You have absolute zero evidence that chibi 3D models are cheaper than hand-made pixel art. :V
Simple polygonal models are substantially easier to produce overall, from what I understand as a non-artist. That's probably why the aesthetic was chosen for 3DS games to begin with. It's less graphically intensive than realistic proportions/detail and takes less time than creating pixel art, which is also a less common talent nowadays.
With hand-drawn pixel art, you have to completely redraw each frame of each sprite for every animation and every costume, as opposed to 3D modeling where you can create animations and attach clothing assets to existing models, making mid-development editing and changes simpler. The base task of 3D modeling might be more complicated, but it's much easier to work with and customize once complete.
Octopath, for instance, has different outfits for each character in every job, accounting for all the ability animations, which is a lot of detailed sprite creation.
I don't think quality (as in a good videogame) was ever a meter for price. My favorite game ever is like $15 on Steam, and i don't think it should be a $60 game. Are you implying that every $60 game on Switch are better than Hollow Knight, Axiom Verge or Cosmic Star Heroine?
I never said anything remotely like that, so no. I love Hollow Knight, but it's incomparable to Octopath Traveler, because the former was made entirely by a handful of individuals via kickstarter, whereas the latter has a larger development team, spanning multiple companies, funded by Square Enix and presumably Nintendo.
Supporting Octopath isn't maintaining any negative status quo, because games like Octopath are exceedingly rare in the modern era, so supporting them is, if anything, lending my money to trends I want to see more of (HD-2D; turn-based). It's worth $60—actually, $100—to me and apparently many others, which is the actual determinant factor for the MSRP, not budget, otherwise various AAA photo-realistic games would have a base price of $100+. As an additional point, Octopath isn't including any DLC or micro-transactions, which makes its $60 pricing even more reasonable, because those are largely how AAA gaming productions are paid for.
Not even going to respond to the greedy publisher console warring / fanboy accusation nonsense. I said I have no problem with people vocally determining that $60 is too much for them, for whatever reason, but this insistent pretending that the game objectively isn't
worth $60 is exasperating and disrespectful, and based completely on ignorant assumptions of its budget due to its aesthetic, which people erroneously believe has gotten cheaper to create since the '90s.
