Remakes. What is it about remakes? Gamers want all kinds of old games remade. Final Fantasy 7 is a big one. Recently I have also heard Metal Gear Solid 1, Killer Instinct, Resident Evil 1 & 2, Golden Eye, Almost any other Final Fantasy title and Zelda: Ocarina of Time. While I will give you that these are all classic and good games. I personally see little to no reason to remake them. However let’s go through the reasons why gamers want a remake and why it might not be such a good idea.
What does it take to create a good remake? While I will go into games later for now let’s go over other things people in general have wanted remakes of… The formula for a remake of any kind is nearly impossible to get right. Cars, Books, Movies, Music, Fashion… The list goes on and it feels like people ask for these things all the time but when they get them modernized or “Remade” critics, fans and everyone who wanted them turn their backs and call the director/ actors/writers/artists and say things like “Morons. A monkey could have done it better”. Let me give you a few examples outside games that might open your minds a little. The Ford Shelby GT500. While critics vary on the quality of the machine most would say “For the price get a classic and rebuild it”… People had wanted it remade for a long time and the hype surrounding it was incredible… However it could never live up to the classic that is the 69 Shelby GT500… No one is really buying them either. Many other cars like the VW bug or the Camaro fall into a similar slot of remakes that don’t do well…
How about movie or book remakes. Some can be remade with a fresh coat of paint fairly well. Usually these are Zombie movies or horror. Lately there are some comic book movies that have done fairly well but diehard fans of comics(Like many here are for games) nitpick and ridicule the little things “Nick Fury isn’t black” or “The Hulk got hit by a gamma bomb not a stupid laser” Or my favorite “The freaking spider was radioactive and NOT ’biologically engineered’ *grumble grumble”… Very few other genres can be remade well and are considered classics for a reason. Look at Romeo and Juliet. The book revolutionized the way play writes thought and changed entertainment the world over. Now look at the 1996 remake… There were a few people who liked it but for the most part it was mocked and shunned as an insult to the classic. Anyone who has read a book and then seen the movie usually gets the feeling they “Missed the boat” or “OMG I can’t believe they left out X,Y or Z thingy” hence they “Sold out” and “Failed at movie”… When it’s usually much more than that.
I could go
on for days but in truth remakes are very rarely accepted the world over no
matter what medium they come in. You all know this to be true. Remakes are very
hard to do right period and why they are avoided like the plague.
SSF2THDR was
done well. There were very few things added. They were added to balance the
game even more so. The concepts were taken from Tournament masters and the game
was overseen by a tournament champion as well who is a brilliant mind when it
comes to game design and philosophy.
Prince of Persia(2008), Pac Man (Adventures in Time), Bionic Commando(2009), Bomberman(XBL) and Super Street Fighter 2 HD Turbo Remix(2008) are a few current examples of “Remakes” or just new versions… Call it what you will… that flopped pretty hard. They were all asked for by the fans and they got remade… Fans went crazy and condemned them for the most part… They either “didn’t hold true to the original” or had “Outdated simple controls” or “The team that designed it had no clue what the original was about” or “Was way too hard”… I could go on but I feel I made my point. Think about other “Remakes” you have seen and how they fared… Probably not well…
Why we shouldn’t ask.
Think about what you would want to see(I will use FF7 as the example but apply it to your game. Think about how it could all play out). Mostly updated graphics right? Well why? Is the old game horrible looking? Can you not see what’s going on? If the development team did change FF7 and made it more serious instead of cartoony how many people would be mad? If they made it off the wall cartoony how many would be mad? If the backgrounds were less rounded and bright and more sharp and dark what would they say?… If they made it look like advent children how many would say “Uninspired company/team” or “The actions and cartoony nature don’t suit the serious characters” because the script did have many cartoony ideas to it… There would be fan boy hate and venom spewed across SE’s name by every person on the internet. How they “Don’t hold true to the original idea”… You get the idea.
Better controls you say? Better combat? Well FF7 is a great game. I beat it in Japanese the first time I played it and I don’t know a single word in that language. I just did trial and error and eventually won. The combat even then was a little bland honestly. Summoning the “Knights of the Round” was cool but completely bland for about 3 minutes after you hit X… So would you want SE to change the controls for their remake? Change the combat? Make it more like Final Fantasy (Fill in a number here) or more like some other RPG as an example? No matter what they changed to this people would be outraged. Change it from turn based to real time. Change to a karma system. Change to a more strategic system, Combo system, Rage system… There is no winning and if they keep it the same people will complain and say they were lazy… Or that it feels dated… Which even at the time of release it kind of did. If they changed nothing why even do a remake?
Change the sounds/color scheme/story/characters… Change nothing just add a few cut scenes or some content… This would all end just as badly as anything else.
What we should ask for.
Doing a full remake would take a lot of time. Many resources and quality/creative people would be forced to be uncreative and useless to rehash a decade old game… They should revisit the story and characters just like advent children did. Why redo something when the team could be making something new, creative and fresh instead. We already have FF7 do you really need a remade one? How long before we want a 3rd remake of it? Why waste the time when we could be seeing something better?
Release date and expected launch time for when the Fallout 4 next-gen update will come out along with how to download.
WTMG's Leo Faria: "A Difficult Game About Climbing is obviously frustrating, and I don’t exactly think it’s a fun pasttime, but it’s exponentially more enjoyable than the horrendous Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy. It’s actually beatable with enough trial and error. Its mechanics, whilst not exactly polished to the brim, work as intended, with no intentional input lag. It’s still clearly meant for Let’s Play youtubers to film themselves losing their minds over it, but it can still be a passable challenge if you’re up for the task."
WTMG's Oliver Shellding: "Overall, I think Stitch is an ultra quaint title that oozes warmth and welcome in gameplay and visual presentation, and is just such a decompression tool after a long day doing literally anything. It gives me such joy and relaxation to bring together the numbers and colors until I’ve made a bicycle or a nutcracker or whatever. I’ll do Christmas puzzles in April, it’s fine and the game doesn’t judge me. Unlock more and more pieces, don’t wait for power ups or villains because there are none, and just keep making yourself happy. If games are art, this one is a sweater my mom made for me, and I’m wearing it to keep out any and all chilly elements. But, just like mom, I’ll only pretend to listen."
I want a FF7 remake but not until next gen.
I don't have a problem with remakes. I don't actively promote them or seek their (re)development, but I'd buy a good one.
Making a good remake strikes me as difficult. On one hand you have to be true to what made the game great in the first place, but then you can't make only minor updates like graphics. And you have to make the game attractive to today's market even though the game might have sold/reviewed favorably in the 90s. And to me that means changes. Maybe changes the original fans, people clamoring for the remake in the first place, might not like.
yes its a hard balance thats why s-e refuses to do a re-make, they don't want to spoil ff7.
The reason people hate remakes/sequels in general is purely down to nostagia.
When they first played FF7, they thought "WOW this is sooo awesome, the 3D graphics, the story, the gameplay mechanics WOW". Now during the design process of FF7, there are many decisions that they made on a whim that could easily have gone the other way, but you'd still have loved the game anyway.
For example, they could have decided that KOTR were too powerful and put their damage at half of what it is normally. Thousands of decisions about how much damage different things should do, how much time it takes to charge up materia, level up were made during FF7's development.
But now think what would happen if they remade FF7, and KOTR did half damage. Can you imagine the uproar from fans? Waaa waaaa KOTR are USELESS now you POS can't even remake the game properly IT'S SO SIMPLE how did you F*** this up so badly this is the WORST GAME EVER.
Yet that same decision could have been made during the original development and the game would have got the same rave reviews and reception.
It's a similar reason why fans of most games always think "hmm the first game was the best, after that they went downhill". No - it's just the nostalgia factor making you think that. In fact, the graphics, controls, immersion, balance & fun is greater in the other games, and if you'd played those first you'd surely think they were best.
Thank you for bringing back those memories Thor.Yes it was truly awesome back when FF7 was first release.We just could not believe the cutting edge graphics.As for the story and gameplay,well it was just another well done Square hit.So why do a remake of a nearly perfect game you ask?Well I think most of us fans would buy a remake or"like Jinxstar said it" an enhance version of the game whit only the graphics updated for the ps3.Granted this is just a fantasy,simply because it would probably cost more to do than the profit they would make.But enough of FF7,I wanted to share my opinion on one remake I bought on Ps store.The name is TMNT turtles in times.I think I can safely assume that any one who owned a Snes played this game.This is the way a remake should be done,nothing was touch on the story and the controls.As for the gameplay still the same except for the online feature up to four player and an alternate game mode,and they manage to update the graphics leaving this "cheesy" aspect we could feel playing the game back then! Ps:yes i know its not the Snes remake and there is little change "boss" to the game but i still stand by what I wrote,even if the people and reviewer said it was total c**p.
Lex saying: have a good day et jouer jusqua ce que vos pouces saigne!