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Square Enix has announced that Final Fantasy IX will be coming to Android, iOS and PC sometime this year in Japan. We can however be optimistic for a western release as it was the case for the other ports of the series (and from the all-English trailer and website). SE is adding “high-definition graphics, newly added achievements, auto-save, high speed mode, and several game boosting features” to this version. For the occasion, they've released a trailer:

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Final Fantasy IX was originally released for the Sony Playstation in 2000 and sold over 5 million copies. It was one of (if not the) most graphically impressive role-playing games for the console. It also grew to become one of the most beloved of the series.

This will sure get fans of the series excited. I, for one, am.

[UPDATE]

The Steam page for the PC version of the game went live today and gave us additional information. What's most striking is the ability to disable random encounters.

Gameplay Features

・Abilities

Learn new abilities by equipping items. When fully mastered,these abilities can be used even without equipping items,allowing for nearly endless customization options.


・Trance

Fill your Trance gauge as you sustain hits in battle. When fully charged, your characters will enter Trance mode, granting them powerful new skills!


・Synthesis

Never let items go to waste. Combine two items or pieces of equipment together and make better, stronger items!


・Minigames

Whether it's Chocobo Hot and Cold, Jump Rope, or Tetra Master, there are plenty of minigames to enjoy when you're not off saving the world. You can even earn special item rewards!


Additional Features

・Achievements

・Seven game boosters including high speed and no encounter modes.

・Autosave

・High-definition movies and character models.

They've also given an approximate release date of "early 2016" and provided the system requirements.

More info:
http://www.jp.square-enix.com/ff9/en/
http://store.steampowered.com/app/377840/

 

[Chrisssj2]

OW YEAH. My dream come true!! I hope the high def graphics will be worth it.

Is this video actual footage ? cuz I dunno if I see diffrence

 

[Prans]

OW YEAH. My dream come true!! I hope the high def graphics will be worth it.

Is this video actual footage ? cuz I dunno if I see diffrence

This is from the remake, but obviously the prettier graphics are for the cut-scenes. But you can observe some more high-res, more defined graphics of this remake. There's also a seemingly different battle interface

 

[Clydefrosch]

it seems like they only ressed up the textures a little bit, but they're still using the clunky models beneath so... things will look weird.

 

[chartube12]

Fun facts, 8 and 9 were created and completed originally at the same. 9 was only held back for marketing purposes. Rather then sitting by and letting it collect dust, they made optimization among other improvements, meanwhile work on 10 started. As a result, 9 has some code in common with both 8 and 10.

 

[MaskedMarvel]

Did they increase the difficulty? Got to disc 2 recently and I would have had to fall asleep with my nose on the X button in order to have died.. As much as I loved all FFs when they came out, going back to them gets boring quick for this reason. IX in particular is heart breaking. Such a great story, mechanics, everything is top notch in this game for its time, but whats the point when you can win every fight with no challenge? A few over powered end game bosses don't change this either. For all the flack FF13 gets, it was a JRPG that was actually difficult. There is a fan made hard mod for FF9, but IMO its a little too hard, aimed at people who know every nook and cranny of the original.

 

[Zarxrax]

I remember playing this back in the day... got through the end of disc one, and then at the point where you are supposed to swap discs, somehow my save game got corrupted.... I never had the fortitude to play all the way through disc 1 all over again to see what happened next. I might give it another try now.

 

[chartube12]

I remember playing this back in the day... got through the end of disc one, and then at the point where you are supposed to swap discs, somehow my save game got corrupted.... I never had the fortitude to play all the way through disc 1 all over again to see what happened next. I might give it another try now.

8 (ps1) Has a known glitch were you shouldn't save no matter what when back in the garden, early on the second disc. Best to save before going into garden and after completing that part of the story. I assume 9 has a similar glitch?

 

[Prans]

Did they increase the difficulty? Got to disc 2 recently and I would have had to fall asleep with my nose on the X button in order to have died.. As much as I loved all FFs when they came out, going back to them gets boring quick for this reason. IX in particular is heart breaking. Such a great story, mechanics, everything is top notch in this game for its time, but whats the point when you can win every fight with no challenge? A few over powered end game bosses don't change this either. For all the flack FF13 gets, it was a JRPG that was actually difficult. There is a fan made hard mod for FF9, but IMO its a little too hard, aimed at people who know every nook and cranny of the original.

No word on any change in difficulty. But if they could implement a feature like in Bravely Default to adjust the encounter rate, it would be nice. This way it could appeal to a larger audience from beginners to pros.

 

[Hells Malice]

Easily the worst of the Final Fantasy series, and I am including 1 and 13 when I say that. Boring combat and dreadful characters.

 

[BORTZ]

URgh I would rather a 1080p remaster for PS4 or something. Re-release for phones might be great in Japan but not here...

 

[Nyteshade714]

Finally! This was my favorite Final Fantasy, simply because of the way you learned spells and such by equipping the weapon or armor that had that skill attached and using the equipment until you learned the skill. Tales of Vesperia had the same system more or less, and I loved it there too.

 

[Prans]

URgh I would rather a 1080p remaster for PS4 or something. Re-release for phones might be great in Japan but not here...

Yeah it would make more sense for a PS4 remaster, since smartphone on-screen controls are not so 'smart'. Oh well, glad to see it revived though!

 

[BORTZ]

Finally! This was my favorite Final Fantasy, simply because of the way you learned spells and such by equipping the weapon or armor that had that skill attached and using the equipment until you learned the skill. Tales of Vesperia had the same system more or less, and I loved it there too.

I was really excited when I figured that out, because I am a huge lover of the Final Fantasy Tactics Advance player, and you learn the same way. FF9 is to this day, the only game that I have ever lost sleep over. I started at about 10:30pm one night and thought, "I'll play for a little bit" and the next time I looked up, it was after 3am. That seriously never happens to me.

 

[loco365]

And a decent re-release of VI is still -1 years away...

Regardless, I might pick this up depending on what it has. I haven't played it yet so...

 

[Deleted User]

Played this on the PS1 a few years back, never really got into it. Then again there were other things going on in my life at the time that might have interferred with my enjoyment of the game. Maybe I'll pick this one up. It was a huge improvement over FF7.

 

[izy]

Gotta enjoy how the HD remake is actually just the textures and models upscaled because hardware can support it. you can tell because backgrounds especially since the backgrounds are not reworked and cutscenes are upscaled also.

Yes the models look good as good as they would have done if the ps1 supported it.

 

[Steena]

URgh I would rather a 1080p remaster for PS4 or something. Re-release for phones might be great in Japan but not here...

That's like saying you prefer the treatment REmake got over the upscaled versions of RE2 and 3. That's a given.
I mean, there are millions and millions of budget difference here. This is obviously designed to be a quick cash-in like the 2012 FFVII "remake".
Having the game on native 1080p would cost almost as much as making a brand new game, that's the bane of those pre-rendered BG games from the PS1 when it comes to remakes. There's just no way to port them efficiently.

 

[Nyteshade714]

Also worthy of note: This game could look better than the upscaled versions of Final Fantasy 7 and 8 because the artwork created for the original game actually looked MUCH better than the PS1 could display, so it all had to be downscaled to the PS1's native resolution of 320x240. Some of the original artwork can be found on this NeoGaf post here. So here's hoping this doesn't turn out to be just a direct port of the PS1 version, but a return to the original high-res artwork as well.

 

[osaka35]

FFIX is the most final fantasy-ey game of them of all. They wanted to intentionally move in a different direction after IX, so they tried to shove as many elements from previous games that made them feel like a final fantasy into this game. It was meant as a love letter to all that came before, as well as tell that heart-warming/storming story. I quite enjoyed it, and I'll enjoy the 3x speed a great deal as well

Personally I'm just excited about the potential for mods, as this will be the first time FFIX has graced the PC.