Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

Viva Vivi: Final Fantasy IX remaster coming to PCs and mobile in 2016

By
Publisher Square Enix revealed that a remastered version of its classic role-playing game
Recommended Videos
Final Fantasy IX is due to launch for PCs and mobile platforms in Japan next year with an array of exclusive features and enhancements.
Related

The Final Fantasy IX revamp follows up on the recent launch of a remastered Final Fantasy VII for PCs and the PlayStation 4 in North America.

Released for the original PlayStation in 2000, Final Fantasy IX marked a return to the series’ roots in terms of style and narrative themes. While its predecessors Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII shifted the series toward more realistic characters and settings, Final Fantasy IX instead evokes nostalgia for the 8-bit and 16-bit eras with more fanciful character designs and overt references to past Final Fantasy games.

Among other innovations, Final Fantasy IX introduced the Mognet in-game mail system, along with Active Time Events that give players a peek at what’s happening elsewhere within the game’s world at specific points during the storyline. Final Fantasy IX also includes a fully fledged collectible card game, Tetra Master, which pops up several times throughout the quest.

The new PC and mobile versions of Final Fantasy IX feature updated character models and high-resolution graphics, along with unlockable achievements and an auto-save option. Like the previously released port of Final Fantasy VII, Square Enix notes that the upgraded Final Fantasy IX will offer a high speed mode in addition to “several game boosting features.”

The updated PC and PlayStation 4 versions of Final Fantasy VII allow players to increase the game’s speed by a factor of three at any point, making it easy to speed through lengthy battles and story sequences. The revamped Final Fantasy VII also allows players to disable random battles and make their party members invincible during combat, eliminating the need to grind for experience and build character stats.

The revamped Final Fantasy IX will likely offer a similar set of features at launch. While a North American release for the remastered Final Fantasy IX has not been announced, a localization is likely, given that multiple Final Fantasy series remakes and remasters have hit Steam stateside in recent years. A release date for Square Enix’s Final Fantasy IX remaster is not yet known.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Danny Cowan
Danny Cowan
Contributor
Danny’s passion for video games was ignited upon his first encounter with Nintendo’s Duck Hunt, and years later, he still…
PSA: Don’t burn yourself out on Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’s open-world activities
Cloud from FFVII

I'm normally a completionist when it comes to games, but I wish I had told myself to push that mindset to the side before I started Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

I get the desire to do it all, I really do. In the critically acclaimed sequel, we're finally let loose outside of Midgar. Square Enix has laid a huge, lush set of biomes to stretch our legs in after being stuck in the cramped hallways and tunnels of the drab city. Despite most of the world activities in Rebirth being standard open-world fare (activating towers, scanning points of interest, and hunting down specific monsters), there's an undeniable novelty to doing it with Cloud and the rest of Avalanche. What I wish I had known before starting was just how easy it was to burn out on that feeling.

Read more
The best armor in Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth
Cloud from Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

Just like in Remake, you only have one valuable armor slot per character in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. Deciding on what you want to put there is more complicated than you think, since each piece of armor has multiple factors that determine how effective it will be, and you may want to prioritize different things for different characters. New armor will become available as you go deeper into the world of Gaia, and you can even make some yourself with the new Transmutation system, so comparing and contrasting them all can be a major chore. We get it, you're just a merc looking to get the job done, so let us worry about figuring out the best armors so you can just put them on and get back to the action.
The best armor in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
Armor in Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth have three major factors to consider when you're equipping some: the physical defense rating, magic defense rating, and Materia slots. The best armor will either focus heavily on one of these or have a strong balance of them all. Here are our picks.
Garm Bangle

The Garm Bangle is an amazing piece of physical-focused armor that becomes available once you hit the Nibel region. It has a fantastic 59 rating for regular defense, aplus a decent 28 for magic defense to keep you from being totally vulnerable to spells. Offensively, it has two pairs of linked Materia slots plus a spare, so you can still make plenty of killer magic combos for your mages.
Hades Armlet

Read more
Whatever you do, don’t skip Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’s card minigame
Queen's Blood

If you're getting ready to start your Final Fantasy VII Rebirth adventure, let me offer you fair warning: it is a long game. If you're planning to do every sidequest, minigame, and Chadley combat battle, you'll be wandering around Gaia for 100 hours. That's not an exaggeration; I hit credits in 73 hours and I still had a massive checklist of side content to complete.

Considering that length, you'll want to prioritize the best content if you want to get through the story in a timely matter. Some minigames are safe to skip, but there's one you absolutely should not sleep on: Queen's Blood. Not only is it a surprisingly deep deck-builder, but it contains a secret story all its own that makes it Rebirth's absolute best minigame.
All hail the queen
Introduced early in Rebirth's story, Queen's Blood is an optional card game that appears all over the world. It's essentially Rebirth's Gwent equivalent, giving players an in-world deck-building game to obsess over. That's become a bit of a cliché in modern open-world games, but Queen's Blood is the best take on the idea I've ever seen.

Read more