Polygon
Summer season Recreation Fest 2026
Dwell recreation reveals, world premiere trailers, and what’s subsequent from 40+ builders, publishers, and {hardware} makers.
Dive in→
With the final Nintendo Direct on June 9, we wrapped up a complete week of bulletins and occasions centered on the upcoming months of gaming. Whereas the highlight appeared dominated by names like God of Conflict Laufey, and Gears of Conflict: E-Day, the actual winners of this occasion season have been the JRPG followers. We now have a lineup to stay up for that’s as spectacular and thrilling as we as soon as noticed within the PlayStation 2’s golden age. Up till now, 2026 has been a gradual yr for brand spanking new JRPGs. Trails Past the Horizon lastly got here out within the West, we explored the lovable doll-like world of Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined, and we hatched eggs in Monster Hunter Tales 3. Positive there have been different releases, just like the Utawarerumono: Previous and Current Rediscovered, and there have been future video games to be enthusiastic about, like The Adventures of Elliot and (finally) Dragon Quest 12. Nevertheless, all it took was the top of this yr’s Summer season Recreation Fest showcase, with the primary trailer and launch date of the third recreation within the Ultimate Fantasy 7 remake venture, to open the gates to JRPG heaven.
Picture: Sq. Enix
All through the final seven days, we noticed: Sq. Enix’s in depth take a look at Ultimate Fantasy 7 Revelation; Sega lastly asserting the Persona 4 Revival launch date and confirming Persona 6 is in improvement; and Nintendo sharing the discharge date of Fireplace Emblem Fortune’s Weave, a glimpse of the brand new Xenoblade recreation, the not-so-new Ultimate Fantasy Resonance, and a prolonged take a look at Kingdom Hearts 4, lastly appeasing the distressed followers who’ve been ready years for information. To make the subsequent months look even higher for JRPG followers, we’ll even have Trails within the Sky 2nd Chapter arriving in September, Tales of Eternia Remastered in October, and Dragon Quest Monsters: The Withered World in December. Positive, there are too many video games to play already — much more so if we take into account totally different genres. Amongst them, those popping out within the second half of 2026 will likely be competing amongst themselves to flee GTA 6. Even when we are able to handle to begin a few of these video games as soon as they arrive out, Ultimate Fantasy 7 Revelation will likely be ready proper across the nook. Even so, the longer term appears shiny for JRPG followers. The present lineup of upcoming video games makes me really feel like I am again to the early 2000s when the PlayStation 2 had two mainline Ultimate Fantasy video games, Persona 3 FES and Persona 4, Kingdom Hearts 1 and a couple of, and the Xenosaga trilogy. It’s a second in gaming historical past the place concepts and tendencies have been established.
Picture: Monolith Comfortable/Nintendo
All these bulletins are the meals an endlessly hungry group wants. In recent times, the style has steadily grown with gamers moving into the established sequence like Persona — which only recently reached the mark of 30 million copies offered worldwide — to discovering new sequence due to video games like Trails within the Sky 1st Chapter and Digimon Story: Time Stranger. However now, with a brand new Ultimate Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, and Persona recreation on the horizon, I can solely see the style rising stronger.
We won’t ignore that every one of those long-running sequence have laid the foundations for most of the style’s aesthetic conventions. The prospect of getting all of them coming again across the identical time is an occasion able to making waves for a few years to come back. In different phrases, we could be coming nearer to a different golden age of JRPGs.
Associated
Ultimate Fantasy 7 Revelation’s Gold Saucer will likely be a Queen’s Blood paradise, director confirms
Naoki Hamaguchi explains how the minigame hub will work in Revelation
