REBUTTAL TO: Remake or Repackage?
This is a partial rebuttal since this subject is really all based on personal opinions, but I would like to ask some questions to the author of the original editorial. On this subject, this is basically a difference of opinions between the author and me. I obviously prefer to leave things untouched. I believe it is the elements that are possessed in the original game that makes it special and motivates us to play rather than have the companies remake it and ruin the elements.
The Dragon Warrior game that Ms. Scott referred to disappointed me when I first played it. I played Dragon Warrior a long time ago (good 10 – 13 years ago), and I watched my brother play Dragon Warrior when I was 5 and 6 years old. I have a very good memory when it comes to that game, and when I first got it for the GBA not long ago on Ebay, I was a little disappointed. Suffice to say, it was different! The upper floor of Tantegel was different, the commands were different, town names were different, the ancestor’s name (Erdrick to Loto) was different, and the hero himself was different. Some things might have had to be changed such as automatic talk and the stairs command. Back then, you had to command your character to talk and you had to use the stair command for the stairs. I think we are spoiled with automatic talk commands and stairs. I am an old timer. I wanted to do that stairs command again, and I wanted to use talk again. I would maybe grow old of it, but I would appreciate playing it again.
Well, my rationale for the preservation of old games is the idea that a game has some changed elements no longer becomes the same game you played in the past! A Dragon Warrior that has an extra character no longer becomes Dragon Warrior, it becomes Dragon Warrior v2.0 and it is an entirely different game. Cutscenes in a game doesn’t necessary turn me off as long as they don’t influence the game play or elements of the original game. It is the old features of a game are what make it great in my opinion.
Take for example, Chrono Trigger which Ms. Scott also referred to. With the exception of loading time which we all could have done without, I think it was perfect. Nobody screwed up the elements of the main game which was absolutely perfect. Some cutscenes was thrown in, which doesn’t really ruin anything about the game. I loved the game without it anyway. Ms. Scott says that Chrono Trigger is her favorite RPG which is also mine. I don’t see why she would like to ruin a perfectly good RPG by adding something more like characters, story, or length. When we play a game with enhanced features, it isn’t Chrono Trigger anymore or at least it wasn’t the Chrono Trigger that we played and loved when we had the Super Nintendo. Chrono Trigger was not the perfect RPG, but a RPG is a composite of its brilliance and flaws.
Wild Arms Alter Code: F was also mentioned with different script, voice acting, character models, graphics, and battle system. It becomes a whole new game in my eyes. You are just playing through the same plot, I assume, but through a different lens. Well, nothing is wrong with that, but just don’t be disappointed when it is not the lens that you first explored Wild Arms with.
“The more things change, the more things stay the same.” I support change. I believe change is good for the video game industry, but what I object is taking games from the past and modernizing without giving people the chance to taste the original. It is like taking a Picasso and trying to modernizing with whatever style that we use now in Modern Art. It “defaces” the original painting. Another example is trying to rewrite Shakespeare in modern English. That loses the meaning, the elements that are inherited in the language that Shakespeare intended for it to mean. The same goes for old games.
Sometimes people might say that some games were on the right track, but they could have done some things better or left a lot to be desired. Some games do deserve to be upgraded and redone. Why don’t the companies just put the original game and the remix game together so people can experience the classic and the modern game?
A game that you love is a composite of its perfections and imperfections. It is also a composite of its graphics, its text, its music, and its battle system. It is that way and it should remain that way no matter how much the video game industry starts. If you want to spend money on a game that is not what you played when you were six, go ahead, but I am interested in having my childhood put on a “new and shiny CD” and having the game exactly what I played when I was six.
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