Riven: When Remake Becomes Reinvention

Once again, Cyan hits me with another reason to think about the Myst series. Hey, I'm not complaining. The Riven Remake was more like a total reinvention, a chance to experience this story and world almost for the first time again. How often do we get that chance? How does it work out? How does it serve it's initial purpose? There's a lot to think on here,
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Robyn Miller Tweet retrieved July 7 2024
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Music:
Selections from the Riven Remake OST by Robyn Miller
"Going Through the Motions" by Stumble Tree
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[@LB_]

I think Riven is probably the best setting for one of these games. The world is like a confusing puzzle because there are warring factions relying on obscurity as their form of security. There's actual reasons for things to be obtuse and weird, and the ways in which they are fit the setting and characters.

[@2partepoxy]

Okay... This convinced me to try playing the remake. The original feels so important to me; it was the first game to blow my mind and make me fall in love with the world, then grapple with the heartbreak of saying goodbye to it as it dies. (All of my subsequent favorite games share this melancholy thread.) Maybe that's why I had qualms when I saw the trailer for the remake? Because I have already mourned Riven, and don't want to see it resurrected in mutated, Frankensteinian form? But I prefer your conclusion: there are two Rivens now. Great!

[@gmg9010]

I’ve never heard of either of these games but I found this video interesting nonetheless.

[@TheExileFox]

Myst VR had VR-specifc levers that kinda clashed with Channelwood. The Riven remake has integrated these very well. It's a much better remake than the last Myst remake.

[@DuelScreen]

We like what we first experienced. Every other version of that thing feels alien because we are comparing it to our first experience. My first Superman was Christopher Reeve. My first Batman was Michael Keaton. Your first Resident Evil 2 was the remake so every other versions feels inferior. This is part of adulthood and the flipside of nostalgia.

[@ronaldood4678]

That may be a part of it, but that doesn’t invalidate a degree of objectivity in taking a step backing and looking at the differences of structure and design. Both versions of Riven are great, but it feels like there’s a shift from serving an experience that is inherently intrinsic versus one that is extrinsic. Solving the original Riven requires a degree of intrinsic motivation to seek out the culture of the world, while the new Riven rewards you with extrinsic incentive to pursue answers in the world. I suppose either could be seen as better or worse depending on view, but that doesn’t change the fact that the former is far closer to what it would actually feel like finding yourself in a totally foreign environment.

[@georgedyckiii3465]

I really appreciate the substance and spirit of this video! It reminds me of the issue of translation, which points at some difference between the effable and ineffable. I feel like a good translation is all about admitting the failures of it and then trying to make the failure functional. Failures in translation can sometimes lead to new (still very much TRUE) understanding. Great work as always, thanks.

[@VZed]

that is really a cool and interesting comparison. I wish I was in a position to examine that further, but even just with my cursory study into Communication Theory and stuff that is a relationship that makes sense. Language is such a strange and flimsy thing as soon as you have to apply it to every culture out there. It is kind of like interpreting art in a way.