Suikoden is a game that I’ve been meaning to play for years. A highly regarded roleplaying game from the original PlayStation era, it’s renowned for its sprawling storyline and huge cast of playable characters. That also makes it pretty intimidating, and I’ve had a copy sitting on my PS Vita just waiting for when I might have the free time to finally dig in. After all that waiting, I’m now playing a new remastered collection that includes the first two games in the series instead. And it made me realize that, for the past several months, my personal gaming time has been dominated by classic, turn-based RPGs — an experience that has really made clear the genre’s realm of possibilities.
It started with the excellent new version of Dragon Quest 3, which launched last November. That game was the equivalent of video game comfort food: an exceedingly straightforward fantasy adventure that has been spruced up with gorgeous visuals, a lush orchestral soundtrack, and some very welcome quality of life tweaks. Soon after that, Mistwalker released an updated version of Fantasian. It’s technically not an old game — it originally debuted on Apple Arcade in 2021 — but it has the soul of one, with Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi using it as a way to explore new ideas in presentation and combat. Then, to top it all off, the “pixel remaster” version of the very first Final Fantasy hit Apple Arcade in January.
These were all games I had played before, but digging through them again in quick succession made me appreciate their strengths. DQ3 and FF embody a true sense of adventure. Both have straightforward stories that are easy to follow (or ignore, if you don’t care about that sort of thing) but locations and systems that make venturing into towns, dungeons, and the wider world exciting. DQ3 made that type of experience incredibly approachable, with its beautiful new presentation and streamlined gameplay, while I’ve discovered that FF is quite possibly the ideal mobile game: something deep enough to keep me engaged but also an experience where it still feels like you’re making progress when you only have a short window to play.
Fantasian, meanwhile, is like a modern reinterpretation of what a classic turn-based RPG could be. In a lot of ways, it’s classic FF, from the amnesiac protagonist to the the world that’s a mix between fantasy and sci-fi. But it also has some clever twists on the formula, like battles that let you aim attacks and a tool for delaying random battles for when you just want to explore. This is all on top of the headline-grabbing visuals made of real-world dioramas. And while I’m only a few hours into playing Suikoden for the first time, I’ve already been struck by the ambition of its storytelling, which manages to cram a lot of political intrigue into the confines of a traditional RPG structure.
That’s all to say that even at a time when there’s plenty of impressive, big, and modern RPGs like Avowed and Dragon Age, there’s still something distinct and interesting about the classic turn-based formula, and it’s exciting to see all the ways that various studios have utilized it over the years. That’s true whether you’re replaying a new version of something old or, like me, trying out Suikoden for the very first time. Even better: there’s still more to come. As Sakaguchi told me earlier this year, when it comes to his studio’s next game, their “goal is to create something old but new at the same time.”
