Xenogears box art
Xenogears – is it also up for a remaster? (Picture: Square Enix)

The current fashion for remasters and remakes doesn’t look like slowing down, as Square Enix implies it has more to come.

Investor meetings in Japan often seem to be more like fan gatherings than the strictly business orientated affairs in the West, with Nintendo, and recently Capcom, often fielding fanboy style questions from the audience.

This time it was Square Enix’s turn, as they tried to avoid answering a very similar question to that asked at Capcom’s event: are they planning any new remasters?

‘Final Fantasy 1 to 6 Pixel Remaster has been well received. Are there plans to remaster other past titles? Personally, I would like to play Xenogears,’ said the eager fan/investor. To which the answer was interestingly non-committal.

‘We will refrain from sharing information about new titles, but we are considering various ideas within the company and hope that you will look forward to forthcoming announcements,’ said Square Enix.

Xenogears was released for the original PlayStation in 1998 but never released in Europe. It never had a direct sequel but both Namco’s Xenosaga and Nintendo’s Xenoblade Chronicles series are regarded as spiritual successors, with creator Tetsuya Takahashi always acting as at least writer.

There’s no obvious reason why there couldn’t be a remaster, other than the fact that it’s not particularly well known nowadays. Although it did manage to sell over 1 million copies worldwide, even without Europe.

The comparison with the Pixel Remaster series seems odd though, since that is specifically for NES and SNES games and a different approach would be needed for Xenogears’ mix of 2D and 3D visuals.

Square Enix certainly has nothing against remaster and remakes though, with a wide of range examples currently in development or recently released, from the big budget Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth to more obscure titles like Chrono Cross and the recently announce Star Ocean: The Second Story.

Rumours suggest that Square Enix is also planning on bringing back everything from Parasite Eve to Final Fantasy 9, all of which require very different levels of effort and budget.

Of course, remasters and remakes in general are very much in vouge at the moment, amongst all publishers, so as vague as Square Enix’s answer is, it’s almost certain that they have yet more to reveal.

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