2025’s best video game remakes and remasters
2025 continued gaming's trend of publishing remakes, remasters, and re-releases — but many were legit terrific this year.
Nostalgia is big business in video games — pretty much every publisher out there is consistently rereleasing more polished versions of their most beloved games for modern hardware. These remakes and remasters run the gamut from relatively straightforward new-gen ports to full-on reimaginings like the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy. And 2025 has been a banner year for reborn retro games — especially for fans of RPGs. Here are Polygon’s favorite remakes, remasters, and re-releases of 2025.
Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles
The Ivalice Chronicles took home this year’s Game Award for Best Sim/Strategy, and its impeccable jobs system is a major reason why. If you love customizing characters and sending lopsided groups into the fray — oops, all summoners! — then this is the strategy RPG for you. Final Fantasy Tactics’ battles are notoriously difficult, but the job system’s flexibility and freedom makes trial and error a big part of the fun. You’ll experience many swift defeats here, but it only amps up the satisfaction of finally cobbling together a winning approach.
Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter
Image: Nihon Falcom/GungHo Online Entertainment
Gaming’s answer to Robert Jordan's (and now Brandon Sanderson’s) Wheel of Time novels, the Trails series is a sprawling science-fantasy epic spanning 13 installments with an overarching story. It was conceived by Falcom to have the most ambitious story ever told in video games, so you can understand why newcomers are a little daunted by the prospect. Now, no more excuses: Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is the definitive place to start this storied adventure — no matter how deep down the rabbit hole you dare to venture.
Image: Konami
Konami’s remake of the third Metal Gear Solid game is likely just the start of a spate of re-releases for Hideo Kojima’s beloved espionage series, and it’s a hell of a good one. It’s a cautious remake that doesn’t stray too far from Kojima’s original vision, for better and worse: Delta retains all the original game’s potential for loopy experimentation in combat, but it also holds onto its penchant for leering, creepshot camera angles.
Dragon Quest 1+2 HD-2D Remake
Image: Artdink/Square Enix via Polygon
Inspired by the Wizardry and Ultima games, the OG Dragon Quest is the very first console RPG, from all the way back in 1986. The story is simple yet familiar: There’s an ancient evil to be sealed, a princess to save, and some mystical MacGuffins to collect along the way. Square Enix’s nifty HD-2D remaster gives the first two games a glorious glow-up and sands off some of the rougher edges of the 8-bit era, like only being able to save in one specific castle and the lack of a sprint button. It’s the perfect way to experience the classics — without the offputting, old-timey clunk.
Suikoden 1 + 2 HD Remaster
Image: Konami
Aesthetically, this collection is more of a light refresh than a full-on makeover, and that’s all these enduring PS1 classics really needed. The whole gimmick of the Suikoden games is that you get to recruit 108 party members. Some of those recruits are badass warriors, many of them aren’t worth leveling up, and the remainder are just dweebs who hang out in your castle. The first game in the bundle is perfectly fine, but the real meat here is Suikoden 2, which features one of the most delightfully fiendish villains of all time, a phenomenal soundtrack, and some legitimately jaw-dropping plot twists. If you love golden-age RPGs, this collection is definitely worth your time.
Image: Bethesda Softworks
It was the worst-kept secret in the games industry for months, but when the Oblivion remaster was finally shadow-dropped back in April, it lived up to all the hype. With The Elder Scrolls 6 still far, far away, more than 9 million Bethesda oldheads and newcomers alike dove eagerly into the world of Cyrodiil. The remaster includes changes to its UI and leveling system to hew closer to modern RPGs, and enemy animations have been updated to give the combat more heft and realism. And, thank the gods, there’s a sprint button now.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4
Image: Activision
Saved from the brink of cancellation when a new studio stepped in to take over the project, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 gives a fresh coat of paint to the arcade skater and adds a bunch of playable characters, but strips down the fourth game’s career mode. Polygon called the bundle “both a bolder and more conservative sequel to its 2020 predecessor” in its review and noted it was a compelling argument in favor of Iron Galaxy to assume control of the franchise going forward.
Gears of War: Reloaded
Image: The Coalition/Xbox Game Studios
The ultimate Dudes Rock shooter is back, and just as bro-y as ever. In one of many signs that 2025 marked the end of the console war as we know it, Reloaded abandoned the series’ console exclusivity for good and launched on the PS5. A product of the PS3/360 era of Very Brown Games, the remake adds some welcome pops of color here and there as part of its visual refresh. Sure, the story and characters are paper-thin, but you’re not here for Shakespeare, you’re here for big dumb fun, and Gears of War: Reloaded delivers.
Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar
Image: XSeed Games
This revamped version of the 2008 Nintendo DS game Harvest Moon: Grand Bazaar stands out for its lickety-split progression and focus on community, which allows it to sidestep several of the more tedious aspects of its life-sim brethren. A robust and open-ended romance mechanic only adds to the appeal. It’s a must-play for cozy-game devotees.
The Talos Principle: Reawakened
Image: Devolver Digital
This _Portal-_meets-Myst mashup gets a top-down rebuild in Unreal Engine 5, but the improved visuals aren’t the only draw here. Reawakened adds a Mario Maker-esque puzzle editor that lets you share creations online, as well as an interactive developer commentary that’ll make you wish more games put this level of thought and care into their remasters.