Game Remakes Need More Creative Freedom and Bold Changes

After reviewing numerous remakes and remasters over recent years, a pattern has emerged that's become increasingly difficult to ignore. While many of these projects have delivered solid, even excellent experiences, and it's been wonderful to see Japanese titles like Live A Live and Romancing SaGa 2 finally reach international audiences, something fundamental feels missing from these modern recreations.

For a while, I attributed this feeling to potential fatigue from playing through so many remakes in succession. However, after experiencing Dragon Quest I and II HD, the core issue finally crystallized: contemporary remakes consistently demonstrate a lack of creative ambition.

Name recognition and familiarity hold significant value in entertainment. When engaging with new entries in established franchises, audiences generally understand what to expect. Remakes amplify this predictability even further, since characters, key moments, narrative arcs, and themes are already established. The typical approach involves borrowing that existing framework while updating visuals and refining gameplay mechanics.

But that approach essentially describes a remaster. If developers are committing to completely rebuilding a game, why limit themselves to such conservative boundaries? Why not pursue something genuinely transformative? What's preventing creators from breaking free of the original's constraints?

Dragon Quest I HD-2D Remake serves as a perfect illustration of this problem. The original Dragon Quest presents one of the simplest RPG narratives: a destined warrior from legendary lineage appears to rescue a princess and save the world by defeating the evil Dragonlord. This straightforward structure was standard for early genre entries, and subsequent Dragon Quest titles would dramatically expand on these foundational story and character elements.

The remake maintains fidelity to the original plot while attempting modernization through mostly unnecessary additions. Players begin by rescuing soldiers from Tantagel's elite team from monsters before reaching the familiar castle where the king sends them on their quest. These unnamed soldiers reappear throughout the story to inject dramatic weight, with one dying from an evil sickness, another abandoning his post in fear, and a third feeling like a failure.

These characters possess potential as interesting companions, but since Dragon Quest I was a solo adventure, the remake preserves that structure, sidelining these potentially engaging characters once their cutscenes conclude. The romantic subplot with Princess Gawelin receives slightly more development, as players now witness her struggles while in monster captivity. However, she also fades into the background, only appearing to offer distant guidance, presumably because making her more prominent would deviate too significantly from the original narrative.

The developers constrained themselves through excessive faithfulness to the source material. Dragon Quest I's narrative offers substantial potential for interesting interpretations and expansions. Those Tantagel soldiers could serve as NPC helpers during brief periods, similar to how Dragon Quest II HD enhanced the Princess of Cannock's role, providing them with deeper backgrounds and characterization. Through expanding these characters, developers could offer more context about the hero and the various ruined cities encountered throughout the journey.

These suggestions represent relatively modest plot enhancements, but it's possible to envision dramatic, surprising changes that would fundamentally reshape the Dragon Quest I experience. What if Princess Gwaelin was briefly swayed toward evil? What if the hero experienced a crisis of duty, doubting his ability to save the world and requiring soul-searching to rediscover his courage? The possibilities for subverting player expectations and delivering surprises are extensive, yet none of these opportunities are being seized.

This proves frustrating because Dragon Quest I HD demonstrates awareness that it doesn't need to strictly follow the original's progression and story beats. It introduces new areas like dwarf and fairy villages, includes additional boss fights, and modifies how locked doors function, but more often than not, it chooses to adhere to the same narrative structure, just with more elaborate dialogue and prettier, more dramatic cutscenes that feel hollow. Dragon Quest II HD handles the remake concept somewhat better, with a new playable character and expanded locations and dialogue, though it also feels somewhat restrained.

This criticism extends beyond older, story-light RPGs. There's a strong argument that Resident Evil 4 ranks among the most important games of its generation, and it has aged so well that many questioned why a remake was necessary. While the remake turned out very well, it remains essentially what players would expect if they've experienced Resident Evil 4 before. So again, why proceed except to capitalize on name recognition? This might be idealistic, assuming that isn't sufficient motivation for companies, but there's incredible potential to re-explore Resident Evil 4 with dramatically altered story elements. I'd love to see an alternative version of Resident Evil 4, since the game was known to have gone through several different concepts during development. Why not revisit one of those early concepts, delivering an alternate-universe game based on the early Castle and Hallucination game ideas?

Numerous additional examples exist: Super Mario RPG on Switch, Metal Gear Solid Delta, Persona 3 Reload. All are fine games, but all represent standard, by-the-numbers remakes. Unfortunately, developers seem resistant to the idea of making dramatic changes to remakes. In all these cases, unwavering fidelity to source material comes at the expense of creativity. Certainly, some fans will react negatively when any element gets altered for a remake, but these are likely people who can't be fully satisfied with a remake regardless of approach.

Other artistic mediums aren't hesitant to allow different interpretations of core ideas. Consider the many adaptations of Superman, The Lord of the Rings, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, not to mention classic stories and myths like Sherlock Holmes, Frankenstein, and Arthurian legend. This isn't just about handing beloved series to new creative teams either. Original creators have returned to re-examine and recreate their own work, producing transformative media like the Rebuild of Evangelion film series. These mediums understand that a remake's existence doesn't invalidate the original's presence or lasting impact.

If asked for an example of a remake that matches this ideal, I'd point to what's being accomplished with the Final Fantasy VII Remake project. By this point, Final Fantasy VII's characters and plot are widely known, but instead of simply repeating those beloved story beats, the remakes, especially Rebirth, are taking familiar characters and scenarios and twisting them in wildly different ways. You'll find division among fans about how Final Fantasy VII's story beats are being transformed and re-contextualized, which isn't surprising. But regardless of how you feel about the way the story and characters have been handled, you must at least acknowledge Square-Enix for daring to do more. Final Fantasy VII Remake understands that it can coexist with the original Final Fantasy VII, so it's not afraid to shake things up, making it all the more captivating.

Ultimately, I believe remakes shouldn't hesitate to take fresh, surprising, and different approaches to their source material. While it's important to understand the essence of what made a game beloved, not everything about original games needs to be considered sacrosanct and unalterable. I'm not completely pessimistic about remakes, since several upcoming games appear to be pursuing interesting directions: Danganronpa 2x2 is offering an entire alternate plotline, while Yakuza Kiwami 3 is giving one of the series' most beloved villains a starring role in a new scenario. And despite my criticisms of the Dragon Quest remake, I'm hopeful that Dragon Quest VII Reimagined will be more like the sort of game I wish these remakes would become. Hopefully, more developers will recognize that remakes provide opportunities to transform and recreate games in fresh and fascinating ways.