Final Fantasy 14's Yoshi-P adds fuel to the Final Fantasy 9 remake rumors, teases that the reason for all the Dawntrail references is "a secret"

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Digital bonuses include Zidane and Garnet minions

Zidane and Vivi look startled in a cutscene from Final Fantasy 9.
(Image credit: Square Enix)

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.

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.

Should this rumor fall flat on its face, a group of fans have lovingly recreated Final Fantasy 9's opening.  

Kaan Serin
Freelance contributor

Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that's vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he'll soon forget.