"Wow your second favourite game has a five-star review what a twist" ok and? If you ask me, it's a very deserved five-star rating. Because as a long-time fan of this hidden gem, my rating for the original version would be four-stars instead. Whilst the cores are still present in both versions, this remade version proves incredibly faithful whilst improving upon most of the issues the predecessor had. As well as offering a brand-new ending sequence to go for, which is actually the reason I'm giving this a five-star review. I won't spoil any little bit of it, but it ties everything together very nicely and feels very naturally integrated. In fact, this replay was for the purpose of showing the game to my partner (we were gonna start Xenoblade but wanted something shorter for the time being) and he was convinced that the ending sequence was part of the original version until I showed him otherwise. That goes to show the beauty and perfection of it all, if you ask me.
But enough pure gushing on a personal level, what about objective positives? The sprite art is 100% one of these, the HD-2D style was the perfect way to present this game and of the games currently made with this style still stands as my favourite-looking (although Octopath 2 certainly stands on-par with it in this department, which I'm very glad to see). The gameplay system is something else I would really call an objective positive, it's very unique and easy to get to grips with, though some people would likely disagree with me here. Whilst the gameplay style isn't everyone's cup of tea, if nothing else it's really well made and works like a dream. The variety in what each character can do helps battles from feeling too stale and moreso when you get multiple party members to play with, even if some generic encounters can be won by spamming your highest power attacks that's not always gonna fly in the boss battles. Or even some rarer random encounters. My point is, the game is easy to pick-up and learn... as this is my fifth overall playthrough though (counting the SNES original and this remake) that may be unfair of me to say as I can easily just hop into the game at a moment's notice by now. Each chapter as well has their own unique spin on things and I feel they're all implemented as close to perfect as can be, if not outright perfect. It gives each era a unique identity beyond just the characters and set-pieces, but truly makes the time period feel more alive by incorporating unique twists into the way the game is played. The only one I'd say falls flat is the Near Future's mind reading gimmick since it amounts to guessing if you have to talk or read minds to progress the plot in certain areas, but even then I like the idea and don't think the slightly lackluster implementation is a cardinal sin.
Another 100% positive I've seen nearly everyone agree on is the soundtrack. Live A Live's OST was already one of my favourites of all-time, so having Yoko Shimomura revisit her RPG debut made it all the sweeter. Both versions of the soundtrack absolutely slap but the remake does an arguably better job in a lot of places, this even factoring in my nostalgic bias. Yes, the original version of War In China will always get me pumped-up and Unseen Syndrome will make me feel an empty dread each time it pops-up in the cutscenes. But their remade equivalents are very much on-par, if not outright superior: War In China's slightly slower pace fits the patient demeanor of Shifu, whilst still having an energetic instrumentation and backing track that gives the vibe of a martial arts battle. Unseen Syndrome likewise recaptures a horrific, empty feeling with droning sound, mechanical instruments, and discordant backing that all give the feeling that something is wrong... because when that song plays (with one exception), it's exactly what you're meant to feel. I could compare so much of this soundtrack but these are the two I've seen debated a fair bit in regards to original and remake. The point I want to make is the new OST slaps majorly and even if tracks are noticeably different SOUNDING, they still carry the same FEELING which is what is the most important part to me. There's not a song in this game I can say is outright bad to be fairly honest.
On the subject of sound, the voice acting is top-tier shit right here. I had a pang of worry when it was revealed that the remake would feature voice acted characters, really just because I'm all "Myyy precioussss!" in regards to this game so of course something as big as that is gonna make me a bit worried in regards to the execution. But I legitimately only have one complaint with the voices and it's not even in regards to the actual acting, because dear goddess they absolutely knocked it out of the park on all fronts here. Even little NPCs have life behind them with VAs that sound like they actually gave a fuck about the role rather than just wanting a paycheck, but the main cast is truly something else. Each period has been perfectly captured in visuals and music... and the voice acting too, because they actually bothered to hire people for their voices and not their fame. And so many of them do excellent jobs, I have to wonder why so many of them are new VAs with little (or sometimes zero) other projects to their name. Seriously, what the FUCK. They all do 10/10 jobs, give them more work! But as for my complaint, it's a little aspect in the script; naming your characters. A quirk in the original since basically every RPG at the time let you name your party members, and it didn't really matter because it was all text-based story (or image-based if you want to be a pedant for prehistory). Now that the game is voice-acted though, they chose to keep the naming ability... and I'm not a huge fan of that. This game thrives on the characters and story so having the protagonists never have their names said actually pains me. However the voiced lines where a character's name is meant to be said still feel naturally spoken as they differed the script to suit it better for the VAs. I'm at least glad they did something like that rather than leave awkward long pauses or hanging on a word, but if given the choice? Fuck the character naming system, give them their defaults.
I've really only spoken big positives, so what about some negatives? I'm not biased enough to say "there ar none lmoaaa" but at the same time I struggle to think of major overarching flaws. Heed that underlined word. If you go into specific chapters then yes, there are certainly flawed moments; that one boss fight in Near Future will never not be annoying despite having an easy as shit cheese method which just makes the encounter pointless anyways, Prehistory has a lot of "go in and out of this room multiple times" in its beginning segments, Distant Future's lack of combat until the very end is apparently a turn-off for many but I personally don't mind it, Present Day's lack of exploration is likewise a turn-off I can understand despite not minding myself (especially given that's the point of the chapter)... just flaws in individual chapters that don't really affect the whole of the game. This is a big reason why I'm giving the game such high praise too, because yeah I have moments I'm not very excited to see again on replay but those bits are very few and far between. The whole of this game, considering everything it has to offer, has surprisingly few flaws. Honestly, even when I first played the remake last year- at which point I hadn't played the SNES version since about 2018/2019, hard to recall exactly -I felt this same way. I thought for sure I would've had more negatives to comment on, but apparently not? I'm actually kinda mad most of the "negatives" section has been me saying I wish I had more negatives to actually mention. Fuck. If anything this remake has LESS issues than the original, which is a brilliant thing but... damn it I hate not having much to say.
If you really couldn't tell by now I still adore this game and always will. It's been a huge inspiration for me, ever since I first played it as a dumb 13 year old something or other. But it's amazing that it still captures all the same feelings this many years later. I love this game through and through, sourspots and all. It truly has earned its place as my second-favourite of all time. It's tragic to me that these days it's mostly known as "uhhhh the gaem that inspire undertal!!" when it deserves to stand by itself, as something truly unique and incredible. With the remake soon coming to PlayStation and Steam, I hope to see the reach this game has expand even further so that more people can experience this beautiful gem.
But enough pure gushing on a personal level, what about objective positives? The sprite art is 100% one of these, the HD-2D style was the perfect way to present this game and of the games currently made with this style still stands as my favourite-looking (although Octopath 2 certainly stands on-par with it in this department, which I'm very glad to see). The gameplay system is something else I would really call an objective positive, it's very unique and easy to get to grips with, though some people would likely disagree with me here. Whilst the gameplay style isn't everyone's cup of tea, if nothing else it's really well made and works like a dream. The variety in what each character can do helps battles from feeling too stale and moreso when you get multiple party members to play with, even if some generic encounters can be won by spamming your highest power attacks that's not always gonna fly in the boss battles. Or even some rarer random encounters. My point is, the game is easy to pick-up and learn... as this is my fifth overall playthrough though (counting the SNES original and this remake) that may be unfair of me to say as I can easily just hop into the game at a moment's notice by now. Each chapter as well has their own unique spin on things and I feel they're all implemented as close to perfect as can be, if not outright perfect. It gives each era a unique identity beyond just the characters and set-pieces, but truly makes the time period feel more alive by incorporating unique twists into the way the game is played. The only one I'd say falls flat is the Near Future's mind reading gimmick since it amounts to guessing if you have to talk or read minds to progress the plot in certain areas, but even then I like the idea and don't think the slightly lackluster implementation is a cardinal sin.
Another 100% positive I've seen nearly everyone agree on is the soundtrack. Live A Live's OST was already one of my favourites of all-time, so having Yoko Shimomura revisit her RPG debut made it all the sweeter. Both versions of the soundtrack absolutely slap but the remake does an arguably better job in a lot of places, this even factoring in my nostalgic bias. Yes, the original version of War In China will always get me pumped-up and Unseen Syndrome will make me feel an empty dread each time it pops-up in the cutscenes. But their remade equivalents are very much on-par, if not outright superior: War In China's slightly slower pace fits the patient demeanor of Shifu, whilst still having an energetic instrumentation and backing track that gives the vibe of a martial arts battle. Unseen Syndrome likewise recaptures a horrific, empty feeling with droning sound, mechanical instruments, and discordant backing that all give the feeling that something is wrong... because when that song plays (with one exception), it's exactly what you're meant to feel. I could compare so much of this soundtrack but these are the two I've seen debated a fair bit in regards to original and remake. The point I want to make is the new OST slaps majorly and even if tracks are noticeably different SOUNDING, they still carry the same FEELING which is what is the most important part to me. There's not a song in this game I can say is outright bad to be fairly honest.
On the subject of sound, the voice acting is top-tier shit right here. I had a pang of worry when it was revealed that the remake would feature voice acted characters, really just because I'm all "Myyy precioussss!" in regards to this game so of course something as big as that is gonna make me a bit worried in regards to the execution. But I legitimately only have one complaint with the voices and it's not even in regards to the actual acting, because dear goddess they absolutely knocked it out of the park on all fronts here. Even little NPCs have life behind them with VAs that sound like they actually gave a fuck about the role rather than just wanting a paycheck, but the main cast is truly something else. Each period has been perfectly captured in visuals and music... and the voice acting too, because they actually bothered to hire people for their voices and not their fame. And so many of them do excellent jobs, I have to wonder why so many of them are new VAs with little (or sometimes zero) other projects to their name. Seriously, what the FUCK. They all do 10/10 jobs, give them more work! But as for my complaint, it's a little aspect in the script; naming your characters. A quirk in the original since basically every RPG at the time let you name your party members, and it didn't really matter because it was all text-based story (or image-based if you want to be a pedant for prehistory). Now that the game is voice-acted though, they chose to keep the naming ability... and I'm not a huge fan of that. This game thrives on the characters and story so having the protagonists never have their names said actually pains me. However the voiced lines where a character's name is meant to be said still feel naturally spoken as they differed the script to suit it better for the VAs. I'm at least glad they did something like that rather than leave awkward long pauses or hanging on a word, but if given the choice? Fuck the character naming system, give them their defaults.
I've really only spoken big positives, so what about some negatives? I'm not biased enough to say "there ar none lmoaaa" but at the same time I struggle to think of major overarching flaws. Heed that underlined word. If you go into specific chapters then yes, there are certainly flawed moments; that one boss fight in Near Future will never not be annoying despite having an easy as shit cheese method which just makes the encounter pointless anyways, Prehistory has a lot of "go in and out of this room multiple times" in its beginning segments, Distant Future's lack of combat until the very end is apparently a turn-off for many but I personally don't mind it, Present Day's lack of exploration is likewise a turn-off I can understand despite not minding myself (especially given that's the point of the chapter)... just flaws in individual chapters that don't really affect the whole of the game. This is a big reason why I'm giving the game such high praise too, because yeah I have moments I'm not very excited to see again on replay but those bits are very few and far between. The whole of this game, considering everything it has to offer, has surprisingly few flaws. Honestly, even when I first played the remake last year- at which point I hadn't played the SNES version since about 2018/2019, hard to recall exactly -I felt this same way. I thought for sure I would've had more negatives to comment on, but apparently not? I'm actually kinda mad most of the "negatives" section has been me saying I wish I had more negatives to actually mention. Fuck. If anything this remake has LESS issues than the original, which is a brilliant thing but... damn it I hate not having much to say.
If you really couldn't tell by now I still adore this game and always will. It's been a huge inspiration for me, ever since I first played it as a dumb 13 year old something or other. But it's amazing that it still captures all the same feelings this many years later. I love this game through and through, sourspots and all. It truly has earned its place as my second-favourite of all time. It's tragic to me that these days it's mostly known as "uhhhh the gaem that inspire undertal!!" when it deserves to stand by itself, as something truly unique and incredible. With the remake soon coming to PlayStation and Steam, I hope to see the reach this game has expand even further so that more people can experience this beautiful gem.