We’ve learned the Square Enix president wants to make more HD-2D games, signaling a want to make more golden-era JRPG style games.

HD-2D is an actual trademarked design style from Square Enix where they add 3D effects and environments to 2D pixel art, creating a unique effect that is both 3D but with some 2D art, and in high-definition.

The news that Square Enix president wants to make more HD-2D games was confirmed during the first Square Enix Team Asano development room radio broadcast (via Games Jouhou), where company president Yosuke Matsuda apparently ordered his staff to explore more games with HD-2D.

“The president ordered us to make more use of HD-2D. We decided to think about remakes of past titles,” Square Enix director Tomoya Asano said. “We put together a lineup of what kind of titles would be possible, and we thought about which titles would be good to play in HD-2D as fairly as possible, and brought them to the president.”

Square started toying with games that recreate the look and gameplay of “golden-era Japanese RPGs” with the 2018-released Octopath Traveler, which garnered excellent reviews (like our review!).

Asano then went on to say they mostly came down to making a list of games Square and Enix (prior to their merger they were competitors) for the Super Nintendo.

“It wasn’t a winner-takes-all game, but it was like a list of titles released by Square and Enix for the SNES, which were suitable for HD-2D and which were not,” Asano said. “Mahjong titles were impossible (laughs). I put them all together and presented Live A Live as being the most suitable. By the way, Actraiser came in second (laughs).”

Square Enix’s next HD-2D game, Triangle Strategy, is launching on March 4th for Nintendo Switch. They’re also working on the aforementioned Live A Live HD-2D remake, as well as a Dragon Quest III remake in HD-2D, both of which don’t have solid release dates.