One debate you often see come up on social media, often when the prospect of remaking old 3D games. Is the debate about the camera styles of the game, usually having people citing the non-controllable nature of these cameras as as a point in favour of these games being remade, with the old camera system being framed as out of date in favour of the fully controllable right stick camera systems that have pretty much become the industry standard since at least the 7th generation. On the other hand, you'll have people against remakes defending older non controllable camera systems, usually on aesthetic grounds, arguing they can give a game a better atmosphere than a game with a player controlled camera as the developer can compose more visually interesting shots. It's no surprise these arguments were first used in the context of survival horror games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill, where building atmosphere is often prioritised over the game playing in the smoothest way. However you often also see this argument used in the context of action games like Devil May Cry or God of War, and while I do see the the validity, action games are rooted in their gameplay so I think a mechanically focused argument is a stronger one.
In mechanically focused games the argument in favour of a free camera does become stronger, Ideally in an action game the camera should give as good as an overview of the arena you're fighting in as possible, being hit by something offscreen and harder to react to as a result can be pretty frustrating, enough that a lot of action games will often reduce the aggresion of offscreen enemies or straight up prevent them from attacking entirely to minimise this possibility. And it is true that a number of older action games have camera angles that are less than ideal at some points, so the argument for a free camera as most modern action games have does have merit. However, I do think there are downsides to a free camera that are worth considering. The main one to me is simply not having to think about the camera, outside of games such as shooters where manipulating the camera effectively is the primary mechanic controlling the camera really doesn't constitute interesting gameplay, more a perfunctory task that has to be performed in order to play the game. So cutting it out of the equation so the gameplay itself can be focused on more could be a good idea. Another factor to consider is what else the right analogue stick could be used for if camera control is automated. This isn't as relevant to the topic of remakes but I do think it's worth considering. If we push the idea that modern right stick camera controls are mandatory for games. Then it cuts off that part of the controller being used in other ways that could be useful in the gameplay. Games like The Wonderful 101 that use the right analogue stick for interesting mechanics should be encouraged instead of discouraged. shutting out creativity in favour of standardisation of control and mechanics can never be a good thing in my view.