There is renewed pleasure in regards to the much-discussed Final Fantasy 9 remake after Square Enix launched an official Final Fantasy 9 twenty fifth Anniversary web site.
The website, which is in Japanese, notes the discharge date of Final Fantasy 9 (July 7, 2000) and factors out the sport celebrates its twenty fifth anniversary this yr.
“We are making ready numerous tasks, together with merchandise and collaborations to commemorate the twenty fifth anniversary, so please stay up for it!” the web site continues.
That moderately innocuous assertion, in addition to the existence of the anniversary web site itself, was sufficient to spark hypothesis that Square Enix could lastly reveal the Final Fantasy 9 remake followers so desperately need.
And the timing of the web site’s launch isn’t misplaced on followers who level out Nintendo is about to carry a Switch 2-focused Direct this week, on April 2. Could Square Enix lastly announce Final Fantasy 9 remake for Switch 2 on the Direct? Some followers are hoping so.
Of course, this will likely all be nothing. The web site itself talked about merchandise and collaborations, however “numerous tasks” has actually set tongues wagging.
Last yr, Final Fantasy 14 producer Naoki ‘Yoshi-P’ Yoshida talked a bit about what a Final Fantasy 9 remake may seem like, warning it might not all slot in one recreation.
“Of course, I do know there are requests for Final Fantasy 9 to be made, however when you concentrate on Final Fantasy 9, it’s a recreation with large quantity,” Yoshi-P mentioned. “When you concentrate on all of that quantity, I’m wondering if it’s potential to remake that as a single title. It’s a tough one. It is a troublesome query.”
Yoshi-P appeared to recommend a possible Final Fantasy 9 remake may go the course of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, which is in the course of a deliberate trilogy.
Earlier in 2024, Yoshi-P introduced Final Fantasy 9-themed extras for the Collector’s Edition and Digital Collector’s Edition of Final Fantasy 14 enlargement Dawntrail, together with Final Fantasy 9’s Ark summon as a Final Fantasy 14 mount and a wind-up Princess Garnet minion (Garnet, aka Dagger, is without doubt one of the predominant characters of Final Fantasy 9). If you pre-ordered Dawntrail, you bought a wind-up Zidane minion. Zidane is the protagonist of Final Fantasy 9.
Speaking on-stage during PAX East alongside the announcement of those extras, Yoshi-P teased: “You could have observed quite a lot of Final Fantasy 9 references right here, however the reason being a secret.” He then zipped his mouth shut.
Final Fantasy 9 remake rumors have swirled round Square Enix ever because the unannounced recreation emerged as a part of a 2021 Nvidia leak of upcoming titles. The listing, confirmed legit by Nvidia however probably outdated, contains quite a lot of Square Enix video games the corporate has both introduced or launched since, such because the Chrono Cross remaster, Kingdom Hearts 4, and naturally the Final Fantasy 7 remake for PC. However, Final Fantasy 9 remake and Final Fantasy Tactics, each of that are on the leaked listing of video games, have but to materialize. Just a couple of months earlier than the Nvidia leak, in June 2021, a Final Fantasy 9 animated sequence was reported to be in growth, though we haven’t heard something about it within the years since.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
