As rumors of aFinal Fantasy 9remake rage on, I worry that Square Enix will try and give it theFF7 Remaketreatment - namely, by turning it into a trilogy instead of keeping it as a single game.FF9remake rumors have existed for about as long asFF7 Remakehas - they were further bolstered whenFF9turned up on a rumored list of gamesas part of the 2021 NVIDIA leak, and rumor had it that Square was planning on announcing theFF9remake on the 25th anniversary of its original release - i.e., today.
But of course, the anniversary came and went withnoFF9remake announcement. As much as I’d love to see one of thegreatestFinal Fantasygames of all timereach a bigger audience with a modern remake, I’m willing to wait. I’m sure things like voice acting, modern graphics, and an OST revamp would doFF9justice, butSquare’s more recent practice of splitting games up into multiple parts just won’t flyin this case.
The Wait Between Final Fantasy 7 Remake Parts Has Been Hard
FF7 Remake Should’ve Been Just One Game
For all the merits ofFF7 RemakeandRebirthindividually,the splitting up ofFF7has been detrimental to the storyand gameplay of the trilogy (to date) as a whole. First, and perhaps most personally, the wait between parts has been difficult - the cliffhanger ending ofRebirthparticularly leaves you wanting more, and, now that we’re almost a year and a half out from release, the sequel still seems impossibly far away.
Besides that,FF7just isn’t big enough to fill three full-length games. Sure, there’s a massive body of lore and a huge cast of characters that Square has already drawn on to expand, but more often than not, the extra side content feels like padding. Even when the character drama is interesting, it’s distracting - don’t we have a world to save?
More often than not, they feel like roadblocks in front of the epic battles and meaningful character moments that actually make up the meat of FF7.
And the sheer amount of side content inFF7 Rebirth, particularly,makes the game feel overlong and bloated. It seems like everywhere you go, a new mini-game pops up to waste your time, and you often have to complete them repeatedly at multiple difficulty levels to win all the prizes. Map exploration activities are similarly draining.
While all these things are optional and, yes, occasionally fun, more often than not, they feel like roadblocks in front of the epic battles and meaningful character moments that actually make up the meat ofFF7.Part three of theRemaketrilogy still has a chanceto improve on what came before, but I worry thatFF9could suffer from the same treatment.
The Story Of Final Fantasy 9 Deserves To Be Told In One Go
Short, Sweet, & To The Point
FF9simply won’t hold up to a three-part adaptation - it’s a story that’s better off told, from start to finish, in a single game. The simple fact of the matter is thatFF9doesn’t have near as much source material asFF7, which had already had various spinoffs by the time theRemaketrilogy began.
FF9doesn’t have as big a cast of side charactersas a result - the few it does have are cartoonishly simple, and won’t hold up to the closer scrutiny of, say, something likeFF7 Remake’s Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge storylines. Its world, while every bit as fascinating asFF7’s, relies on fairy tale and fantasy tropes that’ll quickly get old under anFF7 Remake-style microscopic lens.
Don’t even get me started on Chocographs.
And while I will state on record thatFF9’s Tetra Master is one of the series' finest mini-games (sorry, Triple Triad fans),to expand its other side activities into game-length slogs would be a mistake. If I have to complete that jump rope challenge three different times at varying difficulty levels, I will cry. Don’t even get me started on Chocographs, especially if they’re still tied to finding the Ultima Weapons.
So, as much as I’d like to see anFF9remake, I’m worried that Square will try to stretch it out into multiple games, and fail to do it justice. I hope I’m wrong, since they could just as easily decide that the inter-game sales dropoff isn’t worth it, and release another remake in a single part. But ultimately, I’d be happy if they never remadeFinal Fantasy 9, just as long as the excellent original version is always available - it doesn’t need a makeover.
