The gaming industry often follows trends, with specific genres sometimes oversaturating the market and leaving other areas of interest unexplored as the fad continues. However, it looks like one of these trends might be getting a return, with the fantasy genre seeing a new renaissance in 2021 with the expectations of upcoming releases like Elder Scrolls 6 and Final Fantasy 16.
This may be the start of a shift from heavily sci-fi oriented titles that continue to flood the market, especially considering that developers that accel in the flashy, tech-based genre like Square Enix are returning to fantasy with Final Fantasy 16. These new games show a heavy resurgence of the genre that has gone mostly unexplored by leading industry publishers and developers for the last few years.
It is a welcome return to form for the gaming industry, considering that the few fantasy titles that have launched over the last several years have often been steady mixes with sci-fi. Games like Remnant: From the Ashes or Hunt: Showdown that dip into fantasy also bring some sci-fi flair along with them in the form of the somewhat steampunk-inspired firearms. So, with developers like Obsidian planning to follow up sci-fi epics like The Outer Worlds with the fantasy open-world of Avowed, players may be getting a much more purely high-fantasy style of content to refresh the market.
One of the strongest examples of how sci-fi continues to dominate gaming, even within other narrative genres, is the ongoing Final Fantasy 7 Remake series. Even though the title implies that it should be a fantasy game, every aspect of Final Fantasy 7 screams science fiction, even if there are a number of fantasy elements mixed in for good measure. However, beyond this, there are also tons of straight sci-fi titles that don’t mix the genres and instead lean in heavily on flashy technology and futuristic worlds.
To name a few science fiction titles that have dominated the market from 2020 alone, there’s Cyberpunk 2077, Watch Dogs: Legion, and Spider Man: Miles Morales. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as there is certainly a demand for sci-fi games, especially in the first-person and third-person shooter genres. The problem comes from a simple lack of variety in itself, something that the upcoming Fantasy Renaissance will hopefully introduce a level of variety with titles like Dragon Age 4.
With the release of next-gen consoles, 2021 is going to be an important time for this new era of gaming, as what releases within the systems’ first year will determine, in part, how developers move forward for the consoles’ lifespan. Possible titles that may not even release in 2021, such as the highly anticipated Elden Ring, will be creating a foothold for other similar titles to reach these new platforms. There is a lot of potential in the coming year’s planned releases within the fantasy genre to ensure that it doesn’t get ignored for the rest of the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S’s lifecycle.
Of course, this is all quite a bit to frontload onto these titles, implying that they might make or break the genre depending on whether they are critical and financial successes. While each individual game’s relative success might have a huge impact on the developers creating them, the impact on the genre can be much more subtle than breakout hits that reshape gaming as a whole. What the fantasy genre really needs now is quality representation, as opposed to groundbreaking innovation, which is exactly what players are hoping to see from upcoming titles like The Elder Scrolls 6. Simply adding variety to the market by mixing fantasy titles into the releases of 2021 is what the industry needs for a Fantasy Renaissance to help keep the market fresh.
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