A week later, Square Enix released Final Fantasy VII Remake, their self-conscious, full-scale redux of the original Final Fantasy VII, which actively engages with the concept of what a video game remake even is (something that Kirk Hamilton has facetiously classified as a ‘Super Turbo Remake Plus’.)

Image: Capcomĭid Capcom kick off a ‘golden age’ of video game remakes? In April 2020, they followed up with their Resident Evil 3 remake, which continued this specific remake tradition (albeit to a far more muted reception). Idiosyncrasies woven into the original version – often seen in today’s light as hindrances or visible signs of age, desperately in need of remedy – are sculpted (or, perhaps, carved away) in the shape of a pristine third-person action game, a genre much more palatable to a contemporary general audience. These updated remakes take the core ideas of an original game, and fix them squarely within the contemporary Triple-A tradition. It began a new wave of (and appetite for) remakes, of games that reconstruct – or work in dialogue with – their original versions, in a different manner to the usual slate of high-definition ‘remasters’.

The developers of the upcoming Silent Hill 2 remake have gestured to RE2 as a source of inspiration, for example.

Capcom proved one model extremely successful in their impressively modernised remake of Resident Evil 2 in 2019, which has become both a catalyst and reference point for the horror remakes that follow it. In 2023, video game remakes are in vogue.

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