BODY: When Taito dropped the announcement on September 21, one of the loudest reactions came not from a games outlet but from a two-time Olympic figure skating champion. "FAAAAAA!!!!!" posted Yuzuru Hanyu, followed by a barely coherent "Is this real? No way…" The man who once told reporters at the Beijing Olympics that his gaming roots were Heisei Shin Onigashima and Estpolis Denki II had just watched his favorite 31-year-old RPG come back from the dead.
Estpolis Denki I & II — released in the West as Lufia & the Fortress of Doom (1993) and Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals (1995) — is coming to Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, PlayStation 5 and PC (Steam) in 2027. Pricing is still unannounced. Both titles ship together in what Taito calls a "partially renewed" port: the original pixel art stays, with quality-of-life features layered on top.
The most telling change is a textual one. The Super Famicom cartridges were cramped enough that dialogue ran almost entirely in hiragana, which reads to Japanese eyes a bit like a children's book. Every line in both games has now been revisited and rendered with proper kanji — a small mercy that required someone to actually go back through the entire script.
Fittingly, that someone has history here. Masahide Miyata, director of the original games, is on the development team. Production is handled by Stockholm-based ClearRiverGames, with Taito's Yuichi Toyama producing.
The insider take
Two details matter more than the announcement itself. First, the original developer, Neverland Company, went bankrupt in 2013 — which is precisely why Lufia sat untouched while lesser Super Famicom RPGs got remasters. Getting Miyata back in the room is the closest thing to a reunion this series can have. Second, ClearRiverGames is a European outfit, and Taito has made no localization promise; but you do not hire a Stockholm studio for a Japan-only release. Western fans who still argue about Lufia II's Ancient Cave and its gut-punch opening should read that hire as a signal. Taito, now a Square Enix subsidiary, has been quietly mining its back catalogue for years — this is the deepest cut yet.
Originally reported by GAME Watch (Japanese).