Your least favorite remasters/remakes?

[iamthemilkman]

Shadow of the Colossus (PS4)

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary (Xbox 360, Xbox One)

Halo 2 Anniversary (Xbox One)

While none of these are bad, all 3 of them made aesthetic changes that I wasn't fond of. Shadow of the Colossus (PS4) made a lot of changes to the lighting and main character model that didn't look better, IMO, whereas Halo: Combat Evolved and 2 Anniversary just looked a lot worse than the Xbox originals artistically. Many people criticized Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary for this, however a lot of people claimed that 2 was a lot better and didn't have this issue, and I completely disagree with that. For example, here's the skybox from the 'A Whisper in the Storm' level:

Halo 2:

Halo 2 Anniversary:

 

[No-Bo-Dy]

Silent Hill HD Collection.

 

[DragonMals]

barely adds content to make it over the original game. Only good thing about it is that you don't lose everything when you die.

 

[RanmyakuIchi's iconRanmyakuIchi]

I don't think it's bad per say, and I like having more playable characters. But it feels watered down from the original and the lessened gore makes combat less satisfying. It's the weakest of the 3 versions of Ninja Gaiden 2. Gets bonus points for Momiji, but she's in better games too.

 

[WerewolfJones]

It’s probably petty, but I think the Super Mario Advance ports are generally pretty unnecessary. I wouldn’t call them outright bad, but the added voice clips are annoying.

Along with that, I honestly don’t like Fire Emblem New Mystery of the Emblem. I’m usually fine with the modern trend of avatars in FE, but the avatar added in New Mystery is invasive since they were never supposed to be there. I’m not even a major fan of the gameplay. As a whole I prefer Mystery over New Mystery by a pretty big margin.

 

[J.F.C]

I hate that the Tales of Symphonia Remaster is stuck at 30 fps because Namco decided to use the PS2 version as a basis for the remaster instead of using the Gamecube version.

 

[Nebulon_Galaxy]

Demon Souls Remake
Removed the iconic cat ring icon. Which was the devs cat.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

Nocturne HD: it's fiiiine, also the version I use when playing Nocturne but the lack of any new content while still charging full price is WILD. Like say what you will, the Persona re-releases (I mean FES, Portable, Golden, and Royal not the Multiplatform ports) at least had balance changes, new characters, new social links, new music, and don't even get me stared on Vengeance. Those games make a little more sense to have an increase in price, so what's this remaster's excuse for being $50-$70? Post humorous DLC, voice acting and a little less polygons? You don't even get Dante until you shell out another $10. Get this at a price drop, or just play the old Maniax version if you want Dante but don't want/have $70 to toss.

$80 (correction: probably more, I forgot I already have Etrian Odyssey 2 HD, and also it's at a 33% discount right now) for all 3 of these games at once is insane too, but this at least has new content, they even gave the last stratum of Etrian Odyssey III it's own battle music and put the scrapped extra boss music from Etrian Odyssey 1 back in the game. If Nocturne HD did shit like this, I'd be a little less pissed about the price, give me a new dungeon where Unseen Vortex is a background track and I'll shell out $100.

 

[WerewolfJones]

View attachment 29843
Nocturne HD: it's fiiiine, also the version I use when playing Nocturne but the lack of any new content while still charging full price is WILD. Like say what you will, the Persona re-releases (I mean FES, Portable, Golden, and Royal not the Multiplatform ports) at least had balance changes, new characters, new social links, new music, and don't even get me stared on Vengeance. Those games make a little more sense to have an increase in price, so what's this remaster's excuse for being $50-$70? Post humorous DLC, voice acting and a little less polygons? You don't even get Dante until you shell out another $10. Get this at a price drop, or just play the old Maniax version if you want Dante but don't want/have $70 to toss.

Do t forget the fact they managed to do a remaster with slowdown in places that a PS2 processed with ease. The HD Remaster is what I use if I go back to 3 but damn did they do it a bit of disservice.

 

[Tonberry]

Seconding Shadow of the Colossus.
It plays fine, especially on PS5, but I also don't like how it looks compared to the original.

Another one that comes to mind is Fable Anniversary. It's just super ugly, and had awful performance on the 360.

 

[J.F.C]

View attachment 29843
Nocturne HD: it's fiiiine, also the version I use when playing Nocturne but the lack of any new content while still charging full price is WILD. Like say what you will, the Persona re-releases (I mean FES, Portable, Golden, and Royal not the Multiplatform ports) at least had balance changes, new characters, new social links, new music, and don't even get me stared on Vengeance. Those games make a little more sense to have an increase in price, so what's this remaster's excuse for being $50-$70? Post humorous DLC, voice acting and a little less polygons? You don't even get Dante until you shell out another $10. Get this at a price drop, or just play the old Maniax version if you want Dante but don't want/have $70 to toss.

View attachment 29849

$80 (correction: probably more, I forgot I already have Etrian Odyssey 2 HD, and also it's at a 33% discount right now) for all 3 of these games at once is insane too, but this at least has new content, they even gave the last stratum of Etrian Odyssey III it's own battle music and put the scrapped extra boss music from Etrian Odyssey 1 back in the game, if Nocturne HD did shit like this, I'd be a little less pissed about the price, give me a new dungeon where Unseen Vortex is a background track and I'll shell out $100.

Nocturne's HD remaster also fucks with the original game's visuals a bit (It isn't anything terrible but it does look worse)

 

[miguk]

It’s probably petty, but I think the Super Mario Advance ports are generally pretty unnecessary. I wouldn’t call them outright bad, but the added voice clips are annoying.

Along with that, I honestly don’t like Fire Emblem New Mystery of the Emblem. I’m usually fine with the modern trend of avatars in FE, but the avatar added in New Mystery is invasive since they were never supposed to be there. I’m not even a major fan of the gameplay. As a whole I prefer Mystery over New Mystery by a pretty big margin.

I was actually fine with both of these, but to each there own.

As for me, the PS2 Sega AGES series was very hit or miss. Some changed too little and felt like a waste of time. Others changed too much, using of-there-time muddy 3D graphics to replace perfectly fine sprite work. (Golden Axe was just ugly.) That said, Phantasy Star Generation: 1 was quite good.

 

[iamthemilkman]

I hate that the Tales of Symphonia Remaster is stuck at 30 fps because Namco decided to use the PS2 version as a basis for the remaster instead of using the Gamecube version.

I was just about to buy this for $15. Maybe I'll just stick with the Gamecube and PS3 versions.

Post automatically merged: Feb 21, 2025

Seconding Shadow of the Colossus.
It plays fine, especially on PS5, but I also don't like how it looks compared to the original.

Another one that comes to mind is Fable Anniversary. It's just super ugly, and had awful performance on the 360.

Yep, I agree with Fable Anniverary. The character models are sooo ugly.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

I was just about to buy this for $15. Maybe I'll just stick with the Gamecube and PS3 versions.

Post automatically merged: Feb 21, 2025

GameCube is the way to go, 60 FPS
Can also be played on Wii but has 2 discs

 

[moonbits]

Halo CE Anniversary is undoubtedly the absolute worst remaster I've had my hands on. None of the games in this thread come even close to this absolute artistic disaster.

 

[AnonymousCookieMonster]

So far... The Spyro games look like they were probably the best example of a game where a remaster was warranted.

Everything else i've seen is unneccesary and a money grab.

 

[Nebulon_Galaxy]

I was actually fine with both of these, but to each there own.

As for me, the PS2 Sega AGES series was very hit or miss. Some changed too little and felt like a waste of time. Others changed too much, using of-there-time muddy 3D graphics to replace perfectly fine sprite work. (Golden Axe was just ugly.) That said, Phantasy Star Generation: 1 was quite good.

I actually like all the Sega Ages games on PS2...they were fun

 

[ciro64]

This game misses the aesthetic of the original, which should be the whole point of a remake like this. Everything looks modern just for the sake of looking modern, and this kinda makes me wish Banjo Kazooie never receives a remake if the tendency is to have no respect for the nuances of the source material.

The original didn't needed a remake, but if they were going to make one, they should have sticked to 2D. Doing a reimagination with full 3D akin to this would have very much been appreciated though.

This remake stands on a limbo between these two things. No strong feelings against it though. If it wasn't for the way it was revealed, that is... I even made a thread about it once.

The Shrine dungeon theme deserves some respect thought.

 

[miguk]

I actually like all the Sega Ages games on PS2...they were fun

They did pick good games, and the ones that were barely changed were still good. The problem is, if you already played the same exact thing on another console, why bother buying it again? And if you already played it on another console and it looked better before, why buy a lesser version?

If they were your first intros to the games, that's fine. But if you played them in their original forms, you'd want something better. (The exception being PSG1, which was the one very noticeable improvement over the original.)

Post automatically merged: Feb 21, 2025

This game misses the aesthetic of the original, which should be the whole point of a remake like this. Everything looks modern just for the sake of looking modern, and this kinda makes me wish Banjo Kazooie never receives a remake if the tendency is to have no respect for the nuances of the source material.

The original didn't needed a remake, but if they were going to make one, they should have sticked to 2D. Doing a reimagination with full 3D akin to this would have very much been appreciated though.

This remake stands on a limbo between these two things. No strong feelings against it though. If it wasn't for the way it was revealed, that is... I even made a thread about it once.

The Shrine dungeon theme deserves some respect thought.

As someone who grew up with the original LoZ: LA, I actually liked the remake. It wasn't perfect, as there were things they could have done to flesh it out more (more depth to the cast, more missions, more dungeons, a better dungeon creator system, etc). Nonetheless, it was not bad for a remake of an 8-bit game.

Also, I grew up on Rankin/Bass animation, so the new graphics definitely charmed me by creating a totally different retro aesthetic.

 

[Parasite_Steve]

Shadow of the Colossus (PS4)

Hard disagree here. I loved the original, but the remaster added so many little quality of life improvements and it’s absolutely gorgeous to look at. I haven’t returned to the original since.

I didn’t vibe with the remaster of Panzer Dragoon. The low polygon aesthetic of the original was a feature, not a bug and the way they cleverly made use of the Saturn‘s limitations is part of the charm. The updated models look nice, very close to the original artwork but they didn’t really update the rest of the game enough so the assets don’t really come together into a coherent style. It’s a bare bones game on every level.

I never got into the crash bandicoot remastered trilogy. Granted I played the originals excessively so I notice every little detail, but something about the controls is completely off. They’re just not on the same level. Surprisingly enough the CTR remaster was excellent and Crash 4 translated the classic gameplay and visuals into a modern engine way better than I thought possible.

Special shoutout to the Star Wars battlefront classic collection. I don’t remember the last time I felt so scammed. Really takes genuine talent to take two fantastic games and turn them into absolute train wrecks. On release they were borderline unplayable and even after several updates they don’t measure up to the originals. I’m not holding my breath Aspyr will actually fix them anytime soon considering how badly and lastingly they botched the Jedi Knight collection.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

I was very disappointed with the Resident Evil 3 remake.

It just lost a lot of its spooky charm, IMO.

 

[Cu-Neo]

Fable anniversary, because it changes the whole artstyle.

 

[freebie#47]

Mostly the GTA trilogy and Silent Hill where they removed the fog first comes to mind. All GBA ports from SNES and Genesis. Now remaster/Remake I really really love are the Yakuza/like a dragon KIWAMII!!!! games. They even blow away the 3-5 remasters.

 

[Bonkers225]

 

[Ravl]

View attachment 29849

$80 (correction: probably more, I forgot I already have Etrian Odyssey 2 HD, and also it's at a 33% discount right now) for all 3 of these games at once is insane too, but this at least has new content, they even gave the last stratum of Etrian Odyssey III it's own battle music and put the scrapped extra boss music from Etrian Odyssey 1 back in the game.

fun fact: It's only 80€ if you want it to be, the poor intern at Atlus forgot to add Denuvo when it released so you can easily find it "elsewhere".

Post automatically merged: Feb 21, 2025

Also I was really disappointed with the untold remakes: I do not like the grimoires, the new classes, the new balance changes and level design. The story is bad, but at least there's Classic (you still have to grind to compensate for those story only floors though)

Also, I hate how they spoiled the original's twist in Untold in the first 5 minutes