20 Remakes and Remasters That Are Worse Than The Original

19. Final Fantasy V (2013)

Another classic RPG from the nineties, Final Fantasy V is the penultimate FF game to feature the 2D sprite graphics. V follows adventurer Bartz Klauser as he investigates a fallen meteor, and finds himself drawn into a quest to prevent the world’s four elemental Crystals from releasing and empowering the evil sorcerer Exdeath.

This is a game that has had various ports and remakes over the years, as the franchise has grown and earned a diehard fanbase worldwide. But among its various iterations, there is no greater offender than the 2013 version in terms of failing to honour the legacy and producing something that makes us wonder why we aren’t just playing the original.

First developed by Matrix Software for iOS, and released onto Steam in 2015, this remake takes liberties with the property, particularly in the graphics department. While de-pixelating the game may have seemed like the way to update it twenty years on, the result is a game that has a little more freedom in character commands, but looks blank and hollow, scrubbing away the small details in the same way as some of the first Blu-rays tried to airbrush out the grain.

This was eventually rectified by the Pixel Remaster edition in 2021, first released on Steam, iOS and Android, before migrating to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox Series X/S in 2023/24. But we can’t say it’s exactly better than the original game either…