Admittedly, Octopath Traveler II came out after a year full of HD-2D — Triangle Strategy and Live A Live remakes were dropped in 2022, both of which used those stunning pixel visuals. Granted, Triangle Strategy is a much more niche turn-based RPG and managed to sell a million copies by the end of 2022, while Live A Live racked up 500,000 sales on Switch by September 2022. Not earth-shattering numbers at all, but pretty notable.
For the average gamer, watching Octopath Traveler II — the third HD-2D game in 12 months — might cause some fatigue. But if Octopath and these HD-2D projects fall under that ‘smaller’ project umbrella — despite Tomoya Asano saying the art style ‘costs more than you think’ — is this the end of larger studios using pixel art visuals? I really hope not.
Games like Harvestella or Paranormasight may not have the broad appeal that the Final Fantasy brand has today, but the gaming world would be a lot duller without them. Harvestella might follow in the footsteps of Rune Factory, but it was fun to see Square Enix venture into a different subgenre. And Paranormasight, developed by indie studio Xeen, felt like a truly unique horror visual novel. but it barely received any marketing in the West, only being announced during Japan’s Nintendo Direct. And now the ‘sequel’ will be in comic form.
And I think that’s just one of the big problems that caused Square Enix to announce these “extraordinary losses”. Marketing needs be better for these smaller titles. This major publisher puts out one of the better visual novels in years and it basically evaporates into the ether? Word of mouth was very good, but that didn’t seem to help much.
Second, project-wise, Square Enix just threw a fit all on the wall, right? The developer released too many games between 2021 and 2024. Final Fantasy XIV more continues to be the company’s biggest earner, with Endwalker be a big hit. But even major games like Final Fantasy XVI and, more recently, VII Rebirth, suffer from release overload, game release delays due to COVID, and the fact that they’re locked to one console. As for that amount — from Dragon Quest Treasures to Infinity Strash, Pixel Remasters to Crisis Core, Tactics Ogre: Reborn to Minstrel Song, it’s a lots of publish over several years. I’m picking cherries too. And I know it’s all done by different development studios within Square Enix, but there has to be some additional effect at some point.
And “abandonment loss” seems to be that indirect effect. We’ll lose those weird risks that Square Enix sometimes takes and the spreadsheets power be better for it. But the fortunes of the video game industry and the culture it nurtures will be diluted as a result, as it was with the closure of studios like Tango Gameworks, Paladins, and massive layoffs at Embracer. AAA games are needed, yes, but so are smaller games.
I want to see more than just crowd pleasers come out of a big developer.
Of course, I’m guessing here, but as much as I love Final Fantasy (I admit that Rebirth probably will be my GOTY, unless Silksong decides to show up), I also like games that take risks, feel different, and who dip their toe into experimental waters. Whether it’s a change in art style, going down a different genre path than expected, or simply trying out a small studio, I want to see more than just the predictable crowd pleasers coming out of the big companies. That’s part of what has drawn me to Square Enix and other developers over the years.
I understand that, at the end of the day, this industry – like most – is all about making money. But video games are diverse, fun, interesting, artistic and diverse. I don’t want to see the bigger studios give up on ‘mid-budget’ games. We will lose that human touch that gives us diversity and creativity.
NFT games though? Get out of here. What do you think of Square Enix’s strategy? Let us know below.
