In a very packed Playstation Paris Games Week Showcase, one of the smaller but more striking trailers offered a look at the forthcoming Shadow of the Colossus remake. It creeps along, all atmosphere and tone, a slow trot through the desert environment of the game's Forbidden Lands. Then, suddenly, it exploded into one of the most striking boss fights of the original. Oddly, the trailer they posted to their YouTube (which is above) is different, focusing even more on mood and feeling. (But hey, I like both quite a bit, and you can find the one they showed at the conference in the full archive of that stream.)

Back when the Shadow of the Colossus remake was announced at E3, response was mixed. Some people felt like it was too soon for a remake of a game that received an HD remaster on the PS3. Others thought it just looked bad, and had little faith in Bluepoint Games to stick the landing. But maybe the best argument was just that a new, gussied up version just wasn't necessary. Then Senior Editor Mike Diver wrote:

It just feels… unnecessary. It's not so old that it can't have been experienced by younger players—that HD remaster is readily available today. And yes, I get that it's not on PS4 as it stands—but did many of the millions who've picked up a PS4 do so thinking, man, I can't wait to play a remake of Shadow of the Colossus. One where—look, I hope they don't balls this up, but come on, it's a possibility—the timeless atmosphere of the original has been marred by the inexorable march of graphical fidelity. Where the deep impact of slaughtering these magnificent beings is lessened by too much _noise_surrounding the occasions.

I don't want the next Shadow, the new Shadow, to be nothing more than a shadow of what came before it. Despite the above, I'm hoping it's a valuable revision. But at some point, the scaffolding that supports the games industry's obsession with digging into the past will collapse. 2013's Flashback was a warning—a special game, close to the hearts of those who enjoyed its first release, turned into something so much less than what it deserved. If Shadow goes the same way, all surface and no feeling, there'll be more tears from Sony fans, but for an entirely different, disastrous reason.