Summary
When it comes to open secrets in the games industry, you don’t get much more open than the long rumoredFinal Fantasy 9remake. On top of being leaked by various insiders over the past year,the title also appeared in the Epic Games Store Database leakearlier this year. It’s almost definitely happening, andFinal Fantasy 14’sDawntrail expansion poured fuel on the fire.
Even though Final Fantasy 14 director Naoki Yoshida (known by fans as Yoshi-P) has claimed that the Final Fantasy 9 references in Dawntrailhave nothing to do with potential remake plans- and thatneither he nor his team are behind the rumored title- that hasn’t stopped people from probing into what he thinks about the possibility of the popular title getting a fresh coat of paint.
Yoshi-P Thinks It Might Not Be Possible For Final Fantasy 9 Remake To Be One Game
In a recent interview withVideo Games(thanks GamesRadar), Yoshida was asked which Final Fantasy game he thinks should be the next to receive the remake treatment. After claiming that he’d personally like to see a remake of Final Fantasy 3 (a truly inspired answer), he addresses the popular calls for a Final Fantasy 9 remake and says that it may not be as simple as people think.
“Of course, I do know there are requests for Final Fantasy 9 to be made, but when you think about Final Fantasy 9, it’s a game with huge volume,” says Yoshi-P.
“When you think about all of that volume, I wonder if it’s possible to remake that as a single title. It’s a difficult one. It is a tough question.”
Final Fantasy 9 is a pretty big game, there’s no denying that, especially by PS1 standards. However, Yoshi-P does make a valid point in that a lot of the barren overworld would probably be remade into something more complex, similar to what Square Enix did withFinal Fantasy 7 Rebirth. That alone would undeniably make the game even bigger than the original.
Then again, there’s nothing forcing Square Enix to turn Final Fantasy 9 into a remake project on the same scale as something like Rebirth, and even that game’s quasi-open-worlddidn’t really land well with some people.
It’s also maybe best for Square Enix to stop funneling money into massive Final Fantasy projects,given how the games rarely meet the publisher’s expectations these days.
Like we said from the top, Final Fantasy 9 Remake is almost definitely a title that is in active development at Square Enix, but we’ll have to see what the game’s scope actually is. If Yoshi-P’s beliefs are held by others at the company, then we might have to buckle up for another remake saga.
Final Fantasy 9
WHERE TO PLAY
Considered one of the greatest RPGs on the original PlayStation, Final Fantasy 9 follows Zidane’s journey - from kidnapping a princess to the escalating war that follows.
