Remake Relief

[Bakuma1997]

The opposite of Hikari's Thread, not all remakes are bad, and in this Thread we are going to explore those Remakes that actually feel... well, remaky


Ducktales Remastered is a great remix of the original NES game, udating the original levels to be mini Metroidvanias and smoothening the Pogo Jump, the animations from Wayforward brings the game's levels to a feeling similar to watching a episode of the show

In a Retro sense, the GBC/SFC ports of Dragon Quest i+ii iron the flaws of the eponymous games (Making easier the first one and REALLY EASY the second one) while simplyfying menu navigation and axing the dumb Stair command that while common in NES RPGs, it was obsolete by the time the OG Gameboy came around

 

[Yousef]

Oh ducktales remaster nice

 

[Stingy Perry]

My favorite is the 3D remake of Trials of Mana.

 

[tenkai star]

RE2, Mafia 1, pokemon HGSS, ocarina of time 3ds

 

[MasterEn]

pikmin1² is a fantastic remake of pikmin 1. it fixes the pikmin ai of the first game, and most importantly, it fixes the handling of bomb rocks. there's a 5 second period where pikmin will drop the rocks, [indicated by their flowers glowing pink] but after that, whistling won't cause them to drop the rocks. you also get a new adventure with louie and a few new custom enemies and bosses, and a randomizer that has a bunch of customization options to it.

 

[DunkeyKong]

Shadow of Colossus, it's just so beautiful

 

[ATenderLad]

Hard to go wrong with the Resident Evil remakes, the first two in particular.

 

[Gorse]

Controversial as they may be to purists (and block bug in 1 notwithstanding), I truly do love the Super Mario All-Stars remakes of the NES Mario games. The updated graphics are just gorgeous, the games play beautifully, and they fix so many issues with bugs and slowdowns from the original that I… gulp… consider them the definitive versions? (Well, let’s say that for SMB2 and 3, at least.)

Plus, the extra content in the GBA ports, especially for SMB3, is just some of the best platforming ever created by humans. Contrary to pretty much all my other gaming preferences, those are the versions of the NES Mario games I go back to most often.

 

[RageBurner]

Trials of Mana is probably one of the closest examples to a good remake, but it fails on a fundamental factor: they removed multiplayer, which they shouldn't have. There were many ways they could have implemented, but they haven't.

A better example that stays truer to source is the Romancing Saga 2 one, and is a superior example. I can only hope they remake the others.

The Front Mission remakes also deserve mentions for being both modernized and extremely faithful, which is the right approach for a remake in my eyes: improve the bad, keep the good, while retaining the spirit of the game.

 

[Cu-Neo]

These two:

Also a mention to both Tales of Innocence R and Hearts R. And the Evolution versions of the three Trials in the sky (although those are in the line between remaster and remake).

 

[Yousef]

I can say my favorite remake, but it’s a huge hot take.

 

[Stookymalarkey]

I'm on a Ys kick recently, and I will say that Oath in Felghaia is miles ahead of the original Ys 3 in terms of gameplay, bosses and story. I guess Memories of Celcetta is better than Ys 4 (either version) since it doesn't have that archaic BUMP system for the combat, though it's far from my favorite of the games with the party system.

 

[miguk]

Probably the gold standard for how to remake a 8/16-bit game is Wonder Boy in the Dragon's Trap. The HD graphics were lovingly hand-drawn, adding additional frames of animation to the game and parallax scrolling to the backgrounds, resulting in it looking like something made more recently rather than something that just got drawn over (*cough* Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix *cough*). They went further by making QoL adjustments (saving, no need to switch swords to break blocks, etc). And what's more, if you don't like the new graphics or music, you can revert them to the originals with the touch of a button. They even have the password system if you want to port over your "game save" from the SMS/TG-16 versions.

 

[RageBurner]

Probably the gold standard for how to remake a 8/16-bit game is Wonder Boy in the Dragon's Trap. The HD graphics were lovingly hand-drawn, adding additional frames of animation to the game and parallax scrolling to the backgrounds, resulting in it looking like something made more recently rather than something that just got drawn over (*cough* Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix *cough*). They went further by making QoL adjustments (saving, no need to switch swords to break blocks, etc). And what's more, if you don't like the new graphics or music, you can revert them to the originals with the touch of a button. They even have the password system if you want to port over your "game save" from the SMS/TG-16 versions.

I agree completely.

 

[ThatPatrickGuy]

I'm gonna give some love to the MediEvil Remake, one of my favorite Oldies.
That coat of paint it got was fresh as hell. and made up for how goofy the Psp version was

 

[Bakuma1997]

I'm gonna give some love to the MediEvil Remake, one of my favorite Oldies.
That coat of paint it got was fresh as hell. and made up for how goofy the Psp version was

As a kid i hated the little Gremlin thing, as an adult i found him useful and legitimaly funny

 

[jankusanagi]

I love the Lunar remake for the PSP! So faithful, but much nicer.
Also, Resident Evil's remake for the GameCube. Same as above. And bigger.

Final Fantasy III remade in 3D for the PSP is quite nice, too.

Oh, and the remake of the first Star Ocean, also for the PSP. Made to look and feel similar to OG Star Ocean 2.

 

[Nebulon_Galaxy]

Final Fantasy remakes on the DS.
Rance 01-03 excellent remakes of the classic eroge! I highly recommend everyone play these games, beside the overwhelming amount of porn its an actual game with huge replay value and a huge expansive world.
House of the Dead Remake, on the switch its so good!

 

[Bakuma1997]

Kyuukayu (Or Kyuuyaku, I always mix them) Megami Tensei, Only in the first game, fairer difficulty while still being ass kicking, simpler menu navigation, boost of EXP and Macca rewards, QoL features making some parts simpler (The whole Izanami thingamajig goes from Two tries and if you fail back to the literal beggining of the game to having to wait a ingame "Day") while the II part gets neat easter eggs if you do some things in the first part, havent beat the second part but i am having a blast so far, making the maps smaller and adding a map is the deal sealer for me

 

[Yousef]

I agree completely.

I agree uncompletely

Post automatically merged: Jan 20, 2025

Final Fantasy remakes on the DS.
Rance 01-03 excellent remakes of the classic eroge! I highly recommend everyone play these games, beside the overwhelming amount of porn its an actual game with huge replay value and a huge expansive world.
House of the Dead Remake, on the switch its so good!

Rance mention, respect

 

[RageBurner]

Kyuukayu (Or Kyuuyaku, I always mix them) Megami Tensei, Only in the first game, fairer difficulty while still being ass kicking, simpler menu navigation, boost of EXP and Macca rewards, QoL features making some parts simpler (The whole Izanami thingamajig goes from Two tries and if you fail back to the literal beggining of the game to having to wait a ingame "Day") while the II part gets neat easter eggs if you do some things in the first part, havent beat the second part but i am having a blast so far, making the maps smaller and adding a map is the deal sealer for me

A great duology and a beautiful hacking work. Crisp menus, beautiful VWF... a pleasure to play.

 

[Bakuma1997]

A great duology and a beautiful hacking work. Crisp menus, beautiful VWF... a pleasure to play.

Only drawback is music feels less epic, for example OMEGA, the final boss theme of II sounds kinda deflated compared to the NES original or even Majin Tensei's remix wich BTW sounds like what you expect to play while facing

Spoiler

LITERAL GOD

and some enemy designs feeling more unique in Famicom

 

[Somnia]

Ocarina of Time 3D is a damn near flawless update to the original. Runs better, looks gorgeous in that "this is how I remember this looking" kind of way and features tons of QoL features to make it a smoother and more intuitive experience without dashing any of the difficulty or ruining any puzzles.

Resident Evil 1's remake also deserves a shotout for taking the already fantastic original and turning it into a virtually flawless game. Clever expansions to underdeveloped areas of the original and unique twists like Crimsonheads make it a thrill for even veteran players. To this day playing REmake on a CRT is one of the best looking experiences you can have in all of video games.

 

[RageBurner]

Only drawback is music feels less epic, for example OMEGA, the final boss theme of II sounds kinda deflated compared to the NES original or even Majin Tensei's remix wich BTW sounds like what you expect to play while facing

Spoiler

LITERAL GOD

and some enemy designs feeling more unique in Famicom

That's true, yes. Still, I think it's a stellar game and patch. If only the other Megaten games were done by the same guys.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

-Final Fantasy 3 PR actually fixed my gripe with the other remakes of the game: the music
-Mega Man Powered Up adds character dialogue, all bosses + extras playable, 2 new robot masters, unique boss voice lines and intros, fixed and/or emphasis on level design, and an intro stage. Real shame they made it exclusive to the PSP, thus it didn't sell, thus no Mega Man 2 or 3 Powered Up (two games that REALLY need the remake treatment)
-Persona 3 Reload despite certain changes people don't agree with
-The Etrian Odyssey Untold games that were so different that they're practically completely different from the rest of the series
-Yakuza Kiwami duology (though I think the originals were way better)
-Muramasa Rebirth containing small qol plus 4 smaller DLC
-Nocturne HD despite the price and the controversial DLC looks way better than PS2 and has voice acting

oh and how could I forget Rockman Complete Works? The Legacy Collection we never got