8 Best "Director's Cut" Editions Of Games

Summary

Kojima’s “Death Stranding: Director’s Cut” offers new visuals, PS5 controller feedback, combat skills, boss battles, and more extras.
“Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition” experienced a major shift from lackluster options to a content-packed game with varied characters and features.
The “Ghost of Tsushima: Director’s Cut” expanded the original with more graphical options, an extra story campaign on Iki Island, and accurate lip-syncing.

For video games, the term “director’s cut” can be a synonym for a flashy re-release or remaster. But a few got so many tweaks, additions, and bonuses that they made their original releases look plain by comparison. Rather like how most people have likely seen Blade Runner’s director’s cut over its theatrical edition.

Yakuza 0 Director’s Cut New Features Explained

The recently announced Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut has drawn a lot of attention, bringing a range of intriguing new features to the classic title.

Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut is certainly banking on making a splash, celebrating its 10th anniversary by expanding its story and adding a fancy PVP online mode. But only time will tell if the title will manage to join these games, whose director’s cuts and extra editions added so much that they became their definitive installments.

1

Security Booth: Director’s Cut

Humble Security Guard Ends Up Dealing With More Than Their Pay Grade

Developer: Kyle Horwood
Platforms: PC
Release: August 2022

Starting with a simple one, Security Booth: Director’s Cut is a PS1 horror game throwback where players have to match the license plates of cars to their registry. If they make a wrong move, they could end up regretting it, as the Nova Nexus laboratory isn’t any old science facility. Something strange is going on inside, and it’s all going to come to a head during the player’s shift.

The original game was a free indie entry available on Itchio, which was still fun, but only offered so much. For a few bucks on Steam, the Director’s Cut offers more challenges via its randomized cars, alongside perks like a widescreen mode, controller compatibility, and extra lore that’ll help players get into the story. Or at least understand its endings better, as it now offers 7 different finales for them to achieve, each based on the choices they make.

2

Disco Elysium: The Final Cut

Re-Release Offers More Intrigue Into Elysium’s Mysteries

Disco Elysium caused a stir on release, as it was an RPG that replaced standard combat with the power of dialogue trees and skill checks. If players made the right choices and had luck on their side, they could blow open the conspiracy linking a murder in Elysium to a wider resistance plot, and figure out the past of the protagonist, Harry. If not, things would get a little trickier for them.

It also meant no one playthrough was the same as the other. Players could end up going down different paths. Particularly in Disco Elysium: The Final Cut, which added more visions to chase, letting players learn more about its surreal, dreamy world and its citizens, complete with full voice acting for all characters. They’re not the biggest additions on paper, but they do make it much more immersive and expansive.

3

Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition

Maligned Fighting Game Lives Long Enough To Win Back Some Respect

The Street Fighter series is no stranger to re-releasing its old games with tweaks. Though the constant revisions of Street Fighter 2 are a mix of light tweaks and remakes. Street Fighter 3: Third Strike? It’s actually a sequel to Second Impact. As was Super Street Fighter 4, which people likely missed playing after Ultra Street Fighter 4 gave them the Sisyphean task of overcoming Elena and her Healing Ultra.

Street Fighter 5: 10 References To Older Games

Capcom’s Street Fighter 5 has plenty of cool nods and references that only die-hard fans are likely to notice.

The biggest turnaround in the series might go to Street Fighter 5 via its Champion Edition. It went from having a tiny roster, lackluster options, and no Arcade mode, to being jam-packed with content and characters. Characters had multiple costumes, V-Skills, and V-Triggers to choose from, with the latter becoming more varied than the sparkly fists of the original release. Granted, it might be hard to go back to the game with SF6 being the new hotness in town, but SF5: CE is a more worthy contender nowadays than back in 2016.

4

Death Stranding: Director’s Cut

Kojima’s Courier Crisis Trades In Its Monster Energy For More Goodies

Being (in)famous for his love of cinema, even outside Metal Gear’s cutscenes, it’s no surprise that Hideo Kojima also got into the concept of director’s cuts, so to speak. The Metal Gear Solid games each got tweaks across their different regional versions. Snatcher got a proper third act and finale added to it for its Sega CD, PS1, and Saturn releases.

Death Stranding: Director’s Cut didn’t get such drastic changes, though PC players will likely appreciate its new 4K visual options. PS5 players would get new haptic feedback for their DualSense controllers. Both would have new combat skills and new weapons to help Sam take down Mules, alongside replayable boss battles, a racetrack with extra vehicles, and other extras that give players more bang for their buck. But it came at a cost, as Sam no longer drinks Monster Energy in his downtime like in the vanilla release.

5

Ghost Of Tsushima: Director’s Cut

More Land For The Ghost To Haunt

Jin Sakai’s original quest to repel the Mongol hordes threatening the island made the game a hit, with its mix of stealth action, head-on melee combat, and expansive, open-world gameplay.

Much like Death Stranding, Ghost of Tsushima: Director’s Cut offered more graphics options, but with unlocked frame rates and ultra-widescreen support. That, and it comes with the extra story campaign on Iki Island, offering more insight into Sakai’s past. It even offered accurate lip-syncing to the Japanese dialogue, making it a less distracting experience for Japanese players or a more authentic one for samurai movie enthusiasts.

6

The Witcher: Enhanced Edition

Geralt’s Re-Debut Offers A Smoother Adventure

The Witcher: Enhanced Edition

Released: September 16, 2008

Every great series has its humble origins, and compared to its sequels, The Witcher is quite humble. Geralt of Rivia’s first video game wasn’t bad. It just wasn’t The Witcher 2 or 3, where the titular monster hunter came into his own. But thanks to The Witcher: Enhanced Edition, players who got into the series via the sequels would have an easier time going back to the past.

The Witcher: 6 Characters From The Books Who Are Only Mentioned In The Games

The Witcher’s universe is extremely vast. However, even then some characters from the books are only mentioned in the games. Here are some of them.

It revamped the gameplay with a whole host of quality-of-life improvements. Most of the dialogue was redone to fix errors, and it added more NPCs for variety, complete with new, more realistic animations. Loading times were reduced, combat controls were more responsive, and the inventory system was streamlined, with alchemy ingredients getting their own sack. As such, it’s one of the few re-releases to live up to its subtitle.

7

Final Fantasy 10 International

Japanese And European Players Get The Best Version Of A Classic PS2 Game

With the big headstart the PS2 had over its rivals, it’s no surprise that many people’s first Final Fantasy game was Final Fantasy 10. Tidus’s dream quest through Spira and beyond left its mark on many young fans. North American fans even got an improved version of the game that had fewer glitches than the Japanese release, and some little improvements here and there.

Then Japan got Final Fantasy 10 International, which became the basis for the PAL port. It has 8 new abilities, 4 new weapon abilities, an extra Expert Mode Sphere Grid, and 8 new super bosses in the Dark Aeons. In turn, all the bosses were rebalanced, often making them stronger but fairer. US players might’ve gotten the last laugh, though, as these features were included in the HD remaster, and at a full 60FPS frame rate too. It only took about a decade or so to reach their shores, too.

Just One Tweak Turned A Good Game Into A Classic

Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence

Released: December 22, 2005

FF10 wasn’t the only game that saw North America get shortchanged. Hideo Kojima and his team seem to have gotten itchy fingers while preparing the PAL conversions of Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3, as they ended up giving both games extra content. But they would get access to them via their re-releases, with Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence being the best of the two.

It had the extra content of the vanilla PAL game, like the 2 bonus Monkey Missions, Duel Mode, etc. The game even offered an online mode, which still lives on today via fan servers. Yet its best feature was its new camera, which replaced the limited top-down view with a rotatable camera a la Splinter Cell, Hitman, etc., that made sneaking through its more open areas less of a struggle. After that, it was hard to go back, as the camera would be brought back for every subsequent MGS game.

A Collage Of Key Art & Key Frames From Ratchet & Clank, Shadow Of The Colossus, Gravity Rush, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, & Demon's Souls

The 8 Best PlayStation Remakes & Remasters, Ranked

PlayStation has crafted some incredible remakes and remasters across a multitude of consoles to show off unforgettable experiences.