When I looked through the list of games leaked from Nvidia’s database last year, I felt like I needed a series of gradually larger 👀 emojis – or a Vince McMahon meme – to properly convey my reaction. Could they all really be real? Based on how many leaks from the list have now been proven to be true: Yes. I’m convinced that almost all the items on the list are genuine – or was genuine at some point (a few were probably old records that have been canceled). And for the past few months, I’ve been working my way up to a cross-border frenzy by thinking of one game on the list: Final Fantasy 9 Remake.
That name excites me. It haunts me, too. Final Fantasy 9 is my favorite Final Fantasy and my favorite JRPG. It’s a game made when Squaresoft was at its creative peak in the year 2000. It was the last Final Fantasy with the direct involvement of series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi. To me, it’s a game that embodies “they do not make them the way they used to,” ironically considering that at the time it was designed as a return to Final Fantasys from the 90s.
There is no re-recording, I can imagine being higher stakes for me personally.
I do not know if I think modern Square Enix can do a Final Fantasy 9 Remake justice because so much of its spirit is rooted in its “retro” design. I do not think Final Fantasy 9 is Final Fantasy 9 without its turn-based battles, picturesque cities, playful script or comically proportioned characters. If Final Fantasy 7 Remake is the template, a remake would push for more realistic graphics and more actiony combat. The game would be largely or completely rewritten. That road would lead to a Final Fantasy 9 that was 20 years newer, for sure. But better? I very much doubt that.
It’s not impossible Square could get it right. In 2020, the study was published Mana’s trials, a remake of a Super Nintendo RPG that remained impressively faithful while the game was being translated into 3D. But going from 2D to 3D gave developers more freedom to update Trials of Mana’s design: Final Fantasy 9 would require a much lighter touch and a much larger budget to do it justice, because it’s a vast game.
This fan rendition created in 2019 is more or less what my dream FF9 remake would be see which, I think: it stays close to the original art while being rebuilt in 3D.
Final Fantasy 9 var already transferred to PC in 2016, so whatever this remake is, it should be more comprehensive than a pure polished “remaster” of the original game. And just as much as I love it, there are things I think could be improved. The combat system pushed the original PlayStation beyond its limits with long spell animations that created an annoying delay between entering commands and watching them play out. Its trance system, a spin on FF7’s boundary breach, is so difficult to trigger strategically that it’s virtually useless. Some of the party members’ history arcs could use some more scenes to really pay off. The final boss could probably cope with a little more forethought.
If Square Enix sticks its hands back inside the game and starts messing around, I hope none of the people involved in writing the Final Fantasy 7 Remake are going to touch it. They would commit unforgivable dialogue crimes with characters I love dearly and I do not know if my heart could handle it. As much as I would love to see my imaginary perfect version of Final Fantasy 9 come to life, I would rather not see it at all. The 2016 PC version is greatly enhanced by the fan-made Moguri modwho do as much as possible to clean up the original game’s 2D backgrounds and correct errors caused in the porting process.
But I believe it is genuine and will come whether I want it or not. I still think it’s a surprising choice for a remake; Unlike Final Fantasy 7, Square has never made sequels or spin-offs to FF9, but perhaps it has proven to be enduringly popular over the years in all of its ports and re-releases. The Nvidia leak has been proven accurate too many times for me to be in doubt at this point, and a French comics studio is currently working on customizing the game for an animated series– it would just be too bizarre without a new game coming too. After months of deliberation, I am ready for the message to hit me either as a moment of pure joy or a knife to the heart (perhaps both, in that order, the more I see of it).
There are a few fantasies that give me hope that a remake can do my favorite RPG justice. One is Square, announcing that the remake will be directed by Hiroyuki Ito, who directed the original game and recently appeared inside Square Enix with his first new game in 15 years. The second scenario is even less likely: Square hires Hironobu Sakaguchi’s studio Mistwalker to re-record Final Fantasy 9 as his swan song, giving Final Fantasy’s father one last chance to make his mark on the series.
FF9’s by Alexandria, built out of physical dioramas like the world in Mistwalker’s RPG Fantasian? Now it’s a real fantasy that comes to life.