Final Fantasy Resonance was a surprise reveal during last week’s Nintendo Direct. Billed as the first Final Fantasy game to get the HD-2D treatment from Square Enix, it’s a reimagining of the popular, but now defunct, Final Fantasy Brave Exvius mobile title. It’s also not a game that anyone really asked for.

So the question remains: where are the tentpole games people are actually asking to receive the HD-2D treatment, such as Final Fantasy 6 or Chrono Trigger? Ones that most would argue are long overdue for the revival treatment, given HD-2D has been around for the best part of a decade now?

Laying The Foundations Of A Fruitful Path

To answer that, we need to understand the strategy Square Enix appears to be employing. It’s one that, to me, seems to be going against the grain of a publisher that loves to milk its titles with remasters and remakes. It’s one of patience.

First, let’s look at the overall timeline of HD-2D games:

  • Octopath Traveler (2018)
  • Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent (2020)
  • Triangle Strategy (2022)
  • Live A Live (2022)
  • Octopath Traveler 2 (2023)
  • Star Ocean: The Second Story R (2023)
  • Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake (2024)
  • Dragon Quest 1 & 2 HD-2D Remake (2025)
  • Octopath Traveler 0 (2025)
  • The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales (2026)
  • Final Fantasy Resonance (2026)

This progression is extremely cautious, and I’d argue for good reason. Final Fantasy as a franchise is on shaky ground right now; the Pixel Remaster series wasn’t as well received as Square might have liked thanks to some baffling decisions, the Final Fantasy 7 Remake duology (so far) hasn’t quite lived up to sales expectations, and Final Fantasy 16 was perhaps a radical shift too far into action RPG territory for long-time fans to stomach.

Square’s attempts to balance the appeal of nostalgia with bringing the series into modern times, and therefore keeping its primary cash cow flowing, is a challenge it has not yet surmounted, despite Final Fantasy’s remaining cultural ubiquity.

This makes Square’s tiptoeing around the HD-2D technology all the more sensible. Each game released has been a baby step forward, not a giant leap into the unknown. Octopath Traveler was a brand new IP designed to test the waters, with all the hallmarks of early Final Fantasy experimentation in systems and world design. The success of that game paved the way not only for sequels, but essentially greenlit the next steps in the masterplan: remakes.

Firstly, Square gave us a game previously unavailable in the West, Live A Live. This was a Japan-only SNES game that was considered a commercial failure, so the remake could be seen as a low-risk test. It reviewed and sold well, proving the HD-2D project was on good ground. On to the next phase: major IPs.

Building Momentum For The Inevitable

In remaking Star Ocean: The Second Story, Square could test more treacherous waters with a popular game in a series that was well-liked but relatively niche, meaning it was less of a risk than jumping straight into Final Fantasy. It was an outstanding critical success, and I even gave it my Game of the Year award for 2023 ahead of Baldur’s Gate 3.

Basically nobody else did. Baldur’s Gate 3 won a lot of Game of the Year awards.

It felt natural then, that Square would then use one of its most successful IPs for the next step, Dragon Quest. It could be argued that this is an even more popular series in Japan than Final Fantasy, but less so in the West. This meant that while the remakes of the first three games were of more risk critically, they were perhaps less so commercially. Again, they reviewed well and sold well.

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Which leads us to now, and the future of the HD-2D project. The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is up next, another experiment in a different style of game, a Zelda-like with obvious Final Fantasy influences. How Final Fantasy Resonance sells and is received later this year will then dictate whether Square accelerates or puts the brakes on its HD-2D masterplan. My guess would be that we’ll see something like Secret of Mana remade, before it finally dives into the main Final Fantasy series with maybe the first game or my lesser loved favourite, Final Fantasy 4 - both a progression, as a mainline Final Fantasy game, but with less risk than tackling one of the iconic entries.

By continuing this strategy of taking small, measured steps rather than giant leaps, it affords Square the space to do things properly. It feels to me like it only has one shot to get it right with the main series before bridges are burned, so it needs to avoid the clamour from fans and stick to its patient plan. Crucially, it also puts enough time between the Pixel Remasters and any HD-2D remakes for it not to feel like fans are being exploited too brazenly, something Square has been guilty of in recent years.

It’s known that sprites from Final Fantasy 6 were used in early experimentation with the HD-2D style, so Square knows only too well that it is possible. We’ll just have to wait a while longer before it comes full circle and we get those HD-2D Final Fantasy 6 and Chrono Trigger remakes we all so desperately want.

Final Fantasy Resonance Like Follow Followed RPG JRPG Systems Released October 22, 2026 ESRB Everyone 10+ / Alcohol Reference, Fantasy Violence, Language, Suggestive Themes Developer(s) Square Enix, Lancarse Publisher(s) Square Enix Franchise Final Fantasy 11 Images Close
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