If You’re Going To Do An HD Port, Do It Right, Dammit

The great HD port was Okami, where it’s clear that HexaDrive, the studio given the responsibility of porting a great, unsung classic, took that legacy seriously. Okami HD is a game that cleans up the original version, adds in Move functionality that apes the Wii release, with sharper graphics that never fail to meet—and sometimes exceed—the standards set by the original.

[RivetCityGhoul]

Silent Hill HD is a prime example of how to do a shitty HD port. i'm actually on the fence about the budokai HD collection for one they changed the soundtracks for each games which is bull but they also failed to even include budokai 2. what kind of budokai collection is that, if i want something remastered in HD then it means i want everything intact. the only REAL changes there should be is graphical updates.

EDIT: btw i always wanted a HD port of indigo prophecy GREAT FREAKING GAME MAN

[Nate-Dog]

Even though Konami probably weren't in charge of the actual porting of the SH HD Collection they have a history of this sort of thing, and the fact that they refused to patch it on X360 further proves their lack of care and attention at times. ZOE HD Collection is supposedly pretty bad too.

I bought Okami for PS2 second-hand a while ago when I found it cheap locally but don't have that console. Looking for my first game in Japanese to see how I do and am struggling a bit on what to choose. I want something with relatively regular dialogue but with something close to real life so I can try and pick up on the things I've learned of the language. I know the Japanese version of this has English subtitles so maybe I can give it a try, although I doubt the dialogue will be of much real use to me (but I've never played it so this is just me assuming so).

[admiralvic]

ZoE isn't THAT bad, but it's hard to justify 20 dollars for each game. Like the combat places look cleaner, but many of the cutscenes look like straight ports. There were also some pretty obvious errors that I find startling no one discovered.

[Sketchy_Galore]

I just bought Okami HD, never played Okami before and am still very early on in the game but while playing it last night there was one word that I couldn't get out of my mind and that word was 'perfection'. I'm not the type to declare something 'tha best gaem evurr!!!' after playing a few hours but honestly, after playing a few hours of this game and searching for a single flaw I cannot find one. It's literally stunning.

I recently picked up the Silent Hill collection too. While I didn't play Silent Hill 2 on its original release either, I did do enough YouTube research into how the game should look and how the collection had screwed the pooch and I have to say, after installing the patch and turning the brightness down 2 notches it looks fine and plays great. Obviously that doesn't excuse the shoddy state of the original release but anyone worried about buying the collection (on PS3 at least) can relax. The patch really seems to have cleared up all the issues.

[SaiyanFury]

I would have to agree. Okami on PS2 was what I call a masterpiece. I don't bandy that term about to often when it comes to video games as it's so rare for a true one to come along. A couple of rare other examples would be Final Fantasy Tactics and pretty much every Metal Gear Solid game. The only issues I have with Okami are sometimes the camera gets a tad wonky in tight spaces (hardly worth talking about, really), and as with other Japanese games I've played (certainly not all of them) is sometimes the game can be rather vague and ambiguous as to what you're current objective is. That's not to say that it occurs often, mind you. Okami is truly a rare gem and I'm glad the HD remake of it is as good as it is.

[fossilfern]

Its a fantastic HD port full native 1080p and 60 fps! I really hope Konami patch ZOE HD on Ps3!

[DigitalRaptor]

Every one of Sony's HD remaster collections have been nothing less than stellar and you can tell they put the effort in to bring back classics, and are reasonably priced. Trust them to set the standard. You can only say the same about select third party games from third party companies. I'd say Sega have done a pretty fine job too.

I'm actually surprised at Capcom for how well they did with the fantastic Okami. what isn't surprising is the price they're charging.