Square Enix created one of the best art styles by combining 2D sprites with 3D backgrounds.

When I first saw Octopath Traveler in 2018, I thought it was a one of a kind project and doubted they’d revisit this incredible art style. But four years later, in 2022, Square Enix proved me wrong by releasing not one but two HD-2D games. In 2023, they followed up with Octopath Traveler II and the Star Ocean: The Second Story R remake.

Now, in 2024, we’re getting the Dragon Quest III HD-2D remake. And in 2025, Team Asano has announced they’ll reveal a new game this year. It could be another HD-2D project, a new Bravely Default title, an HD-2D remake or even a brand-new IP. Regardless, I’m incredibly hyped for what’s to come, especially for more HD-2D games.

Not only that, there are indie games that are inspired by this art style like Wandering Sword and the upcoming game Threads of Time

Games in picture order:

Octopath Traveler

Octopath Traveler Champion of the Continents

Live A Live Remake

Triangle Strategy

Octopath Traveler 2

Star Ocean 2 The Second Story R

Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake

Basically, I think Squaresoft went on the greatest hot streak a developer has ever had from April, 1994 to July, 2001. In that 7 year run they developed and released:

Final Fantasy VI-X
Final Fantasy Tactics
Chrono Trigger/Chrono Cross
Vagrant Story
Xenogears
Super Mario RPG
Live Alive
Parasite Eve 1 & 2
Saga Frontier 1 & 2
Trials of Mana/Legend of Mana
Front Mission 3
Brave Fencer Musashi
Secret of Evermore

All of the above were developed and published by Square in 7 years and 4 months. That's 21 spectacular games (and that isn't even all of their releases!).

Can anyone think of another developer that released banger after banger in a short period of time like this?

How much nostalgia does this bring up for you? How comfortable does this feel? Is there any game series that marked your childhood, that I left out?

Edit: Wow, this blew up! I had no idea this many people kept this little collection of games so close to their hearts. And I am sorry for not listing the games! I went to work and came back to this having close to 2 thousand upvotes! I thank the mods for pinning the list that I wrote as a reply to a comment. All the games are listed in the comment below.

Link

Incredible numbers, this doesn't even include the Xbox Gamepass player count. The last time I remember a JRPG getting this level of attention was Persona 5 and NieR Automata in 2017. It'll be interesting to see how massive Persona 6 will be, if it launches day 1 on all major platforms.

Enough is enough. For too many damn years now we've been hearing about how turn-based combat can't be accomplished in a modern Final Fantasy game. "It wont appeal to current generation gamers" or "its antiquated nature will not sell enough copies to justify the implementation" and that is complete and utter hogwash. Baldur's Gate 3 was enough to quell this kind of talk (Persona 5 before it as well) and now MRF has placed the final nail in the proverbial coffin that is turn-based combat full-fucking-stop. Yoshi-P whom I have massive amounts of respect for spoke about this topic right before releasing FFXVI in an article style interview and while he did mention he would like to see it one day he also said the chances of it happening are extremely slim. Well... I'm here to say he is wrong, and if ever there was a time to bring it back it must happen with the next mainline Final Fantasy title.

Imagine the possibilities they have with the current tech and engines at their disposal and how outstanding a full-fledged turn-based FF game would look. FFXVI was a solid game, but by no means was it a tried and true FF game. It was a full on action game that in truth should have just been a fully linear story from start to finish akin to the Uncharted series (lets be honest that was what it was aiming for from start to finish) and should have trimmed all the fat that in the end added no flavor just padding. That is the truth of it, there is no denying it a this point. They need to stop chasing this golden goose of a trend in which they want to capture as many people as possible no matter the cost. Yes, I understand that it is a business and they must make money to survive, but at some point they need to understand that a game made for everybody is a game made for nobody.

I'm not getting any younger and before I leave this wretched yet wonderful place I would like to play a current generation full on turn-based mainline Final Fantasy game, please and thank you.

Edit: For the sake of clarification the main focus of my rant is that I at least want to see one modern FF game with a full on turn-based combat system. I am not saying that hence forth all FF games must be turned-based or they'll suck, Rebirth is absolutely fantastic and I very much love it, however, I think there is room for both systems to shine. Wanted to clear that up because I have been seeing a ton of people misconstruing my point.

Slowly playing through Expedition 33 and enjoying my time with it, really enjoying it. For some reason I get this feeling this is this generations Final Fantasy X. That game was giant for the JRPG community back then with the graphics, story (fully voiced), and switch up of gameplay.

And it just started to get me thinking what are the 3 JRPGs you would recommend everyone play whether they are a veteran to the genre or a newbie?

I recently saw a meme saying many people play videogames on easy mode and that it’s completely okay because games are meant to be fun and relaxing, not stressful. It made me wonder how others in the JRPG community feel about this. Do you prefer playing JRPGs on easy mode, normal, or even hard? Does the difficulty change your enjoyment, or do you play mainly for the story and characters? I’m curious to hear how everyone approaches difficulty in JRPGs.

Like seriously, there hasn’t been a single bad game across more than eight HD-2D releases so far. What’s even more impressive is that this consistency isn’t coming from repetition; each title offers a different style of gameplay, from turn-based JRPGs to tactical strategy and action-focused experiences. Square Enix isn’t just reusing the HD-2D look, they’re pairing it with real mechanical variety and solid game design every time.

And now The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is the next upcoming HD-2D title. At this point, I’m genuinely curious what Square Enix’s next HD-2D announcement will be.

Sorry if this has been posted before, but I thought it was worth sharing here. I just watched a long interview video featuring voice actor Ben Starr (Clive in FFXVI, Verso in Expedition 33) where he talked about his acting career and his love for videogames and gaming communities in general.

Near the very end of the video he decided to give a shout out to RPGs he wants more people to play. And listening to his answer made me feel like must secretly lurk in r/JRPG during his free time lol.

"If you're loving Expedition 33 right now, go and play Chained Echoes. That is a beautiful, beautiful RPG with a stunning 2D art style. It's really, really Beautiful-- Obviously Octopath Traveler II. Love it.

If you're discovering turn based combat for the first time, and understanding the intricacies of turn based combat and how it can create complex combat scenarios. There is a really rich well of games out there, that are out recently, that can exist.

I understand that a lot people are put off by certain art styles, but you're sticking with Expedition 33 because it's an amazing turn based combat system. And believe me there's some amazing turn-based combat systems, and one of them is Chained Echoes. It's brilliant. And once you learn the ropes it's fascinating. It has an amazing story to tell that's just as heart-wrenching. And the same with Octopath Traveler II.

There are characters and stories and worlds out there in the turn based arena that are brilliant. And I just want to give a shout out to that. And I'm so lucky that I'm in a videogame right now (Expedition 33) that is celebrating a combat system that is alive and well*. It hasn't brought it back, but I'm glad that people are discovering it again through that."*

The interview was uploaded on the Youtube Channel "Destin" back in early May. It released after E33 was already out for about 2 weeks, so I don't think it was part of a promotional/Marketing push for the game. In fact they didn't spend much time talking about Expedition 33 at all. The interviewer mostly brought up other topics like Ben's early acting career, what it's like to become a meme, what videogames he'd like to see be adapted into TV/films, etc.

Here is a link to the full video, his shout out to Chained Echoes and Octopath Traveler II starts around the 53 min mark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-a-Y2ZJo8U

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Unrelated to the topic, but still interesting... In an earlier part of the interview he also gave an insanely based answer (imo) when asked about which videogames he'd like to see adapted into Film/TV.

His answer was basically that it's just not necessary at all. Because videogame stories don't need the validation of being to be adapted to Film/TV to be respected or appreciated as an art form. Stories in games are already special because of how they were specifically told as a videogame.

He then added later that the TV/film industry are now just hunting for more popular IP to fill up content on their streaming services as a way to justify rising prices. And that they're "running out of comic books" to adapt, so now they've turned to videogames. He described it as "content farming" and that when the IPs are not treated with respect it becomes something quite "soulless". That the movies and shows they put out for this purpose can easily just become "content to fill people's eyeballs".

He added a caveat that it's nice for other people (non-gamers) to be able to experience these stories. But based on how he started his answer it's easy to see how he really feels about it.

If you've been following me at all this last year or so, I've gone off the deep end on retro games. I still play some newer stuff, mostly from the indie scene, but my meals have mainly been coming from older console generations.

I just finished up Xenosaga Episode I and I have some mixed feelings about the way the narrative unfolded, however there is no denying how cinematic and "big" it felt.

It got me thinking back on the other JRPGs I played from the early 3D era and how hyped we all were to play the next big JRPG. Industries shift, of course, and JRPGs are no longer the big AAA cash cow that they were. However, I wanted to take this time to highlight a few "Blockbuster" games that really cemented this genre as my all time favorite in gaming.

I recently picked up a bunch of the Tales games on sale and have been working through them. Played one of the more recent ones, and decided to give Vesperia another playthrough, and I still can’t get over how much bigger the world feels because of the overworld system to move between areas.

In the newer ones, all of the areas are connected together, but pretty quickly you end up unlocking fast travel and the world gets reduced to a menu.

The overworld can be a bit tedious at times, but having to travel from place to place makes it feel more like you’re exploring, and not just running from one end of an area to the next.

Are there any recent games that have an overworld?

Edit: well shit, three four replies in like 20 seconds mentioning Expedition 33. Guess I really slept on that one. Imma get it.

Trails won yesterday's award for best ongoing JRPG series with 513 votes and thanks to /u/SteelRotom's passionate comment! The series held the top 3 comments!

🥇Trails → 513

🥈Dragon Quest → 265

🥉Persona  → 164

And for the final time, I'll post the full tally in the comments!

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Hope everyone's had fun, you've been a lovely community! And FF didn't steamroll the grid like I feared...

I've seen questions about what the grid would look like if the top vote rule was followed from Day 1 - I'll do some changes and add a updated grid in the comments later in the day.

I love the other award suggestions, but I'll hold off doing more right now to let the dust settle / not takeover the sub any longer :)

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Previous Days:

Previous day: https://www.reddit.com/r/JRPG/comments/1px2akb/day_15_the_best_jrpgs_of_all_time_what_is_the/ 

Other days: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Day 8 | Day 9 | Day 10 | Day 11 | Day 12 | Day 13 | Day 14

Looking at the recent announcements, it's hard not to feel like Square Enix is in a really strong position when it comes to JRPG.

We've got Dragon Quest XII Beyond Dreams, Dragon Quest Monsters The Withered World, Final Fantasy VII Revelation, Final Fantasy Resonance, and Kingdom Hearts IV all on the way. That's a pretty insane lineup from a single publisher.

As a JRPG fan, it's hard not to be excited. Whether you're into turn based combat, action RPGs or monster collecting, there's probably at least one game here that has your attention.