Final Fantasy 14 Producer Teases 'Secret' Reason for FF9 References in Dawntrail Expansion

gamerant.com:

Producer and director of Final Fantasy 14, Naoki Yoshida, has recently teased a «secret» reason behind the upcoming Dawntrail expansion's references to Final Fantasy 9. Final Fantasy 14's Dawntrail expansion was first revealed last July, which is the game's fifth major expansion pack. This expansion sees players taking to the seas and visiting a brand-new land called Tural, set in the West.

Square Enix and Yoshida were present at this year's PAX East, with a full panel dedicated to Final Fantasy 14. During this panel, Yoshida revealed Dawntrail's release date for later this July, along with confirming pre-orders for the expansion beginning on March 26. Players who pre-order this expansion will be granted early access to the expansion's content, along with pre-order bonus items such as Azeyma's Earrings. The panel also revealed a number of purchasable items, which are references to Final Fantasy 9.

During the Final Fantasy 14 PAX East panel, Yoshida revealed a brand-new mount and in-game minions being added with the Dawntrail Expansion. The minions were based off of Zidane and Garnet, who are the protagonists of Final Fantasy 9. The mount is based on the Eidolon Ark, a shadow elemental summon who is a dragon-shaped airship that can transform into a robot. Naoki Yoshida confirmed these were deliberate references to Final Fantasy 9, but then said that the reason why is something for fans to find out later. «You may have noticed a lot of Final Fantasy 9 references here, but the reason is a secret,» said Yoshida during the panel (around 1:03:40 in the official vod).

While Final Fantasy 14 could simply be promoting an in-game event, the biggest theory floating around is that these secrets could be related to a remake of Final Fantasy 9. Rumors about a Final Fantasy 9 remake have been floating around ever since the NVIDIA GeForce leak in 2021, and a number of games from the leak ended up being released. These include the likes of Street Fighter 6, Mortal Kombat 1, and the PC