7 Classic JRPGs That Are So Good They Never Need a Remake
Aged like fine wine
Remakes, remasters, and reimaginings are all the rage right now in video games. For the last several years, studios the world over have crafted new and vastly improved versions of all-time classic games, ranging from faithful modernizations like Capcom’s Resident Evil 4 remake to Square Enix’s wildly ambitious and expanded Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy. While plenty of older games benefit from a modern glow-up, others don’t need a lot of alterations to shine bright decades later.
Here are seven JRPGs that have aged like fine wine. These games may have been ported to newer platforms or lightly remastered at various points, but they look and play nearly identical to when they were first released.
1 Earthbound
Where to play: Nintendo Switch Online (standard subscription)
We may never get an official English version of Mother 3, but we do have one of the most endearing and influential RPGs of all time as part of the SNES library on Nintendo Switch Online. Mother 2, better known as Earthbound, was released in North America in 1995. Boasting some of the most clever enemy designs this side of Dragon Quest — think piles of puke, annoying hippies, and a quintet of moles jockeying to be third-best — Earthbound is consistently weird, wonderful, and laugh-out-loud funny. This save-the-world adventure spanning a warped version of small town America has spawned countless imitators over the years, but Shigesato Itoi’s timeless vision needs no updates whatsoever to be a fantastic ride in 2026.
2 Final Fantasy 9
Where to play: Nintendo Switch, PS4, Windows PC, Xbox One
In the waning days of the PlayStation 1 era, Square turned its back on the steampunk grit of Final Fantasy 7 and 8 and did something totally unexpected by taking the series back to good, old-fashioned medieval fantasy. With a chipper hero accompanied by a sassy princess who yearns to escape the strictures of royal life, FF9 is a heartfelt examination of love, life, and mortality that’s also a love letter to the genre. Rumors of a remake have been churning around this one for years, but last year’s 25th anniversary came and went without an announcement. And honestly, FF9 doesn’t need a remake. The visuals and music were stunning back in 2000 and still hold up brilliantly today.
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3 Chrono Trigger
Where to play: Windows PC
Ever since the first trailer for Octopath Traveler back in 2018, Square Enix fans have been hankering for a remake of this sweeping time-travel epic in the HD-2D style. We still haven’t gotten one, but that’s okay, because Chrono Trigger is pretty much perfect already. Set across six historical periods, the memorable ensemble cast — which includes a warrior frog, a cave woman, and a massive but kindly robot — goes on a quest to change history and prevent the end of the world by a vicious alien entity. A one-off collab by the “dream team” of Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii, and Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama, Chrono Trigger remains every bit as mesmerizing today as it was in 1995. Bafflingly, it’s still not available on Nintendo Switch, so retro consoles like the SNES, PS1, and 3DS might be your only (legitimate) option if you’re not a PC gamer.
4 Lunar: Silver Star Story
Where to play: Nintendo Switch, PS4, Windows PC, Xbox One
A product of the early CD games era, before rendered cutscenes became the standard for RPGs, Working Designs’ Lunar for Sega CD took the pixel-art aesthetic of SNES era RPGs and added anime cutscenes and original music. Sure, the storytelling is a little tropey by today’s standards, but Lunar has a little something for every JRPG fan — a floating magic academy, sassy cats, and a romance between a headstrong priestess and a mouthy mercenary. What’s not to like? The game has seen several remasters and ports over the years, but mercifully none of them have eliminated the charming aesthetic of the 1993 original. It’s widely available in a two-game bundle with its equally great sequel, Lunar: Eternal Blue.
5 Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Where to play: Nintendo Switch Online (standard subscription)
As much as I love retro games, my interest starts to become more purely academic once we get to the pre-16-bit era. There’s no denying the OG Legend of Zelda’s influence on the medium, but when it comes to an early game in the series that’s still eminently playable today, A Link to the Past is at the top of the list. If you’re a relatively recent convert to the series after Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, this 1991 SNES game will make you appreciate how many of the franchise’s core building blocks have been there since its earliest days, like the looming largesse of Death Mountain, the scuba-gear hoarding Zora, and the voluptuous fairies. Pro tip: take advantage of Switch Online’s rewind function so you don’t have to re-do a whole dungeon if you die. It’s more fun that way.
6 Suikoden 2
Where to play: Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X
Like Lunar, the early Suikoden games have a visual style that hovers between the pixel art of the SNES era and the 3D graphics that came to dominate the PS1 age and beyond. The best game of the series, 1998’s Suikoden 2, tells the story of two childhood friends who find themselves on opposite sides of a continent-spanning war. During your journey, you’ll recruit 108 allies and build a badass castle for all of them to live in. You’ll also work to stop a genocidal maniac from conquering every city in sight. Konami’s 2025 remaster bundles together the first two games in the series, and largely retains the aesthetics and pacing of the PS1 originals, with some welcome quality of life tweaks like HD graphics, widescreen, and a polished localization.
7 Golden Sun
Where to play: Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack
With crunchy puzzles and deep customization possibilities for your squad of heroes, 2001’s Golden Sun for the Game Boy Advance took time-worn elements of the genre and turned them into something completely new. The story follows two childhood pals, Isaac and Garet, who set out to investigate the supernatural cause of the tragedy that befell their village years earlier. Along the way, they encounter all sorts of strange and memorable stuff — sea monsters, talking trees that can drug a whole village, and a place that sounds an awful lot like Atlantis. Both Golden Sun and its sequel, 2002’s Golden Sun: The Lost Age are included in the GBA game library on Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack.