Final Fantasy 14 producer teases "secret" Final Fantasy 9 connection in Dawntrail expansion
On top of announcing the release date for Final Fantasy 14's next expansion, Dawntrail, at PAX East over the weekend, producer Yoshi-P set Final Fantasy tongues wagging even further by mentioning the words "Final Fantasy 9" and "secret" in the same sentence. Many of the pre-order and special edition bonus items players can get with the upcoming Dawntrail expansion are suspiciously FF9-themed, you see, but when pointing this out to PAX-goers, Yoshi-P said "the reason is a secret" for now, sparking fresh rumours about Square Enix's supposed Final Fantasy IX remake/remaster.
"You may have noticed a lot of Final Fantasy 9 references here, but the reason is a secret," he said via translator (skip to 1.03.35-ish for the exact moment during the panel).
The items in question include a mount version of FF9's Ark eidolon summon (which can transform into an airship and mech-like robot at will) and wind-up minions of both Zidane and Garnet, the game's two lead protagonists. I'm not going to pretend I know what a wind-up minion is or does, but the Ark mount certainly cuts a striking portrait out on the battlefield.
Of course, while the reason behind their inclusion in FF14 may be a secret for now, the reason why everyone's so excited about Yoshi-P's tease is, thankfully, much easier to get to the bottom of. Back in 2021, you may remember the big Nvidia leak of upcoming games supposedly coming to its cloud-based GeForce Now subscription service, and yep, on that list was a remake of Final Fantasy IX. Rumours have been swirling ever since, even though we've seen hide nor hair of such a remake, either from Square Enix themselves or other sources.
There's been a lot of chatter about Final Fantasy remakes and remasters lately, and most of it has come straight from series producer Yoshinori Kitase himself in the run-up to the release of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. In February, he said we shouldn't expect a FF8 Remake after the FF7 project wraps up as it's "simply too much work", and
Read more on rockpapershotgun.com
