Best Remakes Of Square Enix Games

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home March 23, 2025 5 Views 13 Min Read
Best Remakes Of Square Enix Games
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Summary

  • Square Enix defines the JRPG scene with iconic titles like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest.
  • Square Enix’s recent game remakes, like Star Ocean and Live A Live, showcase a resurgence in the 2020s.
  • Remakes like Dragon Quest 3 on SNES and Final Fantasy 7 set the standard for modern RPG experiences.

Which developer can lay claim to having had multiple golden ages and having defined the JRPG scene for decades? None other than Square Enix. With Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and everything in between, the company holds some of the most successful and beloved RPG properties in video gaming. Even with studios like Atlus being contenders, to most audiences, Square Enix is the undisputed king of the genre.

Split images of Kingdom Hearts 2, Final Fantasy 7, and Dragon Quest 11.

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In the 2020s, Square Enix had a resurgence by remaking some of its most beloved titles. The developer also endeared itself to hardcore fans by reimagining games that had never seen an official worldwide launch before. Here are some of the remakes that helped push Square to the top once more.

Each entry includes images of the remake alongside the original, allowing you to compare their visuals directly.

8

Star Ocean: The Second Story R

The second push to introduce Star Ocean to modern audiences, The Second Story R discards the original PSP remaster in favour of rebuilding the PS1 title in a new yet familiar fashion. Characters are retained as retro sprites, superimposed on lovingly crafted 3D backgrounds.

Modern features such as fast travel and notifications about character-specific events round out the package. The combat is left largely untouched. It’s not at the level of some other HD-2D remakes by Square Enix, but Star Ocean: The Second Story R is currently the best way to experience the game.

7

Live A Live

Besides its own incredible library, the Nintendo Switch was a superb console for reintroducing games that were once forgotten. Square Enix capitalized on this by reimagining Live A Live, a game once exclusive to the Super Famicom in Japan and known only by hardcore JRPG enthusiasts.

Alfyn sits at a table, Pogo jumps between Sundown and Oboro, Rolans looks ahead

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Live A Live tells eight different stories that appear distinct but turn out to be connected at the end. With such a similar premise to the company’s 2018 hit Octopath Traveler, it made sense for Live A Live to be remade with the HD-2D aesthetic. The remake ended up being more successful than the original release.

6

Final Fantasy 4

The first three Final Fantasy games are respectable titles, though their historical importance overshadows their fun factor by this point. Story-wise, however, the series really came into its own with the fourth entry. Painting a tale of betrayal and brotherhood, it gave rise to the character-driven plots the series would be known for going forward.

The 2007 DS remake was just the ticket to introduce this classic to a new generation: it was available on a widely popular platform, it had 3D graphics, and the gameplay had been made more accessible. Remarkably, the game also features voice acting – not the last time Square acquitted themselves admirably on the tiny DS cartridge. The game was later ported to mobile phones and PC.

The SNES iteration of Final Fantasy 4 was launched as Final Fantasy 2 in the West. This title change was dropped with future versions.

5

Trials Of Mana

Launched a mere two weeks after Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Trials of Mana reimagined an obscure SNES classic in 3D. While Seiken Densetsu 3, as it was known in Japan, had been localized in 2019 as part of a compilation, it hadn’t generated much fanfare outside the Mana loyalists.

The Heroes and champions that protect the Mana Tree throughout the Mana Saga.

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Most of the major mainline and spin-off installments of this beloved RPC series.

Trials of Mana gave the series the big-budget, polished push it needed to reach the mainstream decades after it began. Unlike its predecessor Secret of Mana, Trials of Mana treated itself as a brand-new game using the ethos and aesthetic of a classic. As such, it’s accessible to newcomers and veterans alike. The game’s success led to more Mana releases worldwide.

4

Dragon Quest 7: Fragments Of The Forgotten Past

Dragon Warrior 7 for the PS1 is a slog. It’s a great game, one that set the template for the Nintendo DS remakes that followed, but it’s incredibly slow-paced and has too much in it. The game easily takes upwards of 150 hours to complete. As much as Dragon Warrior 7 gives you, it takes a lot out of you too. If a game’s length dictated the file size, Dragon Warrior 7 would be on ten discs instead of two.

The 3DS remake fixed a lot of the original’s issues. Now it only takes an hour and a half to get to your first battle, instead of four. We aren’t joking here, but the remake’s faster pacing does shave a lot of pointless playtime off the original and make it a more digestible experience. The fully 3D graphics also bring Akira Toriyama’s designs to life in a way that didn’t happen in the PS1 version, which felt outdated even in its own time.

3

Romancing Saga 2: Revenge Of The Seven

The Saga series features some of the most creative and compelling gameplay in the RPG genre, yet has historically struggled to establish itself as a mainstream contender. Romancing Saga 2 on the SNES exemplified the reasons why: despite its fun gameplay, the game had bad graphics and eye-watering presentation. It didn’t look sleek or detailed. If you saw screenshots of it in a gaming magazine next to any other game, you weren’t going to pick Romancing Saga 2, plain and simple.

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There’s also the fact that it was never localized in English. Square Enix amended all those issues with Romancing Saga 2: Revenge of the Seven. This is a full 3D remake with voice acting, a polished UI and gorgeous animations. Akitoshi Kawazu, who directed the original game, was involved in making this the definitive remake Romancing Saga 2 deserved.

2

Dragon Quest 3 (SNES)

The 2024 remake of Dragon Quest 3 shares the HD-2D aesthetic of Live A Live and is a fairly respectable title. However, there’s an even better remake of DQ3 that can be found on the SNES. Dragon Quest 3 was originally a NES title. A fantastic game for its time, it ended up being too ambitious for its original hardware. Square amended this by making a SNES remake in 1996, which ended up being the definitive version to play the game for decades.

DQ3 on the SNES features a day/night cycle, scenarios that change depending on a multitude of factors and a board game called Pachisi that’s fun enough to justify the price of admission by itself. Yeah, the HD-2D remake is nice, but even that lacks some features present in this version.

The Game Boy Color version is the same, but features simpler visuals and adds the Monster Medal feature. It was released as Dragon Warrior 3 in the West. The SNES version was not localized, but has a fan-made English translation.

1

Final Fantasy 7 Remake

This is the title that kickstarted a decade of dominance for Square Enix. As definitive as 2019’s Resident Evil 2 was for Capcom, Final Fantasy 7 Remake provided the reimagining that fans had been clamouring for years. Even though the 1997 version of Final Fantasy 7 is one of the greatest games of all time, Final Fantasy 7 Remake is better.

Midgar is brought to life the way it was originally imagined; the way it looked in audiences’ imaginations even in the PS1 days. The gameplay has been revamped completely for a real-time combat system that keeps it fresh and exciting. The only complaint you can have against Final Fantasy 7 Remake is that there isn’t more of it: it only reimagines the first part of the original game. The story continues in Rebirth.

Artwork on a yellow background of various characters from Before Crisis: Final Fantasy 7, a party of characters from Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent, and Mama from Nier Reincarnation.

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