Cognition Dissemination: What Plans Could Square Enix Have for Octopath Traveler’s Presentation Style?

Nintendo Switch-exclusive RPG Octopath Traveler released to critical and commercial acclaim when it arrived in the middle of last year. Its charming characters, the fantastic sweeping soundtrack, and enjoyable battle system overshadowed flaws like the overall repetitiveness for most players. Much of the praise was also heaped upon its beautiful art style and presentation, which involved characters made with sprites on 3D backgrounds. It’s a style that hasn’t been utilized in a Japanese RPG in a good while, but previous efforts were never represented this beautifully.

As a side note: It’s also funny how its style was the opposite of one used for Bravely Default and its sequel, which used 3D models on 2D backdrops. It’s from the same producer, Tomoya Asano, so this was intentional.

A recent sign suggests that Square Enix plans to keep this presentation style around for other projects. Trademarks for “HD-2D” and “HD2D” were discovered to have been registered by the company in Europe, which represents a style producer Masashi Takahashi described in an interview with Game Informer shortly before the game’s release. A trademark for a specific term wouldn’t be necessary if they were planning on making only Octopath Traveler sequels, which means the style could be used with numerous games in the future.

But what games? The speculation machine has been rolling since the trademarks were found. This post would never end if I went in depth on every possibility, so I’ll focus on two that have a chance of happening. One is an idea I’ve seen mentioned several times, while another one is a more obscure possibility that I thought of — though others might have too.

There’s no shortage of fans who want to see Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI remade in this style. It’s still bizarre that Square Enix is skipping remaking both games in order to jump to Final Fantasy VII Remake, which is predictably stuck in development hell. I posted about how Square Enix could work on remakes for both games shortly after the FFVII remake was announced nearly four (!!) years ago, though of course, I didn’t imagine an art style like this one could be used then. It would work well with both games, and they could even use similar-looking sprites for FFVI.

By the way, they still have time to remake them before FFVII Remake releases. The project hasn’t been shown in motion since the end of 2015, and it’s still episodic as far as we know.

The likelihood of this happening? It depends on what Square Enix qualifies as a “remake.” There’s a fair chance some within the company count the mobile versions (eventually ported to PC) as remakes. Several of their new sprites were created by the original artist, Kazuko Shibuya, a surprise considering how, let’s say, unfortunate the results are. The underlying work is fine, but the filter applied makes them look hideous. It’s worth noting that Tetsuya Nomura acknowledged that both games hadn’t been remade yet after these versions released, so someone influential within the company doesn’t consider them in this way.

Still, if these remakes happen, there’s a bigger chance that they’ll continue the style established in the Final Fantasy III and Final Fantasy IV remakes in using 3D models. They’d undoubtedly look prettier than those games thanks to being designed for systems with far superior technology compared to the DS. This would especially work with FFVI, which was the most cinematic of the earlier Final Fantasy installments. But the HD-2D style would be a good alternative given how it could be cheaper, though these remakes would sell fine regardless.

There’s one suggestion I haven’t seen much that I’d like to throw out there: Give this graphics style to Tokyo RPG Factory. Square Enix established this subsidiary to work on classic-style RPGs, as they’ve shown through I Am Setsuna and Lost Sphear. This especially applies to the former, which came off as an homage to Chrono Trigger in terms of its gameplay mechanics. But it would be nice if they mimicked sprite-based games further by using a similar style, or one that blends sprites and 3D backgrounds. The style, however, would only be the start of what their games need.

Given opinions regarding the quality of Setsuna and especially Lost Sphear, they would also need to know that while several JRPG fans miss the kinds of RPGs made in the mid-90s, they don’t miss the generic and predictable stories in some of them. Lost Sphear was heavily criticized for feeling like it was made in a factory (get it?), thanks to being too concerned with mimicking older games. There wouldn’t be a point to using a new graphics system if their games kept these same issues. There’s also the question of whether Tokyo RPG Factory has capable sprite artists, considering the company is mostly staffed by younger talent who aren’t taught about drawing sprites at as high of a rate thanks to this being a CG-dominated entertainment world.

The longer I go on here, the more I start doubting this could happen; but it still has a better chance of occurring than the FF games being remade in this style. There’s been little word from Tokyo RPG Factory since Lost Sphear released in late 2017, and hopefully that’s due to them taking their time in planning and developing their next project — hopefully with the HD-2D style.

There’s also a possibility that all of this could be a red herring, implying that Square Enix might only have ideas for games that use the style outside a possible Octopath Traveler sequel, but no solid plans. The style looks so beautiful that it would be a massive missed opportunity if its usage was limited. Sure, “Square Enix” and “missed opportunities” are familiar bedfellows, but there would be no need for the trademarking if they didn’t plan on using it for anything else, so I’m keeping the faith for now.