Square Enix is allegedly planning a new remake, for PS1 game Final Fantasy 9, and apparently it’s going to keep things old school.
Normally there’s a great deal of suspicion and cynicism when publishers all jump on the same bandwagon but it’s very hard to get upset about the current fashion for high-end remakes of classic games, simply because all of them so far have turned out very well.
It all started with Resident Evil 2 but since then we’ve had everything from Dead Space to Final Fantasy 7, with the likes of Silent Hill 2 and Splinter Cell currently on their way… and potentially Final Fantasy 9 as well.
It’s always seemed an odd choice, especially given how the original would have to be completely reworked for the modern era, but according to insider Jeff Grubb he has heard ‘very recently’ that a Final Fantasy 9 remake is real and actually happening.
Although he’s had more hits than misses, Grubb is not always accurate, but his comments came while discussing potential reveals and he referenced the 2021 Nvidia mega leak, which was originally considered by many to be a fake but has since proven to be extremely accurate.
As Grubb points out, the recently announced Helldivers 2 was on the list and everything in the link from Square Enix has since proven to be real, even impossible to predict stuff like the Chrono Cross remaster.
The only exceptions are a Final Fantasy Tactics remaster and… Final Fantasy 9. Although Grubb claims to have corroboration that the remake exists his other comments, about it being a more action-orientated game in the style of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, seem to be purely speculation and he doesn’t appear to have any specific information about the remake itself.
However, a second source on ResetEra claims that the remake’s approach is more traditional, implying turn-based combat. The poster Im A Hero Too also appears to agree with Grubb when he says the scope of the remake is somewhere between the Crisis Core remaster (which had so much work done to it, it was practically a remake) and the much more expensive Final Fantasy 7 Remake.
Even so, it does still seem an odd choice, since while popular with fans Final Fantasy 9 has never had much impact on the franchise as a whole and doesn’t have the mainstream cachet of Final Fantasy 7.
Final Fantasy 9 was originally released on the original PlayStation in 2000 and was the last of the traditional turn-based games. It featured pre-rendered, Resident Evil style backdrops which are impossible to upgrade without completely remaking them.
However, the choice makes more sense if you see it as an attempt to please fans put off by Final Fantasy 16, which features very few traditional elements from the series and purely real-time combat.
If the remake is real there’s presumably a chance it will be revealed at either the Summer Game Fest event on Thursday or the Xbox Games Showcase this weekend, although so far none of the rumours mention that specifically.
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