In 2004, Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi founded Mistwalker, a new studio dedicated to making JRPGs not unlike the ones Sakaguchi built his career on. The first title from Mistwalker was the well-received Blue Dragon, an Xbox 360 exclusive, and then the studio went on to release Xbox 360 exclusive Lost Odyssey to mostly positive reviews as well. Mistwalker has developed exclusively for mobile devices since 2011's The Last Story launched for the Wii, and so it's understandable that some fans are wanting to see some of its older games get some more time in the spotlight.
Unfortunately for fans holding out hope that some of Mistwalker's older, more traditional games will be getting remakes, that doesn't seem to be in the cards. In a recent interview with VGC, Sakaguchi said that there are currently no plans to remake any of Mistwalker's games. He explained that even though they are called "remakes," they still take enough effort and resources that there isn't much difference in developing a completely brand new game. For that reason, he would rather just make a new game instead.
While Mistwalker does not have any plans to remake any of its games just yet, some of its older titles are regularly available on modern platforms. Thanks to the Xbox backward compatibility program, fans can actually play Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey on a console as new as the Xbox Series X. The Last Story may be a bit more difficult to track down, but it is at least playable on both the Wii and Wii U consoles.
Since The Last Story launched in 2011, Mistwalker has focused on developing mobile games. Party Wave, Blade Guardian, Terra Battle, Terra Battle 2, and Terra Wars all launched in the past decade. While Terra Battle received mostly positive reviews, the games were eventually shutdown and their servers taken offline. Some hardcore Mistwalker fans may want to see these games remade instead of the older titles, but that seems even less likely.
Mistwalker will be continuing its mobile game development with is next title, Fantasian. Fantasian is being developed for Apple Arcade and uses a unique diorama art style. Early reactions to Fantasian have been mostly positive so far, with a lot of praise given to its art style in particular. The game is also notable as it may be the final game that has a full soundtrack composed by the legendary Nobuo Uematsu.
Not only that, but Hironobu Sakaguchi himself may be retiring soon, which makes Fantasian all the more important to JRPG fans. Whether or not it lives up to the hype remains to be seen, but Mistwalker fans will find out later this year.
Source: VGC