What Games I’m Eyeing the Most Post-June 2026

 

We’ve just been through our yearly summer reveal season, a time of the year all too familiar to most of us. A time period that used to be dominated by E3 that is now instead headlined by a large amount of individual company presentations (Nintendo Directs, State of Plays, etc.) and Summer Games Fest. While I’ve been admittedly underwhelmed by what I had been shown the past few years, this year in particular had a lot of decent showings that caught my eye. While I’m not in a position to grab absolutely every game I list here today as it comes out, I’d still like to take the time to highlight what I’m looking forward to the most. Both to go over what exactly about them captivated me, and to potentially help someone else see something they might like.

Final Fantasy Resonance (Release Date Oct 22, 2026 - Nintendo Switch/Switch 2, PS5, Series X, Steam)

Another Gacha Properly Adapted to a Full Game

The preservation of mobile gacha games after they end service has been a consistent topic amongst discussion of game preservation. In most cases, once they shut down there’s no returning, and what they offer becomes lost to time. An issue made all the more egregious when you take into account the money people might have put into the game that’s been rendered worthless. There’s been a massive push by players in recent times to have ways for people to access these games offline after their services shut down, so that they can be kept around for as long as possible by those who want to access them. And while the process has undeniably been slow, companies are slowly but surely beginning to listen. Mega Man X Dive and Animal Crossing Pocket Camp both received offline purchasable versions of themselves shortly before shutting down, making way for players both old and new to continue to experience the games without worry. A fine method of ensuring these experiences are still around. Recently though, another take on this preservation has formed, where a mobile game is completely reimagined as a proper full-scale title for purchase. Square Enix dropped Octopath Traveler 0 last year in this manner, being an adaptation of the mobile game Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent, and they seem to be taking another stab at it come October with Final Fantasy Resonance, which appears to be an adaptation of the first portion of the mobile game Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius (FFBE).

If it's Anything Like Emblems, I'm All In

While I’ve never touched FFBE for myself before, the principle at play here is commendable. Taking a now defunct mobile game and retooling it to now be a proper title offers old players to experience a game they loved in a new format for a fresh experience, while new players will be drawn in by the fact that the game was given the budget they’d expect of a proper console release. The game visually looks gorgeous, making use of HD-2D to deliver a proper adaptation of what a traditional 16-bit era Final Fantasy title would look like today. Final Fantasy VI is a personal favorite of mine so a continuation of that style was appealing enough, but adding to the appeal to me is the combat additions that could come from the Visions mechanic. Visions were what players normally rolled the gacha for in FFBE, but here they’re now properly discovered in the overworld to be equipped on the main cast for combat. Comparisons have been made to Personas and Stands from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, and while those are fine, when I specifically look at Visions I’m reminded of Emblems from Fire Emblem Engage (FE Engage). One of the strengths of that system that allowed FE Engage to stand out to me was how the emblems promoted experimentation to discover some truly obscene unit combinations. A personal favorite of mine was Panette + the Ike Emblem, taking advantage of her high HP and critical rate to decimate enemies. If Visions function even remotely similarly to Emblems, on top of a supposed class system inspired directly by Final Fantasy V, then I might just have a new favorite Final Fantasy on my hands. I eagerly await any news about this title and hope it can scratch that itch Emblems could within me.

Touhou Koumakyou: New Classic - the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil (Release Date: Sep 9, 2026 - Nintendo Switch/Switch 2, PS5, Steam)

Touhou 6 Officially in English 

The Touhou series should be nothing new to anyone who spends a decent chunk of time on the internet. Its iconography, characters, and music can be spotted just about anywhere. There are also countless official fangames made in the franchise's image, leading to a series that has an incredibly large reach globally. Despite this however, the mainline traditional Shoot-Em-Up entries of the series created by ZUN remain largely inaccessible outside of Japan. Not only were they never localized, but the first half of the series has never been made officially available for purchase on digital storefronts, leading to most people never experiencing this juggernaut on its home turf. Times have officially begun to change however with the recent announcement of a remake for one of the series most well known entries, The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil.

This re-release of the series' 6th entry is notable for a couple of reasons. Firstly, this marks the first time a classic entry has been made officially available on digital storefronts. Now anyone with a Nintendo Switch or PS5 can also try out the series proper on their preferred console. The biggest aspect of this release though comes from the fact that it will be localized in multiple languages aside from Japanese. The game will be localized in: English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, and Korean. Now, tons of people who might have gained an interest in the series from across the globe will be able to indulge in a mainline title proper. Finally, there’s the aspect of more classic Touhou re-releases occurring as time goes by allowing for those classic entries to be officially available to all for as long as possible.

Hope You're Good at Dodging. I Know I'm Not

This will be my first time touching a mainline Touhou proper, and while I’ve heard the game can be incredibly hard, I’m more than willing to take up the challenge. The fact that this announcement was originally only in the Japanese Nintendo Direct yet still became one of the most notable announcements from the entire show speaks volumes towards its significance. I will do my best to be there when the game drops in September, both to finally cross off a bucket list game and to show my support for the effort proper.

Xenoblade Genesis (Release Date: 2027 - Nintendo Switch 2)

Welcome Back Monolith Soft

I consider myself to be a rather casual Xenoblade fan. I’ve played the Nintendo Switch version of 1 and 3, dabbled a bit in the definitive edition of X, but haven’t touched the 2nd entry as of writing this. While I had expected Monolith Soft to drop Nintendo Switch 2 upgrades for the Xenoblade trilogy in this month's Nintendo Direct, what I hadn't anticipated was them dropping a teaser for their next big release, and for that teaser to capture me as much as it did.

The trailer itself didn’t show off a lot, mainly a brief introduction to the academy setting and to the protagonist Eleanor(?), but the game visually has a gorgeous art style. The character designers for the game are Yoneyama Mai and PALOW, and from what I’ve seen in the teaser they’ve done a great job. I’ve seen tons of love for the new protagonist and the different creatures we saw in the overworld look interesting too. The trailer also seems to note the importance of a substance called Anima, though not much is established on it beyond its importance as a life source for the setting. There also appears to be mounts in the game, a first for the series. The look sort of reminded me of riding the Sabercat in Dragon Quest VII, and anything that reminds me of that masterpiece will get me excited.

I’d love to say more but the trailer only showed so much that there’s not much else to say. I’m counting the days until we get that next trailer (likely in a presumed September Nintendo Direct) and will do my best to pick up the game as soon as it launches in 2027. Monolith Soft has done well before, and I’m positive they’ll do well again.

Muramasa: Revenant Blades (Release Date: 2027 - Nintendo Switch/Switch 2, PS5, Steam)

A Vanillaware Classic Coming to Modern Consoles AND PC!

The main significance of the upcoming re-release of Vanillaware’s Muramasa lies in its Steam port. Vanillaware games are infamous for skipping out on PC, with the company's last release, Unicorn Overlord, serving as a bit of a boiling point in the discussion. People questioned just what the companies aversion was to having their games on PC. Atlus served as the predominate publisher for the companies latest releases and they’ve been gung-ho about PC releases since 2021, which only added to the confusion since you’d think their close relationship would cause Atlus to push for PC versions of their games to meet fan demand. Whatever the reason, Vanillaware games were strictly a console exclusive experience until now.

Muramasa: Revenant Blades, with Marvelous serving as the publisher this go around, will be the first time any Vanillaware game has hit a PC store front, potentially opening the door for their other hits, such as the aforementioned Unicorn Overlord and the critically acclaimed 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim to hit Steam at some point in the future. Let’s not get too distracted by that potential future though, as from what I’ve seen Muramasa looks great. Originally a Nintendo Wii release that saw another release on the PS Vita with extra content, Muramasa appears to be a 2D action game that plays a bit like a metroidvania. The company's beautiful watercolor art style is retained, and the variety of characters to play as looks like it’ll add a lot of variety to combat. I don’t know if you’ll switch between them mid-game or if they’ll have their own campaigns, something to look into later.

I’m always down for a modern port of a game that I never had access to before, and if it runs well on PC then that’s absolutely the platform I’m grabbing the game for. Muramasa: Revenant Blades looks to be an exciting release for many reasons, and it’s absolutely one that I’ll be eager to play one day. In the meantime, I should probably start up that copy of 13 Sentinels that I’ve had on my PS5 for quite a while now.

Dragon Quest Monsters: The Withered World/Dragon Quest XII: Beyond Dreams (Release Date: Dec 3, 2026 - Nintendo Switch/Switch 2, PS5, Series X, Steam/All Unknown for DQXII)

Dragon Quest V Returns as a Dragon Quest Monsters Game, Coming Full Circle

I’ve made a decent stride through most mainline Dragon Quest entries at the time of writing this piece, with there only being four entries I haven’t beaten yet (IV, VI, IX, X). I’ve gained an immense love for the series since picking up Dragon Quest V back in 2024. Yet, I haven’t actually experienced any of the series' numerous spinoffs yet. I haven’t touched the Builders series, either of the two Heroes games, any Rocket Slime, and not any of the Monsters series. The spinoffs have always been something I intended to dabble into one day, but they’ve never been a priority over playing either another mainline DQ or just another game period.

Admittedly, most of my interest in this latest entry in the Monsters sub-series stems from how it revolves around the world of V specifically. I look back on my time with that game fondly, so a chance to experience those characters in a different context seems fun to me. The actual monster collecting aspect of the game doesn’t really draw me in all too much. “Creature Collectors” outside of the Megami Tensei series have never been my absolute favorite flavor of RPG. I’ve dabbled in Pokémon here and there, the first Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth was a fun time but nothing outstanding, and even the monster catching mechanics of DQV weren’t my favorite to engage with looking back. I can enjoy them, but it’s not the shining reason why I’m interested in this game as a whole.

But alongside the announcement of the latest spinoff, we also got confirmation that DQXII had to restart development, a result I can’t say I’m surprised to see happen. We hadn’t seen any official screenshots or gameplay of the original game after its very brief teaser, and that normally stems from an issue of troubled development. While the announcement does sting, I think there’s a lot of positives to salvage here. Mainly in the fact that we actually got to see some of the game this time. We saw our protagonist, one of the party members, and got the briefest look at the overall setting. I think we’re much closer to this game's release than most think, and while the additional wait time stings, if the final product comes out all the better for it then I think (hope) that it will have all been worth it in the end.

Persona 4 Revival (Release Date: Feb 18, 2027 - PS5, Series X, Steam)

Properly Revealed Over a Year After the Initial Teaser

I honestly didn’t know what to think upon seeing the initial reveal for Persona 4 Revival (P4R). It was incredibly short and the “meat” of the trailer was approximately 7 seconds of Yu running in Inaba before it just ended. Hilarious to think about given all the rumors of a Persona 4 (P4) remake going around at the time, but the trailer left nothing to chew on. Not helping the situation was the fact that I still don’t truly believe a remake was necessary. Persona 4 Golden (P4G) is available on all modern platforms for $20 and regularly sees sales. Sure, there are aspects that newcomers to the series might find dated, but what’s wrong with that? Just because a game has a couple years on it doesn’t mean there’s no value in it as it currently is. Persona 4 Revival more or less just seemed like a graphical update and that felt shallow. Now here we are over a year after that initial teaser with a proper trailer, and while I feel my concerns still stand, I can at the very least see the quality of care going into the remake.

P4R looks to be a pretty good recreation of P4G specifically, already avoiding the pitfall Persona 3 Reload (P3R) fell into by locking the epilogue to the DLC expansion pass. The extended content in P4G is more intrinsically linked to the main campaign so it being DLC was likely out of the question, but fans were right to be worried after P3R cut both the Answer and the female protagonist despite the fact that you’d think both would be shoe-ins for a full scale remake. P4R also seems to be built on P3R’s engine, so graphically it looks just as nice. Though I will say that the animated cutscenes appear to be a step above what P3R’s had to offer, which is a nice increase in budget. The initial Persona awakening being an animated cutscene instead of an in-engine one is a major relief for me, since I feel the scene in P3R is one of the weaker interpretations of such an iconic moment. 

Combat Looks Cool, But Will it Feel Cool?

Combat has a few new ideas going on with it. The ability to knock enemies into one another could be used to create some pretty unique scenarios, especially when it comes to trying to spread ailments around to the entire enemy group. Prime time, essentially a super mode where you’re given 4 turns in a row of all skills ignoring resistances and costing 0 sp, also looks like it could be a fun mechanic to build towards during a tough encounter. Though that’s assuming any challenge will exist in the game at all. P3R was a rather major drop off in difficulty from the original, and I think that’s a shame because I feel the 1-More style of combat in modern Persona works at its best when you're strategizing around a tough encounter. Seeing your party formation come together as you try to squeeze out every turn possible from a boss kicking your face in is a MegaTen specialty, and it’s something that Persona specifically has lacked for a while now as more and more priority is given to the social elements opposed to the dungeon crawling and combat. I really want P4R to have some bite to it again. The game doesn’t have to tear my body to shreds, but at least give me just a bit more to chew on.

Of all the games on this list, Persona 4 Revival will likely be the one I’m most likely to skip on release in favor of a sale. But the fact that it even appeared here at all shows that the new trailer was able to win me over a bit. I still believe that we don’t need this game remade, but at the very least Atlus appears to be going all in on bringing this game back. Persona 4: The Animation was what introduced me to Atlus as a whole, so I’d be lying if I said P4R wasn’t making me even a bit nostalgic. It’ll be a while before I grab this one, though I hope it’s satisfactory for those who are about to experience Persona 4 for the first time.

A Satisfying Reveal Season Overall:

While the games listed here aren’t the only ones that caught my attention during that massive week-long extravaganza, they were the ones that stayed on my mind the most when all was said and done. It could be due to familiarity with the property or just because the game visually looked interesting, but all six of these games are ones that I plan to keep track of in the future. Overall though, I’d say the summer announcement season for games was a success for the most part. As I noted in the beginning of this post, for the past few years I had considered the summer reveal season to leave me wanting more often than not. Maybe I’d find a game or two to be interested in though mostly I’d be left rather underwhelmed by what was on display. Thankfully, this year was an exception. If someone plays any genre of game, they likely walked away with something to look forward to. Lots of love for all different types of players was spread, and that’s incredibly valuable no matter what.