#5. FINAL FANTASY 7 REMAKE
Remaking one of the most beloved games of all time invites a ton of skepticism regardless of who might be developing it, and that’s something that was only doubled – to say the least – thanks to not only Square Enix’s patchy track record in recent years (especially with Final Fantasy), but also their insistence on releasing the remake as an episodic series. Final Fantasy 7 Remake had a lot to live up to and quite a few hurdles to leap over, so the fact that it turned out to be so resoundingly successful in almost every way possible should tell you a lot about how good it is. It takes a cast of characters that have achieved the status of legends in the industry, and portrays them with the perfect balance of being faithful to the original games and bringing in its own new ideas, which is something that it does constantly with its larger story as well. Best of all is the combat, which is a thrilling mishmash of pure, out-and-out action and tactical, strategy-based decision-making, simultaneously succeeding as a modern real-time action game and a new take on the original game’s turn-based mechanics. Final Fantasy 7 Remake is a game millions had been anticipating for over a decade. The fact that it lived up to those massive expectations is a monumental success in and of itself.
