More Thoughts From Me: The Time of Remakes

I’ve been playing Resident Evil 2 remake on gamepass and its for the first time. I’m enjoying it but it did lead me to a thought. I thought to myself, “Self, there are a lot of remakes happening right now.” Sure there always are but right now seems like a big time for them. Let’s talk about why and how thats a good and a bad thing.

That zombie was trying to eat my face off, he deserved that shotgun blast. Yes I’m playing Resident Evil 2 remake lately. It just came to gamepass. I’ve never played this version before. Back in the Playstation 1 era, I did play this game and loved it. And now here it is with new and beautiful graphics. It feels like the game I played back then but I do know its better. Its the same thing that happened to me when I played Final Fantasy 7 Remake on the PS4. It felt like the same game. It was how my mind remembered the game. Though, if you go back and you see the original, well, you know it doesn’t look as good. The game hasn’t aged very well.

That of course brings me to my first point about remakes: we live in a great time for graphics. Back in the Playstation 1 era we were like “Oh my god! Look at these graphics. They are so great.” For the time, sure, they were great. But we had no idea. Absolutely no idea that graphics could be this good. So yes, we get Resident Evil 2 and 3 remade beautifully. We get Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth. And Persona 3 Reload. Snake Eater! Oh and Nintendo is bringing us Paper Mario Thousand Year Door sometime this year. All of them look stunning.

Why are we getting so many remakes though? Well for Nintendo, this year is especially remake heavy and we all believe its because a new system is on the way. The Nintendo Switch era is almost over. So yes, remakes. But what excuse does Square Enix have? Atlus? Capcom? Konami? All of these different remakes! Why so many?

The truth is that we all love nostalgia. Older gamers will, if you give them a chance, go for whats familiar more than whats new. Sure we love new stuff too but give us a remake or a remaster and we just go crazy. The hype is real. We love a good remake.

And remakes are good. Well they can be. Games that were on the Playstation 1 do not hold up very well. Even remastered, they may look a bit better but c’mon, give them a fancy new graphics and they look stunning. Its not all about graphics though. Sometimes controls are tightened and there’s quality of life stuff like being able to save anywhere. I love being able to save anyfreakingwhere I want. It feels good.

So none of that can be a bad thing right? There are no downsides to remakes? Well. Yes, yes there are.

Nostalgia is good. Old games being available for old and new players a like to play is good. However, with so many remakes, that means that some new game isn’t being made. Original projects that are out there get lets attention and the hype they deserve. Old games are familiar. New games may be good or may be bad. We have our doubts. If we have to choose between buying the new game that looks cool or buying the old game that we know is cool, well, you can guess what usually wins.

So remakes have their positives and their negatives. So does everything. I’m not saying these companies should stop with the remakes. There are other remakes I’d love to see. I want more remasters too. And yet. We must not forget the new games. We have to be open to trying new things. I’m lucky that I’m a reviewer and I can do a bit of both.

That being said, the next game I can’t wait to play is another remake! Persona 3 Reload is out next week. I’ve never played it before. So I guess technically its a new game for me too.

What do you think of remakes? Are there too many out now? Are there any you are looking forward to playing?

More Thoughts From Me is an opinion column. Thoughts expressed here are mine and mine alone. I wish I could play Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth next month too but I don’t have a PS5.