 |
| Pikachu Records | bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net |
Producing a sequel, as I've previously expounded upon, is no easy task. But remaking an entire video game is even more challenging. Inventing new plots and finding new directions to take old characters in is a balancing act to be sure, but it is nowhere near as delicate as retooling a classic for a newer audience, especially a classic as iconic and beloved as the original Pokémon Red and Blue (released in Japan as Pokémon Red and Green). Change too much and the diehard fans will scream that you are destroying their childhoods. Change too little and people may wonder why they should bother. Of course, the more well-known the original, the more likely it is that said diehards will be insulted at any attempt to improve on perfection, perceived or otherwise. Distinguishing legitimate vitriol, as was splashed all over the Star Wars prequels, from largely unjustified ire, as was directed at The Force Awakens, is a Herculean task that GameFreak has to date undertaken no fewer than three times.
FireRed and LeafGreen choose to play it safe, to mildly successful effect, providing a mandate to shake things up a little more for HeartGold and SoulSilver, and more recently for Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. But all three remakes hew more closely to the originals than necessary — substantial improvements could have been made if they stepped out of the shadows of their predecessors a little more, and I'll expand more on this topic in the coming days.
Casting old characters in a new light, revealing previously hidden depths and facets is a great joy for obsessive fans and frequenters of TV Tropes. Unfortunately any hopes one may have held regarding filling of plot holes and expansion of context and background in this instance proved in vain. The script of FireRed and LeafGreen is approximately identical to Red and Blue. Major graphical improvements are evident, as is the insertion of a small archipelago between the final two gyms to help prop up a sag in the level curve. But this is the full extent of the changes made.
The patching of various oversights and glitches in the originals — critical hit ratios tied to the speed stat, the laughably inadequate inventory system, accidental invincibility of the psychic type — counts not as forging new content but bringing old content to a baseline it should already have met, and deserves no gold star. A half-hearted attempt was made to jazz up clashes with legendary avian foes and with horrifying genetic experiments. The regular, garden-variety wild encounter theme is simply pitched up slightly.
Setting aside the underwhelming gaming experience, the actual soundtrack is quite good. For the most part, the bare bones provided by the original chiptune are shaved and softened, set to facsimiles of actual instruments, and are fleshed out similarly to Ruby and Sapphire. But the delightfully fiddly little descants and countermelodies are pushed much further back in the mix, treated this time as decorations or ornaments to the more prominent melody and bass.
Seeing as I personally err on the the side of change rather than conservation, the better tracks in my books tend to stretch further from their eight-bit subject matter, treating the chiptune as inspiration rather than guide. The slithery theme for Viridian Forest transforms a jarring jackhammer into an ominous xylophone riff that almost sounds like sonar pings. It is as if the games wants you to subconsciously expect someone or something to creep up on you. When cruising aboard the lavish S.S. Anne, a dry, obnoxious exercise in counterpoint imitating a Bach-lite harpsichord becomes a relaxing, pastoral balm set to piano and strings. The juttering quasi-tango of the Lavender Town graveyard is given space to breathe with the expanded sonic palette of the Gameboy Advance. The unnervingly modal melody is played on what I believe is a shakuhachi, a Japanese instrument similar to a flute, and finds it a much better fit than simple electronic beeps.
This is not to say that closely imitating the original guarantees disappointment. Several barely altered tracks leap to mind, notably those most comfortable with the electronic beep template. When conducting espionage in Saffron City's Silph Company skyscraper, the lumbering drama of storming the fortress is more than adequately represented. And the final battle against the player's rival after vanquishing the Elite Four, all dramatic arpeggios and off-kilter fanfare, sounds much more like itself in 2004 than it ever did in 1996.
FireRed and LeafGreen are quite shy and tentative as remakes go, and understandably so. Red and Blue are still today commonly and deservedly ranked among the world's greatest and most inventive video games, holding the Guinness World Record for best-selling role-playing game of all time. But the remakes' success, however mild, nevertheless justified taking risks with future retoolings and reimaginings, to largely successful results.
Tune in again tomorrow!