With the release of Octopath Traveler in 2018, Square Enix stumbled upon a brilliant new formula, HD-2D games. In just seven years, HD-2D, led by Team Asano, have become a crucial part of the company’s catalogue and some of its most beloved games. Not just a visual style but often a gameplay ethos as well, HD-2D has spawned both original games like Triangle Strategy and remakes like Dragon Quest 3. But the HD-2D games are about to embark on something for the very first time, breaking from the turn-based games we’ve seen so far, for a full-on action RPG with The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales. And there’s a surprising inspiration behind it.
“We were influenced by various titles,” the game’s concept creator and planner, Tomoya Asano, tells Inverse, “But I believe what we ultimately landed on is closest to Final Fantasy Adventure in terms of the puzzles, battles, the complexity (or simplicity) of actions, and the weight of the story that unfolds in the game.”
