Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake producer Masaaki Hayasaka would love to see a similar remake for Final Fantasy 6, though there are no “concrete plans”.
Speaking to Inverse, Hayasaka discussed the popularity of the HD-2D visual style and whether he’d like to see any other games be remade in this way.
“It’s not that we have concrete plans for this, but personally I would have to say Final Fantasy 6,” he said. “Octopath Traveler – the first HD-2D title – was developed while referencing FF 6, as it had the highest quality pixel art. I would love to see how the game we referenced would look with the HD-2D art style.
He continued: “Because this art style itself was created while referencing such titles, it’s highly compatible with games originally made using pixel art. This compatibility is probably why people feel this style is a match made in heaven with these types of remakes.”
Final Fantasy 6 would certainly be a popular choice for a remake in this style, alongside the iconic Chrono Trigger. In fact, last year an artist created a HD-2D concept of Chrono Trigger that proved popular on social media.
Final Fantasy 6 is already available on modern platforms as part of the Pixel Remaster collection.
Hayasaka also discussed some of the difficulties of remaking classics in HD-2D, comparing the first teaser for Dragon Quest 3 released three years ago to the final product released last week.
“I’m sure you will find everything to be different, from the map size to the characters’ body proportions,” he said. “We get asked why things took so long since the first announcement, but the fact that we needed this much time speaks to how intensely involved the process of applying HD-2D graphics to Dragon Quest 3 truly was.
Some say that because HD-2D is pixel-based and this game is a remake, it should be easier to produce, but that is far from the truth! In my opinion, this style requires a higher level of artistic sensibility, and a remake faces more project-level limitations compared to a brand-new title, making the difficulty extremely high. After all, the expectations from the fans of the original game are a monumental hurdle we must work hard to meet.
“The HD-2D overhaul is stunning,” reads our Eurogamer Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake review.
“Blocky sprites are replaced by ones with much higher detail, and they’re placed on 3D backgrounds with a camera tilt that still retains the proportions of the old sprite style. It looks exactly how you remember old games felt to play – the goggles of nostalgia made real – only everything’s a little smoother now thanks to its new autosave, a greater number of places to save more generally, objective markers to help direct you, and an easier way to teleport between visited locations.”
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