Interview: How Final Fantasy Resonance Turns HD-2D Pixel Art Into a Cinematic Experience

Square Enix’s HD-2D style has become immediately recognizable through its combination of pixel characters, 3D environments, modern lighting, depth of field, and post-processing. After the studio popularized the style with the Octopath Traveler series, Final Fantasy Resonance presented its developers with a more specific challenge: determining what this visual language should become when applied to a series historically defined by technological ambition, dramatic presentation, enormous summons, and increasingly cinematic storytelling.

The result is something Producer Keisuke Nakajima calls “cinematic pixel art.” Rather than simply placing familiar sprites inside detailed 3D environments, the team explored how pixel art might have evolved if Final Fantasy had continued pushing it as a primary visual medium. This included converting 3D CG into pixel imagery, giving airships and Bahamut a scale that would have been difficult to achieve through traditional 2D production, and allowing sprites to carry complete dramatic sequences without relying heavily on fades or implied action.

Speaking with 80 Level, Nakajima and Director Hiroto Furuya explained how the team developed this visual pipeline, synchronized pixel animation with VFX and music, and learned to distinguish nostalgia as a genuine creative influence from nostalgia used as an excuse for compromised quality.

From an art direction standpoint, how did the team define what “HD-2D Final Fantasy” should look and feel like specifically, rather than simply applying an existing HD-2D style to a familiar series?

Keisuke Nakajima, Producer on Final Fantasy Resonance: The process started with the question, “What if FINAL FANTASY (FF) had continued to push the limits of pixel art?” We experimented with a variety of visual styles based on that idea and ultimately found that HD-2D felt like the most natural fit.

From there, I felt there were two essential qualities the visual presentation needed for a title bearing the FF name: exploring new forms of visual expression and delivering a cinematic experience. For the first, we developed what we call “cinematic pixel art,” a technique used in the opening movie that transforms 3D CG into pixel art. This allowed us to depict things rarely seen in pixel art before, such as Bahamut and airships moving in ways that simply wouldn’t have been possible in 2D. I think being able to bring iconic FF elements like Bahamut to life with that kind of impact is one of the visual qualities that distinguishes this game from other HD-2D titles.

As for the second, the “cinematic experience,” one area we put a great deal of effort into was having the pixel art characters themselves move and act out the event scenes as much as possible. Rather than relying heavily on fades to black or effects to convey what was happening, we wanted the pixel art characters themselves to carry the scenes. It was a challenging and time-consuming approach, but we made a conscious effort to ensure that each event scene played out as a fully realized sequence in pixel art.

Hiroto Furuya, Director on Final Fantasy Resonance: It may be difficult to define what “HD-2D FINAL FANTASY” is through its art style alone. For me, FF has always been a series that places a strong emphasis on presentation. Rather than simply telling a story, past titles have continually explored new forms of expression to make players feel as though they are experiencing the story for themselves. I think that was particularly evident during the pixel art era.

For this game, we wanted to carry on that tradition by putting the experience first and shaping the story around scenes and moments that would have a powerful impact in pixel art. That’s why there are so many sequences that convey a strong sense of scale, such as small characters confronting or even destroying something enormous. Those moments were designed specifically to make the most of pixel art as a visual medium. We started with the kinds of scenes and experiences we wanted to create and worked backward from there. That naturally led us to elements such as bold camera movements and rotations rarely seen in pixel games, dynamic visual effects, and dramatic, theatrical backgrounds.

HD-2D is often described as a blend of pixel art, 3D environments, modern lighting, depth of field, and cinematic camera work. What were the most important visual pillars for Resonance, and how did those pillars guide the way characters, towns, dungeons, battles, and cutscenes were built?

Keisuke Nakajima: It may not sound particularly glamorous, but what we focused on most was making the 2D pixel characters feel naturally integrated into the 3D environments. Simply combining 2D pixel art with 3D background assets can easily result in visuals that feel disconnected, so we painstakingly adjusted each scene using lighting, depth of field, bloom, and other techniques to make everything feel like it belonged in the same space. Once we were able to achieve that sense of visual cohesion, we knew the individual elements, such as the skill effects and environment assets, were already vibrant and impressive in their own right. So we felt confident that bringing all of those elements together seamlessly would create a visual experience that players would find beautiful.

Hiroto Furuya: The key was the camera work. As I mentioned earlier, we approached the development of this game by putting the experience first. Even though it’s a turn-based, command-based RPG with pixel art visuals, dynamic camera work was essential to creating the sense of immersion you expect from FF. Every aspect of the game’s visual presentation was designed with a moving camera in mind. That bold approach, especially for a pixel art game, allowed us to make the characters’ movements more dynamic and expressive, bring a greater sense of depth and verticality to towns and dungeons, and create intense clashes in cutscenes that feel as though they’re unfolding right in front of you.

The game uses pixelized 3D models and dynamic camera angles to create a more dramatic presentation. I was told it's being referred to as "cinematic pixel art." How did the team approach making 3D assets feel consistent with classic pixel-art Final Fantasy aesthetics?

Keisuke Nakajima: My personal take is that each FF title has developed its own unique visual identity precisely because its creators have always pursued what they themselves found compelling. So we weren’t particularly conscious of following the visual direction of past FF titles. Instead, we focused on a much simpler idea: if we were going to explore new and surprising forms of pixel art expression in FF, we wanted to depict things like Bahamut, airships, and large-scale battles. I think “cinematic pixel art” was ultimately born from pursuing that idea as far as we could.

Hiroto Furuya: I think Nakajima summed it up perfectly.

What were the biggest challenges in placing 2D pixel-art-inspired characters and effects inside 3D spaces without losing readability, charm, or visual cohesion?

Hiroto Furuya: It came down to how the characters are oriented relative to the camera. Pixel characters don’t automatically turn their backs to the camera or shift to a side view as the camera moves. Without careful adjustment, even during ordinary exploration, NPCs can end up looking as though they’re floating above the ground or sinking into it. So we made very subtle adjustments to each character’s orientation based on the camera angle. In event scenes especially, where the camera moved much more dynamically, those subtle adjustments weren’t always enough, so in some cases, we even redrew the pixel art specifically for the camera angle.

Can you walk us through the production pipeline for a typical environment or battle scene, from concept art and pixel-art direction to 3D modeling, materials, lighting, VFX, camera setup, and final implementation?

Hiroto Furuya: We’re not doing anything particularly unusual in that regard. I think it’s a fairly standard development process. First, we use concept art to establish the overall visual direction. From there, we create a simple 3D mock-up with just the basic terrain, and that stage is extremely important. At that point, we control the character and get a general sense of the appropriate scale for the map. We also check things like differences in elevation, how landmarks shown in the concept art will look from the intended viewpoints, and how easy the area is to navigate. By then, we also have a rough camera setup in place. After going through several rounds of revisions, we create and place assets based on the finalized layout, gradually building out the environment. Once the town has taken shape, we walk through it ourselves and fine-tune the overall look with lighting to bring the scene together.

Final Fantasy has a long visual legacy, from the early pixel-art games to modern cinematic entries. Which parts of that history most directly influenced Resonance’s art direction, and how did the team decide what to preserve, reinterpret, or modernize?

Keisuke Nakajima: We wanted to capture the vibrant, epic feel of more recent FF titles, while expressing it through pixel art.

Hiroto Furuya: If I had to point to specific influences, I’d probably say the later Super Famicom (SNES) titles from the SquareSoft era, such as FINAL FANTASY VI and CHRONO TRIGGER. Those games aimed to create an experience that felt almost like “playing a movie,” and that’s something we very much wanted to carry forward with this game. At the same time, early in development, we also incorporated some comical sprite acting, similar to those seen in FFV. But as the overall visual style became more realistic, some of those elements began to feel a little out of place, so we gradually pared them back as we refined the game’s visual style. We also made subtle adjustments to the spacing between characters so that their positioning felt natural within that more realistic presentation.

Summons, magic, and dramatic battle moments are a major part of Final Fantasy’s identity. How did HD-2D change the way the team approached VFX, camera movement, scale, and spectacle for moments like Esper attacks or major story sequences?

Hiroto Furuya: This is actually something I’d been wrestling with for many years myself. When you create spectacular sequences in 3D, there’s very little room to leave things to the player’s imagination, so they require an enormous amount of time and resources. Traditional pixel art games, on the other hand, can rely more on the player’s imagination, but because they’re 2D, there are limitations on what you can do with the camera. HD-2D offered a way to combine the strengths of both approaches.

With the characters, we can retain that quality of pixel art where certain details are left to the player’s imagination, while building the environments in 3D gives us much greater freedom with the camera. We can also take advantage of techniques associated with 3D production, such as visual effects and post-processing. Pixel characters can also move quickly and responsively, making it easier to precisely time their actions with the rest of the presentation. And because there’s less visual information on screen than in full 3D, it’s easier to control what we want the player to focus on at any given moment.

All of those qualities allowed us to really challenge ourselves with sequences like the confrontation with the esper Leviathan, where we carefully synchronized the action with the visual effects and background music.

For 80 Level’s audience of artists and developers, what lessons has the team learned from building an HD-2D Final Fantasy that other developers should understand about blending nostalgia, pixel art, 3D production, and modern rendering technology?

Keisuke Nakajima: We were completely focused on figuring out what kind of visual expression would be right for FINAL FANTASY RESONANCE and for the players who would experience it, and that process ultimately led us to the visuals we have today. So I don’t really feel that I’m in a position to offer advice to other artists. If there is one thing I could say, it would be that deliberately trying to evoke nostalgia, or being overly calculated about it, can be difficult. I think players can sense when something feels forced.

Personally, I believe the best approach is to sincerely pursue the kind of expression you genuinely believe in, based on your own sensibilities today, even when drawing inspiration from the past. I think that ultimately leads to work that resonates most strongly with players.

Hiroto Furuya: Nostalgia is important, but one of the biggest lessons we learned was not to let ourselves become too constrained by it. At certain points during development, I’m embarrassed to admit that there were aspects of the art where we looked the other way even though they were compromising the overall quality of the game, simply because they felt nostalgic. Ultimately, we were able to refine those elements and bring them up to the level of quality we wanted.

But one of the key lessons we took away from this project was the importance of distinguishing between nostalgia as a source of creative inspiration and nostalgia as an excuse.

Keisuke Nakajima, Producer of Final Fantasy Resonance
Hiroto Furuya, Director of Final Fantasy Resonance