What do you want to see a remake of?

[Punished Dayni]

I've had a bit of a random thought and it's one that I doubt people particularly want: what do you want a remake of? It doesn't have to be 100% faithful, it doesn't have to be the same style and I assume we should minimise talking about games as this ain't the VG subforum, but still.

My first suggestion is The Land Before Time (Spoilers, even if the movie is older than me)

Spoiler

Watching the Land Before Time this evening, I watched it and felt something I fear I shouldn't have: Man this movie suffers for when it was made. I know it's animated in the style that it has for a reason, that they weren't going for a cleaner looking style. And this is definitely not to say I think it's bad at all. It's fluid animation's something I wish we had more of, the usage of lighting really helps prevent the intentionally drab setting from getting too repetitive and at times they have a lot of fun intentionally changing character's colours entirely as part of it, the first Sharptooth sequence through to Littlefoot's mom dying is still great and I'll admit to tearing up, seeing these characters overcome and finally reach the promised land is good and all........

But fuck me there are issues. The pacing, especially for the middle of the movie is jumpy and there's a feeling of time jumping with little sense of where we're coming out of the transition. The animation's surprisingly inconsistent on the characters, where size seems to be whatever the people on each scene thought without comparing to what came before and adds to that confusion hugely. Character wise the VAs were kids so I'm not stressing on that, but the character writing could be better (e.g. Spike ends up being 100% superfluous to the whole thing, Ducky could also be not far off either, I say the character writing because the story as it stands doesn't need more complexity, just more exploration of its themes) and Cera specifically pissed me off with her entire attitude and how pretty much everything she did made things worse somehow barring at the end. We have a setting where everyone sticks with their own kind but Cera seems to be the only character that's really dealing with it outside of Littlefoot who's dealing with everything and that's mainly because the only adult characters who reinforce it in the story it's Cera's dad, this being due to the story choosing to focus on the journey and fine, but with how much it comes up we get very little framing to this theme of intentional division. One that's absolutely a personal peeve, right after Littlefoot's left his dead mother he meets up with another dino who he confides in briefly blaming his mother for dying protecting his ass and I was like WTAF at Littlefoot there, but I do realise it's actually not bad, I just read that one wrong. But for me, the real tragedy is that a lot of the pacing issues for me are because there wasn't enough time in the movie itself. This movie's just over an hour and I think that's not enough time to do what it could or should have. It contributes to most of the story issues and I do think a remake should take more time.

I realise of course that as it stands a 2D animated remake would definitely not happen and anything else would be a betrayal of the whole point of Land Before Time. The voice cast ain't happening, they're either too old or dead. Sullivan Bluth ain't around and there's no studio of that scale for 2D now, ignoring it'd likely have to be bigger. Meanwhile Bluth is focused on the return of Dragon's Lair for most of the decade, so I assume LBT is staying in the grave with it's dozen straight to dvd sequels.

 (As an aside, there are quite a few Lion King comparisons, like a cloud scene, the fact that most of the land is barren and how similar the elephant graveyard can feel and of course their tragic deaths. That being said, they do handle things differently enough that I'm not here to complain about either there (because I'm biased af and me attacking Lion King is a tough ask as it is))

[Jotari]

Assuming we're talking non Fire Emblem, I'd love to see a Zelda II remake that more fully embraces traditional elements of the series while maintaining it's core action oriented gameplay. A lot of people dismiss it immediatly because it's both too different to the rest of the Zelda series and because it's too difficult. Which are reasonable issues, but it's still a major shame as people are missing out on a really, really great game. Some simple change like potions and rupees (and also fall damage instead of immediately losing a life!) would make it much more palatable.

[null]

Probably a remake of the first three Rune Factory games. 3 needs the least QoL fixes, but the first two could really use some changes as well as some graphical enhancements across the board. I've never played any of them, so having them be remade for Switch would be nice. The series itself consists of fun, chill ARPG/life sim/farming sim type gameplay that appeals to me quite a bit. For others to be able to experience the older titles as well as the 4 Special release would be really neat, imo. It'd be a great way to get introduced to the series overall, especially with the new entry being released next year.

[GodSejeong97]

Wild Arms 4. Such an underrated game with a nice plot, likeable characters, gameplay and astounding soundtracks...

[Use the Falchion]

FE 4, because as much as I'd love to play the original, it's really hard for me to play old games, and watching LPs sadly always bores me after a time... 

 

Custom Robo, Gotcha Force, Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure Battle 2 are also games I'd love to see remade. 

 

In terms of movies and cartoons, I'm really not sure. A part of me would probably love a Spy Kids remake, along with a Kim Possible remake, but I'm honestly not sure they could update those without losing that 1990s/early 2000s aesthetic and charm. Life has changed so much that I'm not sure it'd work. Oh! Filmore! and Zoids! Those deserve remakes. And Static Shock!

 

 

[henrymidfields]

On 12/10/2020 at 10:46 PM, Use the Falchion said:

FE 4, because as much as I'd love to play the original, it's really hard for me to play old games, and watching LPs sadly always bores me after a time... 

I wouldn't mind either. I tried watching an LP of FE5, and I couldn't finish a single chapter of it, due to how long it took. (It wasn't even an endgame one - Chapter 13, to be exact.) If that took long, then I can't even imagine how much of a marathon it is for FE4's chapters (as fewer they may be...).

Edited December 20, 2020 by henrymidfields