I can’t play the Spyro trilogy for the first time again, nor can I approach it with the same innocence and sense of wonder that I did when I was ten years old. I still love the series, but games have changed a lot since Spyro first came out. There have been 20 years of evolution and innovation since Spyro the Dragon was made, and I’ve seen how games have been refined and enhanced since then. I’ve changed a lot too. I’m a critic now, and I pick games apart and analyze them for a living. I can revisit Spyro from a new perspective, but now I experience it as an echo of the original – a snapshot of my childh
I’ve touched on Breath of the Wild’s ending before, and how it’s an almost perfect example of melancholic hopefulness. The evil is vanquished, and now Link and Zelda are tasked with forming a new life together, with rebuilding Hyrule and comprehending what’s next after hundreds of years away from home. Hyrule is both keenly familiar and an unknown quantity, with so much changing over the past century while many of its core fundamentals remain the same. Now they need to move onward and figure out what to do next, carrying all of their past losses on their shoulders while adding further responsibilities to the p
Nintendo has built up a cast of beloved supporting characters, so expand upon them and make them matter. Age of Calamity did a solid job of this, although I wasn’t a fan of its more eccentric approach to storytelling – still, it’s a good blueprint to follow if the overall tone is given a few much-needed adjustments. Breath of the Wild was so compelling because of the mystery that defined it, each hesitant step into its sprawling world rewarding us with riches and a freeform experimentation in gameplay that nothing in the open world genre has been able to match since. It’s a marvel, and something the sequel should build upon as opposed to replicating with only a few key changes.
It does something that a remake or remaster can never do. No matter how much Mass Effect Legendary Edition or Spyro Reignited may look like how we remember them, they’ll never be able to capture the experience of playing games as a kid. Revisiting classics through remasters and remakes definitely induces nostalgia, and they have the power to trigger all manner of memories and feelings from the past, but a fresh coat of paint just isn’t enough to truly bring me back. Resident Evil 4 VR, despite it being a completely different format, has moved me in ways a normal remake never could. This game makes me regress, and from talking to other people and watching streamers play it, it seems to be doing the same thing to everyone that grew up with Leon’s Spanish advent
Breath of the Wild 2 seems to follow a similar trajectory, except Hyrule Castle is floating in the sky this time. See, it makes all the difference. Except it doesn’t really, and I can’t help but feel that potentially relegating Princess Zelda into the role of a helpless damsel in distress once again does a disservice to what is easily the best iteration of this character to date. In many ways, elden ring dlc exploration Zelda is the star of the show, especially in the previous game’s flashbacks where her struggle with accepting royal power and the inevitable loss of her friends becomes a crux for the unfolding narrat
RE: Code Veronica follows up on Claire Redfield’s search for her brother, something that is first referenced in Resident Evil 2 . Immediately, the game shows us that Claire’s mission to find her brother led her to an Umbrella facility in Paris. The character storylines of both games are inherently linked, something absent in comparison to R
We only see Princess Zelda fall into a pit in the trailer, presumably descending deeper into the castle’s inner sanctum. Can’t she just climb back out, or is she stuck there until we fish her back out once the final boss is dealt with? I sincerely hope it’s the former, or Nintendo is throwing us a red herring and the true circumstances of the narrative are being cleverly hidden from view. The company has said it’s holding the true title back for Breath of the Wild 2 in fear of spoilers, and the skyward version of Link only ever being framed from the back has convinced me it is another character entir
VR remakes like Resident Evil 4 are a much easier sell to non-VR players than other games in the medium. I can preach about how remarkable Half-Life: Alyx is until everyone hates me (which happens often) but it’s impossible to really understand how great that game is unless you play it for yourself. This has always been a huge barrier for VR, which is why Oculus was so keen on developing a wireless model that could more easily be taken on the go and shared with friends. People need to try VR before they really get it, but remakes of classic games like RE4 might just be compelling enough to convince people to take the dive sight unseen. « It’s Resident Evil 4, but you’re actually walking through the village yourself » is easy to wrap your head around, and a pretty intriguing premise
