It’s hard to overstate the impact that FromSoftware has had on the video game industry for the past decade and a half. From the breakout success of Dark Souls to the magnum opus of Elden Ring, the company rewrote the rulebook for modern action RPGs and spawned the soulslike genre, which still floods the front page of the Steam Store to this day.

But Dark Souls wasn’t FromSoftware’s first game, not by a long shot. The developer has been quite prolific since the early days of the original PlayStation, with entries ranging from the old-school dungeon crawling King’s Field series to the survival horror Echo Night series and, of course, the mech action Armored Core series, which was FromSoftware’s flagship series until Dark Souls.

Now, if you’re a rabid FromSoftware fan like me, you might be interested in trying out these older titles, either to see how the company’s design philosophy evolved over time, or just because you crave more of FromSoftware’s trademark tough-but-fair gameplay. Unfortunately, you’re going to have a tough time finding most of these games nowadays.

Almost none of FromSoftware’s pre-Demon’s Souls titles have had any sort of re-release. This means that if you want to play them, you’ll either have to pay an exorbitant amount for a used copy (eBay listings for King’s Field sit around $90-$100) or engage in the legally dubious act of emulation. This is a shame, because the games that I’ve gotten my hands on have been a lot of fun once you get used to the old-school jankiness of the controls.

Fortunately, FromSoftware and Sony have already taken the first step towards fixing this problem. Last year they put the original trilogy of Armored Core PlayStation games on the PlayStation network, bringing some of FromSoftware’s storied history to modern consoles. But I think the time is ripe for FromSoftware to make a much bigger move by re-releasing its early titles in the form of legacy collections à la Capcom’s Mega Man collections.

My ideal version of these hypothetical collections would take a cue from Aspyr’s recent Tomb Raider remasters, giving the games a fresh coat of paint while also leaving the option to use the original graphics. This would also be an opportunity to tweak the controls for modern controllers – many of the older games use an archaic control scheme from before the introduction of dual analog sticks, making the simple act of moving and looking around an awkward chore.

As for what games would go into these collections, I think they should just focus on series with more than two entries, namely King’s Field, Echo Night, and Armored Core, with the latter split into two or three collections (despite the title, Armored Core VI is actually the sixteenth entry in the series).

I’ll admit that this is mostly a selfish request for more games from one of my favorite developers, but this would also be a win for video game preservation. As someone with a deep interest in video game history, it saddens me to know how much of this medium’s rich, colorful history is almost completely inaccessible to the average person. A legacy collection re-release is not a perfect solution to this problem, but it’s certainly better than dealing with scalpers on eBay.

What do you think? Are there other developers or series that you would want to receive the legacy collection treatment? Let us know in the comments below or head on over to our Discord and join the conversation!

Featured Image: FromSoftware (via X)