Squeenix is asking what fans want to see in a Chrono Trigger remake

[A Black Falcon]

The issue of remakes is interesting.  One the one hand, they make sense for two reasons: something being a known property helps with sales as opposed to a new game or particularly a new IP, and second, because we live in a time of improving technology, a remake of a game is going to be materially different from the original. 

Even a remake that is mostly the same as the original except with enhanced graphics and maybe a bit of new content, such as Nintendo's recent remakes of Metroid Prime, Super Mario RPG, and most recently Mario vs. Donkey Kong, are different from the original enough visually to be worth considering, at least, even for someone who has the originals.  I will say that of those three I only own the Metroid Prime remake, but I might get the other two eventually even if MvDK isn't anywhere near as great of a game as DK'94.  As for the Star Ocean The Second Story remake, I did get that and yes it's very very good, building off of the original but improving on it in nice ways.

But the FF7 remakes are something different, complete re-imaginings of the originals.  I haven't played them so I don't know what I'd think, and I understand why some would prefer something entirely new, but making such a gameplay-different remake of a classic is an interesting idea.  Obviously it's being done at least in part because they think this will sell better than a new game would and by having the basic scenario already written they save some development time (theoretically), but it's a fine idea.  There is a fair question about how many new people it brings in, though -- how many people who aren't old enough to have played the original FF7 are going to play these remakes?

Even so, I think it's nice that Square is making this remake series even if I'm not interested enough to actually play them.  A remake of Chrono Trigger or FF6 would be interesting.  The hard part though would be making something that a new audience would be as interested in as people now in their 40s, and you'd need to do that to make something generally popular...

, I feel like my generation has been having its nostalgia commercialized to an insane degree, and very quickly. Like, I didn't even really have time to forget and miss these things.

This is very true, there's no question about it.  The commercialization of nostalgia has become a huge thing, and a lot of media basically has become "hey, here's a reference!  Don't you remember that, doesn't that make this cool!" But like, you aren't doing anything actually new by just referencing something that was popular several decades ago... yeah, I'm not a fan of Ready Player One, heh.  I do like remakes and franchises I liked in the past, but I would prefer something actually stand on its own and not just be propped up by pop-culture references or what have you.