During the PlayStation Experience 2017 in Anaheim, California this past weekend, a brief teaser trailer was released for the “full” remastered version of the original 1998 release of MediEvil on the PlayStation One. The 20-year-old title will make an appearance again on the PS4, with 4K support for the PS4 Pro.
Details on the game are slim to nil. There’s nothing about what will be included, what improvements will be made, whether or not they’re redoing the models and assets or just upping the resolution and texture work, or if they will improve on the game’s stiff and limited controls. It’s all a blank slate right now.
What isn’t a blank slate is the 50 second teaser trailer that literally reveals nothing but a short clip of a screaming ghoul while confirming that the game is being fully remastered for PS4.
The comment section is filled with fanboys excited to play a 20-year-old game in 4K.
What’s sad is that this isn’t a new game with improvements to the mechanics, functions, or core engine, this is just a remaster. And keep in mind that they mention that it’s a full remaster not a full remake.
The difference between remaster and remake is that a remaster takes the core of the original and updates it with better resolution, frame-rate, and performance stability. Sometimes they might improve the assets, depending on the game. A remake will take all of the core concepts from the original property and completely redo them from the ground up using all new technology and tools from the current era.
And based on the ghoul at the end of the trailer, it looks like the assets have been improved. The model is definitely better than the old PSX outing, and the backgrounds have slightly higher texture resolution, but still looks like it’s going to very much be the same thing as before.
The PS4 has really been a huge let down since 2014. A lot of the games are lackluster, there new IPs haven’t been very compelling, and majority of the most notable games in the PS4’s library are remastered games from the PS2 and PS3 era.
Nevertheless, if you’re interested in an updated version of MediEvil you can expect more details to arrive for the remastered version of the game for the PS4 to arrive soon.