The trouble with a game that comments on itself as a game is that, often, it’s difficult to tell the difference between the game actually breaking on you and it “breaking” in an intended way as part of the experience. I do think there are elements of The Remake that could use a bit more refinement: for one, if you already know the answer to the game’s very first puzzle from having played a demo before, for instance, The Remake doesn’t seem to know how to handle the sequence break. In my case, I found myself hard locked, unable to proceed without a bunch of clues I should have collected in rooms I could no longer go back to. There’s also a second, built-in point of no return that stops you from going back and retrieving any missed clues that you might need to move forward. There are other little issues too, such as button prompts not showing up where they should, or showing up where they shouldn’t. I have a lot of forgiveness for all of these things given the size and scope of The Remake, but as a warning, just don’t try to sequence break this thing. It’s already (purposefully) broken enough as it is.
But even with those hold-ups, I am wildly compelled by The Remake and am eager to see where it takes me. There’s some super-interesting stuff going on in its mid-section, including some interesting philosophizing on who should be “allowed” to remake a classic, what can and can’t be changed, and what makes a game a classic in the first place. There’s also an incredibly scathing depiction of internet commenters who harass devs like it’s their day job. It’s so blunt that it felt like a tasteless joke at first, but the more I see of this character the more familiar their inane, blathering remarks sound, to the point where I’ve come back around on finding the depiction to be irritatingly accurate. There are still several mysteries I haven’t gotten to the bottom of, including an in-game phone number I’m nervous about calling in real life and the aforementioned poorly modded party member of the game’s first save file. I’m also just…kind of into what little scraps I can glean of the “original” Greatest RPG of All Time. It’s kind of got a cool story going on! There’s time travel, there’s a skeleton pirate, a guy wielding a broom as a weapon, a very cute robot whose birthday is every day, that sort of thing.
If nothing else, it’s now making me want to play the greatest RPG of all time. What is the greatest RPG of all time? I still don’t know, but at least someone finally remade it.