How have Square Enix HD-2D games evolved?

In the biggest and most expensive video games, all video games look the same. The reason is often simple economics: more resources mean more costs to be recovered, and historically the way publishers have done this has been through playful risk aversion. Hence the abundance of semi-realistic rock lands that look like death metal album covers where everyone is some sort of Wild West mania, or heroic shooters who all look like Pixar but are ripped as hell and ready for fan artists to go places I won’t go.

However, sometimes, new visual ground is broken. Octopath Traveler 0 Case in point. The third match in Octopath The series is a lot of things — a decent prequel for newcomers, a remastered adaptation of the mobile game, and a pretty great JRPG — but it’s also the end of the 2025 victory lap for an art style that publisher Square Enix has dubbed “HD-2D.” It’s a bold experiment that’s now a staple of the release calendar — and it’s also quite unusual in how far it reaches. Square Enix’s HD-2D is a statement about which old games are classics worth revisiting, and which new games should be received that way.

“HD-2D started with the idea: ‘What if we revive games from the Super Famicom, the golden age of pixel art, using modern technology?’” Masaaki Hayasaka, Producer of the Year Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D RemakeHe said Edge Via email. It was first used in 2018 Traveler Octopaththe art style is intended to evoke the pixelated texture and feel of iconic 16-bit role-playing games such as Final Fantasy VIBut with the depth and detail that modern 3D graphics provide. The developers at Square and Octopath Co-Developer Acquisition Do this smartly Using Unreal Engine, which allowed them to render, and most importantly, a light — Octopath Like any modern game, 2D characters that look ripped from a CRT screen are placed in a world designed to look great on a modern screen. The hope was that, as a new role-playing franchise debuting on the then-new Nintendo Switch, Traveler Octopath It will immediately be seen as thoroughly modern in its design, but also classic in a way that will appeal to players prone to nostalgia.

You succeeded. After successful sales Traveler OctopathSquare Enix Branded as “HD-2D”. (But not the style), which is a sign of commitment to her new aesthetic model. Then a funny thing happened: Square’s next two HD-2D games weren’t either Octopath Consequences, but RPG tactics Triangle strategy And a remake from 1994 Live a lifeone of the most popular Super Famicom RPG games that never got an official English release. Both games are released in 2022, with HD-2D stopping short of becoming a novelty feature and more of a design ethos for the publisher. HD-2D seeks to either be the definitive version of the original titles such as Octopathdistilling an era’s worth of success into a crisp new package, or being a beloved re-creation of a game that deserves a new day in the sun.

Style holds: Octopath Its sequels continue to be the only original HD-2D titles in the JRPG style of the SNES era, with Triangle strategy Holding down the endgame for tactics and next year Eliot’s Adventures: Tales of the Millennium It seeks to do the same for Zelda-style RPGs. In terms of the new version, Square Enix has released it Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake At a big party, after last year Dragon Quest III. (The reverse release order reflects the order Square prefers for players to play in.)

In both contexts, HD-2D has been a hit with critics — or at least, critics who tend to play the games they all lovingly praise. “It’s a great style that goes beyond a pure vintage look to create something timeless,” he writes. ribbedOllie Welsh In praise Live a lifeUsing the style, “an extension of the classic ’90s video game aesthetic into the present, deepening and enriching it while remaining true to its original character.” a lot Reviews to Traveler Octopath Or that its sequel calls the games “beautiful” or “wonderful.” Square Enix’s stated goal of pioneering a visual language that does the difficult job of being nostalgic and modern at the same time seems to be a resounding success.

“Some players might look at games with pixel art as something outdated,” he said. Octopath Traveler 0 Producer Hirohito Suzuki, who also spoke to Edge Via email. “But there is an opportunity to create space for imagination, which is unique to the pixel art style – and there are no limits to one’s imagination.”

Of course, there’s a fun little trick here, which is a trick Octopath The developers noted when describing the 2019 development process Unreal Engine promotional video. The look of the HD-2D owes just as much to the titles of the PlayStation era Xenoggers and great As is the case with the Super Nintendo games, the style makes for a much broader (and perhaps less novel) combination than it’s often given credit for. However, there’s no reason to sell it short – Square continues to show surprising variety with its HD-2D titles. According to Hayasaka, understanding how much leeway the HD-2D approach provides is critical to its successful implementation.

“The definition of HD-2D is actually quite simple, and if you create characters and monsters as pixel art and place them over a 3D background, that alone works technically,” Hayasaka said. “Of course, that alone won’t capture the HD-2D-like quality, so from there, you can sort through everything from the color palette, effects and camera to create that ‘atmosphere that feels right’. This is very important and is the core of HD-2D games. So, I think the secret to the success of any HD-2D project is having an art director who can understand that feel and feeling.

Original HD-2D efforts such as Octopath and Triangle strategy Ironically, it is the least visually expansive, matching similar muted color palettes and paper diorama-like theatrical performances. Colors make or break these games, as too much reliance on one set of shades will threaten to flatten the levels and jeopardize the illusion of depth. These shortcomings are made up for by a stunning visual crescendo where light illuminates a scene in a way that seems frankly impossible. Remakes are getting hotter. the Dragon Quest The games are quite extreme in a way that barely bothers to evoke pixelated landscapes, leaning more towards the “HD” side of “HD-2D” and the strength of Akira Toriyama’s signature character and monster designs. They create a sumptuous backdrop to the simplicity of a skilled cartoonist’s work, and the result is just as poignant, if not more so.

“Even under the HD-2D umbrella, none of the five titles released so far look exactly the same,” Hayasaka said. “There are countless ways to expand the changes made between them, from the color palette to the amount of grainy texture to the pixels you highlight. That’s why I think it’s a way of expression that still has a lot of room to grow.”

“Timeless” is another word often used in connection with HD-2D, in a way that suggests its success and carefully considered deployment. The aesthetic is one born from insecurity – the developers at Acquire I initially wanted to make a classic 2D game made of pixel artbut they were concerned that it would not be seen as modern enough. This conflict is one of the fundamental tensions in video games, the push and pull between artistic expression and technological advancement. Art is a moment captured in time, from the time in which it is made even if it is about to pass.

However, games are also tied to their technological moment, and technology can be embarrassing. Pixel art has been smeared to hell by 4K displays, dialogue has become sloppy or childish due to memory limitations, and music made for limited sound chips strangely fills 5.1 surround speakers. More than most other art forms, game makers must decide: should limitations be maintained or forgotten? Are the compromises made for technology permanent artistic choices, or temporary acts of pragmatism?

The beautiful illusion of HD-2D is to think that there might be a way to craft a perfect version of a game that can survive the ravages of time. A way to deliver a game that respects the past but isn’t embarrassing for the future. It’s an appeal to gaming history but also to our modern sensibilities, which value comfort and abundant “quality of life” features. But there is no escape from these questions. We will age and change, and so will technology and our relationship with it. It’s nice to try to get through it, and it’s nice to fail, as most of us will. All video games look the same, but they don’t.