I think developers, publishers and the world at large need to let go of this concept of remastering a game. The ideology works best when you are taking something that was either fundamentally flawed or otherwise limited by the time when it was released and then bringing it to the modern crowd. For example, Gargoyles Remastered did an excellent job of updating the score and visuals while still keeping the core terrible gameplay intact. Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties, by contrast, kept everything intact from the original but just made it accessible to everyone who missed it the first time around. So remastering a game that is very much still available and also less than a decade old is a weird choice, but certainly not unheard of. Nevertheless, the creation of My Big Sister: Remastered is a strange one, but not unpleasant or unwelcome.

Luzia and her older sister, Sombria, have a typical relationship. They squabble and snipe, and love each other deep down. Sombria will sneak out for smokes when mom isn’t home, and Luzia won’t go to bed on time. Luzia calls Sombria “Sombie” as a teasing nickname and term of endearment. And when both girls are kidnapped to set up an occultish ritual that strips Sombria of her humanity, Luzia decides to step up and help get Sombria back to her human form, hopefully. Players must dive into the convoluted lore within the world, one that harkens back to a prequel not available on console and expands into multiple branches and endings. The quest is a creepy and odd one, but the connection between these two sisters – not to mention rambling, quippy dialogue – keep the momentum going until the conclusion, no matter how shocking or heartwarming it may be.

My Big Sister: Remastered apparently has multiple upgrades from the original game, but I’ve never played it and I would hedge my bets that many of the readers haven’t either. An RPG Maker style pixel art adventure, you mostly control Luzia as you move between rooms and areas trying to solve puzzles and accumulate items. There’s a host of NPCS to talk with that will give you clues, but, like all great pixel rpg titles, you can sometimes circumvent the conversations entirely if you pick up items in the wrong order before meeting said NPCs. The game has a creepy vibe throughout, but the setup and execution keep the game from ever being a true horror motif. In contrast to things like The Witch’s House or Ib, a lot of the more upsetting moments come from realization and connection instead of jump scares or chase scenes.

From the drop, I enjoyed the design of My Big Sister: Remastered from an aesthetic point of view. The character avatars are well made and the transformation between them when things are altered in the world is very clear. It would have been easy for the different pixel people to blur together, but there’s a solid job of making sure implications exist for angles, design and appearance. It’s so much so that the Steam version carries a warning about nudity that, frankly, I never saw, even if a character was standing in a technically undressed stance once or twice. The areas can be detailed and vast, like the alley near the bath house or the snowy train bound for some unknown location. I did a comparison between the visuals, and I have to admit this Remastered version pops more, making the pixel art more stunning and eye-catching.

However, the upgrade comes at a certain cost. With so much extra detail, players can occasionally get lost or frustrated trying to find the specific interaction needed to move the game forward. I played on the Switch, and the small screen sometimes lead me to ferret around for an ungodly amount of time to figure out the interaction point. It doesn’t help that some points are clearly indicated (either speech bubbles above NPC heads or shining icons to indicate direction) and some are just blank and featureless. You also need to approach them at the right angle to trigger interaction. Early on, there’s a point where you need to carve into a specific spot in a wall to find a hidden character, and I would have never known it was there had my daughter not pointed out a small, mask-shaped shadow that I had walked past countless times. 

In that same vein, some of the upgrades to My Big Sister: Remastered feel a tad strong on the silly side. There’s a clear balance between menace and banter, with the interactions and conversations sometimes turning on a dime in a very disarming way. I don’t mind that: hell, I appreciate it. But when I get a game over screen and the graphic looks like it was lifted out of a Looney Tunes adjacent project, it’s beyond silly: it just feels totally disconnected. I think there are plenty of moments of visual gags and fun dialogue that keep the balance more attuned, and the overly comical death moments take you totally out of the experience. I would even go so far as to say it reduces the enjoyment of the game overall.

Once you get the gist of controls, you never really have to think about anything further for how the game will work. A lot of times it’s just picking up things, going to a place and then using them. On occasion, the game will throw you a curveball, like when you have all the necessary items for making a fishing pole but no option for “make fishing pole.” Instead, you have to instinctively go to the spot for fishing and, in defiance of every other interaction, just click on the spot instead of going into your inventory, which you’ve needed to do every other time. And, again, if you’re trying to look in a garbage can from the side instead of straight on, it won’t register or even show up on the screen, sometimes fooling you into thinking you’re doing things wrong. Which, I guess you technically are.

But My Big Sister: Remastered isn’t a game of fast reflexes or cunning skills. It’s a tale being told in a fascinating medium, sometimes unstuck in reality and time. You’ll bounce between moments of here and then, of fantasy and hallucination and what may actually be happening. The choices you made, particularly towards the end of the game, will lead you to interpret the conclusion of this tale in a myriad of ways. One of the most satisfying endings you can obtain gives me the true sense of dread and horror that is a dark, desiccating thread running throughout the story. The idea that love and affection can border into places of corruption and obsession, of the mental wellbeing of a child sometimes being the lynchpin for a cataclysmic series of events. It’s not a long story, but it’s shockingly well done.

I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention the soundtrack. These sorts of games tend to lean on either chiptune or purposely sparse arrangements in order to inspire fear and unease, but that’s pleasantly missing in My Big Sister: Remastered. This newly redone soundtrack is quite dynamic, using a fantastic blend of discordant synthesizers, piano accents and plenty of Asian inspired cues to make a soundtrack that was honestly one of the more engaging ones in recent memory. I particularly liked “It’s A Long Way Home”, and would encourage people to give the soundtrack a listen if that helps influence your decision on picking up the game.

My Big Sister: Remastered certainly wasn’t what I was expecting, but I was delighted by what I found. The pacing can be slow at times, and the technical issues make interaction on the small screen a chore, but the game flows well when it wants to. I thought the dialogue was well done, the story is smashing and there is such a craft in the visual and aural design that it cannot be overlooked. If you’re eyeballing something upsetting to play for this spooky season, I highly recommend this torrid tale of sadness, anguish and sinister realities masquerading as childish fantasies.

Graphics: 7.5 Really great rendering of the pixel characters with some good improvements in color palette and design. Looks fantastic on the big and small screen, showing off all the details in the world building. Can sometimes get murky with so much on the screen to see clear access points.	Gameplay: 6.0 All walking, clicking and item manipulation. So many moments of confusion because I was at the wrong angle or didn’t understand how to use a thing. Run cannot be toggled into a perpetual state. Once you understand how to solve a puzzle, it never really changes anything for replays or future interactions.
Sound: 9.0 An absolute banger of a soundtrack, full of fusion effects from East and West inspiration, properly mixing the vibe of the yokai fairy tale with the sinister tones of a proper horror film. More dynamic than atmospheric, the soundtrack stands on its own in a positive way.	Fun Factor: 8.0 Not my usual jam, My Big Sister: Remastered kept me engaged and interested in spite of absent horror game tropes and some long winded dialogue. Great setup, clever conversations and some massively upsetting moments made this a great get for the Halloween time of year.
Final Verdict: 7.5

My Big Sister: Remastered is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, PC and Switch.

Reviewed on Nintendo Switch.

A copy of My Big Sister: Remastered was provided by the publisher.