The long-rumored Final Fantasy 9 remake is currently stalling despite being quite far along – at least for now, according to one report.
In comments made last month that are now doing the rounds of the internet, veteran games journalist Alex Donaldson of RPGsite and recently Respec delves into what's going on with one of the industry's most notoriously unannounced projects.
Per Donaldson, the Final Fantasy 9 project was a single game and was quite far along in development before it eventually ground to a halt. As of right now, the JRPG remake is no longer moving forward.
If you're feeling deflated, though, there is some hope. Donaldson notes that the new mobile Dissidia game was basically canceled for over a year before eventually being revived. Given that Final Fantasy 9's remake project has a lot of work already done, the same could happen here.
Mind you, "illustrations created as potential box art and as key art were just tweeted out for the anniversary," so you might not want to get your hopes up too much.
Donaldson's remarks came as part of a wider discussion of a Final Fantasy 14 Fan Fest panel featuring director and producer Naoki "Yoshi-P" Yoshida and Final Fantasy 7 Revelation lead Naoki Hamaguchi. Not only did Yoshi-P turn heads by saying that remakes of FF6, FF8, and FF9 would need multiple installments, but he also pointed out that fans want Hamaguchi to direct FF17, and what better praise of someone could that be?
In short, per Donaldson, the veteran Final Fantasy 14 boss has a habit of disguising a teaser as speculation.
For example, when showing off the MMO's Dawntrail expansion, he turned a few heads by saying the reason behind the FF9 nods was "a secret." If we're talking about rumored timelines, it's interesting that a Final Fantasy 9 remake was reportedly in the works at that point.
As such, his pointing out how difficult it would be to remake such a game at the moment can read as a soft confirmation that it's too difficult to press ahead with the project right now.
In a similar way, it's noteworthy that he would point out how people would like Hamaguchi to direct the next mainline Final Fantasy game, especially with FF7: Revelation due to wrap up the trilogy next year.
Of course, there's a reason certain projects aren't official: things can change. Games that make sense in one moment don't in the next, so even if something is teased, you might not want to look into something too much until it comes from the source itself.
Final Fantasy 9's own rumored remake is a good example of that in action. We first caught wind of the project as part of an infamous Nvidia leak that's slowly but surely confirmed the plans of many differing developers and publishers. Since then, while we haven't heard anything official from Square Enix, we have received the odd update from outside sources with decent track records.
Just earlier this year, for example, one such source said the JRPG project is on ice.
As ever, take everything you read with a pinch of salt as plans change, accounts conflict, and sometimes a random remark is just that, rather than a tease of what's to come. Still, if you were looking forward to the unannounced Final Fantasy 9 remake actually being announced, you may want to put it to the back of your mind for now.
