In this edition of RPGs Coming This Week, we hit the ground running in 2025 with a strong mix of old favorites and new concepts. Expect this to be a recurring theme throughout the year — tons of remasters and remakes are coming, but fresh titles will never be in short supply. It’s good to be back, dear readers. Without further ado, let’s dive in!
Sea Fantasy – January 7th (Windows)
Fishing is probably the most common and time-honored minigame in RPGs. From Breath of Fire to Persona, it’d probably be easier to count the titles within our purview that don’t let you be an angler.
Most of the time, fishing exists as a fun diversion, a smaller piece of the pie. In Sea Fantasy, though, the act takes center stage. “Save the world by fishing,” says the game’s Steam description — because why can’t it be a life-or-death thing?
Sea Fantasy fleshes things out with a crafting system for rods and hooks, as well as a focus on dungeon crawling. Expect to sail through labyrinthine dungeons on some islands you visit and collect loot.
by Gio Castillo
Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana – January 7th (PS5, PS4, Switch)
Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana is a game that needs to be on the radars of action RPG fans, or anyone looking to acquaint themselves with Falcom’s long running series.
The first of our most anticipated games of 2025 to release this year, Ys Memoire: Oath in Felghana is a remaster of 2005’s Ys: The Oath in Felghana, which we recommended as a jumping-on point in our series primer — a sentiment that was echoed during the latest episode of Random Encounter.
So what exactly can people expect from the latest Oath in Felghana? The classic duo of Adol the Red and his beloved confidant Dogi the Wall-Crusher, for one, along with refined visuals, illustrations and a remastered version of what was already a great soundtrack. Combine this with a still (relatively) breezy completion time of 10-14 hours, and it’s easy to see why fans are inviting curious onlookers to pick this one up.
by Kyle Cantelon
Freedom Wars Remastered – January 10th (PS5, PS4, Switch, Windows)
This might be the one first-party Vita exclusive I never expected to see again. The multiplayer action RPG Freedom Wars Remastered is coming to PlayStation, PC via Steam, and even Nintendo Switch, courtesy of Bandai Namco Entertainment and developer Dimps. A wise choice to go multiplatform, since it definitely has a better shot at success by coming out on Switch.
If you aren’t familiar, Freedom Wars is a co-op, mission-based game where you and up to eight others play as so-called Sinners fighting for resources against those in other settlements, known as Panopticons. Plenty of Vita fans vouch for this game, which makes me pretty curious! It’s definitely going in the wishlist.
by Gio Castillo
Leyline Chronicles – January 10th (Windows)
Leyline Chronicles is a throwback RPG with all the requisite bells and whistles: an expansive world, a party of eight characters, turn-based combat (focused on combos), crafting, and… Triple Triad?! I wasn’t expecting that, but I certainly won’t complain. I’ve been saying all along that more games need to iterate on Final Fantasy VIII‘s signature minigame.
One might consider Leyline Chronicles a remaster; it started life as an RPG Maker game called Die Ley Chroniken. To go along with its localization from German to English, developer Dekaytainment decided to overhaul the whole thing. The original game isn’t available anymore, unfortunately.
There’s also a sequel in the works…
by Gio Castillo
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