I don’t like this at all, and I’m going to tell you why.
Because this, like many changes in the remaster, does not respect Dead Rising as a work of art.
Let me explain something for people who either didn’t play the original or don’t analyze games as deeply as I do.
A big part of Dead Rising is Frank’s morality or lack thereof. Frank West is not a hero, he’s not a villain either.
I can’t even say that Frank is “Just trying to stay alive” - He has a place to hide out, plenty of food and a solid escape plan. If he wants to he can just stay in the bunker until the helicopter comes (You can actually beat the game and not even get the worst ending by simply staying in the security room for around six irl hours)
So, what is Frank doing? Well he is the protagonist and winds up doing a lot of good for a lot of people, but it’s all transactional.
Frank West is a photo journalist who gets paid the big bucks for sensationalized media. He’s not here to beat the bad guys, he’s here to make money off of click bait.
Frank West only saves people because he can get witness testimony and dramatic pictures of people hunkered down in a bunker. It just helps sell his story, that’s all.
Frank West only works with Brad and Jessie to stop Carlito because by doing so he can learn more about what’s going on in Williamette with all the zombies. Heck when you miss or fail a story beat, you don’t get a message talking about how the bad guys won or a game over screen, you get a message saying “The truth has vanished into darkness”, because that’s all Frank cares about. Getting a story he can sell for a large amount of cash.
We see this expanded upon with the side-quest “Cut From The Same Cloth”,
Here Frank meets Kent, a fellow photo-journalist who feels he’s beyond Frank’s level. This quest takes place over three days
On the first day, Frank is asked to take pictures of Kent to showcase his photography skills and prove it by getting a sexy shot of a pretty lady. This is our hint that Kent isn’t quite on the up and up, but Frank does it anyway because he’s no better than Kent. This is what the mission’s name is referring to… That Kent and Frank are both of low moral fiber.
However, in the remake, this is changed to Kent asking for a “Funny Shot” instead of a “sexy one” due to the lack of an erotica category… Which kinda kills the whole point.
The quest climaxes on day 3 when Kent is caught trying to kill a man in order to get a shot of it, forcing Frank to take down Kent who has clearly lost his god damn mind. However we are left with cold bitter reminder that if circumstances were only slightly different, Frank could have been the one doing snuff shots.
The game’s infinity mode confirms this further, as it takes place in an alternate set of events where Frank isn’t working with anybody and the helicopter isn’t coming. In it you are actively meant to kill characters who in the main game would be survivors or allies, all for the purpose of securing food and resources.
The game’s ending theme is a song called “Justified”
tl;dr - The Erotica Pictures don’t exist to tantalize the player, they’re there to remind of what kind of man Frank West really is. A scumbag in the right place at the right time.
By removing this category, they’re not “Bringing Dead Rising to a wider audience”, they’re outright spitting on the narrative.
PS: The term “Erotica” is misleading, as the most explicit this gets is a scene of a large breasted woman in a low-cut shirt leaning over an injured man. You see more “erotic” scenarios on prime time cable television. The point was NEVER to provide eye candy for the player, it was simply to remind the player that Frank is an opportunist not a hero.
I am not fond of this Dead Rising Remaster, it does not preserve or improve upon the original game, it’s simply trying to make a quick buck off of a famous name in gaming. There are other forms of censorship beyond the ertoica tag, such as Larry The Butcher being made white instead of Chinese (I agree the original Larry was a racist stereotype, but they couldn’t have just toned him down while keeping him asian? Why does he have to be white? Almost every other boss fight is with a white guy! This is the exact opposite of creating diversity!) and the boss fight with Clint no longer having references to the Vietnam War…
Because of this, the ugly character designs (New Frank looks straight up uncanny valley) and the shameful decision to throw out an all-star voice cast in favor of a sub-par one all to save a few bucks (The new voice cast is non-union, the old one was not)
I can’t in good conscience support the remake, and recommend people just get the 10 Dollar original version, already on Steam.