cases of the latter that i can think of off the top of my heads are:
- changing Ōkami's visual style from as-photorealistic-as-the-PS2-can-manage to the beautiful game it is now
- changing the protagonist of Wild Arms 3 from Jet (Generic Anime Protagonist Guy™) to Virginia (Actually Interesting Character With Good Motivations And Story Arc™)
-F
@Felthry
Jet and Virginia are two of my favorite RPG characters for exactly that reason. Virginia makes such a better main character as the party's emotional center, while Jet ends up more of a satire of edgelord heroes who constantly complain that nobody understands their Tragic Backstory™ and how Totally Alone™ they are. Of course, he has legitimately earned both of those, but since we don't know until fairly late just how, the plot is more free to poke some fun at the Angsty Loner Hero archetype.