Remakes & Remasters- Cheap or Charming?

[PostZordem]

Remakes and Remasters have always fascinated me. While the concept of shelling out money for what is essentially the same game at its core seems like a waste of money on paper, in execution it has proven time and time again to be quite successful for the most part. Now why is that exactly? Is it the newer, shinier graphics that give an old game a beautiful glow up? Could it be the quality of life improvements and fixes that the old game lacked? Or is it just the ability to play the remade game on a newer system? Well, I'd say it's all three of these things juxtaposed together (along with a few other things) that makes remakes and remasters of old games so enticing for players both old and new. 

Though between the two, are Remakes or Remasters the better treatment to give an old game when the time is right? As someone who's had his fair share of both, I'm personally on Team Remake because:

• I love seeing an old game get rebuilt from the ground up on a new engine or system. There's a lot more differences present in a remake compared to a remaster.
• There's typically new content added in remakes in the form of additional story or gameplay bits not in the original game. 
• Graphics. Yeah I know, I'm incredibly shallow. Don't get me wrong, I'm fine with older graphics, but seeing an old game remade with crisp, cleaner graphics is always a pleasure to look at. 

Now that's just my opinion on the subject of Remakes & Remasters. How do you feel about them? 

Edited July 27, 2023 by CyberZord
Title change

[AnonymousSpeed]

Kinda depends on the state of the old game. Shadows of Valentia is criticized for being too loyal to the original gameplay, but Gaiden is so wretchedly archaic that I think it was a good idea to make that same experience but tolerable. I just wish it took some of that approach with the story, which is really overwritten by comparison.

If they remade Sacred Stones, I'd be fine with them taking more liberties, since the original game is still perfectly playable. I've stuck to Fire Emblem examples here, but the thought process applies elsewhere.

[Integrity]

make games accessible (i mean this in both the 'put them on platforms people can buy from legally way' as well as the 'make fonts readable and put subtitles and shit in' way) as they were, and make new games instead

 

i'm tired of the trend of just doing things that guys with disposable income now loved when they were kids, but now they can spend more money on it and will

Edited July 23, 2023 by Integrity

[Zapp Branniglenn]

I feel like options 3 and 4 have a cause/effect relationship. Nobody out here is saying give me games as they are and also "don't you dare make new ones with all these development resources we just freed up".

Even when my favorite games are remade I usually have no plans to buy it. Just Resident Evil and Metroid have my full faith because those are entirely new games that don't try to overwrite the original. When something is ruined, it's heartbreaking to think that this will be someone else's first experience. When someone plays Link's Awakening and says "meh, that was alright", well yeah you paid sixty dollars to play on a system whose controllers don't work. A top down adventure game with no D-Pad support. And you could have downloaded it to your crusty 3DS for four dollars and had a much better time with the original developers' vision

[Fabulously Olivier]

I uh, think it depends on the game. I do value remakes and remasters, but I think they necessitate a few questions.

 

How old is the game?

Is it still viable on modern platforms? Why did you remaster The Last of Us for the 2nd time? No, seriously. Fucking why?

 

Does the game deserve a remake/remaster?

A game that is a candidate for some R&R should ideally be a timeless classic, an important piece of gaming history, or part of ongoing storyline of a franchise that HAS become important, and really worth preserving. 

Basically, no Bubsy. No Superman 64. And to the Dynasty Warriors community, stop asking for 3-5 remakes. They don't deserve it.

 

Does the game need a remake or a remaster? Or just an hd port?

I don't think we should be putting more resources into preserving games than they need. If a game can be great with just a remaster and quality of life improvements, do that and move on to the next big thing.

Basically, Path of Radiance was already a masterpiece and I would be thrilled with just graphics, animations, and QoL. More than that and you're taking time and money from building the future of the franchise.

Edited July 23, 2023 by Fabulously Olivier

[Jotari]

As has been said, it really depends on the game. I have zero interest in buying a game I already own if all they did was overhaul the graphics...but if I don't own said game and have always had an interest in playing it then that shiny new remaster will get my attention.

I think there are few games that really need to be remade out there. We've kind of already remade a bunch of the old NES and SNES library and few games made after that era are unplayable. Not to say games got better after that, indeed a lot of NES and SNES games are better, but things definitely got more polished as time went on. And once 3D gaming became an actual possible thing, being 3D or 2D was a design choice and not a necessity. I would probably, for example, be interested in a NES Zelda remake of it meant seeing their incarnation of Hyrule in 3D.

At the same time, overall, I think a lot of games that are remakes take things too conservatively. Like, Link's Awakening on Switch has been brought up. That's definitely a remake and not a remaster, right? Like they built an entirely new engine from the ground up...only aside from Dampe's dungeon maker... what's actually new in that game? Link's Awakening DX was more of a remaster but it feels like it added more to the game with it's colour dungeon and photos and stuff. If games that have no archaic playability issues are to be remade I'd rather they take the approach of adapting it rather than just reconstructing it again. You say "this is the story were telling" or "this is the central mechanic were using" and just make a new game around the core idea of the old. I guess Final Fantasy VII remake would be the prime example of this given it took an active turn based rpg and made it like a real time hack and slash...but I haven't played that game and I hear it took some weird timeline stuff with the plot turning it into a sequel more than a remake or something. So instead I'll give the example of Lylat Wars (or as you might know it, Star Fox 64). It took the exact same story as Star Fox on the SNES but just built an entirely different game. If you want to experience the story of Fox vs Andross then you can do it on N64, no need to dust of the SNES. Course if you're after the heightened difficulty and different map design of the SNES, well, it still exists. Lylat Wars was so great a remake, people don't even view it as a remake. Which is probably how the best remakes should be.

[Robert Stewart]

I think both ports and remakes/remasters have merit, and would like to see more of both.

Square Enix doing a remake of Trials of Mana didn't stop them from putting a translation of the original up for sale. Make both flavors available for those who want it.

If it's a hard choice though, I'd prefer a port. Let me experience the original, warts and all.

[henrymidfields]

I very much would prefer a complete remake from the ground up, partially because of how gaming tech has evolved, how worldbuilding has changed over time for some franchises like Pokemon, and how virtual consoles and emulators are now a thing.

On 7/24/2023 at 9:09 AM, Jotari said:

Like, Link's Awakening on Switch has been brought up. That's definitely a remake and not a remaster, right? Like they built an entirely new engine from the ground up...only aside from Dampe's dungeon maker... what's actually new in that game? Link's Awakening DX was more of a remaster but it feels like it added more to the game with it's colour dungeon and photos and stuff. If games that have no archaic playability issues are to be remade I'd rather they take the approach of adapting it rather than just reconstructing it again. You say "this is the story were telling" or "this is the central mechanic were using" and just make a new game around the core idea of the old. I guess Final Fantasy VII remake would be the prime example of this given it took an active turn based rpg and made it like a real time hack and slash...

Very much this. There's very little reason for me to play Link's Awakening on the Switch when I've already played the same game on the original Game Boy, and especially when the same GB game is now available in Virtual Console. It would have been nice, at least, if some of the story was expanded - for example, confirming the timeline between the Oracle games and Awakening, or even expanding the mythology of the dream concept and how the nightmares are formed, and make the (back)story quantity more in line with the post-2000s 3D Zelda games. Were it not for the fact that Pokemon DPPt is no longer easily available, I would also mentioned the same with Pokemon BDSP, when Pokemon ORAS at least added a new storyline and some Emerald stuff. Final Fantasy 7 Remake, on the other hand actually expands and shakes up the story, artwork, and gameplay from the original, while the original PS1 version is available online - otherwise, what's the point.

As for the two games I want to see remakes, Pokemon BW1+2 and Fire Emblem Jugdral duology:

For Pokemon BW, I think the worldbuilding of this game is not American/NY enough. (See here and here.) This is an opinion that a few people (inc myself) in reddit now have. Games after this (XY and onwards) actually now represent France, Hawaii, UK etc to a significant degree, (although not as explicit as RBY and GSC - see my and ping's post.). Earthbound did a better job of depicting Eagleland/fake-USA, and Pokemon BW should just straight-out make Unova as an American region (to better align with the worldbuilding of XY and onwards) with Gotham-like Art Deco cities, small Springfield-like towns, New Age Retro Hippie characters, and other stars-and-stripe Americana stereotypes like Eagleland did. (Or Ghetsis being depicted as an demagogue politician like how Valerie Simmons in Carole and Tuesday was.)

For Jugdral, the story is widely considered great for good reason, but there's quite a bit of QoL that we can add. Aside from releasing a translated original on the VC, I'd like to see rebalancing of the units so that infantries can see better use. (This may be the few cases where mounted units should NOT have markedly higher movement - at least not outside of class-specific abilities and certainly not without some sort of gameplay penalty - due to the bigger scale of physical distance, time, and conflict.) As for trading, I think certain form of direct trading should be allowed (though still restricted otherwise) to make better logical sense (Like, how can you not hand-trade between family members?), and to take into account relationships (the other big focus in Jugdral). To further show the epic scales of war, battalions and pair ups should also be a thing to better show the bigger scale of the battle as happening between several regiments.

Edited August 22, 2023 by henrymidfields