Your least favorite remasters/remakes?

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

its been this trend for a while now to hold the original at the stand as if its some sort of irrefutable evidence and then performatively bash anything new so people can maintain their gamer credentials as a fan. it reminds me of how every new FF entry is treated once its released because its "not final fantasy" yet then grown to be appreciated and loved later down the line once the bias wears off. give it some years after the remakes completion and i bet the same voices parroting original better will start saying something like "well its no FF7 but actually FF7R was kinda good"
when you take a pre existing IP and make something with it comparisons are inevitable yes. it doesnt have to be that way but it seems the majority of people are allergic to trying to form more nuanced opinions so itll remain that way.

You may be onto something here. I've initially hated a lot of Final Fantasy games that I've later grown to appreciate. Still, I don't think the Remake trilogy will be one of those unless the last chapter ties up all the loose ends satisfactorily.

I still think it sucks that they named the first game "Remake" as it gives the false impression to the American audience that the game is reflective of the original story. People who haven't played FF7 will play Remake and wonder why this game was ever a phenomenon in the first place when it isn't even close to the original story.

 

[Ravl]

people put way too much weight on a remakes faithfulness as if deviating from the original is some kind of artistic crime. strategist compared it to scribbling on the mona lisa but thats ridiculous the mona lisa is still hanging in the louvre untouched. its not defacing the original in the slightest its just someone taking a photo of the mona lisa editing it and posting it on deviantart. doesnt matter if the original creator is involved or if its considered "canon" or not a remake by definition is already a reintrepretation yet people insist on judging it by the same standards. i personally see no point to a remake unless its a "regimagining" i like it embracing new ideas whatever trainwreck of a game it turns out as would change nothing.
its been this trend for a while now to hold the original at the stand as if its some sort of irrefutable evidence and then performatively bash anything new so people can maintain their gamer credentials as a fan. it reminds me of how every new FF entry is treated once its released because its "not final fantasy" yet then grown to be appreciated and loved later down the line once the bias wears off. give it some years after the remakes completion and i bet the same voices parroting original better will start saying something like "well its no FF7 but actually FF7R was kinda good"
when you take a pre existing IP and make something with it comparisons are inevitable yes. it doesnt have to be that way but it seems the majority of people are allergic to trying to form more nuanced opinions so itll remain that way.

This is correct.
The again everybody's always talking about the story not the gameplay, which is actually my main problem with the games from XIII onwards, especially the Remakes and XVI

 

[medisinn]

Spoiler: FF7 Remake and Rebirth rants

I have a love/hate relationship with the new FF7 games, mostly hate. I started out excited for FF7 Remake. Midgar is such a giant city, and you see such a small slice of it in the original, I mean you go to 2 or 3 out of 8 sectors. Surely they will explore that more since the whole game is in Midgar, right? ...Oh, they're just going to take the 5 hours of gameplay in the original and strrreeetcccchhh it out into 40 hours by adding useless characters, fetch quests and just overall bloat. No new stuff to see, other than Jessie's parent's house. By the end, I was fucking hating it, and then once I got to the ending, I became excited at the concept of them not following the original story. I could deal with the meta-ness and boredom if it meant the rest of the series was going to go in a new direction.

I started off FF7 Rebirth very excited. There were so many things that made no sense to be put into the game, like some of the sidequests, an extremely shallow relationship system with your party, and all the open world stuff. And the minigames, so many minigames. There's a damned minigame of slowly luring a chicken back to town. It felt like they were trying to make a Modern Game for everyone by putting in every sort of gaming trope you currently see in other popular big-budget games. It worked well at first, and I dug the extra efforts at fleshing out Tifa and Aerith. Still, the bloat started to drag on me, as did the characters being idiots at times. I should have realized where things were going when the party had an opportunity to kill Hojo, after all the terrible things he's done in general and to the party, and Aerith tells Cloud to leave him alone because...reasons? I like the characters but I think the story is terrible, and suffers greatly from the trope of your party just watching things happening and letting them happen way too often. Just watching the same Shinra dickheads taunt your party and making you fight them over and over, always letting them get away for no apparent reason after you defeat them. Sephiroth losing his effectiveness in the story by constantly showing up, either for realsies, or through his Black Robe proxies, or by just being in Cloud's head. They don't make in any way clear what the rules are and what's what, and I understand that you're supposed to be disoriented, but it just doesn't work. Why would I give a shit about Sephiroth when I fought him in the first game, fight him multiple times in this game, see him all the time, and will have to fight him again in the last game? And wow, what was the point of Roche even being added to these games if they just wrote him off like that?

The whole game is still meta like Remake, only it hinges on "Will Things Be Different?" and "Will Aerith Live?" while staying almost exactly the same as the original game. Why tease us with the plot ghosts being destroyed in the first game if you're just going to stay on the same rails? And even the stupid plot ghosts are back in Rebirth and there's no reason given for it? By the end of the game, they keep things vague, while inferring that things are unfolding exactly the same, except for whatever multiverse nonsense that is occuring. Who cares how many timelines there are if they are just going to converge into the same shit as the original game?

I just look at the insane amount of effort and content put into Rebirth and think of how much of it was wasted on a game that has no clue what it wants to be. A beautiful, content-rich game, but one that withholds so much freedom while allowing you to do so much you never asked to be able to do. A game for everyone that is thus for no one. Again, why put alllll this effort into remaking a game, only to not make the same game but better, but also not make anything actually different? And it apprently didn't meet Square Enix's often insanely unrealistic sales goals, so it was all for naught.

Sorry for anyone who read that long-ass spoilery rant. I have strong feelings about the FF7 remake stuff.

Resident Evil 3 was very disappointing, the game looked great but had such little content, even less than the original. It feels like there is very little to it outside of fighting Nemesis a bunch, and the last fight is terrible nonsense. It felt like they only made this remake because 2 was such a hit and of course they had to remake every game, except...then they skipped Code Veronica, so that's not even true.

I also did not like Metroid: Samus Returns. I was ambivalent but a friend was so passionate about people buying the game digitally so that Nintendo would see strong sales and want to make more Metroid games that I gave in and bought it on release. I didn't play the original, but I'm sure being forced to constantly have to melee counter enemies wasn't in it. What a momentum killer. I didn't end up playing much of the game purely because of that unfun forced mechanic.

 

[Ravl]

a friend was so passionate about people buying the game digitally so that Nintendo would see strong sales and want to make more Metroid games that I gave in and bought it on release.

Considering what happened next your friend was right, so there's that

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

Spoiler stuff..

You nailed the problem right on the head. More than the indivual story moments, they completely failed to hit the tone and flanderized so many of the characters, it doesn't feel like FF7. FF7 was a somewhat edgy game with controversial things to say. Remake has been sanitized and nerfed to oblivion. I'm tired of the propaganda of the press saying there's so much "passion" behind these games when they don't care enough to nail the theme and tone of the story.

Sorry for anyone who read that long-ass spoilery rant. I have strong feelings about the FF7 remake stuff.

Nothing wrong with that. From what I've seen of the story from let's plays, I'd have to agree with you.

 

[medisinn]

You nailed the problem right on the head. More than the indivual story moments, they completely failed to hit the tone and flanderized so many of the characters, it doesn't feel like FF7. FF7 was a somewhat edgy game with controversial things to say. Remake has been sanitized and nerfed to oblivion. I'm tired of the propaganda of the press saying there's so much "passion" behind these games when they don't care enough to nail the theme and tone of the story.



Nothing wrong with that. From what I've seen of the story from let's plays, I'd have to agree with you.

That's a good way of putting it. I liked Barrett for the most part but he is Flanderized as well, the emotion and edge of his section of the story with Dyne is dampened. Doesn't help that there's a goofy boss fight right after what should be the emotional crescendo. Red XIII is also hard to take seriously, mostly because of

Spoiler

his voice completely changing after a certain point and it being revealed he was seemingly faking having a deep voice. It killed my interest in the character because it's so jarring and completely unnecessary.

Things are just dragged out so much that they have no impact. That Scene is no exception, and you're not allowed to remain in the aftermath and take it in because you're immediately moving onto the next thing. There's something to be said for brevity and how a short, punch to the gut moment sticks with you more than a longer period of turmoil. There are plenty of moments of levity in the original, but they were peppered throughout and didn't overstay their welcome. I feel like everything in this game overstays its welcome. Remake has too little content overall and Rebirth has wayyy too much.

The theme and tone is interesting too. What is the theme? In the original, it could be argued that it was environmentalism and concern for the sake of the planet. Both Shinra and Sephiroth represent different threats to the planet in varying ways and degrees. Things starts off with that concept in the remakes, but they quickly veer off. What is the actual theme of this story? Fate? Trauma? Mental Health? Trust? It could be none of them, or all of them. It just feels so inconsistent, probably because they are still figuring it out as they go. I do think there is passion put into the games, just in the wrong places. Too much fleshing out side characters like Johnny and not enough care put into the actual story.

 

[miguk]

people put way too much weight on a remakes faithfulness as if deviating from the original is some kind of artistic crime. strategist compared it to scribbling on the mona lisa but thats ridiculous the mona lisa is still hanging in the louvre untouched. its not defacing the original in the slightest its just someone taking a photo of the mona lisa editing it and posting it on deviantart. doesnt matter if the original creator is involved or if its considered "canon" or not a remake by definition is already a reintrepretation yet people insist on judging it by the same standards. i personally see no point to a remake unless its a "regimagining" i like it embracing new ideas whatever trainwreck of a game it turns out as would change nothing.
its been this trend for a while now to hold the original at the stand as if its some sort of irrefutable evidence and then performatively bash anything new so people can maintain their gamer credentials as a fan. it reminds me of how every new FF entry is treated once its released because its "not final fantasy" yet then grown to be appreciated and loved later down the line once the bias wears off. give it some years after the remakes completion and i bet the same voices parroting original better will start saying something like "well its no FF7 but actually FF7R was kinda good"
when you take a pre existing IP and make something with it comparisons are inevitable yes. it doesnt have to be that way but it seems the majority of people are allergic to trying to form more nuanced opinions so itll remain that way.

Okay first, before I say anything else:

• Capital letters at the start of sentences.
• New paragraphs when you've gone on for too long or change subject.
• Double newlines for paragraphs.
• Spell check. (Firefox has this as a feature.)

These will all improve the readability of your comments.

Back on topic: Most of the time, remakes don't replace the original because the original is pretty easy to get to begin with. In the era of overly long copyright and art based in the profit motive, that's going to be the usual state of affairs, as most will be adapted from something pretty widely distributed already.

The bigger tragedy is that we don't get more remakes of obscure games, which tend to just fade away as they get ignored even by the copyright holders. If we're being honest, a lot of people would never have played a Wonder Boy game or Live A Live without the remakes, as they just aren't big enough names for the average person to be aware of. (Note that at one point Wonder Boy in the Dragon's Trap was the biggest seller for the Switch. There's no way that would have happened without it being remade.)

I agree that we shouldn't expect remakes to be basically the same as the original. That's especially true when many of us never really saw the original. Look at the people who complained that Chrono Trigger DS was "incorrectly" retranslated only for it to turn out to be closer to the Japanese script than the SNES English version. (And this is likely not an isolated case.)

And as usual, I wish that copyright was shorter so there would be no debate about any of this. The loyalists would make their "perfect" rereleases, the developers would put out their HD DX Editions, and the artists would create something entirely new that would become their generation's version of it.

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

Okay first, before I say anything else:

• Capital letters at the start of sentences.
• New paragraphs when you've gone on for too long or change subject.
• Double newlines for paragraphs.
• Spell check. (Firefox has this as a feature.)

These will all improve the readability of your comments.

Back on topic: Most of the time, remakes don't replace the original because the original is pretty easy to get to begin with. In the era of overly long copyright and art based in the profit motive, that's going to be the usual state of affairs, as most will be adapted from something pretty widely distributed already.

The bigger tragedy is that we don't get more remakes of obscure games, which tend to just fade away as they get ignored even by the copyright holders. If we're being honest, a lot of people would never have played a Wonder Boy game or Live A Live without the remakes, as they just aren't big enough names for the average person to be aware of. (Note that at one point Wonder Boy in the Dragon's Trap was the biggest seller for the Switch. There's no way that would have happened without it being remade.)

I agree that we shouldn't expect remakes to be basically the same as the original. That's especially true when many of us never really saw the original. Look at the people who complained that Chrono Trigger DS was "incorrectly" retranslated only for it to turn out to be closer to the Japanese script than the SNES English version. (And this is likely not an isolated case.)

And as usual, I wish that copyright was shorter so there would be no debate about any of this. The loyalists would make their "perfect" rereleases, the developers would put out their HD DX Editions, and the artists would create something entirely new that would become their generation's version of it.

You make good points, but I'll suggest this just as food for thought. What is the value of a remake that isn't faithful to the ideas of the original game? You seem to suggest that it is a tragedy that some games get lost in time and we need to provide access to them. I feel the same way but I believe that unfaithful remakes are not solving that problem. Everyone's line for faithfulness is different but there is a line where a game stops being a faithful adaptation or valid proxy of past experience and becomes something else. That something else to me is a product that can cause the wrong impression in the new generation about the cultural significance of a past product.

 

[miguk]

You make good points, but I'll suggest this just as food for thought. What is the value of a remake that isn't faithful to the ideas of the original game? You seem to suggest that it is a tragedy that some games get lost in time and we need to provide access to them. I feel the same way but I believe that unfaithful remakes are not solving that problem. Everyone's line for faithfulness is different but there is a line where a game stops being a faithful adaptation or valid proxy of past experience and becomes something else. That something else to me is a product that can cause the wrong impression in the new generation about the cultural significance of a past product.

So like I said, the big games aren't going to get lost. nix gets to double dip on profits for FF7 because they still sell the original version. In cases like that, there isn't much harm in having a very different remake.

As for obscure games, those tend to get more faithful remakes due to them either being developed as a labor of love and/or not being as profitable as something radically different. I'm not saying that will always happen, but that's commonly the case. (Note that I don't trust the profit motive; I'm just explaining what has been observed.)

You can argue about what counts as faithful, but ultimately you can't have anything 100% faithful. (Side note: This is starting to sound like Socrates' "nature of piety" dialectic.) There are prototypes and quirks of the original hardware and CRT variations and other little things that will alter what counts as "faithful" from a certain perspective. For me, 100% faithful will involve the system being upside down because the PS1 is a typical Sony product. But all this is splitting hairs. What is ultimately important is to have core elements there with some high percent of it being similar to the original.

The risk of the next generation not getting it will be there no matter how faithful it is. Kids today have no idea why "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was such a big deal because they have no cultural context for punk not being mainstream and everything else being overplayed. That's not because of a remake; that's because you need to know the history of it to get it. It works the same for anything old.

 

[Nidoking's iconNidoking]

Silent Hill HD Collection.

This is the answer.

 

[ThunderBoy]

Blade Runner Enhanced Edition

 

[Ian Naxieas]

This is the answer.

Sadly, this is indeed the true answer. Good fucking job at losing the source code for the games and only having the beta builds left, Konami. Ugh. Not the first company to do that, but it still sucks. As much as it sucks, if it's the only way for some people to play the games, it's better than nothing. Barely.

Dark Souls Remastered was not impressive either. It does fix up the multiplayer and covenants, adds some QoL changes and makes it way easier to co-op, but everything else is worse, especially the visuals. That said, if you're not afraid of modding you can mitigate the visual changes by a lot. You will be softbanned if you use mods online, but that only places you into the "cheater" server, so you will still have full online functionality, but only with other softbanned players. I just made a throwaway Steam account and used family share for playing online with mods.

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition was shit on and for good reasons. I heard they patched them to be much better, but I'm not sure if they fixed all the "updated" models. This picture isn't anything new, but c'mon, look at this shit! If that kind of thing wasn't fixed, changing the lighting back won't matter, at least not for me. x)

Finally, Half-Life: Source. I don't even have much to say about it, they did improve the visuals, but introduced many bugs and glitches, as well as not supporting years of mods. Valve has delisted it from appearing in search results on Steam when they released the Half-Life 25th Anniversary Edition update for the original game, but you can still easily find it with a Google search.

 

[Lilianon]

Demon's Soul
They ruined the original atmosphere of the game, changed some elements of the artstyle and gameplay i didn't enjoy and small details missing or just changed for no reason.
It's fine as a game, but I think it's just an inferior version

 

[Trainer Red]

I just glanced at this and either I missed it ... but uh
Wow ... surprised no ones mentioned Pokemon Brilliant Diamond / Shining Pearl
Cause I mean ... I'm sure most were expecting the gameplay to be like SWSD ... but no ... it was more too similar to ORAS :(

 

[Nidstang]

Halo CE Anniversary - just completely ruins the art direction and tone of the original game

Warcraft 3 Resurrected - completely ruined Warcraft 3. From features like ladders and custom campaigns removed at launch, to worse visuals, censorship, adding bugs, locking framerate, breaking custom games, and killing the community, it's just awful

Diablo 2 Resurrected - It's censored in many ways, and ruins the tone/atmosphere of the original

Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters - games have added censorship, and (in my opinion) less pleasing art style for some of them

Sonic X Shadow Generations - I have no issues with the Shadow Generations content, but the Sonic Generations part is censored and I don't like the script changes made from the original

Some honorable mentions, because they're not completely horrible, but have flaws:
Destroy All Humans 1 and 2 Reprobed - both games are censored and had things removed from the original games

Demon's Souls - gameplay wise, I think it's perfect. But it's atmosphere and art direction are a big step down from the original.

Honestly I'm not a fan if any remake or remaster that changes, removes, or censors content from the original, changes the story, or drastically changes gameplay beyond quality of life improvements and bug fixes.

 

[fake-kun]

Every single one of them.

 

[Mini_Man.XW]

Demon's Souls remake is a good example of how changes can really bring a game down. A lot of the Blue Point's interpretations of the game's original designs are just straight up worse or undermine the elegance of the visual story telling of the original. It really went over their heads and the 'demake' proves remakes aren't an answer to preservation.

 

[Ikagura]

Every single one of them.

There are genuinely good remasters and remakes though.

 

[AkiraSO4]

Tomb Raider Anniversary.

For someone who just couldn't get into the LAU Trilogy, this game being the longest also made it the most frustrating. While some areas were recreated well compared to the original, the ones who were replaced got replaced by corridor puzzles. And this lasts through the whole game. The combat is a bit messy at times with the whole "wait for a critical hit" spiel. The visuals are a bit drab at times, it's the 2000s, every game looks grey and brown, save for some areas where it makes sense for the game to look like that.

And then there's Atlantis. Fuck Atlantis.

And while it is true that the platforming can be a bit erratic at this trilogy, Anniversary has to be the worst one in that aspect. So many missed jumps, so many times where a sequence should have worked and the game just says "nope". When the PS1 games with tank controls manage to be more precise and consistent, you know you've ballsed it. Legend was okay, and Underworld was tolerable, but Anniversary was just a rough experience for me.

 

[RebelofDaNeonGod]

Dude, I swear to god, they did something horrible to the physics in the SOTC remake, it just plays much worse, it feels like the Wanderer is just a limp leaf blowing in the wind, it's aggravating. I got the platinum trophy for it and going for it really made me see how bad it feels to play the remake

 

[Xdqwerty]

The bowser's inside story remake even though I never played it

 

[snes9x]

FFX/X-2, Advance Wars Reboot Camp (do NOT get me fuckin started), Wind Waker HD, Resident Evil 3 Remake

 

[LiberoVulpesLiberoVulpes's icon]

Silent Hill 2 - Unreal Engine.
System Shock - Unreal Engine.
SMT 3 Nocturne - Botched the atmosphere.
Dark Souls 1 - Unnecessary.

 

[CheelaCheela's icon]

i hate remakes and "remasters" (more like busted ports in some cases) when they are treated like replacements of the ogs and the companies pull out/don't offer the ogs "because the remake is out"
soo yeah some of the already mentions like
Gta definitive trilogy (although i have a guilty pleasure for the Switch version because of how buggy and awful it is)
SMT 3 HD
Sonic Adventure 2 Steam port
but also
as much i enjoyed MODDED Sonic Origins
why sega, WHY?!

 

[Yousef]

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.

I think the worst part in crash’s remake is that it just controls like shit. Physics feels so much worse and less precise and it’s nothing like any of the games.