Welp, it's time for Thousand Year Door now

@SpikeJumper2 wow, I was gonna say nah it's just a remaster but upon further review it does appear to be a full remake! Sigh.

surprised to see metroid prime remastered missing

@fornerkoot eh it's not a real remake, just a remaster

Whats the criteria for an unsuperfluous remake? cuz if a game from 1995 doesnt benefit from a remake Im not sure what does, and it feels like what you really mean is "if its a remake, then its superfluous". It would seem to me that "a remake that doesnt something different" isnt a remake, and so "a remake thats the same as the older game" is put in a paradox where being faithful is being superfluous.

*does something different (woops)

@_YALP to me, it is superfluous if they remake it without changing much of anything rather than just porting or remastering. Non-superfluous would be things like FF7R and RE2 and 3 which are just totally different games

While I think youre perfectly entitled to having an artistic contention with remakes over remasters (one I wouldnt change at all tbh) I dont think this is the proper usage of remake cuz what youre describing is more like a reboot.

Historically remakes were used by devs on games they felt had compromised too much in response to technical limitations. There was a notion that they didnt make the game they "wanted to make" or "should have made", and so they "remade" them when those limitations were eased by newer (or different) hardware systems. For example Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories on the Game Boy and on the PS2

Not to be longwinded but the origins of remakes was inherently about "recreating" the original work in a more "liberated" state, "superfluous" remakes would be recreations of games that didnt have very many compromises to begin with (Last Of Us 1 remake, for example)

Yeah some of these have plenty of changes

@_YALP true...that remake list of yours was fantastic

@_YALP Uh, okay I guess? If we are not counting 'reboots' as remakes ... and basically no modern non-remaster remake is the original creators doing it with the purpose of overcoming previous hardware limitations (which I broadly agree with) ... then all remakes are superfluous. I don't know that that has much bearing on the title or content or point of this list.

I think youre reading me as too critical of you or this list when I think youre probably on the money for alot of these.

Mostly, Im addressing maybe an unfair characterization of what a remake is and what its goals are. I didnt necessarily mean to say only the original creators can make this call but its important to note that visuals are the number 1 bottleneck when it comes to technical limitations. While it could be said "limitations breed creativity" and the clever use of limited models could be seen as a great artistic contribution, I dont think its fair to say games where they merely change the graphics have absolutely zero value considering the original graphics might not been exactly "intentional" either. Likewise, theres something to be said about adding QOL and accessibility features to a title that might be aggressively spartan due to age.

If youre asking me personally I also dont think its an either/or situation so theres almost no real harm in letting remakes happen (except for the psychic damage that something like Silent Hill 2 remake is most definitely going to incur).

@djscheddar i'd consider it to be on the same level as MGS3/crisis core and both of those are here

feel free to leave it out if you disagree though