Tactics Ogre Reborn producer explains why the remake isn’t HD-2D

Square Enix gave birth to the HD-2D engine with Octopath Traveler, and fans were instantly attracted to the visual style, which mixes old-school sprites with more modern sensibilities. Capcom has used the engine a number of times since for both new games and remakes, but for some reason, Tactics Ogre Reborn isn’t among them.

Tactics Ogre Reborn is very much a remake, and it seems like a prime candidate for the HD-2D engine. Wondering why the game decided to go a more traditional route with its visuals? IGN spoke to producer Hiroaki Kato to find out.

No, we didn’t think about making it HD-2D. We kind of played with the idea of making it 3D, but what we were really thinking about was, “What are the major parts about this game that are really appealing to everybody?” And in the 2D original, it was really well done pixel art, so we realized that we couldn’t have a Tactics Ogre game without this really high-quality, awesome looking 2D pixel art. So to bring that sort of resolution and that sort of fidelity to new hardware and new technology was a lot of effort. But yeah, I think we did it.