Final Fantasy 14's director dived into the MMO's upcoming expansion earlier today, announcing the Dawntrail release date and a wave of other information. But one particular line has only bolstered rumors about a potential Final Fantasy 9 remake.
Director Naoki 'Yoshi-P' Yoshida revealed all in a special presentation live-streamed from PAX East today, where he brought out Dawntrail's Collector's Edition which includes a detailed Viper figure, a beautiful cloth map, an art box, a pen case that looks like it could exist within the game's world, and some other goodies.
Digital bonuses referenced Final Fantasy 9, though. At around the 53:30 mark in the presentation, you can see FF9's Ark summon recreated in FF14 as a mount. Other digital items include a wind-up Princess Garnet (aka Dagger) minion and a chocobo brush for the new Pictomancer class. Pre-order bonuses instead include a wind-up minion for FF9's leading monkey man Zidane.
- Final Fantasy 14's Yoshi-P was unsure about referencing Final Fantasy 9 so heavily because it's a "masterpiece, and everyone has a strong emotional attachment to it"
- Final Fantasy 14 gets its biggest post-Dawntrail patch yet in 7.2 next month, adding a new Savage tier, trials, Phantom Jobs, Cosmic Exploration, and more
A Final Fantasy 9-themed mount and two minions based on the classic game's leads were enough to make the crowd cheer, though Yoshi-P wasn't done teasing. "You may have noticed a lot of Final Fantasy 9 references here," he said on stage with a smirk, "but the reason is a secret."
Of course, Yoshi-P's comment could just be hinting toward a special crossover event within Final Fantasy 14 - not unlike what's being done with Final Fantasy 16. A new raid might pit us against a winged castle or a mad queen with clown makeup. Who knows? And as always, such speculation should be taken with a grain of salt.
But rumors about a potential Final Fantasy 9 remake have been recurring since the prophetic Nvidia leak three years ago listed the game. A leaker also claimed the project was still "real" just last year, so some hopeful fans have been hungry to hear an official word for a while.
Should this rumor fall flat on its face, a group of fans have lovingly recreated Final Fantasy 9's opening.
