It may feel like the remainder of 2026’s gaming slate is shrouded beneath one Grand Theft Auto VI-sized shadow, but the closing quarter of this year actually has an impressive line-up of returning franchises and big studios certain to make the Game Awards in December just as exciting and contested as the last. There’s too many to count, but here’s a list of The Mancunion’s most anticipated games to wrap up 2026.
Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave – September 17th
Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave is the latest entry in the strategy series, being connected to the immensely successful franchise staple Three Houses. The scale of the game is immense, potentially surpassing even the monolithic Genealogy of the Holy War from 30 years prior. Studio Intelligent Systems seem to be refining Three Houses: a spectacular game, though one marred by both generally less interesting gameplay compared to others in the series and severe repetition – a major issue for a game that wanted you to beat it four times for the full story.
Fortune’s Weave appears to be greatly amending this with a more focused structure akin to something like Sonic Adventure 2, weaving together multiple concurrent stories to be switched between and which will each seemingly provide a unique experience, while also adding a boatload of content and interesting gameplay additions such as Blaze Arts, powerful new skills at the cost of your HP. Coupled with excellent character designs, great presentation and a unique setting compared to the rest of the series (being based across Ancient Rome and various regions of Africa in contrast to the typically medieval European worlds) and you have a game that is shaping up to be an incredible time.
CONTROL Resonant – September 24th
Remedy Entertainment’s mind-bending action masterpiece CONTROL is finally receiving a sequel later this September: CONTROL Resonant. Gamescom’s opening night premiered a new, spectacularly trippy and epic trailer set to the score of ‘Omen’ by The Prodigy.
As a sequel, though, Resonant breaks beyond its former’s mold to embark into a dense, cosmic action RPG compared in playtests to Devil May Cry, with dashy, combo-heavy combat diverging from Jessie’s strictly third-person shooter story in the first game. Whether it’s blasting through Hiss in the Oldest House or annihilating them with conjured hammers across Remedy’s warped and folded New York City, CONTROL Resonant is bringing that Inception-esque sci-fi weirdness back to gaming’s centre stage and is undeniably winning us over by doing it. Different approach, sure, but it’s the same CONTROL, and I couldn’t be more excited.
Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse – October 15th
Belmont’s Curse is the triumphant revival of the Castlevania franchise, which lay dormant for over a decade barring collections and some strong if flawed Netflix shows. Developed by Evil Empire, known for Dead Cells, this acts as a sequel to Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse and Curse of Darkness as well as the original Netflix series (which deviated from the game’s continuity a bit in the latter seasons but has a generally similar timeline of events).
Retaining the iconic Metroidvania style of gameplay that Symphony of the Night helped revolutionise, this game follows Rose Belmont, daughter of Trevor Belmont and Sypha Belnades, in late 15th century Paris. The game looks stunning and extremely fluid, possibly being a more action-oriented title reminiscent of Evil Empire’s other work while still retaining exploration elements. It looks like a slight deviation from the majority of the exploration-focused games aside from Order of Ecclesia but it looks incredibly interesting regardless. Castlevania is a storied franchise known for its high-quality (and high-difficulty) titles, so this will definitely be worth keeping an eye on in October.
Phantom Blade Zero – October 29th
Phantom Blade Zero is an upcoming character action game. Taking control of the assassin Soul, the player balances sleek and meticulously animated sword-fu with martial arts and stylish maneuverability straight out of Ashes of Time. As a wuxia story, this draws inspiration from Chinese mythology and older Hong Kong action films, even including Donnie Yen as a consultant alongside Kenji Tanigaki who directed The Furious, a phenomenal action film from earlier this year. Not only is it paying respect to Chinese mythology, but it’s studying the philosophies and minds behind East Asia’s action with an unparalleled attention in the gaming industry, sure to unleash an elegant Sony period epic worthy of the wuxia name.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake – Late 2026
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is considered one of the greatest games ever made, and now it’s getting a remake. While I don’t necessarily think this game needs a remake, I am nonetheless very excited. This could be an opportunity to fully revamp the game, especially as the original is available on Nintendo Switch Online, meaning Nintendo doesn’t need to be strictly faithful to it. A revamp would entail making the game more of a realised version of itself with greater additions to the combat, world and story as while OOT is still amazing and genre-defining, it is undoubtedly simplistic and was outdone by its sequel Majora’s Mask.
As truly excellent as Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are, this remake should not transform OOT into a fully open-world experience like them. This could prove a good opportunity for classic Zelda to operate in harmony alongside the newer formula, something which Echoes of Wisdom did and mostly succeeded despite overarching issues. In terms of the artstyle, a dark fantasy look would be preferable; not quite like Twilight Princess which still looks stunning but still reminiscent of the original. The amazing 3DS remake (which was already faithful, removing the need for another 1:1 iteration) kept the visuals more like the concept art and it looked beautiful but for this iteration, it would be more interesting if it refined the dark fantasy look of the original. This remake is currently eyeing a Winter 2026 release, with a showcase to be held by Nintendo on the 9th of September. It should be out already, so check out our coverage online!
The Duskbloods – Late 2026
The Duskbloods is the latest title directed by genre-defining auteur Hidetaka Miyazaki, head of studio FromSoftware and best known for the Dark Souls trilogy, Bloodborne, Elden Ring and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. This Switch 2 exclusive provides a fresh iteration on the Souls-like formula, synthesising Elden Ring Nightreign‘s multiplayer PVE approach with a player-vs-player arena twist. Despite some flaws, Nightreign was overall an excellent game which translated Elden Ring’s mechanics into a rogue-lite setting well. The Duskbloods looked great but had me initially sceptical due to that greater focus on PVP. Having now played the game through the closed Network Test in August, those worries have been quelled.
This game is amazing. While far more of a frantic experience than Nightreign, the general premise is the same as you run around the map (only one in the Network Test but more are in the full release), defeating enemies and collecting items while levelling up. Being a PVP game, you can hinder other players in the world by defeating them. The aim is to collect virtue, which can be gathered in a few ways which increase towards the end of a given round, furthering the frantic feel. The surviving players with the most virtue are transported to a final arena, facing off to become the winner of the match.
It isn’t a total departure from Nightreign’s co-operative innovations though: there’s mechanics like facing against bosses in which players cannot hurt each other while they fight the boss . You can also make or break alliances with players amid a match and even seemingly propose to them, adding a humorously romantic level of strategic depth. The general combat mechanics are the best they’ve ever been, expanding on Bloodborne’s fast-paced action while also including aerial manoeuvrability options, with the memed, current-fan-favourite Zork taking full advantage of that. There are some problems such as the UI being poorly designed in comparison to Nightreign, lack of enemy variety (which will likely be fixed in the full release) and some characters being much better than the rest of the roster, but this game is excellent so far and will likely be a Game of the Year contender for many.
Those were a handful of games soon to be released this year that are worth looking out for, but it’s certainly not the complete list. Some more interesting upcoming titles include Gears of War: E-Day, Final Fantasy Resonance, Attack on Titan 3, Star Wars: Galactic Racer and Silent Hill: Townfall among a legion of others. Even though we’re coming up to the end, there’s still plenty of titles worth keeping tabs on.
