I mean, okay. I liked Mineral Town as much as the next guy; it was the first game that set some precedents for how the Rune Factory games would later work (read: The cave you delve down for ore.) It's also one of the best HM games, period. I'll buy it.
But do we really need a remake of this? Honestly, every time I see "remake" nowadays I frown. It's like the entire industry is just regurgitating the same things over and over because they don't have enough creative talent to make something new that blows us away. What exactly happened to get us in this rut?
I think the answer to that question is very complex and depends very much on the Studio that is doing the games:
- For a remake you already have the core game finished, all you need to do is to write a new engine, recreate the assets and you are basically "done". A remake, depending on the amount of additional content, can be done quickly by a big team or as a side project by a smaller team while the majority of staff can continue to work on "bigger" games (that are new).
- Remakes of beloved games are guaranteed to sell well. Look at the FF7 Remake hype. Or how about the Links Awakening hype?
- Some of the games that are getting remakes are very old but had excelent gameplay. I would argue that some of those golden classics even have better gameplay in this day and age than some of the big AAA games that may look good but play like shit (I am looking at you Battlefield V). Having a way to experience those games without the need to get a old console, especially with old systems that look like crap on a HDTV without "expensive" equipment, is a good thing in my opinion.
- Like I said, some of those games are very old, or in the case of the Secret of Mana collection they never made it outside japan (Saiken Densetsu 3 - Trials of Mana). Giving younger people an opportunity to experience those games with modern graphics is also a good thing in my opinion.
- Sometimes the developer wanted to include stuff in the original game that was not possible because of technical limitations (e.g. Stop'n Swap from Banjoo Kazooie). In a remake on modern consoles they might finally be able to implement every feature they envisioned for the original game.
Also, and this irritates me: The original versions of the games are not going to dissappear. If someone doe not like the remake of XYZ it's still possible to play the old games while people that have no fond memories of those old games can enjoy the remake.
Seriously, if done well a proper remake/remaster is a Win-Win-Win situation for everyone.
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