Comment on Kotaku Asks: How Soon Is Too Soon For A Video Game Remaster Or Remake?
520@kbin.social 9 months agoPeople aren't against them. They are against pointless remakes like the PS5 version of The Last of Us 1 (not the remaster, they fully remade the game), which changes...fuck all. Like seriously, what does it change of significance?
Like, sure, if the game isn't otherwise playable on the platform then by all means, but why waste all that time?
Then there is the confusion as to the categorisation of returning games and what label to put them under. In my book, you've got:
Emulation: literally the same game from the old console running in an interpreter program. Examples: NSO Collections, MGS 1 from MGS Master Collection
Port: Same game, more or less, but running natively on the console/PC.
Remaster: As above but with updated textures, models, FMVs, etc
Faithful Remake: The game code, assets, etc are completely re-done but the game strictly adheres to the source material, save for a few modern amenities like auto save and ironing out bugs. Examples include Spyro Reignited, Resident Evil 1 and Halo Anniversary.
Interpretive Remakes: Basically a completely new game using the old game's basic plot points and designs. Examples include: the Resident Evil Remakes (except 1) and the Final Fantasy 7 remake.
People are against them. Demonstrably.
Also worth reading everything I wrote not just the bits you want to read
If developers want to re-release their games on new platforms, I say sure? No skin off my back, helps them work on engine and tooling for the new platforms, gives games another wind. Literally does not matter to me.
None of what I wrote contradicts that, bro. Like I said, they are against pointless remakes and remasters. That's what's being discussed in the article.
While PS1, PS2 and even PS3 games could do with a fresh lick of paint if released today, it's not exactly uncontroversial to say that PS4 games don't need it.
The law of diminishing returns has hit this generation pretty damn hard, to the point where most people are hard pressed to tell a PS4 game from a PS5 game. So when the differences are that miniscule, you aren't really meeting the objectives of a remaster. Just do a straight port with better resolution support.
Like, sure, if the game isn’t otherwise playable on the platform then by all means, but otherwise why waste all that time?
If developers want to re-release their games on new platforms, I say sure? No skin off my back, helps them work on engine and tooling for the new platforms, gives games another wind. Literally does not matter to me.
I mean of course they're free to, and I don't take any any sort of umbrage against those who do but... How does it make more sense than something like a compatibility patch? (Tbf that's what TLoU2 is doing)
insomniac_lemon@kbin.social 9 months ago
Some people might be against them for the reason that they can de-list their old games from digital storefronts. For newer games especially it'd make that hard to compare what was changed.
I guess it's not as relevant with newer titles, but I feel like the classics looked fine (especially with higher internal res which is a good option for emu) and had some really cool tech that gave it a nice aesthetic without it being bloated. So it kind of feels like it's missing the point.
Like with Spyro, a big draw for me is the usage of vertex color including the skyboxes (one example, album). So it went from ~300MiB to 30-60GiB+. I mean sure some old games were designed with raster graphics that look crusty now, but for something like Spyro I'd rather play even a fan _de_make (leaning further into vertex colors) with more fleshed out gameplay (/more content) though too many fan game creators haven't learned to distance even their game titles from trademarks.
520@kbin.social 9 months ago
I mean, indie games do exist that scratch that itch, so you do still have options
insomniac_lemon@kbin.social 9 months ago
Well I have a lot of problems with how people design games so I don't really buy stuff anymore, plus I haven't really seen a lot of stuff that focuses on vector (esp textureless). In other words it's pretty niche even for indie, and discoverability generally isn't great even on the best day.
I'd probably have more luck doing it myself, I've done a few things (meme made with Godot 3.X, 4.0 eye animation, not-yet-in-4.X test of someone elses' PR) but I'm not a dev and I don't have much energy or many ideas.
520@kbin.social 9 months ago
Ah. I think the problem there is that pure vectors can be much harder to work with. it's hard to make something that looks good with purely vector based approaches, especially as your scenes get more complex.