One of the rare video game remakes that instead of setting out to accomplish the subjective goal of "improving" the original, justifies its existence by being a completely different game with a completely new artistic vision. Developed by a small, inexperienced new team, Castlevania IV retells the story of Castlevania with new level design, new enemy design, and new mechanics.

What sets it apart is the change in tone. This is a moody, atmospheric rendition that relies a lot on its aesthetics and audio. I was surprised to find out this was Masanori Adachi and Taro Kudo's (who composed for Contra III and Axelay, respectively) first work because they really deliver here with tracks like Forest of Monsters, Submerged City, and Cellar.

The gameplay is made easier due to expanded whip control, but I would argue this allowed the developers to be more creative with the level design and enemy placements. At any rate, it's a lot of fun to play, and it still feels like classic Castlevania due to how committed your jumps are.

Instead of being the same game but worse (e.g., Demon's Souls 2020, Resident Evil 4 2023), or the same game with insignificant alterations (Super Mario RPG 2023), Castlevania IV/Akumajou Dracula 1991 instead decides to be its an independent work with it's own strengths and weaknesses. As a result, it stands on its own as another great entry in the series and companion piece to the original Castlevania.

Not much to say that hasn't already been said. Fun characters, fun plot, fun albeit simple battle system with Action Commands, and fun overworld exploration/platforming all tied up nicely with excellent prerendered 3D visuals and a fantastic catchy soundtrack, Yoko Shimomura's magnum opus.

Like Chrono Trigger, the game's biggest strength is how quickly it moves from point to point. Around every corner is a new enemy type, a hidden treasure, a platforming challenge, or a fun minigame (shoutout to the beetle game). The overworld and dungeon areas are so tightly designed; every room feels unique and has some memorable obstacle to deal with. There are dozens of small secrets and easter eggs hidden throughout, from the famous Culex to the casino which few seem to know exists.

It's a very simple game to be sure, but the execution is practically flawless.

I like Super Mario RPG a lot. I replay it every few years and figured this time I would play the Switch version. It's good, about as good as the original, but the entire time playing I had this thought in the back of my head...

Why does this exist?

Is it to improve the original game? Or to provide a fresh perspective? It doesn't really do either, like it barely does anything different at all. What is or is not an improvement is subjective, of course, but there isn't much I would consider to be improved aside from the fast travel. The post-game boss rematches are neat but they're not really that big a step up from the rest of the game. The graphics are nice, but they always were. The arranged music is arguably worse, lacking the punchy drums and bass of the original.

It really is just Super Mario RPG, again, with no changes of substance, and because of that feels like a waste of development time and resources. The SFC/SNES original is a fantastic game, and there's nothing in the remake that makes me want to play either version over the other. It just kind of exists.

I wish remakes would take more risks. Game remakes are analagous to movie remakes and music remakes (covers), but those are more willing to go in new artistic directions compared to games. They stand up on their own as independent works. I often hear that safe video game remakes like Mario RPG preserve the "original experience," but the reality is that remakes are inherently their own experience. We should embrace that and realize that remakes shouldn't be so beholden to their audience's expectations.

Part of the issue is that the original versions of many games are no longer accessible. Maybe it would be too costly to port, or maybe the source code was lost so they'd need to remake the game anyway to bring it to current platforms. But Super Mario RPG was on the SNES Mini, surely Nintendo would be able to put it on NSO. They just didn't want to, so you would pay $60 for it again. Luckily, all these problems have already been solved with fan emulation and archival projects, and we all have access to almost every version, be that a revision, remaster, remake, etc., of any game. All easily accessible to everyone. In an ideal world, these would be available on official storefronts too, but I guess that's too much work. What I'm trying to say is, fans are preserving games better than any company could, so remakes ought to have their own unique vision instead. It'll never be that way because game companies have an adversarial relationship with emulation, but one can dream...

I digress. Super Mario RPG is a fine game, this remake is simply unambitious and uninteresting to me.

This game is awesome. The Power Shots are fun, they're kinda overpowered but not as much as the gimmicks introduced in later Mario Tennis titles. You can consistently and effectively counter any of them with any character, it's just difficult to do so. Likewise, the Gimmick Courts are a lot of fun and spice up the game without becoming too overbearing or obnoxious. If you dont like the Power Shots or Gimmicks, you can turn those off in multiplayer matches. There aren't as many characters or courts as there were in the N64 game, but there's greater mechanical and visual variety among the ones included here. And of course, Motoi Sakuraba returns with another great soundtrack.

My only complaint... I wish you could play the CPU doubles tournaments with a friend. Or even a full 16-player tournament mode like in the Smash games, where you hand off controllers to the next players.

All my thoughts on the first NPC Pikmin apply here as well.

Unlike that game, this has widescreen support, which would have been nice if the UI was moved or redrawn instead of lazily stretched. Sprays are more cumbersome to use in the heat of battle since you have to take your thumb of the A button to reach down and use them. And why did they remove Totaka's Song?

Pikmin 2 is an amazing game, but not this port.

Pikmin is a great game, but I am not a fan of the new control scheme.

It's easier and quicker to aim with the pointer, but the tradeoff is that aiming is much less precise. Swarming awkwardly uses the pointer when it used to be controlled independently of the cursor.

On top of the control issues, you can now rewind to any previous day, cutting any sort of real tension the original had. Some sound effects were mistakenly sped up and sound too high-pitched. There are additional glitches as well.

I can't recommend a shoddy port like this, you're better off playing the GameCube version.

Shin Megami Tensei V proves, like many other great JRPGs (e.g., Final Fantasy V), that a JRPG is not always defined by its story. The gameplay mechanics, level design, encounter design, world, characters, writing, story, music, visuals, and atmosphere are all pillars that can form the foundation of an RPG, but you don't need all of them for the structure to hold. The written story here is not good, so what? At least it stays out of the way - and frankly, I would rather have that than have a poorly-written story take up a significant portion of runtime. Gameplay can tell its own personal story, and my own experiences of playing through this were memorable and interesting. This game knows what it's good at, it's focused, but I can't deny it feels unfinished.

Field exploration is mostly improved. The areas all have an impressive amount of verticality, and trivial dungeon "puzzles" are replaced with figuring out how to navigate these spaces. Collectibles are useful upgrades to your abilities via Miracles and demon essences, instead of just single-use items or gear. Enemies can easily be avoided on the field.

The entire battling/collection/fusion loop is the best it's ever been in these games. Reverse compendium search, demon essences, more unique skills, the works - it all makes it more fun to experiment with different builds and create tailor-made teams for each encounter. You have to manage buffs/debuffs more now since they don't last forever, and there is a reasonable 2-stack limit. It's good to get players to think about when and where to apply these.

There are couple design desicions I think are a bit misunderstood.

The open-zone level design allows you to easily avoid fighting enemies most of the time. But by avoiding enemies, you miss out on valuable experience points, money, and recruitable demons. So how exactly does this make the game too easy? This is like complaining about the random encounter modifier in Bravely Default. In SMTV, not gaining exp and money puts you at a greater disadvantage, since these things are more valuable than the MP and items consumed during battle. Battles are always a net profit. Allowing you to skip most battles means it's more practical and fun to attempt lower-level runs. If this were a dungeon crawler like previous games, then skipping battles would actually make the game easier because resource management is an issue. However, SMTV is clearly not that kind if game; I think think the open zones complement this change to enemy encounters.

Likewise, level scaling is an important and integral part of the game's balance. If you're a lower level than your opponent, you'll be much weaker. Simple enough. Most RPGs have some form of it. But you can still defeat opponents even 10+ levels above you if you put any effort and thought into your party composition, demon fusions, and actions. I don't know where people are getting the idea that the game is just impossible unless you level up and that stats and moves are meaningless; it's just not true. Analyze your opponents abilities and adjust your party accordingly. Take advantage of the tools at your disposal. To me the aggressive level scaling in SMTV is just another thing that makes the game more fun to play at lower levels. The real issue with the level scaling is that it allows you to become too powerful too quickly when leveling above an opponent.

There are still several issues I have though.

I feel like by now, enemy weaknesses should just be visible from the start. All hiding the weaknesses accomplishes is making you use a spyglass and restart the fight. Magatsuhi is an interesting idea, but it quickly becomes apparently how much more useful Critical is over all the others.

The game as a whole feels unfinished. The level design by itself is good, but the field areas look too similar to each other. There are pockets of visual variety like the fairy village and weird floating cube zone, but they're few and far between. On the three times the game decides to throw a dungeon at you, it's pretty terrible. They're too short and too half-baked to be interesting. I think the game would've been better without these. Major quests are locked behind DLC paywalls. Worse still, a maid dress for Nahobino is not included in any DLC. And obviously, the story is undercooked. The game feels so lacking sometimes that it feels like they planned Vengeance from the start, they probably did.

The core systems of the game are so polished and well-designed that they hold up the experience and make it worthwhile. The presentation ties it all together, with some beautiful (if monotonous) visuals and a stellar soundtrack. I had a really fun time with this one.