Square Enix Is Looking Into More HD-2D Remakes Of SNES Classics

Just release the originals instead, without any bogus visual «upgrades».

the more we get the more the style becomes uninteresting... square enix should rather treat their past with respect

I'm not a big SE fan...but Chrono Trigger, also, I wonder if Super Mario RPG is possible. lol

@Sinton you are 100% right sir

So Square have ran out of storylines so are just re-making their back catalogue, which is just lazy.
MAKE SOME NEW GAMES!!
Pretty sure I read somewhere, someone wanted to make Super Mario RPG 2, YES PLEASE

HD2D >> NFTs. I'm just grateful the president still has a few sane brain cells left, even if they're hugely outnumbered.

Actraiser would’ve been much better in HD-2D, rather than the rough as hell, looks-like-a-blown-up-mobile-game style we got.

@RupeeClock no its not fitting just because it fits for some games it doesn't mean every game would look good with it. people also always say they want a mother remake in links awakening style which is also not fully fitting...

ActRaiser's remake was a dud that had me longing for the original, primarily because the city growing portions had loads of extra padding and obliterated the city growth to action stages ratio. An unbalanced game with a neutral visual style. Could have been great

I'm in for an in-house Chrono Trigger update

One important downside of HD-2D style is that all HD-2D games look too similar to each other

I would Love to have those in the NSO app. But I take it. I would love to see a HD-2D remake of Mario RPG

They’re really cool, but I’m worried that Squenix is releasing them too fast and reaching saturation. Then again, after DQ 3, I want DQ4-6 in the same style.

Unfortunately, the developers added gameplay elements to Actraiser Rennaissance that arguably make it a worse experience than the original game. I'd like to see a version of the game in HD-2D that's faithful to the original.

Probably won't be Super Mario RPG because Nintendo will want that game locked behind the NSO subscription.

There’s no doubt Chrono Trigger is already in their pipeline. Just remains to be announced

@Sinton I disagree. Finding it hard to get into these ancient games if I wasn’t a huge fan already (enjoyed Majora’s Mask unretouched on Virtual Console, but yeah that’s one of my favorite games anyway). The HD-2D style made Octopath way more palatable for me, Live A Live looks intriguing too.

I mean, the originals are always there in some form - diehard fans play those all the time. But remakes bring them to new audience.

It's a shame they are not releasing Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster made with this glorious thing called HD-2D.
Chrono Trigger would be the perfect game to make use of it, since its 2D sprites are so emblematic.
At this point, ANYTHING related to a Chrono Trigger remake/remaster would print money, very low risk on doing that.

@NintendoWife
But we want to play the old Games on our new systems. HD 2D is nice but it is now already overused and steals those games their visual identity.

How about just giving us Chrono Trigger without a ***** filter over it before remaking stuff.

@Varnen Yeah it’s impossible not to read this news and think “Chrono Trigger”. They’d be nuts to skip that one. The DS version came out 13 years ago (and has become a bit rare).

It's great to see an Enix title come second! I think Terranigma would really suit and give a lot of people an opportunity to play it. I'm still hoping to see Robotrek revisited as that was one of my fave rpgs on SNES. And...I would be rather interested to see how Secret of Evermore would look in HD2D. Certainly would be different having a more western style.

Ooooobviously I could say Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 6.

@jojobar respectfully disagree with you.

@Varnen Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster has the Opera scene remade in HD-2D with a real voice of Celes singing

@jojobar HD-2D overused? There’s ONE game for Switch so far With a second releasing in march, but that’s such a different play style that the audience hardly overlaps (I can’t play Triangle Strategy, tried the demo and sorry, no… not enjoying strategy games). So Live-A-Live will be only the second HD-2D game for me, 4 years after Octopath. Hardly what I call overused.

Nice, I love this style!

Terranigma, Chrono Trigger, FFVI, Bahamut Lagoon, DQV... There are so many possibilities!

And I don't know if it would br possible, but I'd love to see a remake of Xenogears with this style too (but more 3D)

Yeah because they are cheap to make yet they charge £50 for them.

If an indie developer made octopath traveler there would be a out cry over its price

Great news. HD-2D is such a cool art style and feels right at home for SE's classics.

Hey. At least they’re interested in making their catalog of past titles available for people to play.

@UltimateOtaku91 No man. Octopath was quality, it felt like an expansive, well-made project that had a high priority within the company.

@CactusMan Ohhh, Bahamut Lagoon is a great call. That would be ace to play (although, I have no idea if it's any good or not lol.)

@NintendoWife The problem being that even though «the originals are always there in some form», the only way for me to (legally) play, say Chrono Trigger, is to buy the used SNES game from eBay, with all the costs (for me, the cost of a US SNES as well as import costs) and extra work (cables to hook it up to newer TVs etc.) needed for that to work. I wouldn't mind remakes and remasters it the originals also were easily available, which never is the case with Square Enix.

Main things I want from this are Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG. Especially the latter

@Sinton Ok yes - I assumed that Chrono Trigger was on some Virtual Console or SNES Mini as well. But didn’t check. Personally I first played it on DS, 13 years ago.

That’s a matter of taste then - like I said, whenever I started an oldschool game recently I stopped playing after a while. Final Fantasy on SNES Mini, some Mana game, Earthbound… I’d like a more epic presentation and some modern adjustments. Needs to be well done of course, Trials of Mana 3D looks horrible. And that’s where the HD-2D style comes into play, it’s the first touch-up concept that works for me.

@Grumblevolcano feel like some of the charm in Mario RPG would be lost if it went from isometric + rendered to HD-2D's weird 3D environments
@jojobar while I agree that it's a real blow to the artstyles of the games it's put on (see Live a Live's sprites getting additional animation), I would hardly say 4 games is "oversaturated"; if anything it seems like it's starting to get into its groove now that it doesn't have the egregious bloom/lighting that makes everything look encased in amber/vaseline like in Octopath

I prefer HD 3D Chibi remake like FF III & FF IV NDS style.

@NintendoWife It was released on the Wii Virtual Console, which sadly is history now. That's it. (Not counting the enhanced DS re-release, which also is costly, or the terrible Steam port).

Square Enix have a terrible track record in the «let's make our classic better» in my opinion. Trials of Mana, Actraiser Renaissance, all the visual «upgrades» on the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest games etc.

@NintendoWife Yeah, you're right. I still don't get why they rarely touch this game. Alongside FFVII, it's gotta be one of the most popular RPGs of all time.
But time will tell.

Final Fantasy VI in the style of Octopath??? *drools

@InJeffable I feel the same. Most of the additions did nothing for me, especially the tedious tower defence portions. I’d have much preferred a 1:1 update or better still just giving us the original in the SNES app.

@somebread Mario RPG only works on its original grid. If they were to change to a 2D plane they’d be making a new game.

@NintendoWife Trials of Mana looks terrible? I enjoyed it. Not a masterpiece surely, but definitely good enough.

Final Fantasy 6 please… it’s the best FF and it deserves a remake. If we are not getting one in the style of FF7R, at least make it 2D-HD

@negw To rephrase it, “not for me” then Generally not a big SE fan, stuff can quickly get too generic and cheesy and random for me.

@NintendoWife yeah nothing about Octopath is cheap. Put a good 100+ hours into it.

@NintendoWife
Ah ok so there is
Octopath Traveler,
Live A Live,
Triangle Strategy
and Dragon Quest 3...
And we very likely get more...
4 Games in that style and very likely more to come.
I think that is an overuse of this style...
And a Tipp for you, stop pretending like its all about your sight of the things... Just because you are not interested in Strategy doesn't mean Triangle Stratey does not exist.

They are remaking Dragon Quest III, will they remake I and II? It makes sense since they are ancient NES games. IV too but was remade for DS.

@jojobar I didn’t do that, of course. I merely pointed out that so far there is exactly one game in that style for Switch which came out 4 years ago. So calling the graphics overused is at least premature. And neither did I say nobody can enjoy TS because I don’t. I just said Octopath and Triangle are so different that they’re not likely to be played by the same people.

I did miss the Dragon Quest III remake. Then again there has been no update for a long time and it hasn’t been announced for Switch.

So… if in the end I get to play Octopath in 2018, Live-A-Live in 2022 and DQIII in 2023/24… then no, I am not bored.

@Grumblevolcano Nah, Nintendo would love to charge $60 for it!

Dragon Quest 1-6 please. (Yes I know about 3)

@jojobar do you expect them to make a new style and just not use it? again, I still don't particularly care for how it looks, but I think a better way of framing it is that the style gets more normalized than uninteresting, which is most likely the goal. I doubt Square Enix is planning on selling HD-2D on novelty alone for the rest of its existence, so they have to legitimize it first

@Sinton you can just play the originals.
HD-2D FTW

Bahamut Lagoon PLEEEEASE

@jojobar counterpoint: no
this is the best way to honor the old SNES games.

Actraiser was their second choice ? Really ? The one game that just had had a remake ? How weird.
Obviously everyone is just waiting for Chrono Trigger and the Mana series. Now, the problem is, they've just re-released the 4 mana games in the form of ports and remakes in the last couple years.
This is such a waste to be honest. When they did the okay phone remake of Seiken Densetsu 1, the bad PS4 remake of 2 and the admitedly pretty good full on 3d remake of 3, what everyone really wanted and had in mind for these was just PRECISELY the HD-2D style.

It seems the HD-2D concept was just a little too late for the Mana series. I'm hopeful that Chrono Trigger will come though, especially since we're getting Cross in the style of the SE PSX remakes. I'd love to see it happen and I hope we will still get the Mana games despite the odds, and also of course the snes action rpg Enix trilogy. The fact that they're bringing a major game remake with DQIII also makes me hopeful that we will eventually get FFVI at some point. Now THAT would be insane and definitely the biggest project they could have with this remake series.

Chrono Trigger HD-2D and I'll eat my Switch. (not really )

Surprised at the criticism of this, I for one would love their SNES games to get the HD2D make over, why not? Octopath is a stunning game and it would suit all of those classic SNES games perfectly.

@GrailUK
Would LOVE to see terranigma get this treatment since iirc didn't the creator or producer say they would like to see the game come back.

@MJF I can just play the originals, but paying $200USD plus shipping plus import taxes (plus a North American Super Nintendo) for playing Chrono Trigger (as an example), shouldn't be necessary. If the only way to listen to The Beatles was by buying the original LPs from the 60's on eBay or listen to remakes done by some schmuck, there would be riots.

I understand the pixel remasters are ongoing so not touching any FF 1-6 makes sense, but not Chrono Trigger?

Treasure of the Rudras or Bahamut Lagoon would be amazing. If they're up for localizing Live A Live it seems like nothing is off the table...

@Joeynator3000 I feel that Chrono Trigger is the big one that will definitely come out. I mean, it seems to be suspiciously out of mention from square for a few years now.

Final Fantasy Mystic Quest please. Main reason being it was never re-released except on the Wii virtual console.

@Banjo- I'm pretty sure that they've confirmed that DQ 1 & 2 will be coming at some point. During the original reveal of the DQ3 remake, the guy who they had on to talk about it directly after the reveal was HEAVILY teasing it, to the point where the people running the presentation were almost yelling at him to shut up about it. Afterwords, they confirmed that the first two were getting remade, since people would be disappointed if they weren't, given the aforementioned teasing. At least that's what I remember.

@jojobar HD2D has only been used for 4 games in 4 years, two of which are yet to be released and that’s overused?

@alexybubble Thanks, I didn't know that they talked about the Dragon Quest I and II remakes as well.

I’ll be the first to admit I liked Actraiser: Renaissance at first, I’m a HUGE fan of the original game and it was awesome to see it back on my fave console. That said, the game really is kind of a trainwreck (the less we say about the cowboy or the needlessly convoluted city defense parts the better) and if we got an HD-2D version of the OG game I think I’d lose my mind.

Between 1997 and 2000, then Square Soft releases soooo many fantastic RPGs for the PlayStation. If HD2D is easy and fast enough, I would be all too happy if they went back to that bombardment of games.

Really miss those days, when we would get handfuls of JRPGs from them every year, instead of one entry every few years. Not every game needs to be super photo realistic rpg open worlds. In fact, some of the most memorable are just fun stories with charming but low key art styles and scopes.

First a bunch of "pixel perfect" remasters and now just going to slap the HD2D onto them? Such a waste...would love to see a new classic JRPG in the style than old games with a new coat of paint. But it's cheaper and quicker to make and people do enjoy buying the same or nearly same product multiple times so I guess turn on the $$$ printer.

Personally I think Actraiser remake has lost all the soul of the pixel art classic. But thats my opinion.

@Sinton there are a lot more ways to play the game than that
if you care that much - then you would already own it

@Sinton in fact, the ONLY way to hear the originals - the way you're comparing them to the SNES version of Chrono Trigger?
YES - you would have to invest in ONLY buying FIRST PRINT LPs which go for much much more than 200 dollars.

try googling how much it costs to buy a first print MONO version of Meet the Beatles.

your analogy falls flat

the new FF ports should have been done in this style

I don't expect to see the Final Fantasy games since they just got the pixel remasters, but it would be nice to see Dragon Quests 1-6, Chrono Trigger, or maybe one of their forgotten gems like Treasure Of The Rudras.

I like the HD-2D style, don't get me wrong, but I do wish they made the originals widely available first. Or better yet, just have an in-game toggle, like in the Halo Anniversary collection. There's artistry to old-school graphics that's lost when you start modernizing them, and this has nothing to do with nostalgia. Any "modernization" will eventually be dated itself, too, and you can't keep remaking the same games over and over again just to catch up with time. I think simple access is a more sustainable practice in the long-term, rather than this demand for remakes and remasters. For example, I would have liked the original Link's Awakening as a bonus in the recent Switch remake. The new toy-like graphics are very pretty, but movement is also inevitably slower and game-feel inevitably different than old-school Zelda. Now Nintendo's re-released the original in that Game & Watch contraption, which is, um, cool, I guess. But unless a Game Boy NSO app is released, I can now only play the original through emulation. And we're talking about a major videogame from the 90s, not a niche cult hit or something.

@Beaucine It would cost zero to add the NES roms so I agree that they should be included with every new release. It's part of the video game history and some people might prefer play the original versions.

With respect to SNES games, they still look great so I can't find any reason to change the graphics. Upscale the resolution and add features, yes, but I don't see any reason to remake the graphics of SNES games.

@MJF There are not alot of legal ways of playing Chrono Trigger, no.

Meet the Beatles has been reissued in stereo and mono several times, on several different formats. (I'm guessing the OG mono LP is expensive as Meet the Beatles isn't really a canon album by The Beatles, but some American invention.)

Final fantasy tactics advance in HD 2D style please yes oh god yes

I would love to see Chrono Trigger and all the snes FF and DQ games in this style!!!

I'm already extremely tired of the HD 2D aesthetic honestly. There was novelty when Octopath did it (though even then I never really was that big on it) but in the years since it's been rapidly completely beaten into the ground.

Super Mario RPG HD-2D get it done charge me $70

remake of Chrono Trigger e Super Mario RPG in the HD-2D coming next?

@BlackenedHalo Right. I wish they would do a bit more with color and not make everything gold and black.

Yes Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 1-6, Soul Blazer, Illusion of Gaia, Terranigma, Super Mario RPG, 7th Saga, Bahamut Lagoon, Dragon Quest 1-6, Alundra 1 & 2, Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, Secret of Evermore, Rad Racer 1 & 2, Robotrek, Brandish 1 & 2, Star Ocean 1 & 2, Dragon Quest Monsters 1-2, Treasure Hunter G, Tactics Ogre, Ogre Battle, Ogre Battle 64, Lufia 1-4, etc. All of these would be fantastic in HD 2D.

@UglyCasanova Nope they giving only the PC and phone versions the pixel remastered. They'll probably remake those six FF again this time on HD 2D for consoles. PC and phones got their versions already, now the consoles will get their versions.

So, most of us didn't play on the old time, being a remaster or not is the exacly the same for me. Is or not a good game. If I would by an rpg that I already know the story? Probably not.

Secret of Evermore! At this point, why not? Feels like they are working through everything!

@RupeeClock But Chrono Trigger is already beautiful. If we HD-2D remake all the classics, then everything becomes homogenized and dull.

Please: No! I really hate this HD-2D graphics. Blurryness in HD. It's hurting my eyes because nothing is sharp on the screen. Even not pixels!
Who needs this?

Chrono Trigger?

Nice. Pls do keep animating the attack animations beautifully. If it doesn't have flashy attacks, I won't even bother.

@Sinton Chrono Trigger has been available in at least 6 platforms:
SNES
Playstation
DS
Wii
iOS
And the most recent in 2018… PC

I don’t get it where you’re coming from saying that it’s not widely available or thinking you have to spend hundreds of dollars to play the game.

They should just kiss and make up, make Super Mario RPG HD-2D and finally clear up the rights mess with Geno, etc like with Goldeneye.

Bet the Nvidia Leak Final Fantas Tactics Remaster is going to be HD-2D. Seems like a no brainer l, since Triangle Strategy seems to lay the groundwork in term of functionality needed for the engine...

Would love to see the Soulblazer trilogy (illusion of Gaia / Terranigma) remade in HD-2D...

@fafonio The original SNES game costs around $200USD in eBay (plus shipping and import taxes). The PlayStation version is expensive as well (and have several differences from the original). The Wii version was a true port, but not available anymore. The iOS version and the Steam version are terrible. So, one true port in 25 plus years since release.

@Sinton Aha… and the DS one? I’m watching eBay right now and you can find it used for as low as $40

Bahamut Lagoon, Soul Blazer, Star Ocean (PSP Version), Terranigma (No US). Great SF games and great candidates for HD-2D.

@fafonio Sure, the DS one is less expensive. It's still an enhanced port, though (though most seem to agree this one actually is an enhancement).

Still, in 2022 you'd think you could buy one of the best games ever (in its original form), and play it on current generation consoles on your big screen TV. This game don't need enhancements to look or sound beautiful.

@Sinton yeah I agree with that point. SE is known to milk as much out of something as it can… and it’s weird CT isn’t more widely available.
But well, you know, there’s always emulators and roms for this kind of retro games.

I did hack my SNES Classic and have this little gem to be played in its original form, in a big TV and with the original controller. The way it’s supposed to be played.

@fafonio Yeah, but it's sad that you need to be a pirate to play classics that should've been available for all to purchase.

@BlackenedHalo I agree that too much HD-2D will feel stale and samey after awhile, but… certainly no more than the glut of retro style games we already have and continue to receive. The new style is at least an admirable attempt to freshen up what some consider a bit dated. (I’m fine with the OG look, but I do think this new style is rather nice and could be more engaging for the younger generations checking these titles out. Meh, I’m good either way 😛

@fafonio Hacking the mini seems to be the way to go. Between the mini and NSO/Switch, the best SNES games that are missing seems to either be owned by Square Enix (CT, FFIV, ActRaiser, Soul Blazer, Illusion of Time/Gaia, Secret of Evermore), Konami/Hudson (Super Bomberman, Mystical Ninja, Axelay) or licensed (TMNT, Magical Quest).

@Bunkerneath it's everyone, really. Tlou remake, resident evil 4 remake, final fantasy vii remake, rdr remake, master chief collection, uncharted collection, etc..

@Bunkerneath they are. Theres still octopath and bravely sequels and triangle strategy and final fantasy origins come out this month.

@Sinton Chrono Trigger is currently available in a few forms. Granted, not the best forms (mobile for example), but it IS available.

If they overdo it, it might get stale. By the way, not everyone loves it. Some people hate it.

Sounds like a good idea but please don't overdo this, maybe one remake per year? IDK.

I personally didn't care for the graphics style on the ActRaiser remake so a 2D-HD may have been better.

I feel like Chrono Trigger is coming.

"Released by Square and Enix"
The producer means pretty much "released by Square".
Enix was almost exclusively a publisher, so almost anything they published besides Dragon Quest is probably locked behind licensing issues.

Still wouldn't mind seeing Treasure of the Rudras in HD.
Surely anyone who played that game at some point just started entering their friends (or enemies?) names as magic just to see what effects get generated?

I have no complaints for this. Will take this over the typical lazy port up res any day of the week

@Henmii you can literally say that for any style. Not everybody loves everything so it’s a moot point to even bother bringing that up. Enough people DO like it is what matters. Also only a whopping three console games so far has it with two of them not even being out yet. Will take awhile for it to get “stale” considering there are art styles that have been used for dozens of games already with hardly anyone saying “stale”.

@Balladeer Honestly with comments like these, I understand why gaming executives don't ever take gamers seriously. Those two things are not mutually exclusive or related in any way.

Chrono Trigger pleeeeaaaaseeee. Altough that game would actually deserve a remake much more in line with the graphics of Dragon Quest XII.

I would like to see the original 6 Dragon Quest games done in this style. I think it works well with the legacy of those games, and I know we're already getting a remake of DQIII, oddly enough. Would love to really see DQV specifically.

@UltimateOtaku91 Daaaang, shots fired. Dissing Octopath around these parts is asking for trouble.

I happen to strongly agree, though.

I wish we could get some new FE games in HD-2D and without all the DLC and grinding stuff of recent entries. Basically retro FE in new clothing, but no remakes. SE and Nintendo should team up on this.

Dragon Quest 4/5/6, the Zenithian trilogy, would be ace.

What'd be even acer would be if SE continued the DQ3 remake into DQ1&2, as that's where the narrative flows into.

I will never stop saying this, Secret of Evermore needs a comeback.

I know I'm probably in the minority, but I legitimately do not like this style. I look at the beautifully rendered backgrounds and all the painstaking detail that went into them, and I desperately want the characters to match that effort and fit in with that style.

I like 2D pixel sprites, but I would rather see them in 2D pixel games. I know people like the novelty of the contrast it creates to stick them in gorgeous 3D settings, but for me it just makes no sense and it feels like a waste. I would buy just about any game that has a world in this style AND characters that actually belong in that world.

Just port DS Chrono Trigger putting the map function on the pause screen, and for the love of God keep the ability to turn off the cutscenes since they often awkwardly repeat what happens in-game. It's one of the very few games that needs almost zero updating.

Remake Sword of Mana. Remake FFXII Revenant Wings. Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. Secret of Evermore. EVO Search for Eden. Or how about that whole catalog of creative yet flawed Quintet Enix games that are rotting away? Robotrek, Illusion of Gaia, Soulblazer, Terranigma. There's a massive glut of games that actually would benefit from polish and never have had even a virtual console port, yet everyone always talks about Chrono Trigger.

All the games mentioned? I can absolutely get behind HD2D remakes of those titles. But Chrono Trigger? Not a chance. Square Enix hit a home run with their remake of Trials of Mana. Getting the chance to relive Chrono Trigger through a full scale remake similar to Trials of Mana would be the ideal experience.

@Sinton well Chrono Trigger has been rereleased on steam and IOS and it's like 10 bucks or something
so your argument is DOA

Live-A-Live remake will be Day 1 for myself.

I hope this means Treasure of the Rudras and/or Bahamut Lagoon won't be far behind!

@MJF Yes, it's been re-released on iOS and Steam, with changes in sprites, dialogue, music, UI etc. The re-releases of Meet the Beatles never changed the lyrics or used another drummer.

I realize this is asking a lot but... PLEASE consider Secret of Evermore!!!

@Sinton but the sound is different

Bahamut Lagoon and Rudora no Hihou?

Back to normal - back to lazy developer Square.

@Bunkerneath Square mostly ran out of ideas 20 years ago. Better remakes than nothing.

One game at least..
Mario RPG 😎

Hmmm, what's a Nintendo game that's never been released outside of Japan? An RPG that's considered one of the best in its genre? A title stuck on the GBA? One that has inspired countless indie developers?

Well, I can't think of anything. Never mind.

@Arawn93

Judging from comments I read on this site the people who hate it aren't just one or two but quite a group. That being said the majority might like it (I like it too), and I am not bored yet. I still think they shouldn't do it to much though. It definitely would lose its novelty that way.

Why? The old SNES games look better than Octopath Traveller and the remake of A Live Evil. Instead of rehashing old games, Square should try to make a good new game. But maybe they don't know how to do that anymore...

Terranigma... PLEASE!!!

Please do Squeenix.

Smart decision, Square. This art style is simply gorgeous