When held aloft in comparison to other entertainment industries, video games are still considered to be a young medium. However, over the past decade, they have crossed the threshold of being just old enough to warrant the existence of what many critics and audiences alike consider to be one of the primary reasons for the creative bankruptcy plaguing heavy-hitting studios in Hollywood: the remake.
Slapping on the “re-” prefix is nothing new in the world of video games. Oftentimes, when a title is repackaged in a fresh coat of paint and rebuilt for a newer generation of platforms, the game itself is distinguished as such with a slightly altered name.
Sometimes the distinction is obvious with instances such as “Final Fantasy VII” (1997) and “Final Fantasy VII Remake” (2020) or “Persona 3” (2006) and “Persona 3 Reload” (2024). The other side of the spectrum consists of retaining the old title with no difference, such as “Resident Evil 4” (2005) and “Resident Evil 4” (2023) or “Silent Hill 2” (2001) and “Silent Hill 2” (2024). Though, identical titles between the original game and its one- or two-decade-later remake are rarely the root for confusion just by a quick glimpse at the pairs — graphically.
Remakes, remasters, reboots — these are words that have existed in the video game space for years. Since the second half of the 2010s and extending throughout the first half of the 2020s, it feels as if every other quarter there is a new quintessential video game remake for players to pick up: a remake that redefines the word “remake”.
Not all video game remakes or remasters are groundbreaking or even justify being called ‘good.’ There are multiple instances of such that prompt a certain question, both before and after release: Is this truly necessary?
Video game remakes help developers and publishers keep their heads above water — particularly during a tumultuous time of studios shutting their doors and laying off employees in droves — and the same can be claimed of film remakes and television reboots. Remakes also serve a greater purpose of the preservation or even full-blown revival of classic titles — bringing a game back for an older generation of players to reminisce over and the younger to discover for the first time.
Video games are in a golden middle ground where not only are the minds behind the original versions of these titles still around to see their hard work from a few decades ago recreated but many of them can return and work on the remakes of their games, some having never left the studio to begin with.
I am younger than the original PlayStation and PlayStation 2. Although my siblings and I had one growing up, the first Xbox console is older than I am.
The fact that a large quantity of the video games receiving the remake treatment belong to those generations of consoles, the opportunity to play the original versions of these titles has rarely, if ever, presented itself to me.
As a result, I have picked up and played several recent remade incarnations of the landmark entries in their respective franchises or even entire genres without having experienced the originals, such as “Resident Evil 2” (2019) and “Final Fantasy VII Remake” (2020).
It was the latter of those two titles where I went back and played the original game after finishing part one of the remake. “Final Fantasy VII” is in a particularly special position as far as video game remakes go — namely that it is being separated and developed in three parts as a “remake trilogy” project with a key principle behind each of the two currently released installments being that the story itself branches off and diverges from the course of the original. This fact lends itself further to stressing the importance of the original game to its subsequent remake.
Then, when I got my hands on “Final Fantasy VII Rebirth” in 2024, I found a deeper appreciation — one that I had not felt with “Remake” — for the game I was playing.
“Final Fantasy VII” is not the only instance of a video game remake altering aspects that were present in its original form but it is one of the most extreme examples. Other remakes change things in a more subtle fashion — even if it is something as small as a quality-of-life feature.
With many of the remakes currently in development or the ones that have already been released stemming from games predating myself and most of my peers, it can further incentivize members of Generation Z and younger to venture back in time to experience these hallmarks of video game history as well as appreciate the present and future of this industry via these revitalized renditions being created right now, for us.
Video game remakes are a testament to how much this industry has evolved — technologically, artistically and fundamentally. The original will always be there, but there is a bright future with both fresh and familiar titles down the line.