As far as video game aesthetics go, pixel art of the 1990s has aged remarkably well. The Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis era boasted tons of visually ambitious games with detailed character designs and environments, like Chrono Trigger, Ecco the Dolphin, and Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island. The style saw a resurgence in the 2010s, thanks to the indie boom and the unabashedly nostalgic-yet-modern look of games like Celeste, Hyper Light Drifter, and Undertale, which led directly to the popular “HD-2D” aesthetic, most recently seen in Octopath Traveler 0.

Square Enix had been one of the leading lights of ‘90s pixel art, so it felt like a return to form when the company launched Octopath Traveler back in 2018, which blended old-school stylings with 3D-rendered environments and spiffy modern lighting flourishes. (The company has since trademarked the term HD-2D,........

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