Best Remaster of 2024 - Article

by Taneli Palola , posted on 12 January 2025 / 2,780 Views

We're living in the era of remasters today, with seemingly every even remotely relevant title of yesteryear getting its second - or sometimes third - turn at the spotlight. Yet, many of these returning names end up back right where they came from, lost and forgotten amidst a sea of other remasters, remakes, and reimaginings. Not the case with these four titles, which were given a new lease on life in 2024, and made the most of that opportunity.

The Shortlist:

Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster

Fantasian: Neo Dimension

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered

Beyond Good & Evil: 20th Anniversary Edition

The Runner-Up:

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered

The initial reaction to the Horizon Zero Dawn remaster wasn't very positive, with a lot of people asking why it was even happening so soon after the original release, but it seems the community still enjoyed the remaster quite a lot. The remaster doesn't make any massive changes, mainly focusing on graphical improvements in order to bring the game up to the standards of its sequel, Forbidden West. The other key feature is improved dialogue animation, which was one of the original's weaker aspects, so that's very much a welcome change. All of this was enough to secure second place in the race for Best Remaster of 2024.

The Winner:

Fantasian: Neo Dimension

I imagine that the winner here is at least something of a surprise to a lot of people, as Fantasian: Neo Dimension is by a fair margin the least well-known title on the shortlist, but it has a very strong pedigree behind it. A classic-style JRPG created by Hironobu Sakaguchi and his company Mistwalker, Fantasian was originally released back in 2021 on mobile through Apple Arcade. The remaster features updated graphics, various gameplay tweaks, as well as voice acting in both English and Japanese. It was received very well upon release, and proved to be a worthy return to home consoles for Sakaguchi, whose previous home console title was The Last Story on the Wii all the way back in 2011.