Summer Game Fest gave us our first good look at next year’s Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and rumors of a remake for Final Fantasy IX have persisted ever since it first popped up in the infamous Nvidia leak, but if new rumors are to be believed, Final Fantasy X will soon be joining the Final Fantasy remake club. According to a user on ResetEra, Square Enix seemingly has plans to release a remake of Final Fantasy X in 2026 to coincide with the game’s 25th anniversary, and I’m absolutely here for it.
The user has since deleted their account, but they were reportedly accurate about the announcement of a remake for Persona 3 Reload according to some of the responses from other ResetEra users, including its appearance at the upcoming Xbox Games Showcase. Other users on the site have vouched for the leaker’s legitimacy, helping to lend a bit of credence to their claims that a remake of Final Fantasy X is in development. It’s still important to take this with a giant grain of salt since it’s coming from a random person online and not a trusted and established industry figure such as Jeff Grubb or Jason Schrier.
I’ve long been of the mindset that if another Final Fantasy game was going to get a remake, it would be either VI, IX, or X, so this isn’t that surprising to me. Outside of VII and XIV, those three are generally the most universally beloved entries by fans of the series. We also know that Square Enix has been thinking about Final Fantasy X thanks to comments made to Famitsu in 2021 (and reported by RPGSite) by members of the original development team.
“If we are to make X-3, we somehow have a synopsis written by Nojima-san,” said Final Fantasy X character designer Tetsuya Nomura. In the same conversation with Famitsu, Final Fantasy X lead designer Motomu Toriyama added more fuel to the fire. “The probability is not zero. But we are not in a phase where we can talk about it, unless we have finished producing Final Fantasy VII Remake.”
With these statements in mind, it’s not completely unreasonable to believe that Square Enix would be planning to remake Final Fantasy X. Some people may be against this entry getting a remake, and I can understand why. While it is over 20 years old, it’s still aged fairly well. The battle system is timeless (even if random encounters are pretty dated), the story is perfect as is, and if you ignore the faces in the HD remaster, the visuals still hold up pretty well too for an early PS2 game. I can also understand why people may feel that entries such as Final Fantasy IV, VI, or VIII are more deserving of the remake treatment due to their age, but I’m actually all aboard the Final Fantasy X remake train.
Ever since I first played it back in 2014, I’ve always wondered what the world of Spira would look like if it was made in the modern day. That wonder was amplified by seeing how the excellent Final Fantasy VII Remake created the city of Midgar with a AAA-budget on modern day hardware. Spira is a beautiful place filled with locations that would be utterly jaw-dropping on newer consoles. Whether it’s the quaint islands of Besaid and Kilika, the bustling city Luca, or the gorgeous and serene Macalania Forest, the many places that Final Fantasy X takes you too can be elevated to a much higher level with a remake. That’s not even to mention potentially expanding on places like Bevelle and Zanarkand by giving you the chance to explore it more than you’re currently able to.
Each of the characters would also greatly benefit from the visual facelift that a remake would provide. The original PS2 version of Final Fantasy X was highly acclaimed for the characters’ expressive faces, but this was unfortunately lost with the HD remasters. A remake would rectify this by giving us the best looking versions of the cast to date. We’d be able to truly appreciate the anger, sadness, and joy in everyone’s face as they go through the story, making us more attached to them. And aside from getting a more nuanced performance from everyone, it’ll just be nice to see everyone in modern day visuals.
Redoing the combat will be a bit tricky. I love the original turn-based system, but would be very excited by a more system that was more real-time action. I think Square Enix would feel the same way, but what I’m not sure about would be if they’d try to combine some elements of the original’s battle-system with real-time action, or if they’d drop it all entirely. Perhaps they’d allow you to switch between playable party members at any time like in Final Fantasy VII Remake, and also allow you to switch out any available party member at any time during combat, similar to how you can in the original Final Fantasy X. I feel like that’d be a smart way to retain the old system while embracing something completely new.
The last key point of contention for a potential Final Fantasy X remake is how to approach the story. Do they keep it the same or make major changes? I doubt that Square Enix would do anything as drastic as they have with Final Fantasy VII Remake. I believe that they’d keep the story as is more or less, but I can also see them possibly expanding on certain things. Maybe they’ll plant some seeds for Final Fantasy X-2 by teasing Paine and the rest of the Crimson Squad? Perhaps they would give a more clear cut understanding of Seymour’s backstory in the main story? They could also provide more opportunities for the main party to bond and feel like a family throughout Yuna’s pilgrimage. Lulu could use some more character development in the main story as well.
All that said, I’m not going to get too excited until we either get more rumors about its existence or official confirmation from Square Enix themselves. A 2026 release seems a bit ambitious and optimistic given the multiple big projects that Square has in the works: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and its follow-up, Kingdom Hearts IV, Dragon Quest XII, the rumored Final Fantasy IX remake, more content for Final Fantasy XIV, and likely the next numbered Final Fantasy entry. I’m not sure that they’d be able to squeeze another big remake in there for release by 2026, so it’ll likely be coming later than that unless it’s not going to be a very high budget project, which is something I also doubt.
Even still, while this is just a rumor from someone who we don’t know if we can fully trust, the thought of a potential Final Fantasy X remake has me incredibly excited. It was my first entry in the series and it’s been a major bonding point for me and my girlfriend, so it’s quite special to me. For now, I’ll bask in the excitement and fantasize about this remake for years to come.
TheComfySpot 