This guest post is written by JD Harlock.
“The End of the Remake of the Greatest RPG of All Time” is a 2026 deduction puzzle game developed by Coin Drop Games and Glootchke Games. Set in the last hour of the remake of a “lost” 1990s JRPG, it puts players in the role of a fan who has to use a recreation of the “original” manual, director’s commentary, as well as clips of an unreleased amateur documentary to uncover the dark secret behind the tumultuous development cycle.
As we follow a trail of breadcrumbs left behind by the enigmatic modder who’s taken control of the remake’s Steam release, we learn of his true agenda, while reflecting on themes of authorship, fandom, nostalgia, and artistic integrity when it comes to the complicated relationship between creators and their audiences. Ultimately, all of these meta-elements within “The End of the Remake of the Greatest RPG of All Time” are used to uncover the answer to the question at the heart of it all: “What is the Greatest RPG of All Time?”
If you ever have the chance to check the game out, that answer may surprise you, and it’ll definitely leave you with some lingering questions long after you’ve ‘completed’ the game. Fortunately, Lucas Immanuel, the writer and director of “The End of the Remake of the Greatest RPG of All Time” joined me for an online conversation in July to discuss the mysteries at the end of the remake of the greatest RPG of all time!
J. D. Harlock: So, Mr. Immanuel, what inspired this very, very novel concept, and how did you come up with this unique title that just rolls off the tongue?
Lucas Immanuel: Funnily enough, the title was actually the starting point for the whole project. I’d just come off working on two games — one I co-directed, and one I just interned on — that had to make major cuts to ship, and the latter didn’t end up shipping anyway. Worse yet is that these games were both epic RPGs with these planned grand finales that we didn’t even get to make! This is why, when I took a games capstone class at my university, and they said, “Don’t make a hundred-hour RPG,” my first thought was, “What if I did anyway?”
I saw this as the opportunity to make the ending I never got to, and I figured the joke would be way funnier if I pretended it was everyone’s favorite RPG. In that way, it would be reminiscent of “Superhot’s” “most innovative shooter I’ve played in years” bit. That and the thought of just answering “you know, the Greatest RPG of All Time,” anytime someone asked what the game was would be a bit that was too great to pass up. For the first thirty seconds of this process, I wrote it down as “The Greatest RPG Ever Made,” but the abbreviation “TGRPGoAT” sounded way funnier to me than “TGRPGEM”…and it had more words. So here the title was now “The End of the Greatest RPG of All Time.”
For historical reasons, “The Greatest RPG of All Time” had to be from the 1990s, but I wanted to do it in a 2010s art style. I had been doing art in the HD-2D style—for that internship and for fun-and wanted an excuse to use it here, too, so it had to be a remake. And thus, “The End of the Remake of the Greatest RPG of All Time” came to be. As convoluted as that sounds, this whole thought process took place in about a minute!
Ultimately, beyond the joke that started it all, what were you hoping to achieve by simulating the fact that you were remaking the end of the greatest RPG of all time?
I wanted to make a game that inspired the emotions I felt playing games like “Inscryption,” but without the horror elements. I love stories that offer you something that’s initially off-putting and, at the end, make you really care about them. I hope that will be what sticks with folks.
You know, one thing that stood out to me in this meta-narrative on turn-based JRPGs is that it doesn’t play like a standard turn-based JRPG.
The puzzle-solving aspect of the gameplay was something I stumbled upon by accident during development. Turns out, if you put a player at the end of an RPG, it essentially turns them into a detective, the crime scene is their save file, and the culprit is the last player. That said, in making them, I found a love for puzzle design, and my next game will be similar.
Why include box art and a director’s commentary as part of the puzzle-solving?
It felt like a natural inclusion for a “remake.” As I said, the game came largely name-first. When the puzzle thing emerged, having these “bonus features” just felt right.
You’re featured with your fictional “co-dev” in the director’s commentary. Games like “Inscryption” came up with their own in-game lore as to who made the central video game, so why did you choose to include yourself as characters?
Turning this game auto-fictional allows for the more intimate personal story we land at with the ending. I wanted to make something that captured the imagination like “Inscryption” but felt as personal as “The Beginner’s Guide” by Davey Wreden.
The titular RPG is reminiscent of so many classic JRPGs we grew up playing, but I was wondering which ones it was specifically inspired by.
For the story, obvious picks are “Chrono Trigger,” “Final Fantasy VI,” and “Dragon Quest III.” Really, any title regularly in the “greatest of all time” conversation when it comes to traditional turn-based JRPGs from the ‘classical era’ was an inspiration, since they tended to have similar stylistic choices. For the ‘battle system,’ “Legend of Legaia” was a partial inspiration.
Among the central themes the game tackles is whether classic JRPGs from the late 1980s and 1990s should be tampered with in their remakes. Regardless of the conclusion featured in the game, where do you personally land on the issue, and did working on this game help change your perception of the issue?
To be frank, my thoughts on remakes are messy, and that certainly comes across in the game. I think doing a remake of my own one day would allow me to come to a clearer answer. Still, one thing’s for certain: the biggest issue I have with remakes is the pervasive incorrect belief that you can just increase fidelity to recapture the magic of the original game. Personally, I think you can create something that feels reminiscent of the experience of playing the original game, but that requires a calculated yet elegant approach to do so.
Noah is an interesting choice for an antagonist. He’s basically the personification of toxic fandom turned up to eleven if that toxic fan were also an unhinged streamer. Was he inspired by any specific real-life individuals, and was the chaos he causes inspired by any real-life conflict between developers and the fans?
He is an amalgamate of a bunch of real people met by both the real-life actor who plays the antagonist and me. That actor’s name is also Noah, but he couldn’t be more different than the fictional one! The way he interferes with the game was partially inspired by the story of how “The Last of Us Part II” was leaked, allegedly, by a fan frustrated that the game had been delayed.
The ending leaves Noah in an interesting mental space that’s far more nuanced than what we’d come to expect from him by that point in the story. We watch him as he tries to process what the original creator tells him. Do you think it’s a realistic reflection of what some real-life toxic fans have to contend with once they realize that the creator whose legacy they’re trying to protect doesn’t approve of their behavior, and are we meant to feel some sympathy for him and people like him?
Noah meets his god and is told he has it wrong, that the heretics he was punishing were not divine justice but profound injustice. There are so many stories in this world that have the same fate, adapted or twisted from their original intended meanings, often to the opposite of what the creator wanted. Noah isn’t wrong to feel like he should care about the game; he does have ownership of the original game, just in the same way all people who experience a piece of art start to own it in some way. I think I can understand who he is and why he is, even though he’s still in the wrong.
In terms of real-life creators from across art, entertainment, and media, who have commented on this trend of remakes, some have come to the defense of the creators of the remakes, while others have been just as critical as Noah. Why did you choose to have the in-game creator be featured in the game, and why did you model him after the former?
The real-life creator of a work is so often put on a pedestal, but also used as a cudgel to support arguments. I’ve lost count of the number of times fans of a work have defended an opinion through the lens of the perceived “intention” of an author, or assumed they would support their take. When thinking what the “dark night of the soul” would be for Noah, it’s that his worship of the auteur would be challenged — shown to not be reality but itself a product of his own ego. The “real life creator” is the manifestation of how deeply warped Noah’s view is of himself and his “divine mission.”
Last but not least, the credits featured an unexpected but heartwarming dedication to the late Akira Toriyama and his timeless stories. It’s the last on-screen text that appears. Besides his seminal manga work as creator of Dr. Slump, Dragon Ball, and Sand Land, among many other comics, he was also the long-time character designer for the Dragon Quest series, which launched the whole JRPG subgenre.
Yes, the man is responsible for how traditional JRPGs look, and we draw so directly from that lineage. He passed away right as we began making this game, and when I read the news, I messaged the team chat that we had to include a dedication.
It was a touching tribute and a beautiful end to the remake of the greatest JRPG of all time. Thank you for agreeing to answer these lingering questions I had. I’m eagerly anticipating the upcoming puzzle game you mentioned that was in the works!
Thank you for having me!
Cheers!
Image Credit: “The Remake of the End of the Greatest RPG of All Time”
Video Game Town 
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