I have to give Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth credit where it counts — it’s undoubtedly one of the most ambitious video game remakes ever made. While many remakes focus on rebuilding a game in a new engine with a few tweaks here and there, FF7 Rebirth goes all out as part of a trilogy project attempting to redefine the FF7 experience. The game goes back over all the core events from the middle of the story, but it also overhauls the gameplay, changes key story and character concepts, and supplements everything with new mini-games, quests, and encounters.
It’s no surprise that FF7 Rebirth is a Game of the Year front-runner for many people, and I’m happy that so many people got joy out of the experience. Although it’s not my number one title of 2024 (an honor that currently goes to Lorelei and the Laser Eyes), I did love a lot of the experience. There’s another remake coming out that I might actually love more, however, even if it isn’t revisiting a classic of the same magnitude and approaching it with the same grand aspirations to deliver a transformative adventure.
Epic Mickey: Rebrushed Might Be My Ideal Remake
A Flawed Experience That I Absolutely Love
Among a storm of high-profile video game remakes in 2024, which have ranged from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door to Persona 3 Reload, one that isn’t generating the same sweeping level of excitement is Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed. The crux of the problem, of course, is that Epic Mickey isn’t a classic. It’s a popular Wii game that ended up in plenty of households, but with some awkward camera controls, a variety of bugs, and a morality system that was criticized for being shallow, it didn’t win hearts in the way that Super Mario Galaxy or Xenoblade Chronicles did.
Epic Mickey did win my heart, though, and it’s a genuine contender for my favorite game on the Wii. I was essentially the perfect audience, having grown up on old Disney animated shorts and comics. My loyalties lie principally with Donald and Scrooge, but the scrappy Mickey that caused mayhem in cartoons and solved mysteries in newspaper strips is a much more interesting character than the insipid corporate mascot that he mostly is today, and Epic Mickey embraced those classic ideals while pursuing an ink-drenched twist of its own.
I’ve never been much bothered by the common gripes about Epic Mickey. Although the default camera movement can be terrible, it’s freely controllable on the d-pad, so adjusting it during gameplay eventually becomes second nature. I don’t remember bugs ever seriously inhibiting my experience, and I actually had a lot of fine figuring out a silly exploit for a boss fight on my own. The morality system is cartoonish, but it’s also reasonably charming, and I don’t think comparing the morality system of a glorified 3D platformer to adult-oriented RPGs is particularly fair or worthwhile.
I also don’t gel with criticisms of
Epic Mickey
‘s divergence from its concept art — the end result is still moody, immersive, and darker than anything else starring Disney’s core characters.
Even taking them in stride, it’s nonetheless hard to deny that Epic Mickey has its fair share of criticisms, but that’s exactly why it’s such a perfect candidate for a remake. It’s a game with fantastic strengths, from the consistently rich atmosphere of a decaying, idiosyncratic park to the fundamental joy of wielding a paintbrush as a weapon. Epic Mickey: Rebrushed is primed to touch up the sticking points to put the emphasis on the highlights, and based on reviews so far, it seems to be doing that generally well.
FF7 Rebirth Can’t Improve An All-Time Great RPG
Creative Changes Don’t Beat The Classic Experience
FF7 Rebirth and Epic Mickey: Rebrushed are games with very different goals, and there’s something to celebrate in the audacity of Rebirth‘s willingness to remix a time-honored story. I don’t think it ultimately rivals the original game, though, and its sometimes spectacular presentation doesn’t entirely make up for frustrations like flattening the world of Gaia into a checklist structure. For me, the attempt to both honor the classic story and add a new layer completely falls apart in FF7 Rebirth‘s climax, reaffirming where my loyalties ultimately lie.
I’ll still be venturing forth into FF7 Remake Part 3 alongside everyone else, but if I could have only the original or the remake trilogy, I’d take the original any day of the week. This isn’t a condemnation of FF7 Rebirth, which is still an incredibly impressive game, just a reflection of the uphill battle of remaking something without much room for improvement. Most remakes never even come close to FF7 Rebirth in this regard, often trading charm, atmosphere, and unique identity for generic graphical upgrades and quality-of-life upgrades that can flatten interesting design choices.
Remakes Of Masterpieces Just Aren’t As Interesting
There’s More To Lose Than To Gain
FF7 Rebirth is mostly worthy of mention because it does stand out above competitors, and the gap between my interest in Epic Mickey: Rebrushed and other 2024 remakes and remasters is much wider. The Silent Hill 2 remake seems set to lose a huge portion of what made the original game special, and The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered feels laughably unnecessary. I can appreciate something like Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door for bringing a classic back to store shelves, but it’s more of a fix for availability than it is for any major deficiency in the original experience.
I obviously can’t declare Epic Mickey: Rebrushed my favorite remake of the year until I actually play through the game, and there’s always a possibility that it won’t recapture what I love so much about the original. Even if it doesn’t live up to my expectations, it’s still a model for the kind of remakes I want to see. Revisiting masterpieces will always attract the most attention and sales, but revisiting games that fell a bit short provides a real opportunity to surpass what came before, and that’s something that Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth just can’t do in my eyes.