Oh no, you could definitely miss the point even more. Shining example:
this bit right here from an interview with the studio director, when asked about why they changed voice actors.
"We wanted to make Frank a little bit more mature."
*developers promptly turn him into a meme-spouting, profanity-shouting manchild of a 50+ year old*
I'm flabbergasted how these developers just lack any kind of self-awareness the more I listen to them.
This type of run is a blast and it speaks volumes to the original Dead Rising's overall structure. It's entirely doable to clear the game while reaching the true ending, rescuing all survivors
and killing all the bosses from a fresh Level 1 save file, without relying on so-called 'cheat' strategies like amping up the mini-chainsaws with three magazines or using beverages like Quick Step to boot. Even when shit hits the fan, you can improvise on the spot and make it out alive (albeit by the skin of your teeth) with enough knowledge about your surroundings and all the layered nuances, plus there's a multitude of 'viable' strategies / builds for all kinds of situations. The original Dead Rising has an incredible amount of depth in its design philosophy when push comes to shove; a crying shame the sequels never attained that level of ingenuity again when the concept still has so much potential as a micromanagement-based survival game.
For what it's worth, they actually improved the vehicular controls a tad with a QoL tweak in the remastered version. Braking and accelerating are no longer the A / X button, instead you use the triggers.