Director says Final Fantasy 9 references in FF14 Dawntrail are a ‘secret’, amid remake reports

Final Fantasy 14 director Naoki Yoshida has said that the reason for many references to Final Fantasy 9 in the upcoming expansion is a “secret”.

“You may have noticed a lot of Final Fantasy 9 references here… the reason is a secret,” Yoshida said at PAX East while announcing several pre-order and digital bonuses for Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail that reference the game.

In 2021, a Final Fantasy 9 remake was one of many unannounced titles listed in a GeForce Now database leak.

These included several Square Enix games that would later be officially confirmed such as the PC version of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, a Chrono Cross remaster and Kingdom Hearts 4.

While a Final Fantasy 9 remake has yet to be announced, Giant Bomb reporter Jeff Grubb claimed last year: “I will say I heard very recently, once again, Final Fantasy 9 remake is real, that is real and happening.”

Gematsu subsequently reported that a Final Fantasy 9 remake is currently in development too.

Final Fantasy 9 was originally released in 2000 for the PlayStation. It was directed by Hiroyuki Ito who would later direct Final Fantasy 12.

The game was re-released in 2010 as a PS1 Classic for PS3 and PSP, with Vita support arriving in 2012.

In 2016, the game was released for mobile and PC. It then came to PS4 in 2017, and to Xbox One and Nintendo Switch in 2019.