Argh, this makes me pull air through my teeth... I hate that I like this remake less, because I can see they tried, and in a lot of ways, the improvements upon the original work very well!
But just. Not always.
In writing this all down, I'm bearing recency-bias in mind, and the inherent problems in comparing a remake to a game that, due to changing technology, I can't play as I used to again, and as such only exists in my head. (Nice to see "Carrie Careless and the Galette des Rois" actually working, gotta say.)
My nostalgia for Ib is a thick fog, and I have to admit: This game's puzzles are so painfully easy on a repeat playthrough that this may have lessened my opinion of the remake when, in reality, the original was exactly the same way.
I'll talk about the art real quick: It's a land of contrasts. I've made the blunder of becoming a professional pixel artist since I played the original, so strange mistakes like a persistent lack of proper contrast on character portrait colours, pixel art jaggies, and the (rare) untouched sprite from the original (at one point there's a woman and her daughter that are transparently a lot smaller than all the other sprites in the game including Ib, an elementary school child) stick out to me like a sore thumb. The original's color-reduced digital art was a lot nicer-looking to me than the new pixel art portraits - though of course, that art style isn't gone or anything - just, unfortunately, less commonplace.
Environments have strong texturing that I'm frankly jealous of, but lack detail in every other way. The UI feels... disjointed? Like different parts of it weren't just made by different artists, but in different types of digital media from artist to artist. Frankly, I don't care much for the new Rose health bar. :/
When the art wants to go hard though, it goes hard! I loved the extra detail on all the Guertena artworks! They're very lovingly rendered and definitely a stronger way to display a fictional artist's work than before. The full-screen title and such is also beautiful.
Music's largely an improvement! Once or twice I felt like a track was grating, but so did I with the original.
Despite everything, this is a good way to play this RPG Maker classic - maybe the only way to play it properly, actually, so. Y'know. Take my criticisms with a grain of salt.
But just. Not always.
In writing this all down, I'm bearing recency-bias in mind, and the inherent problems in comparing a remake to a game that, due to changing technology, I can't play as I used to again, and as such only exists in my head. (Nice to see "Carrie Careless and the Galette des Rois" actually working, gotta say.)
My nostalgia for Ib is a thick fog, and I have to admit: This game's puzzles are so painfully easy on a repeat playthrough that this may have lessened my opinion of the remake when, in reality, the original was exactly the same way.
I'll talk about the art real quick: It's a land of contrasts. I've made the blunder of becoming a professional pixel artist since I played the original, so strange mistakes like a persistent lack of proper contrast on character portrait colours, pixel art jaggies, and the (rare) untouched sprite from the original (at one point there's a woman and her daughter that are transparently a lot smaller than all the other sprites in the game including Ib, an elementary school child) stick out to me like a sore thumb. The original's color-reduced digital art was a lot nicer-looking to me than the new pixel art portraits - though of course, that art style isn't gone or anything - just, unfortunately, less commonplace.
Environments have strong texturing that I'm frankly jealous of, but lack detail in every other way. The UI feels... disjointed? Like different parts of it weren't just made by different artists, but in different types of digital media from artist to artist. Frankly, I don't care much for the new Rose health bar. :/
When the art wants to go hard though, it goes hard! I loved the extra detail on all the Guertena artworks! They're very lovingly rendered and definitely a stronger way to display a fictional artist's work than before. The full-screen title and such is also beautiful.
Music's largely an improvement! Once or twice I felt like a track was grating, but so did I with the original.
Despite everything, this is a good way to play this RPG Maker classic - maybe the only way to play it properly, actually, so. Y'know. Take my criticisms with a grain of salt.