The month of June was packed to the brim with reveal trailers and release date trailers for TONS (or TONNES, as my UK brethren here at Gaming Respawn put it) of games coming later this year and next year. Seriously, the number of trailers we got in June during State of Play, Summer Game Fest, and Nintendo Direct was staggering, and for us at least, it felt unprecedented. 2026 has already seen some big, successful game releases, like Resident Evil Requiem, Crimson Desert, Pragmata, and 007 First Light, and there’s still plenty more to come once we enter the Fall season and beyond. Take a read of “Gaming Respawn’s Most Anticipated Games 2026-2027” and see which of the many upcoming titles had us salivating more than any others.
Will Worrall
Spyro: A Realm Beyond and Stronghold 4
With June having run its course, there are so many new games adorning the wishlists of gamers all over the world, no matter what platforms or systems you play on. Personally, it was a bloated year for me, though most of what I was interested in was really niche indie titles, mostly in the horror department.
That aside, there are two games in particular for which I find myself waiting with baited breath: Spyro: A Realm Beyond and Stronghold 4.
Spyro: A Realm Beyond
This one should need almost no explanation for those who know me or my work on the site (link to GenreQuest here?). Spyro: A Realm Beyond is a huge, big-budget 3D platformer game for the modern era, starring everyone’s favourite purple dragon. I’m so hyped for this and only partially because it’s a sign that Toys for Bob are being allowed to do what they are good at.
While the trailer was a bit thin on details, from what we know about the game, it’s going to have huge, sprawling levels, and Spyro is finally old enough to have the ability to fly on command rather than during convenient gameplay segments, so we’ll be freely flying around the levels to our heart’s content in scenes we could only imagine back in the PS1 days.
While there have been 11 other games in the series at this point, the last time we got a truly great one was probably Spyro: Year of the Dragon (or A Hero’s Tail, depending on who you ask), so you’ll excuse me if I’m going into this one with some cautious optimism.
Stronghold 4
Now, this one might be harder to explain. I’m sure there are plenty of fans of Stronghold out there, but bugger me if I’ve ever been able to find one. If you’re not familiar, these are medieval RTS games that famously used to include an economy-only mode if you were not a fan of the combat side of the game.
I played the original game to death as a kid, and I cannot wait to get the chance to play it again. Having the little helper guy say, “Site your granary, m’lord,” sent waves of nostalgia crashing over me again, and frankly, does the game even need much more than that to be good? Well, yes, obviously.
Firstly, it’ll be a huge loss if the game doesn’t include that same “economics-only” mode that made the first game so palatable for my young heart. I cannot wait to get to try this one out again, even if I’m terrible at being a lord. In the meantime, I suppose I’ll be playing the first game’s HD re-release on Steam.
Peter Keen
Muramasa: Revenant Blades
There has been a ridiculous number of new game trailers dropped over the last month. It’s been really hard but fun to trawl through them all and find which one I’m most looking forward to. There are the big hitters that appeal to me, with Persona 4 Revival, Blood Message, Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, and Stranger Than Heaven all being big titles that most of us are aware of.
However, it was during the Nintendo Direct showcase that a game dropped that literally made me jump out of my seat and shout “YES!” in pure joy. It’s a game that may not mean much to some, but it means the world to me. That game is Muramasa: Revenant Blades.
Why does this game excite me so much? I’m glad you asked (LOL!).
It’s because back in the day when the PS Vita was a thing, I bought the game Muramasa Rebirth. This game, in my humble opinion, was a showcase game for the Vita. I showed my daughter the game, and we both marvelled at the gorgeous artwork. She, like me, started to get invested in the story and found the gameplay so exciting to watch. It got to the point where we would hurry through dinner so that we could sit down together, and she could watch me play the game.
Although the game has a lot of sentimental value for me just for the above, it also is just a fantastic gaming experience in its own right, anyway. I loved the game so much that I also purchased and played through all of its DLC. The gameplay is exciting. The stories are excellent. The visuals are jaw-dropping. It’s a Vanillaware-developed game, so what do you expect? I also remember the music being outstanding and authentic too. I had so much fun with the game. The game was so good that I have since ensured that I will always own a working PlayStation Vita JUST to make sure I can play that game (and maybe Uncharted: Golden Abyss).
As time went by, I saw more and more older games get HD remakes and remasters. Some PlayStation Vita games, like Gravity Rush and Patapon, got remasters. Even some Vanillaware games, like Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir and Dragon’s Crown, got remasters but not Muramasa. As the years went by, my hopes faded. I hoped that one day the game would eventually get the remaster it so thoroughly deserved, but eventually, I started to forget to even dream about it anymore.
Then, out of nowhere, I saw the below trailer amongst the others in the recent Nintendo Direct showcase:
(Link)
You have no idea how happy this trailer made me! Years of hoping, of wanting, of waiting…. gone as it’s FINALLY going to happen. Muramasa Rebirth, a.k.a.: Muramasa: Revenant Blades, is coming to Switch 2 (and PlayStation 5 and Steam) in early 2027!
Tasha Quinn
Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy, Fable, and The Blood of Dawnwalker
The Summer Games Fest has really blown me away this year. Sony, Xbox, and Nintendo have all delivered solid offerings – I honestly can’t remember the last time I was so excited for a slew of upcoming games. Two of the biggest surprises for me were the Persona 6 announcement trailer and the Kingdom Hearts IV gameplay trailer, which was, surprisingly enough, revealed during Nintendo Direct. We still don’t have any concrete information about them aside from the fact that they exist, which is why they’re not on my official list.
Before I get into that list, I have a couple of honourable mentions.
Persona 4 Revival has now been given a firm release date of February 2027. This would probably be higher if I hadn’t already played Persona 4 Golden and didn’t already know the story. Then there’s Final Fantasy VII Revelation. We’ve known it was coming for a while now, but we’ve finally been given a title, trailers, and a vague release date of spring 2027.
So, what am I most excited about?
Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy
I’m a big fan of the Plague Tale games, and the newest entry not only got a new trailer, but it is confirmed to be coming to Game Pass when it launches on 27th August this year, so I don’t have to buy it.
I’m a little apprehensive that it won’t feel like a Plague Tale game since it’s set 15 years in the past and doesn’t feature Amicia and Hugo. That said, it does follow Sophia, a character we meet in the second game, so it isn’t entirely unrelated.
It looks like it’s going to have more of a focus on melee combat than stealth, but I’m excited to see where they’re going to go with it.
Fable
Fable has been in development for such a long time that I started to worry we’d never see it. I’ve always loved the Fable games — minus the Kinect entry we don’t speak of — and the first one is a game I can just keep replaying. It was one of the first games I played that made use of a morality system. A game where my choices mattered; I could be as good or as evil as I wanted and run around being called Arseface, if I so wished.
Like Resonance, we now have a firm release date and confirmation that it will be available on Game Pass day one. I just hope they manage to capture the charm of what made the original games so special.
The Blood of Dawnwalker
Unlike the other games on my list, The Blood of Dawnwalker is a brand-new IP from new studio Rebel Wolves, but considering it’s made up of people who worked on The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077, I have pretty high hopes.
Now, I’m pretty weak when it comes to decent vampire media. I’m not talking about the overly romanticised vampires that we sometimes see. I’m talking bloody, violent, burn-in-the-sun vampires, and I’m really hoping this game delivers.
From the outset, it looks great. The main character is human by day and vampire by night, so there’s the promise of two distinct gameplay loops. It sounds like it’s going to be a very choice-driven game too, with decisions you make actually making a difference. I’m actually trying not to read too much about it because I want to be surprised, but this is the game I’m probably looking forward to the most.
Daniel Garcia-Montes
Onimusha: Way of the Sword and Marvel’s Wolverine
I was truly impressed with how many games were revealed or got release date trailers during this last month. A big surprise for me was the Dark Arisen expansion for Dragon’s Dogma II. That one came out of NOWHERE, especially since the main game released two years ago and appeared to be on Capcom’s “we’re done with this series” list. I’m rather excited about this one, but given that it releases later this year very soon after other full games I’m more excited about, I’m going to have to put it on the backburner before I can find the time to play it. And I’m hoping it ends up being more balanced than the latter stages of the previous Dark Arisen expansion.
Control Resonant is another game I’m looking forward to getting. I enjoyed the original Control, and the sequel looks to make things more intense by focusing on melee combat and even more mind-bending (and environment-bending) weirdness with its story. But this game releases within the same 10-day period as the two heavy-hitters I am most excited for above all others, so Control Resonant will also have to go on the backburner for the foreseeable future (and I’ll have to replay Control beforehand so I can refresh myself on its “out there” story).
I have some interest in another game called Fatekeeper, which is currently available in early access. The gameplay they’ve shown so far for this title has me intrigued. Playing as an armored paladin/battlemage type of character in a first-person perspective, you slay monsters in a more linear type of dungeon-crawling experience, which honestly looks pretty damn interesting with its deliberate and visceral combat. Assuming I decided to get the game, I still have to wait for it to release on consoles, which it very likely will, but either way, I have a long wait for it. And then there’s the Revelations DLC for Doom: The Dark Ages, another expansion I didn’t think was actually going to happen. It releases in about a week, and I will be pausing my still on-going playthrough of Crimson Desert to play this badass-looking DLC day-one. Aside from the new weapons, abilities, and enemies they’ve showcased, it looks like the Revelations DLC might actually have a more involved and better written story as well, something the main game was seriously lacking.
But now, we come to the two games I am really looking forward to playing more than anything else.
Onimusha: Way of the Sword
I LOVE the Onimusha series. I played the hell out of the original games on the PS2 multiple times back in the day, back when I had the stamina for more consistent gaming. I figured the series was long dead, even though Capcom released remasters for the first two games, Onimusha: Warlords and Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny. I was hoping they’d remaster Onimusha 3: Demon Siege (my overall favorite of the series) and Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams as well, but nope. So, I was quite pleasantly surprised when that first reveal trailer for Onimusha: Way of the Sword dropped in late 2024, and the little gameplay they showed then looked SICK. The more recent release date trailer showed even more gameplay, and it still looks kickass. It looks to fully capture the essence of the original games and combine it with more modern elements of gameplay and cinematic presentation. Looking back, I don’t think I was all that good at playing the PS2 games, relying more on chugging health items to survive enemy onslaughts rather than actually avoiding and defending (especially parrying) enemy attacks as much as I should, as well as just mindlessly slashing away at enemies and not biding my time to strike when they were most vulnerable.
I will endeavor to replay the original PS2 Onimusha titles to refamiliarize myself with the gameplay and story, as well as to relive some of that sweet, sweet nostalgia from my younger years. I also plan on getting through the games more efficiently and not getting my virtual ass handed to me quite as much as before. Once that’s done, I’m picking up Onimusha: Way of the Sword and diving head-first into the awesome demon-slaying action. S**t, I still have to pre-order the game.
Marvel’s Wolverine
Even though I’m a big fan of Insomniac’s Spider-Man series, I was initially only intrigued by their upcoming Wolverine game. You see, I’m a much bigger Spidey fan than a Wolverine fan. I know Wolverine is a huge fan favorite, but I tend to think he has a bit too much focus placed on him in popular media. I like the character, in fact, he’s in my personal list of top 10 Marvel heroes…but he’s more in the number 6 or 7 spot. It just feels like I see the character EVERYWHERE sometimes, and it can be quite irksome, which is why I always loved that line Magneto says to him in the film X2: X-Men United: “Once again, you think it’s all about YOU,”. Other than some older Sega Genesis Wolverine game that I can’t remember the name of and that I dabbled in years back, I never really played any games focusing on Wolverine or the X-Men much at all. The PS2 title X2: Wolverine’s Revenge and the PS2/PS3 title X-Men Origins: Wolverine were apparently well liked amongst many gamers, but I never played those either due to them being movie tie-ins, which were normally known to suck back then.
Insomniac’s take on Wolverine looked to have some potential, though, when they first showed some limited gameplay for it. The recent release date trailer for the game is what cemented it as a game that I will play for certain. The combat looks to be a smooth, fast-paced affair like in the Spider-Man titles, only this will be far more violent, brutal, and intense, as it should be given this is Wolverine we’re talking about. He’s not fighting enemies using webs and fancy acrobatics, he’s using claws that can make mincemeat out of enemies and the environment. It looks kickass. The main reason I’m not getting Marvel’s Wolverine day-one is because it releases a mere 10 days before the new Onimusha, and that’s the game I MUST play day-one, so Wolverine will have to settle for playing second fiddle to that game. But I very much look forward to both titles.
