The betrayal of video games artistic legacy

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The state of the preservation of video games legacy. http://www.avclub.com/article/for-our-c ... mes-107150

Actually, I think it's just Square who's doing that - I understand it's a jerk move, but it's not an industry-wide thing by any means.

I just want to take a couple red pens to this article =| Not to mention, games with graphical remakes are nothing new.

Games with graphical remakes are nothing new, that's true, but that doesnt mean that they're a good idea, and it DEFINITELY doesnt mean that they're wanted by all of the fans of the original version. Hell, the two screenshots of FF6 put together like that in that article are a great example. The original game was very good looking... nice aesthetics as a whole. The new one? Um.... no. I could probably rant for 3 pages about all the things that are wrong with that screenshot, but I probably dont have to.

And this seems to be the case with the majority of this sort of thing. I honestly cant remember the last time I saw a game get a graphical "upgrade" like this where I still thought it looked good. Usually now when I hear that it's being done, it's like "Uuuuugh.... really, they're doing THAT with it? Well, guess I should just buy something else, then...." It doesnt help that gameplay "upgrades" *cough* often go along with this sort of thing. And it's not like they give players the option of which version they want.... if they did THAT, it'd not really be an issue. But they dont. Heaven forbid potential consumers see the version of the game that has all of those awful PIXELS in it! The game might not instantly print money if that happens!! !

Bah. I always hate this sort of thing. It's one of the many reasons why I'll go to great lengths to get the actual original version of games like this, or any older game that I like.


And it's true Square really IS one of the worst when it comes to this sort of thing...

Updated re-releases of games are a good thing, don't get me wrong, but Squenix is really bad about not knowing when to keep the same artistic feel to a game. Namco Bandai has also jumped on this train as well, with the recent iPhone and Android version of Tales of Phantasia being chock-full of microtransactions.

Why can't they ever just do straight ports?

Because it wont have a chance of pulling in the mainstream gamers, or the casual ones. The older the game.... and thus the older it LOOKS.... the more this is the case.

It's annoying as heck, yeah, but.... cant do much about it.

[quote="Misery"] I honestly cant remember the last time I saw a game get a graphical "upgrade" like this where I still thought it looked good. Usually now when I hear that it's being done, it's like "Uuuuugh.... really, they're doing THAT with it? Well, guess I should just buy something else, then...." It doesnt help that gameplay "upgrades" *cough* often go along with this sort of thing. And it's not like they give players the option of which version they want.... if they did THAT, it'd not really be an issue. But they dont. Heaven forbid potential consumers see the version of the game that has all of those awful PIXELS in it! The game might not instantly print money if that happens!! !/quote]

I´d avoid getting into extremes. There are as well examples for bad makeovers of old video games, as well as quiet good ones. As example the Monkey Island series got a nice workover, without it loosing its charm, as well as the Realms of Arkhania series. (Or however its cold in english.)

Looks like a big whine with a mislead belief of ownership that is influenced by nostalgia. It is rather surprising how against change gamers can be. There probably are some good points about interfaces being counterproductive to their selling points, but still whining.

The 3D remake of "Ocarina of Time" really interested me, but not enough to buy a 3DS. I hope Nintendo will eventually release it as part of a console compilation.

.....belief of ownership? Um.... no.

It's a desire to see the game in it's original form, particularly as ALOT of games that get this treatment get WORSE when it's done this way. One of the reasons why this is a problem is because the buyer may be purchasing the remake ONLY because they just cant find a copy of the original. So when they buy it, and get one of THOSE, and it's made the game worse.... yeah. That's not a happy moment.

And like I said, changes other than graphics can happen with these. And no, I *dont* mean "interface" changes. Couldnt care less about that bit. What I mean is actual GAMEPLAY changes. Changing mechanics, adding new (and often unnecessary) ones, REMOVING ones that were already there, changing up levels/enemies/bosses, making the game dramatically more easy (that one in particular is FREQUENT among these).... stuff like that. Stuff that changes the game as a whole WITHOUT being mere visual changes. The visual changes arent AS bad, and are of course extremely subjective. Some might think it looks nicer, some might think it looks crappy, some wont give a rat's ass. But graphics have nothing to do with how the game plays, it's difficulty and balance, it's story, and so on.

On top of that, the idea that this is "influenced by nostalgia" can (often) be wrong, too. In my case, it sure as bloody hell isnt a rose-tinted-glasses sort of thing.... with that idea, the game in question is REMEMBERED fondly, but when played again years down the line by the player doing the remembering, it turns out to not be as well liked by them. Doesnt happen for me. Hell, I've got an ancient Atari 7800 unit that's always on the desk here, and plenty of 2600/7800 games to play on it. It gets used frequently, as I never stopped enjoying those.... a good game is a good game, age be damned. That's space that COULD be used for the PS3 or 360 that I also have, but that thing trumps those as far as I'm concerned. And I know plenty of others that are the same way.... where it's not mere nostalgia, but genuine, CURRENT enjoyment of old games. It aint a matter of ONLY playing old games, either.... I wouldnt have a hyper-expensive gaming rig PC if that were the case. Let's say, that PC gets used ALOT for that purpose.

In other words.... it's silly to make that kind of assumption. I can understand how many gamers these days wouldnt "get it", when it comes to this sort of thing, but that is very much NOT true of everyone. There's a reason why things like retro compilations, or games done in a pixel-art 8-bit style have become popular recently.


That being said..... there'll also always be others that really do whine just to whine, but.... that aspect really does apply to EVERY facet of this industry. Some more than others....

@ Misery
You did not convince me at all how your love of old games is not nostalgia. Nostalgia does not even have to be from playing games you played in the past, it can be from playing elements that remind you of playing games from prior period.

And I will admit games have had their difficulty changed, but this is not always a bad thing. Of note is Ocarina of Time Master Quest which had such changes as making the Water Temple easier, and if you are completely honest you played the original OoT, you will know how frustrating that Temple was that it became something. Some shuffling of difficulty can make a game much more enjoyable and balanced, there is no need to be full purest on everything so it can be enjoyable.

What I mentioned about "ownership" earlier is that a number of hard-core gamers believe that re-releases should be just like they were in the past, they feel like their experience in the past gives them ownership for the game to be just like it was. This totally ignores any new players which would be the majority of the people buying the game, that expect to buy a title that meets more current standards.

I will say that I also wanted to link a scene from the cartoon series, South Park, where they make a jest about totally redoing the series so that everything was a different style and it lost its charm. There is some valid points in there about the chance of removing aspects that made it special, as it can mean wasting some Goodwill (an accounting term) that it may receive from its predecessor. But there is also truth that the product may not be worthy of re-release without more assets put in, otherwise it can harm their reputation that may make future sales a problem.

I dont see how anyone is forced to go for a newer version, if he wants to play the original one.

You should not think of, that something is taken from you, but that for players, who would otherwise never get into touch with certain games, this is an opportunity to play them.

You seem to be of an older generation, I have as well no prob with older games the way the are. Just started playing the Jedi Knigh series again, which starts with the 1995 game Dark Forces. For me its nostalgia and it feels positive. That there is no real y-axis, ... is of no disturbance to me.

For someone that started to get in touch with games, when Double Core PCs and Playstation 2 was common, that often is simply unbearable. For people of the older generation its totally normal to add that pixelic pictures in your phantasy, to what f feels to you. What is an 80/30 pixeldotmonster, becomes and feels like an imperial stormtrooper for me. For someone being used, that he dont need imagination to make things look real, its simply an stormtrooper pixeldotmonster. ^^ My boyfriend is only two years younger then me, and started to get in touch with videogames, when he was a bit older then me, but while I played Dark Forces now, he looked at my display from now and then and simply mentioned to be completely overwhelmed by the uglyness of the wall textures and so on. ^^ And I played with best possible graphic resolution. XD

So makeover of such games means for the majority of the younger gamers, not that an older version is taken from them, that they would anyway have never played longer then 2 minutes, but that an opportunity is given to them to play a game they have heard others talking about, but in a way they can bear.

I dont see how someone can force on you to play a new or an old version of an certain game, at least not on an PC. In the internet all the old games of the different systems are offered to you, so you can freely choose which version you want to play.

I don't know, I thought the graphical upgrade in the Wonderswan Color/GBA port of Final Fantasy IV was really nice. To me, it still had all the nostalgia intact...which is prettymuch the only reason I play that game.

...the bugs and laggy framerate, on the other hand...

And the translation was a little silly in places.



That's funny, because I would use those games as an example where the remake looks really awful =) I wanted to play them just for the added voice acting, but apparently turning off the new graphics also turns off the voice acting =(

Those were a while back, though. I remember playing those as a young teen in middle school.

It's more of a recent thing, with monetization and "graphical upgrades" just getting in the way of the nostalgia, simply because Squenix can put these games on a smartphone platform.

I'm sorry, but I highly doubt the majority of people interested in purchasing FFVI on any device, are modern gamers who have modern standards. Games like that appeal primarily to retro gaming enthusiasts, mostly because we can vouch for their quality. People who wouldn't give these titles the time of day don't deserve them IMHO. If FFVI were a woman, retro gaming enthusiasts would like her for the way she is, rather than the awful plastic surgery she had done. People who like that kind of game would appreciate the original just fine, or more than likely, prefer it. Making a tweaked mobile version of an existing game is one thing, but extensively altering a well-regarded classic like that is a complete disregard for its legacy.

I'm not against remakes or HD upgrades, for the record. There's a way to do them right, and there's a way to do them wrong. In the case of remakes, do a remake. Take Resident Evil REmake for example. That's a remake. It's almost a whole new game, but with just enough of the old game in it. In the past, more minor remakes on systems one gen later worked, but companies knew how to do that kind of remake back then. Granted, I wouldn't trust most companies nowadays with a remake of any kind. A system with similar specs as the system the original game was released on, shouldn't get a remake, but a proper port. HD re-releases work, because they keep the original graphics, and are just upscaled, and possible reformatted for modern tvs. They're also from a more recent gen than FFVI. Even ps1 classics are simply re-released with no alterations whatsoever. Also, we're talking about a platform that isn't a phone. Phone remakes are abominations IMHO.

I also think you're a little unfair with your assessment of nostalgia. Sure, it's possible for certain game mechanics to make people feel nostalgic, but at the end of the day, if I come across a classic I've never played, it's still a game I've never played. If I enjoy it, it's because I think the game is well made, not because I'm nostalgic for games of a certain era. Sure, certain familiar game elements can be nice, but they aren't sufficient enough to sway me from disliking a game, if I don't think it's all that great. For example, I downloaded FFVII(which I hadn't previously played) four or so years back, and I don't think it's all that great. I do however, love Chrono Trigger, which I checked out for the first time shortly before that. The Playstation is one of my favorite systems of all time, but I just don't care for FFVII. Heck, if I was blindly nostalgic, I would probably appreciate retro throwbacks more, but for the most part, they don't do much for me.

Here is a difference between Dragon Quest IV on the NES and the DS.

The DS re-release has a huge difference to the original graphic wise, but I find it hard to believe that releasing it in its old 8-bit version could have sold really that well as it probably would have ended up unplayable by a large percentage of people.

This is what I meant earlier in that certain gamers seem to think they have ownership over games of the past, that they think the way something is before is the correct thing, while alterations are wrong and people who like the new one don't deserve it in the first place.

Nostalgia can be sliding scale, and in most cases I think pure nostalgia really cannot sell a title, nor remaking it into something new and ignore the old can ruin its chances. So there is a mix as you are alluding to, but I think for the more casual the mix works best on a selling point of view is a bit more new than us geeks would prefer.