Final Fantasy 14 and 16 producer Naoki 'Yoshi-P' Yoshida has said he's wary about potentially remaking what's secretly the best game in the series, Final Fantasy 9, because it could balloon into more than a single game like the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy.
In an interview with Video Games (the website, I mean; your Xbox hasn’t gained sentience yet), Yoshida said he's aware "there are requests for Final Fantasy 9 to be [remade], but when you think about Final Fantasy 9, it's a game with huge volume." Similar to its PS1 siblings, Final Fantasy 9's polygonal world was stretched across multiple kingdoms, deserts, caves, marshes, wintry peaks, and, err, unusual places that now seem rote by Final Fantasy standards.
"When you think about all of that volume, I wonder if it's possible to remake that as a single title," Yoshida says, probably alluding to the same problem Final Fantasy 7 had with its trilogy of expensive remakes. "It's a difficult one. It is a tough question."
- 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"
- The Final Fantasy 7 remake series is "perhaps one of the best interpretations" of an RPG remake, but Hironobu Sakaguchi wants to "continue giving birth to something new"
All that "volume" could be connected by a flat, barely detailed landmass that old-school JRPGS called the world map, but giving Final Fantasy 9 the fancy remake treatment would probably mean those locations would need to be stitched together more realistically, thus inflating an already huge game.
Either way, Yoshida has said in the past that he's not working on the long-rumored project - in fact, he has no idea if a Final Fantasy 9 Remake is even in development. Elsewhere in the interview, though, Yoshida did explain that the various Final Fantasy 9 cameos in his MMO weren't a tease to any future games but rather an acknowledgment that Final Fantasy 14 is somewhat of a "theme park for the franchise."
Yoshida actually has a left-field pick for his choice of a remake, however: "The one that I would like to make myself would be Final Fantasy 3, I think."
In the meantime, why not check out the other best JRPGs to play right now?
28 years after Final Fantasy 7 introduced a generation to the concept of waifus, Tetsuya Nomura says Tifa's popularity is "not just about appearance"
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"
