FromSoftware
When you watch as manyvideo game showcasesas I do , you pop out to mark some patterns in the chat . nonchalant request for certain games have a way of snowballing into memes . If you follow just about any stream this June , you probably caught plea forHollow Knight : Silksongnews , even when that did n’t make much sense . WhileGrand Theft Auto 6is still the king of fan begging , I ’ve noticed a rival in the wings recently : Bloodborne .
lover of FromSoftware ’s 2015 PlayStation 4 classic have begged for any chip of news program about the plot over the years . Some of those demands are reasonable ; requests for a PC port , a 60 frames - per - 2d ( fps ) update , or sequel seem fair considering its blood line . But last calendar month ’s PlayStationState of Playpushed me to my limit when I saw Sony ’s YouTube confab floodied with chants of aBloodborneremaster or remake .
FromSoftware
As a vocation fun cause of death , I ’m here to burst some house of cards : No , Bloodbornedoes not need a remake . I ’d go as far as to say that few , if any , of your favorite games do .
Remake overload
To give theBloodbornehive its due , requests for a remaking or remaster are n’t unreasonable . We ’re currently inhabit through a dual - drop boom for the video biz industry . Just about every major publisher is revisit their classic to some level , whether it be Square Enix withFinal Fantasy 7 , EA withDead Space , or Sony withThe Last of Us . Even Nintendo is all - in on that movement with retouches ofSuper Mario RPG , Mario vs. Donkey Kong , and more . If you loveBloodborne , I can see why you might want Sony to give it some overdue sexual love .
What ’s more absurd is the idea that a nine - class previous PS4 game is in desperate need of a revisit outside of a modern platform ascent . Bloodbornestill feels like a absolutely innovative plot by today ’s standards . It still looks and plays great today ; any flaws it has are still for the most part present in late FromSoftware game likeElden Ring . Aside from reduplicate its frame charge per unit , there ’s little FromSoftware could belike do to touch up it in the same way that Bluepoint did with its fantastic modernisation ofDemon ’s Souls , a rougher PS3 game that gain from a cleanup position .
But that has n’t stopped publisher from doing it anyways .
While I started this man talking toBloodbornefans , that ’s not what really spoil me . Rather , requests for task like this verbalize to the wider state of a video biz diligence that ’s trying to squelch as much money out of players as possible these days through nostalgia . Though it can be exciting to see a bury or particularly date plot reimagined , publishing firm ’ current obsession about lend any and everything back from the all in — even when it ’s not necessary — is building a bore culture that devalue the very games companies exact to celebrate .
Look at 2024 ’s spill calendar and you ’ll happen that it ’s eclipse by remakes and remasters , many of which are head - scratcher . That bulge out in January with a entirely unneeded ( and even detrimental ) remaster ofThe Last of Us Part 2and has continue for the past six month . Persona 3,Brothers : A Tale of Two Sons , Mario vs. Donkey Kong , and more have padded out the first half of the year , and there ’s way more to derive . Until Dawn , Silent Hill 2,Metal Gear Solid 3 , and evenEpic Mickeyare all fetch revisits this year . Some projects make sense , likeRiven ’s reimagining . Others are operose to absolve .
TakePaper Mario : The Thousand - Year Door , for illustration . Nintendo devote the GameCube classic some honey this yr with a “ remaking ” that does n’t really do much that a port could n’t have . Aside from add up tutorial and refreshing the already solid artistic creation , it feels about the same as it did on the GameCube . Some even argue that it ’s an inferior version due to slower act - based battles and a drop from 60 fps on GameCube to 30 fps on Switch . While I enjoyed my metre with it , I could n’t serve but need myself why Nintendo could n’t have add the original to the Switch Online catalog rather than charging fan for a full - price revisit .
Other coming project have me even more questioning . Konami’sMetal Gear Solid Deltawill refashion the classicMetal Gear Solid 3 : Snake Eater , but without Hideo Kojima , the visionary game shaper who made the original what it is , at the helm . Bloober Team ’s upcomingSilent Hill 2remake is a similarly rum sell , as it wait to smooth out over all the off - kilter chemical element of the PS1 earned run average that limit the original .
The message across the manufacture correctly now seems to be that old games are broken toy that need fixing . Rather than embracing the warts or design decisions of onetime game , everything has to await , heavy , and play better . Sometimes that can have a prescribed impact;The Last of Us Part 1came with acrucial suite of accessibility feature . More often than not , though , many of today ’s remake palpate more like room to milk popular IP for all they ’re worth . Did we getPersona 3 Reloadbecause the original profit from a skin senses - up , or did Atlus see a way to get money out of fans as it toiled away onPersona 6 ? ( For what it ’s worth , Reloadstrikes me as a originative step down fromPersona 3 Portable , a game that you may corrupt on innovative platforms flop now ) .
That ’s where I come in back around to my frustrations withBloodbornemania . Remakes have begin to feel less like an routine of esthetic preservation and more like calculated business move that take advantage of nostalgia . Very few recent remakes I ’ve played feel like they ’re in conversation with the game they ’re remaking or imagine about what it means to convey them back in a modern context . Final Fantasy VII RemakeandCapcom ’s Resident Evil remakesgo that spare mile , but I ca n’t say the same for even well - done projects likeDead Space . How would a remake ofBloodbornedeepen our understanding and appreciation for that game in a way that just replaying it could n’t ?
Sometimes I ca n’t help but feel like remakes have become a half - measure compromise for what players actually demand : An easy , legal fashion to corrupt and dally old game . Why ca n’t I buy the originalSilent Hill 2on Steam ? Why was it mete impossible to legally playPaper Mario : The Thousand - Year Dooruntil last month ? Ca n’t we just putBloodborneon PC and leave it there in its original glory ? Every time fans buy into the merchandising spin , it feels like we get further away from a straight preservation solution .
So no , I do n’t want to keep play the same classics with better graphics or modern control . I ’d be well-chosen as a dollar bill just being able to enter the game I love anytime . Is that too much to inquire ?
