First Xbox Game Pass May Freebie Is A Seriously Overlooked RPG

3 days ago 10

Published Apr 20, 2026, 9:00 PM EDT

Bruno Yonezawa is a Gaming Senior Writer for Screen Rant. He's been practicing professional journalism for over 10 years, and is also a communications specialist. He's played games all his life and turned that passionate hobby into a passionate career, in an industry where he's worked as a writer, editor, analyst, and more.

The first free title being added to Xbox Game Pass in May is going to be a seriously overlooked RPG that you should actually mark your calendar for. April is already proving to be a huge month for the subscription service offered by Microsoft. The first wave of additions to Xbox Game Pass in April featured nearly 20 new free games arriving in the catalog, including some hits like the remarkable Hades 2 and the highly anticipated Vampire Crawlers, a spin-off of the popular Vampire Survivors.

All of this comes after a series of strong months with remarkable additions to the catalog. Among them are huge titles like Death Stranding, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and Cyberpunk 2077, as well as some remarkable indies, like the beloved TCG Card Shop Simulator on Game Pass. Even though there have been outstanding new titles made available for members, it seems like it’s already time to look toward the future.

Don’t Skip This Underrated Final Fantasy Game

Yoshitaka Amano's artwork for Final Fantasy 5, showing a character wielding a sword in a protective stance as another character lies their face gently on the first character's chest.

Through a post on Xbox Wire, Microsoft announced the Wave 2 additions to the service in April. Among them, there was the reveal of the very first game arriving in May, too: Final Fantasy 5. The classic JRPG developed by Square Enix will be made available on May 5 for Xbox Series X/S, PC, and via cloud gaming. According to the post, the game will be made available for members of the Ultimate, Premium, and PC Game Pass tiers.

FF5 is an outstanding entry in the series and one of the best from the classic 2D era, even if it is a very underrated Square Enix game. In comparison to its predecessor and successor, Final Fantasy 4 and Final Fantasy 6, respectively, FF5 lacks a bit of narrative strength. Even so, it makes up for that with incredible gameplay mechanics, including an improved Job System it inherited from FF3.

Xbox Game Pass May Soon Offer One Of The Best Final Fantasy Games

June May Come With The Addition Of An Unmissable Free RPG

Terra summoning an Esper in Final Fantasy 6

Final Fantasy 5 is a game you won’t want to miss out on, especially if you’re after a classic turn-based RPG with gameplay that just feels good. If it doesn’t please you, however, there is no reason to fret. Since January, classic Final Fantasy games have been added to the catalog, one per month. As such, everything before FF5 is already available in the catalog.

Looking into the future, it’s very likely that FF6, regarded by many as the best Final Fantasy game ever, will arrive in the catalog in early June. This has yet to be confirmed by Square Enix and Microsoft, but following the trend, it’s the only logical step. As such, Xbox Game Pass members may soon gain access to not only one of the best entries in the franchise but also one of the best RPGs of all time.