the third or fourth time to go back to the beginning of the series and…I just can’t. Fixed camera angles are a nightmare and I’m glad we’ve left them behind.

But I’d love to see Capcom take the same tack with Devil May Cry as it has with Resident Evil. Give me those early stories running in the RE Engine, with modern combos and modern voice acting and (most importantly) a modern camera, and I’d be happy to give the series a second shot. I think I finally understand why people love the series, but even 2018’s Devil May Cry HD Collection isn’t enough to get me to suffer through that first game in its current incarnation.

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