Every Persona Game and Spin-Off in Order

Beginning its life as a Shin Megami Tensei spin-off, the Persona series has quickly launched into something entirely of its own and become one of the biggest names in modern RPGs. From multiple major sequels and remakes to anime adaptations and even stage plays, Persona is a multimedia sensation, and its popularity doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon.

With the official announcement of both Persona 4 Revival and Persona 6, new players are probably wondering where’s the best place to start. Below, we’ll give you a full rundown of every game and spin-off, including the best entry point for newcomers and both the chronological and release order of the series.

Jump to:

• How to play in order
• How to play by release date
• Upcoming releases

How Many Persona Games Are There?

In total, there are currently 21 Persona games. Several of these are expanded versions of the mainline entries in the series, whether that’s in the form of re-releases featuring new story content or remakes. While we won’t include direct ports or remasters, we’ll make sure to note every alternate version of each game when listing them below.

Every Persona Game and Spin-Off in Release Order

1. Revelations: Persona (1996)
2. Persona 2: Innocent Sin (1999)
3. Persona 2: Eternal Punishment (2000)
4. Persona 3 (2006)
5. Persona 3 FES (2007)
6. Persona 4 (2008)
7. Persona 3 Portable (2009)
8. Persona 4 Arena (2012)
9. Persona 4 Golden (2012)
10. Persona 4 Arena Ultimax (2013)
11. Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth (2014)
12. Persona 4: Dancing All Night (2015)
13. Persona 5 (2016)
14. Persona 3: Dancing in the Moonlight (2018)
15. Persona 5: Dancing in the Starlight (2018)
16. Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth (2018)
17. Persona 5 Royal (2019)
18. Persona 5 Strikers (2020)
19. Persona 5 Tactica (2023)
20. Persona 3 Reload (2024)
21. Persona 5: The Phantom X (2025)

Which Persona Game Should You Play First?

If you're looking for the perfect place to start, you can’t really go wrong jumping into Persona 3 Reload, Persona 4 Golden, or Persona 5 Royal. They’re the latest versions of the third, fourth and fifth mainline entries in the series, and, aside from Persona 3 Reload missing Nintendo Switch, they’re all available on PC and every major console.

For those concerned about skipping the story by jumping into later entries in the series, you won’t miss anything by going straight to Persona 3, 4, or 5. Each game tells an entirely new story with original characters that’s largely disconnected from its predecessors, so they’re great launching points for those coming in fresh. To narrow your choices down, I'd recommend taking a look at some gameplay videos and some of the social links across each of the games to see what "stands out" to you.

Every Persona Game and Spin-Off in Chronological Order

These blurbs contain mild spoilers for each game, including characters, settings, and story beats.

1. Revelations: Persona (1996)

The first game in the series, Revelations: Persona was Atlus’ reaction to the positive reception of Shin Megami Tensei: If…, which was another Shin Megami Tensei spin-off centered around high-schoolers battling demons. Capitalizing on how much players enjoyed the central concept, Revelations: Persona offered a full dungeon-crawling RPG centered around a group of high schoolers battling a supernatural uprising throughout the town of Mikage-cho.

Along the way, they use the powers of their awakened Personas to take down shadows and explore dungeons filled with random encounters, leveling up their party and growing stronger over the course of the game. Revelations: Persona was the foundation of the franchise as we know it today, introducing elements like wielding Personas in combat, the Velvet Room and a teenage cast of heroes.

2. Persona 2: Innocent Sin (1999)

The second entry in the Persona series, Persona 2: Innocent Sin launched in 1999. The game follows a new set of high-school students led by protagonist Tatsuya Suou, who set out on a mission to take down a mysterious villain known as Joker and the cult of the Masked Circle.

Centring around an evil plot where malicious rumors spreading around the town of Sumaru come to life, Persona 2 once again focuses on exploring dungeons, wielding Personas, fighting shadows and leveling up your party. Unlike other entries in the series, it received a direct sequel just a year later, with Persona 2: Eternal Punishment acting as a continuation of the game's story.

Read our review of Persona 2: Innocent Sin.

3. Persona 2: Eternal Punishment (2000)

Following up the events of Innocent Sin, Eternal Punishment promoted side character, Maya Amano, to the protagonist role. Sent to write an article about a new rumor regarding a phenomenon known as the Joker Curse, the game quickly sees Maya and her allies rally against a returning foe.

Acting as a direct continuation of Innocent Sin's story, it centers on the same style of turn-based, dungeon-crawling gameplay, as players build their party and wield their Personas to battle shadows.

Read our review of Persona 2: Eternal Punishment.

4. Persona 3 (2006) / Persona 3 FES (2007) / Persona 3 Portable (2009) / Persona 3 Reload (2024)

The third mainline entry in the franchise, Persona 3 was a major evolution of the Persona formula. Opting to focus on its high-school premise, Persona 3 introduced a daily calendar, with one half of the game tasking players with attending school, developing friendships and studying, while the other sent them to fight shadows in the supernatural realm of Tartarus.

The story focuses on high school student Makoto Yuki, who finds he's able to experience a mysterious space of time known as the Dark Hour, where regular people are trapped in coffins and a demonic tower sprouts from his school. Teaming with his classmates, he explores the tower, uncovering a sinister plot that threatens the entire world. Persona 3 is considered a landmark entry for the series, introducing social links, day-to-day activities and many other mechanics that have since become synonymous with the franchise.

Read our review of Persona 3 Reload.

Alternate Versions of Persona 3:

There are multiple ways to play Persona 3, with the game being re-released three times since it launched. Persona 3 FES was an expansion of the game, including its follow-up chapter, The Answer, and an alternate campaign with a female main character. Persona 3 Portable was a handheld version of the game, which includes the female main character route but not The Answer. And Persona 3 Reload is a full remake of the base game for modern consoles, although it doesn’t include The Answer or the female main character route.

5. Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight (2018)

A rhythm-based dancing spin-off of Persona 3 that takes place during the main campaign, Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight sees Elizabeth challenge the S.E.E.S team to a dance-off in the Velvet Room. The events of the game are set during a dream but are completely canon to the story, and follow the team performing various dance routines to iconic Persona 3 tracks.

6. Persona 4 (2008) / Persona 4 Golden (2012)

The fourth mainline entry in the Persona series, Persona 4 takes place in the rural town of Inaba. Players assume the role of Yu Narukami: a high schooler from the city who moves to the country to live with his uncle and cousin for a year. After arriving, a string of violent murders begin to take place in the town, as Yu and his friends quickly discover they’re somehow linked to a mysterious otherworldly realm they can access by stepping through TV monitors.

Delving into this mysterious new world, Yu and his friends face supernatural forces as they learn more about the murders, using their powers to try and stop them. Building off the mechanics of Persona 3, Persona 4 once again utilizes the calendar system, as players build social links and attend school while also exploring vast dungeons and defeating enemies with their Personas.

Read our review of Persona 4 Golden.

Alternate Versions of Persona 4:

Much like Persona 3 FES, Persona 4 received an expanded re-release in 2012. Known as Persona 4 Golden, it offered new story content and an additional dungeon, and is largely considered the best way to play the game. Persona 4 will be getting yet another remake known as Persona 4 Revival in early 2027.

7. Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth (2014)

Technically taking place during the Persona 3 and Persona 4 storylines simultaneously, Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth is a crossover between both games. During the typhoon segment of Persona 3 and the Culture Festival segment of Persona 4, the S.E.E.S team and the Investigation Squad are trapped inside a warped version of Yasogami High School.

The time-bending event sees both teams come together to investigate the strange occurrence and escape back to their respective spots on the timeline. Along the way, players explore a labyrinth filled with new enemies and uncover an original story, with the spin-off acting as a callback to the series’ more traditional dungeon-crawler roots.

Read our review of Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth.

8. Persona 4 Arena (2012)

A continuation of both Persona 3 and 4’s narratives and the franchise’s first major spin-off, Persona 4 Arena sees Yu Narukami return to Inaba and stumble into a new adventure, as he returns to the TV world for a mysterious fighting tournament. Forced to battle against his allies and a group known as the Shadow Operatives, which is comprised of Persona 3's Mitsuru, Akihiko and Aigis, Arena offers a full fighting game boasting a roster of iconic Persona characters.

Read our review of Persona 4 Arena.

9. Persona 4 Arena Ultimax (2013)

A year following the release of Persona 4 Arena, the spin-off received a sequel titled Persona 4 Arena Ultimax. Taking place directly after the events of the first game, the Persona 4 squad teams up with the Shadow Operatives to return to the TV World and battle against the mysterious forces running the fighting tournament. Ultimax was ultimately an upgrade for the first game, bringing in an expanded roster including returning characters like Yukari, Junpei, Ken and Koromaru.

Read our review of Persona 4 Arena Ultimax.

10. Persona 4: Dancing All Night (2015)

The fourth and arguably most unexpected spin-off of Persona 4, Persona 4: Dancing All Night is a rhythm-based dancing game where the Investigation Squad performs routines to iconic Persona tracks. It offers a completely canon continuation of the storyline, following Yu and the team as they’re sucked into an alternate dimension known as the Midnight Stage.

Read our review of Persona 4: Dancing All Night.

11. Persona 5 (2016) / Persona 5 Royal (2019)

The fifth mainline entry in the series, Persona 5 hit shelves in Japan in 2016 before launching worldwide in 2017. Taking players to Tokyo, it casts them as a new protagonist known as Joker, who finds himself on probation after being framed for a crime he didn’t commit. Attending the local high school, Joker and his friends discover a supernatural alternate dimension, which allows them to infiltrate mystical palaces and change the hearts of evil-doers around the city.

Before long, the group becomes notorious on the streets of Tokyo, going under the alias of the Phantom Thieves. The game builds heavily off the formula established by Persona 3 and 4, including massive story-focused levels that unfold over a month, the return of the negotiation system and a new dungeon system known as Mementos. Persona 5 launched the franchise into the stratosphere, quickly becoming Atlus' best-selling game of all time and cultivating a huge fan base.

Read our review of Persona 5 Royal.

Alternate Versions of Persona 5:

Much like Persona 3 FES and Persona 4 Golden, Persona 5 eventually got an expanded re-release titled Persona 5 Royal. Royal adds a bunch of additional features, including a new companion, dungeon, and semester, making it the ultimate version of the game.

12. Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth (2018)

A sequel to Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth, New Cinema Labyrinth once again depicts a crossover between various Persona characters. After the Phantom Thieves find themselves trapped in a movie theater, they ally with Persona 3's S.E.E.S team and Persona 4's Investigation Squad to find an escape, traveling into the movies on the screen in an attempt to fix their endings.

Much like the original game, Persona Q2 simultaneously takes place during the Persona 3, 4 and 5 storylines, with the adventure pulling each group out of their respective timeline. There, they explore dungeons from a first-person perspective and fight turn-based battles against various enemies.

13. Persona 5 Tactica (2023)

Taking place during the events of Persona 5, Persona 5 Tactica is a strategy-focused spin-off that’s similar in style to the XCOM franchise. The story follows the Phantom Thieves mysteriously traveling to an alternate realm known as the Kingdoms. Unable to escape, Joker and Morgana are forced to abandon the rest of the Phantom Thieves after they're brainwashed by the realm's monstrous ruler, Tyrant Marie, forcing the pair to begin an adventure to save their allies and return home.

Along the way, they team up with the local resistance, helping them fight against Tyrant Marie's forces. The game revolves around a tactical grid-based combat system, as players direct three units across the battlefield and take out enemies.

Read our review of Persona 5 Tactica.

14. Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight (2018)

Atlus’ third rhythm-based dancing spin-off, Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight sees Caroline and Justine bring the Phantom Thieves to the Velvet Room and challenge them to a dance off. There, the group perform dance routines to several of Persona 5's catchiest tracks.

15. Persona 5 Strikers (2020)

A spin-off set four months after the events of Persona 5, Strikers sees the Phantom Thieves reunite for a summer vacation. However, the team find themselves sucked into the Metaverse after using an app known as EMMA. Escaping with the help of a new ally, the team don their Phantom Thieves gear once more and set out to discover the truth behind EMMA, the Metaverse, and what it means for the people of Tokyo.

Persona 5 Strikers is a crossover with the long-running Dynasty Warriors franchise, introducing real-time combat to the series. Battles center around the Phantom Thieves taking on large hordes of enemies, which they can deal with through combos or by calling on Personas.

Read our review of Persona 5 Strikers.

16. Persona 5: The Phantom X (2025)

The most recent Persona release is yet another spin-off of Persona 5. This one's a bit funky. Developed by Black Wings Game Studio, Persona 5: The Phantom X is a free-to-play game with microtransactions (otherwise known as a gacha gama) that takes place in 'alternate timeline' to Persona 5 itself. You take on the role of Wonder, a high school student who, of course, awakens his Persona and gains access to the Metaverse.

Read our review of Persona 5: The Phantom X.

What's Next for Persona?

After the massive success of Metaphor: ReFantazio (it picked up quite a few awards), Sega announced their desire to keep investing in Atlus, and the Persona IP in particular, in a developers' Q&A session.

Persona 4 Revival was announced at a the 2025 Xbox Showcase, a new remake of the game that originally released on PS2 in 2008 before being remastered as Persona 4 Golden in 2012. The remake is scheduled for release on February 18, 2027, and will be available Day One on Xbox Game Pass.

Now we're in 2026, and... we finally have confirmation that Persona 6 is real. A short teaser gives us a glimpse at least at some cool aesthetics in classic Atlus style, and there's no word on a release date. But it's real! Here's a breakdown of everything we know so far.

In the meantime, the Phantom Thieves from P5R continue to pop up in pretty much every franchising opportunity they can, most recently as skins in Overwatch 2.

Callum Williams is a freelance media writer with years of experience as a game critic, news reporter, guides writer and features writer.

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Valor Mortis Gets Short Delay to Avoid September's Onslaught of Game Releases

Action RPG Valor Mortis has conceded defeat when it comes to the September gaming arms race and announced a short delay.

Last week, it became abundantly clear that September is going to be one of the most crowded months for video game releases in history. It seems to be the rough cut-off for most game launches before GTA 6 hits the business like an atomic bomb. There are a couple of exceptions, like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, which is being released in October. However, it appears most other games don't want to be too close to the blast radius of GTA 6. Of course, the overwhelming amount of September releases means that the situation arguably isn't much better for some games.

As a result, Valor Mortis (a game that announced its release date on Sunday), has decided to push into October to have a better chance. The game will now arrive on October 13th.

"We want to give Valor Mortis (and your wallet) some room to breathe," said developer One More Level in a statement.

When speaking with Stephen Totilo from Game File, the team behind the game noted that they had previously chosen September 24th as a release date because it looked very clear – and then Control Resonant and Silent Hill: Townfall chose to release on the same day. To make matters worse, Onimusha: Way of the Sword's release date falls the day after, on September 25th.

"As soon as Control announced September 24th, we knew we were moving the date," said Blake Rochkind, head of publisher at Lyrical Games. "Candidly, I think Control looks like it might be a Game of the Year contender."

Rochkind immediately sent a message to the development team about changing the date and tried to strategically pick a new one that wouldn't be slammed by competition, but held the announcement until after the Nintendo Direct to make sure there weren't any massive games arriving on their new date.

From the creators of Ghostrunner, Valor Mortis is a first-person soulslike where you'll rise from death as a former soldier of Napoleon’s army, only to die over and over again battling shambling corpses and wild monsters. You can get a rundown on Valor Mortis in our recent preview.

Cade Onder is a freelancer for IGN's news team. He covers all things entertainment, including gaming, film, and more. You can find him on Twitter @Cade_Onder.

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Amazon Has a Cloud Strife Buster Sword at a Discount for Final Fantasy 7 Fans

Swords are awesome. Whether you're a Final Fantasy 7 fan or not, there's no denying the draw of a massive buster sword. It's like an oversized meat cleaver that looks incredibly inconvenient to use, but absolutely awesome to display on your wall. It's one of those things you didn't know you needed until an Amazon discount suddenly thrusts its way into view.

Which is exactly what's happening right now with this Cloud Strife replica sword. It's made out of stainless steel and is currently discounted to its lowest price in months. We posted this on the IGN Finds X account yesterday and it was easily one of the most popular items of the day at this price.

Listen, nobody actually needs a giant sword, but that doesn't mean you can't yearn for one. Final Fantasy 7 is one of the most popular games in the world and definitely the most popular in the franchise thanks to its characters. Cloud has become one of the most recognizable faces in the series, even getting added to games like Kingdom Hearts, Super Smash Bros., and even Magic the Gathering over the years. And his signature buster sword is nearly as iconic as he is at this point.

So if you are considering buying this replica sword for yourself, or even as a Father's Day gift, that seems like a totally reasonable thought. It's not any more expensive than a lot of modern art out there and it's arguably a lot more practical. If a real life Sephiroth ever pops into existence, you can just pluck this bad boy off your wall and join the fight to save earth.

The sword itself is made of stainless steel and is about 4.5 feet long when you include the handle. It isn't sharp, but it should be durable enough that you can probably smash a pumpkin or two without worrying about it falling apart. It weighs almost 15 pounds, so it's definitely possible to wield if your cosplaying as Cloud, but you'll still need quite a bit of forearm strength to hold it up for long.

Is this a good deal at this price?

This isn't the lowest price we've seen this year on this sword, but it's still a good deal overall. With U.S. tariffs being placed on steel and many overseas manufacturers, there's no guarantee that prices will be dropping on these types of products any time soon. So if this is something you want to buy right now, this discount is definitely worth considering.

With that in mind, Amazon's Prime Day sale is coming up later this month and it's possible this particular sword could get a deeper discount. It dropped all the way down to $150 during Black Friday last year and could potentially see a similar discount during the Prime-exclusive sale.

Jacob Kienlen is a Senior Audience Development Strategist and Writer for IGN. Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, he has considered the Northwest his home for his entire life. With a bachelor's degree in communication and 10 years of professional writing experience, his expertise is spread across a variety of different pop culture topics -- from TV series to books and the latest Pokémon games.

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EA Sports College Football 27 Preview: Defense Wins Championships

Defense wins championships. It’s an old adage that you’ll hear across both college football and the NFL. Great teams – championship teams – make stops in the big moments. They separate a receiver’s soul from their body when they hit them. They instill fear. That’s probably why EA started off with defense when talking about College Football’s junior season. Many of these changes are also coming to Madden as well, so let’s get back to the gridiron and talk about it.

One of the big changes is improved coverage that comes through a system EA is calling Look for Work. What this means is defenders won’t just wait until an offensive player enters their zone to cover them. Now, they’ll play with anticipation, which means better coverage. The other big changes are smart zones, which will allow you to make global coverage changes with a couple quick button presses. You want your guys to play conservatively? You can do that. Or, if you want them to be hyper aggressive and try to jump a route for a pick? You can do that at the push of a button. It’s a welcome adjustment.

You’ve also got coverage adjustment checks: 25 options that you can tweak. You want to play trips formations a certain way when you’re in Cover 1? There’s a setting for that. You want Cover 4 to play bunch a certain way? You can tweak that, too. And that rules.

Wide receivers will now also try to get the proper leverage for the route they’re running instead of just trying to win the route, even if that means beating the DB in a way that doesn't make sense for the route they're running. Meanwhile, DBs who are shading their coverage inside or outside will now play those routes better. Paired with that is a new feature called WR/DB Jostle, which allows receivers to handfight with cornerbacks at different points in the route – on the move, at the stem of the route, or when the ball is in the air. It allows great corners who are maybe not the fastest guys but are excellent technically to interfere with a route and change the timing on the route. It won’t work for everyone – fast guys can and will still burn you – but it’s great to see the handfighting that marks every Saturday and Sunday make it into the field.

WR/DB Jostle allows receivers to handfight with cornerbacks at different points in the route.

If one of your guys gets rattled, you can chat with them to get their mind right so they’ll play at their baseline. It’s a powerful way to help a player who has gone cold over the course of the game, but you can only do it three times a game. It looks like a powerful (and welcome) addition.

Dynamic weather is another huge change. We got a glimpse of what this might look like last year with heavy snow and heavy rain games, but now these elements can change over the course of a game. The weather might start clear and then become snowy, or a snow game might level out for a bit before returning heavier than before. Those changes also mean that snow will pile up on the field in real time, and how you and your players interact with it will change how it looks and affects them.

I could go on and on about individual gameplay changes and additions (and I’ll get back to some of those later), but if you’re into College Football, you want to hear about what’s going on with Dynasty. This year, things have changed quite a bit. It starts with AD Expectations. Each school will give you three: some schools might be focused on a rebuild; others might exclusively care about beating their rivals; some might want to win a national title or be conference champions or be known as a defensive powerhouse, and so on. Now, it’s less about simply winning games if you want to keep your job, and more about performing in a way your school expects. Similarly, some schools will be more patient with you than others, so you’ll have to deal with that, too. In addition, these goals will change each year. The more you win and the more your team improves, the higher the bar you’ll have to meet.

AD Expectations will determine how your school judges you, but whether you succeed or fail will probably come down to what EA calls your Dynasty blueprint. To get it right, you’ll be investing Dynasty Points across three different areas: your coaching staff, team facilities, and of course, NIL. Every school has a different budget based on your school’s ratings in Conference Prestige, Brand Exposure, Stadium Atmosphere, and Program Tradition. Competing at the highest level or doing something like beating your rival can also award you additional rewards. You won’t get to keep anything that you don’t spend next year, so figuring out what your goals are – and how you want to approach them – are crucial.

Different parts of the season will allow you to spend points in different ways. For instance, you’ll only be able to permanently upgrade your facility in the off-season, and coordinators can only be hired and fired at certain times. Coordinators, for instance, might prefer to coach at your school rather than another one based on how their own skills and desires line up with your program. You can absolutely overpay a guy to coach at your school when you make your offers, but you won’t be able to spend those points in other places.

Facilities are similar. A truly great, national powerhouse facility has an enormous amount of bonuses that come with it, including more slots for equipment (temporary upgrades), better player progression, and a better facility grade, which determines how many Dynasty Points you get each year.

You’ll also have to spend Dynasty Points on your players in the form of NIL deals. How much a player expects from an NIL deal depends on a lot of things, including how good that player is and their position, but also your school. A player will probably expect less from a larger school with a better program than they will from a smaller program. Scholarships take on more importance as a result, so be careful about how much you offer a player. You can go above and beyond what a player expects (and even change it later), but what you offer them will change their baseline for what they should be getting in the future. NIL offers can also be used to influence players from leaving via the transfer portal or going to the NFL draft.

The Coaching Carousel has also been revamped, and you’ll now be able to see what a school values, who their top candidates are, how much they’re going to offer you, and how many Dynasty Points they’d give you to work with if hired. You can express interest in up to six schools, but expressing interest in a school means that you’ll take that job if offered, no take-backsies. Yeah, you’ll feel like a player for as long as you can get away with it, but people (and colleges) talk, and folks are gonna look at you a certain kinda way if you’re whispering sweet nothings into a different university’s ear each night.

Recruits can decommit from your and other schools if they get another offer, just like in real life.

Recruits can also decommit from your and other schools if they get another offer, just like in real life, and you now have more granular control over how hard your players go in practice, similar to what was introduced in Madden last year. There’s more, of course, but we gotta move onto Road to Glory, so let’s do that.

This year, you can play three new positions – tight end, edge, and free safety – in addition to the old favorites. How you build your player determines his potential limits. Bigger players, for instance, will probably be stronger and tougher, but they’re less likely to be burners. Once you get your guy squared away physically, you’ll determine your maximum potential by spending points across different stats. So while your physique may say, “Hey, you can do ‘X,’” you won’t be able to unless you push it to that cap. Well, mostly. There are also capbreakers, so if you’re skilled enough to build that one-of-one, Megatron, Cam Newton, Derrick Henry kinda cat, you can do it. And if that’s too much work, and you just wanna base your guy on a real-life legend, you can do that, too.

You’ll still start in high school, and College Football 27 is better at recognizing when you do something impressive like rip off a big run or hit that deep ball, and will bump your tape score accordingly. High school games are also better at teaching you how to play your position. You can also now track your draft projection over the course of your career, and it will take on-the-field and off-the-field stuff into account. CFB 27 will also track your player's legacy score, so you can see the mark you’re leaving.

In addition, you’ll have to manage your fitness this year. Don’t, and you’ll gain weight and your coach may be unhappy with you. Do, and you’ll be a force on the field. But being in peak physical form comes at a cost that you’ll have to manage. Ultimately, though, you’re still a student and you’ve gotta keep up your grades, which means quizzes and tests. Your school determines some of this stuff: a more academically rigorous school will require more from you, so if you don’t study, you’re risking going into a test on meteorology or Spanish blind. Good luck.

At the end of each season, you’ll meet with your coach and evaluate your place on the team. They might keep you on as-is; they might offer you a better deal; or they might tell you you don’t have a future at their program, and you should hit the transfer portal. Sometimes it might be your fault. Sometimes it won’t be. You’ll have to adapt either way.

Of course, you’ve also got the presentation updates that mark the next iteration of the yearly sports games. New mascots, new traditions, new fancy light shows and things like the wave going all the way around the stadium, new music. I could go into a ton of detail about all of this, but the point is that this stuff matters to help best capture the college game day atmosphere, and the long and short of it is that these things are one of the reasons it’s hard to go back to a previous entry after a new one releases. You miss this little details, and EA’s continued dedication to it is both necessary and impressive regardless of that.

It all comes together on the field, though. I’d speculate I spent two hours on the sticks, and College Football 27 seems to be as advertised. Defense is suffocating. That doesn't mean you can’t score; you can, but it’s a lot harder and you’re gonna punt a lot more. Are you throwing into double and triple coverage? That’s probably getting picked. Defensive players react faster, cover better, and generally just feel more aware of what the offense is doing. The games I played were slugfests that forced both myself and my opponent into constant adaptation. One bad throw could change everything, and I loved it.

In the same vein, the new defensive adjustments feel like they’re gonna matter quite a bit. If, like me, you’re used to Konami-Coding your defense to get exactly the coverage you want, you’re gonna be a little out-of-sorts initially. But I do appreciate how intuitive the new system is, and how much control it gives you. The issues I had with it weren’t on CFB 27; they were on me foolishly thinking that pressing left on the d-pad still brought up my defensive line (spoiler: it doesn't). Will it take some getting used to? Yeah. Is what’s here better for the game and new players especially? Absolutely.

The nicest thing I can say about College Football 27 is an EA rep had to kick me off the machine because the preview event was over and they understandably wanted to go home. I was playing against a friend, and we had a close game going. So close, in fact, that we kinda ignored the first “you gotta wrap this up” reminder and kept playing until they came back and were like, “No, for real, you gotta leave.” And you know what? The score was exactly the same as it was when they first told us to pack it up. Defense wins championships, baby.

Will Borger is an IGN freelancer. You can find him on Bluesky @edgarallanbro.

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Whatever Happens This World Cup, It Won’t Be As Fun as Playing FIFA: Road to World Cup 98

Have you ever had your head checked by a jumbo jet? Not easy, is it? But then, nothing is. Least of all getting Blur’s "Song 2" out of your head at any point in the rest of your life after playing FIFA: Road To World Cup 98, the best official tournament tie-in title there’s ever been.

Play it now and you will spot some clues that 28 years have passed since EA Canada wrote its magical code. There is not one single pack for you to open, for example. It does not feature accurate World Cup 2026 squads, kits, or stadiums. It does not even know about the year 2026. 2026 is science fiction to FIFA: Road To World Cup 98.

It knows only a moment, crystallised in time onto a game disc, in which Britpop and big beats provide the soundtrack for an era of optimism, working class heroism, Cool Brittania, New Labour, and teenagers fussing their hair into a rough approximation of David Beckham’s middle parting. He’s on the cover, by the way, looking blissfully unaware that the upcoming ‘98 World Cup would in fact be a heartbreaking disaster for him.

Old games are such effective time capsules, because their interactivity lets you immerse deeper into the moment they record. That seems to work double for sports games since they’re also endowed with rosters of players that fans of a certain age will get together and simply name, for hours and hours and hours on end – “Chilavert! Asprilla! Colin Calderwood!” – until sunrise or closing time. Collectors pay $500+ for old football (or soccer, as it's known in America, the primary home of this year's World Cup) shirts because they hold a piece of a dearly missed past within their fibers, and this game has 172 of them.

Not in officially licensed, correct-font-on-the-back, pantone-specific color form, you understand. In 1997, it was sufficiently amazing that those 172 national teams were in the game at all, let alone that their kits were all broadly the right color. Some, like Chile (Zamorano! Salas!) even have a recognizable kit template, in their case a massive Reebok logo across one shoulder. In fairness, this was 1997. If the developer had painstakingly recreated every badge, logo and material texture we’d barely have noticed them on a 480p CRT TV.

But what it did offer – what it continues to offer – is on-pitch gameplay with magnetic simplicity, married to a bunch of modes with real scope and ambition. This was a huge step up in gameplay terms, not just for the FIFA franchise but for 3D football titles.

Its analog movement gives you much more freedom on the pitch than prior FIFAs, which relied heavily on their official licenses to persuade you to play them. Mazier dribbles and more exploratory runs are possible now, and all at a speed that’s comparable to ISS’s adrenalised gallop. Throw in an all-new skill move system and a worryingly enjoyable professional foul button, and FIFA Road To World Cup 98 gives you more than enough means to express yourself on the pitch.

That’s what’s really striking about playing it today. Despite the clunky control layout (I played this on a PC keyboard! Imagine) there’s an intuition about it that just drives you towards goal, towards the next match, towards a hare-brained scheme to get Tahiti to the World Cup final.

You can quite literally kick an opposing player up and down the pitch to a degree that’d make even Pepe wince.

It’s amazing what you don’t miss about modern-day EA Sports FC, its distant forebear. Obviously every single component part is more advanced in FC. Slicker. TV-like. But not having to worry about the meta, not being interrupted by unlocks and live events and pack openings, not being reminded constantly that this is one massive Skinner box of endless grind, it’s rather refreshing. It’s just you, a football, and a PC keyboard control layout that poses only a minor risk of RSI.

This being a game titled ‘Road To World Cup 98’, you might reasonably expect that World Cup 98’s qualifying stages would somehow be represented here, and you’d be quite right. It’s an epic journey to reach the tournament finals, as the 2026 Curacao squad will tell you, and this game captures it perfectly. Two qualifying rounds, against increasingly tricky opponents bolstered by a recent AI overhaul EA Canada had devised, and then France ‘98 itself. The AI logic here is still eminently beatable, but it does provide some variance between high quality squads and plucky underdogs.

Confusingly, EA also released a game simply called ‘World Cup 98’ several months after RTWC98, to coincide (*cough* cash in *cough*) on the tournament taking place. But in truth this release was far more limited than its predecessor. While the latter brought some minor graphical tweaks and an admittedly cool ‘World Cup Classics’ mode which recreates vintage matches from days gone by, complete with massive ‘80s perms, era-specific commentators and sepia tone 1930s broadcasts, it didn’t feature the qualifying rounds, nor the league sides that RTWC98 did, making it an extravagant purchase for anyone who already owned the previous game.

This game is generous by contrast, supplementing the massive World Cup qualifying mode with the usual league football you’d expect from a FIFA title. Quite understandably, though, RTWC98 is not remembered for its Premier League action. It’d take a pretty dyed-in-the-wool Aston Villa supporter to resist the inbuilt World Cup fever and simply play match after match of domestic football. Particularly when the game also features a legendary and chaotic mode that would feature just once in the series: indoor mode.

Set in what looks like a school gym out of hours, indoor mode changes the very nature of the game by letting you bounce your passes and shots off the walls in five-a-side matches. It gets you thinking about your movement and controls in a different way, proving a great testing ground for skill move practice. Best of all, there are no fouls in this mode. Remember that professional foul button I mentioned earlier? Yeah. You can quite literally kick an opposing player up and down the pitch here to a degree that’d make even Pepe wince, without the slightest toot from a ref’s whistle.

Apparently this mode took way too much resource to justify including in subsequent releases, so it became a wonderful one-off that fans would bring up on message boards and Reddit threads for decades to come, creating an appetite which the more recent Vuelta mode wouldn’t properly satiate.

And all of those pieces give this game a timeless quality. It really is still great fun to play, even with its weatherworn visuals and rudimentary AI. It gets you into the football in a few button presses, and it seems to care about you having fun in the match you’re playing right now. Yes, nostalgia is on its side and truthfully that’s a big part of the appeal, but there’s something modern sports games can learn from the simplicity and immediacy on show here.

The World Cup 2026 will almost certainly have goals in it. Passes. Tackles. Football stuff. But will it have Luis Figo absolutely leathering a defender up and down a secondary school gym? Will it have Jose Luis Chilavert dribbling past eleven players? No it won’t. Because real football in 2026 is a depressing game of suspicious host bids, “peace” awards, on-pitch shithousery, time wasting and retiring at 28 to play in a poorly attended petrostate league. And FIFA: Road To World Cup 98’s football is smacking goals past Oliver Kahn while Blur’s "Song 2" plays, on a mission to get the Cook Islands lifting the trophy. No contest.

Phil Iwaniuk is a veteran hardware smasher and game botherer who has written for the likes of PC Format, Official PlayStation Magazine, PCGamesN, The Guardian, Eurogamer, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, and IGN. He won an award once, but he doesn't like to go on about it.

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Mario Kart World 'Forgotten,' as Nintendo Switch 2 Launch Title Goes a Year Without Major DLC

Nintendo fans have reacted in despair at the lack of updates to Mario Kart World, following this week's big Nintendo Direct broadcast.

While DLC and expansions were confirmed for other hit Switch 2 games, such as Donkey Kong Bananza and Pokémon Pokopia, Nintendo once again kept schtum about any plans to add content to the platform's best-selling title.

Of course, many fans bought Mario Kart World in a bundle with their console — but owners say that this is the perfect reason why Nintendo should be prioritizing the game with fresh content. After all, it has the biggest install base of any title on Switch 2 — and for many, it could do with sprucing up, to counter claims that its open world is a bit dull.

"Nintendo took our Switch 2 bundle and $80 and went home," wrote Yoshimitsu126, in a ResetEra forum thread discussing the lack of Mario Kart World updates. "And now are wondering wtf to do with the open world if they add new tracks. While DK and Pokopia have DLC announced with a few months after they got released."

"I do think Nintendo at this point are getting a bit complacent and cocky," wrote RowGonsoleConsole in a similar lengthy thread on reddit, titled 'No DLC Announcement For MKW Nintendo Hates Us And Mario Kart.' "World 100% needed DLC more than Bananza did but yet I feel like I've seen new news about Bananza every five seconds."

"It's crazy to me that Donkey Kong Bananza (a single-player game that carried no expectations of ongoing support) has had more regular content drops than MKW," added Axe. "You'd think they'd want to leverage this open world as much as possible by regularly adding new challenges, vehicles, and whatever... but I guess not. I don't even particularly care about having a big DLC with new tracks. Just having a new costume option for DK or Pauline would be nice, at the very least."

While some fans have questioned how Nintendo will add new tracks to its existing Mario Kart World map, others have suggested that all the company need do is add in additional racers, costumes or challenges to keep the game feeling fresh. With it owned by so many Switch 2 purchasers, surely this would be the perfect solution to keep fans coming back to the console?

"Classic Grand Prix as an option, multiplayer free roam, user-created point A to point B races in the world," suggested gary!. "Being really bold - add in a Diddy Kong Racing-like basic story that progresses you through the world and add simple boss events/races which would also carry over to multiplayer modes. All of that seems like it could be added to the existing map. Then in another year go ahead and add another map. Go nuts."

"MK World needs split screen online progression," wrote OuterWildsVentures. "We still don't play it because Player 2 gets nothing lol"

Alas, Nintendo has made no mention of major additions to Mario Kart World — paid, or otherwise — beyond the addition of a third battle mode, Bob-omb Blast. Otherwise, all it has done to the game so far is tweak settings and improve a couple of sparse stretches of open world — though fans would like to see much more done. Surely new content will eventually come in time — and it is still early days for Switch 2, with the console now just a year old. Maybe next year?

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

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Every Fire Emblem Game on the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 in 2026

It’s been 35 years since Intelligent Systems debuted its Fire Emblem series on Nintendo's Famicom. Through its ever-evolving combat and the introduction of beloved character bonding mechanics, the series has ascended to the upper echelon of tactical RPGs, culminating in two excellent mainline entries on the Nintendo Switch.

Now that we have an official release date for Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, we’ve compiled a list of every Fire Emblem game available on the Switch as well as what's coming to the Switch 2.

How Many Fire Emblem Games Are on Switch?

There are five Fire Emblem games on Switch: two mainline games and three spinoffs. There are three additional Fire Emblem games available with Nintendo Switch Online, though Path of Radiance is only available to Switch 2 owners with the Expansion Pack.

Every Fire Emblem Game on Nintendo Switch

Fire Emblem Warriors (2017)

The first Fire Emblem game released on Switch was the Dynasty Warriors crossover Fire Emblem Warriors. The mashup incorporates the best elements of each series, blending Fire Emblem’s team-based strategy with Dynasty Warriors’ button-mashing, hack-and-slash action. It’s a worthwhile spinoff for action fans, though the light story makes it inessential to those concerned with Fire Emblem lore.

The game was developed by Dynasty Warriors studio Omega Force in collaboration with the action gurus at Team Ninja (Ninja Gaiden, Nioh).

Fire Emblem: Three Houses (2019)

Fire Emblem: Three Houses was a milestone release for the series. It was the first Fire Emblem game released on a home console in 12 years, the first mainline entry released on Switch, and a critical and commercial success that carried forward the momentum of Awakening seven years before it.

Three Houses is a massive tactical RPG that balances the grand with the intimate. Large-scale battles progress an overarching story of politics and religion within a continental war, while quieter moments between battles are spent in the monastery training, teaching, exploring, and bonding with other characters through well-written and -acted conversations.

Three Houses is Fire Emblem at its best, and what we'd recommend as a starting point if you’re looking to jump into the series on Switch.

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore (2020)

In 2020, Nintendo released Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore, an expanded port of the original Wii U release. Encore added new story content, characters, and music to the Nintendo-Atlus crossover game, which blends Fire Emblem’s “weapon triangle” combat mechanic — swords have an advantage over axes, axes over lances, lances over swords — with the flashy style, dungeon-crawling, and moment-to-moment combat of Atlus’s Shin Megami Tensei and Persona games.

The story is a comical, often over-the-top send-up of Japanese pop-culture that, as in Warriors before it, takes a backseat to the action.

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes (2023)

Nintendo re-teamed with Omega Force for Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, the companies’ second Fire Emblem-Dynasty Warriors crossover following Fire Emblem Warriors. Three Hopes is a retelling of Three Houses set in an alternate timeline where Three Houses’ protagonist Byleth serves as the main villain.

Three Hopes is a more robust blend of the two franchises than its predecessor, integrating more of Fire Emblem’s social and tactical mechanics with Dynasty Warriors’ fast-paced action.

Fire Emblem Engage (2023)

Fire Emblem Engage is the series’ latest game and its second mainline entry on Switch. Engage is a progression of Three Houses’ excellence and an ode to Fire Emblem's past: It refines and scales down the social and hub mechanics of Three Houses while shifting its primary focus to the series’ longstanding tactical combat, most notably reintroducing Fire Emblem’s “weapon triangle" system.

The story of Engage follows a Divine Dragon named Alear, who’s tasked with collecting 12 rings to defeat the Fell Dragon and save the continent of Elyos. Engage’s original story connects to the series past through these 12 rings, each of which houses the spirit of a past Fire Emblem protagonist, allowing you to summon past heroes such as Marth, Ike, Celica, and Byleth.

Fire Emblem Games Available With Nintendo Switch Online

There are currently two Fire Emblem games available with a Nintendo Switch Online subscription outside of Japan: the 2003 Game Boy Advance game Fire Emblem, aka Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, and the 2004 follow-up Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones. A third game, 2005's Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, was also added to the catalog when GameCube games launched on the Switch 2.

Here’s the complete list of Fire Emblem games currently available with a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription:

• Fire Emblem (GBA, 2003)
• Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones (GBA, 2004)
• Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (GameCube, 2005)

Upcoming Fire Emblem Games on Switch and Switch 2

A new Fire Emblem game was initially announced during the September 2025 Nintendo Direct. That upcoming game is called Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, and we now have confirmation that it will be releasing on September 17, 2026 exclusively on Switch 2 consoles. It's already up for preorder with the Switch 2's new pricing model.

You can check out the most recent trailer below for more details.

Jordan covers games, shows, and movies as a freelance writer for IGN.

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