If you have not already listened to the podcast of this category, this is the final results, so this will spoil the course of the discussion on that podcast! Be warned!
Often remasters and remakes make me mad. So many of them are so lazy! They do a disservice to the games they’re “remastering,” and then publishers use the fact that their shitty update sold badly as an excuse to flush the series. But, y’know, sometimes they can make incomplete games whole. Or flesh out games you thought you got all you wanted out of. Let’s talk about the best remasters and remakes of the year.
The Winner
Nier Replicant ver. 1.22474487139…
It’s a dangerous thing to take a narrative that was powerful, heavy, and resonant, and say “I’m gonna rewrite this.” And of course, ver. 1.22474487139… isn’t a COMPLETE rewrite. What it is, is a director’s cut. Literally, I think. Yoko Taro, years later, looked back and said “you know? I didn’t nail that one. Let’s give it another pass.” And this time he had more money, more talented staff supporting him, and the attention of the gaming audience to boot.
Taking a story that its fans lift up as one of the best pieces of storytelling in gaming, adding a bunch of stuff and changing the ending, and having almost everyone agree that it makes it better? That’s no small feat. Well done.
The Runners-Up
Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind + The Missing Heir
If Famicom Detective Club has any flaw, it’s being too faithful. This is a STUNNING rendition of classic mystery VNs we never saw over in the States, with gorgeous art and production values welcoming old school investigation to a new audience. I want to play these, I really do! But, maybe they could have made a few concessions to playability? For NES games in 2021? Just sayin.
Quake
I am a little salty about this one. I mean hey. Apparently Quake deserves to be here. Apparently it’s a “technical miracle,” a “nightmare of licensing rights,” a “masterful restoration,” or whatever the heck. Idk man it’s Quake! I guess I’m glad it’s around but it’s just Quake! It looks like Quake, it sounds like Quake! I have no beef with Quake it’s just it’s Quake!
this is what you get when Jen is too busy to write any of these
The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles
ok now Ace Attorney Investigations 2 right capcom
Jokes aside, people have been waiting for Great Ace Attorney for years. We’ve also understood that… we weren’t gonna get it. These games are too wrapped up in Japanese culture, they wouldn’t work for a Western audience. There’s also some content that the Western audience would find objectionable. Give it up. You’ll never see them.
Surprise, motherfucker? Is that the line? The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles not only brought those two games over here, they brought them with a fantastic graphical upgrade and a stellar localization. And, hey: Shu Takumi is good at writing Ace Attorney! We were right, this series was good once upon a time! Who knew.
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Lotta remasters this year. I don’t wanna say “too many,” but the ratio of them to new games was not what I’d like. Maybe 2022, this category will be smaller. I hope so. As much as I enjoy polishing up old ideas, I really wanna see new ones.
We’re posting four awards in short order here, for the last four categories! Next up is That’s Our Jam, the most editing-heavy category and the reason all the others are late! Stay tuned!
A big thank you to daanboii (@daanboii on Twitter) for our Game of the Year art!
