Final Fantasy 9 Remake more likely after Kingdom Hearts 4 reveal

square enix remaster jrpg

A Final Fantasy 9 remake looks more likely than ever following yesterday’s surprise Kingdom Hearts 4 reveal.

During its 20th anniversary event livestream, Square Enix gave us our first look at the sequel which sees Sora and pals transported to a new world besieged by Heartless. We also got news on two Kingdom Hearts mobile games, including the newly revealed Kingdom Hearts Missing Link.

Read more: Final Fantasy 6 Remake should be the next game in the series

Even if you aren’t particularly fond of the Disney crossover series, the news of KH4’s existence is hugely significant to JRPG fans. It’s the latest in a long list of game titles leaked when a NVIDIA GEForce NOW user uncovered a database of unannounced titles. At the time, many of these were presumed to be speculative or placeholders, yet we’ve seen a number of them officially announced and released, including Crysis 4, as well as God of War and Uncharted: The Legacy of Thieves for the PC.

A number of Square Enix titles were on the list too, including a PC port of Final Fantasy VII Remake Integrade and the recently release Chrono Cross: Radical Dreamers Edition. Next to Kingdom Hearts 4, the last game on that list is Final Fantasy IX.

While it looks promising for FF9 (personally my favourite in the long-running series) there’s no official confirmation, of course. There’s also the possibility that Square had started working on Final Fantasy 9 Remake only to can the project later down the line.

Originally released on 2000 for the PS1, IX put the Fantasy in Final Fantasy in an epic four-disc saga starring some of the series’ most memorable heroes. Exactly how far Square would go with its effort to remake the game are unknown though it wouldn’t be anywhere near the same size or scope as its work on the FF7 Remake. At the same time, a simple makeover with light graphical enhancements seems unlikely, given how a visually improved version of the JRPG is already available on most systems.

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Senior Editor bursting with lukewarm takes and useless gaming trivia. May as well surgically attach my DualSense at this point.