With the recent port of several Final Fantasy classics on Switch and Xbox One, Square Enix has released a featurette that offers a behind the scenes glimpse at the making of Final Fantasy 9. The 20 minute video is titled Inside Final Fantasy IX. It’s the first in a new series of developer videos from Final Fantasy.
Inside Final Fantasy IX features interviews with several Final Fantasy designers: producer Shinji Hashimoto, artist Toshiyuki Itahana, event designer Kazuhiko Aoki, and event planner Nobuaki Komoto. The interviews are subtitled, which you’ll need to enable in the YouTube player.
There’s lots of neat anecdotes and insight, such as Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal being a big source of inspiration.
Final Fantasy 9 originally launched on the PlayStation almost 20 years ago, in 2000. It featured a then-retro style meant to evoke the older Final Fantasy games, compared to the more realistic tones and designs of Final Fantasy 7 and 8. It was developed alongside Final Fantasy 8 (which had just released in 1999) and proved a commercial and critical success. To this day it’s regarded as one of the best Final Fantasy games.
Final Fantasy 9 is available on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and mobile devices. It’s rated T for Teen for Blood and Violence.
