7 Final Fantasy IX Facts You Probably Didn't Know

when final fantasy 9 arrived right at the end of the playstation's life cycle it represented a departure from the two games that had preceded it and the game that would follow soon after on the playstation 2. but this was an intentional act as final fantasy 9 would be the final single digit installment hironobu sakaguchi worked with hiroyuki ito to craft a game that had the central theme of reflection this would see the game feature references to everything that had happened throughout the history of the franchise up until that point so that sakaguchi could create what he considered to be his ideal view of what final fantasy should be but that in itself posed a problem due to his earlier decision to have each game be a self-contained entity final fantasy was ever evolving and it meant they had a rich source of material to pull from but the flip side was that they found it difficult to narrow down the elements that warranted inclusion and it saw final fantasy 9 encounter numerous changes throughout its development cycle as you can imagine this means there are plenty of morsels of information surrounding the creation of the game as well as hidden details that reside within the final product and we're going to be delving into some of them today the hope as is always the case with our videos is that the ones we've selected are insightful on multiple levels beyond just being a headline and that's the main criteria we've tried to base it on is there an interesting insight or angle to the wider story that's why we won't be talking in more detail about things like the well-known easter egg in limbleum where zedan makes reference to seeing cloudstrikes bust a sword on the wall of the weapon shop that the developers ended up changing the ending seven times as they couldn't agree on how the game should conclude or that hades not necron was meant to be the final boss in an earlier draft of the game instead our first fact relates to the odd set of circumstances surrounding the initial announcement of final fantasy ix but before we delve into that here's a message from the sponsor of today's video audible audible has the largest selection of audio books available anywhere but the depth of content is now even more expansive as it also includes audible originals like the true chrome thriller called heist from sir michael kane a special podcast you can only find on audible lauren and i have been using audible to revisit the lord of the rings trilogy and it's been great to listen to the epic story while we're unwinding in the evening as even though it was recorded some time ago now rob inglis's narration just has a certain charm there's also guided wellness programs theatrical performances and comedy shows and at the moment members are able to download all of the audible original monthly selections instead of the usual 2. sign up today at audible.com forward slash ffunion or text ffunion to 500 500 to get started with a 30-day audible trial and use your free audio book credit to get any audio book you choose that's audible.com forward slash ffunion or text ffunion to 500 500 now in an official sense final fantasy 9 was announced right at the start of the year 2000 alongside final fantasy 10 and final fantasy xi these announcements took place at an exclusive event hosted by square in japan called the square millennium event and over 10 000 lucky fans were in attendance such was the magnitude of the event that square kept delaying it as they feared the announcements many of which related to gains being developed for the yet to be released playstation 2 would have a detrimental impact on the sales of their already released properties nonetheless when the event happened it was an amazing spectacle and of the three final fantasy games announced final fantasy 9 was positioned as a swan song for the franchise on the original playstation serving as a tribute to everything that had come before not only that they revealed that fans wouldn't have to wait long until they could play it as final fantasy 9 will be releasing during the summer of that year but what many people don't know is that despite all of the bluster final fantasy 9 had actually been announced many years prior and weirdly enough it was announced before they'd even spoken about working on final fantasy viii around the time that final fantasy 7 was being released in japan square had just opened their third operation in north america under the umbrella of square usa it was called square pictures and it was established in hawaii allowing it to act as a go-between for japan and los angeles where squaresoft and square usa were primarily based opening up square pictures was a significant undertaking with the new studio costing a reported 45 million dollars and square wanted to make use of that investment as soon as possible they also wanted to make sure that those external to the company understood its purpose too as a way of justifying the expense and showing their credentials and so on the 8th of april 1997 less than three months after final fantasy vii had shipped they revealed to the world according to a report by madman's cafe that work had already commenced on final fantasy 9 not final fantasy 8. it feels kind of backwards but it made sense as while final fantasy 8 would be developed in japan development of final fantasy 9 would take place almost entirely at this new studio in hawaii and hironobu sakaguchi will be moving to hawaii to oversee everything details at this point were naturally limited but what they did share was that one of the primary reasons for final fantasy 9 being developed in this way was that they wanted to create a game that had a more cg movie look and feel and to do that they needed to make use of the talents on offer in their hawaii studio final fantasy 8 wouldn't be announced until over a year later when square hosted a press conference in japan to unveil their next major work now after the initial communications about final fantasy 9 everything then went silent as the tension naturally shifted towards final fantasy 8. but early in 1999 not long after final fantasy 8 had shipped in japan the gaming intelligence agency received word from a trusted insider that they had seen early footage of final fantasy 9 and that they had also come into possession of some of the game's design documents they spoke about how the game would break away from the more realistic style presented within final fantasy 7 and 8. it would instead feature super deformed characters that resembled hobbits they also said the game would feel much closer to the nes and snares games and would feature characters and locations that would serve as strong allusions to the more traditional games from the franchise's past but even though this description sounds very in tune with what we saw within the final product within the aforementioned design documents what was shown was almost unrecognizable there were initial designs for numerous jobs some of which like vikings and witches had seldom been used before within the franchise two characters called bahamut dragoon and leviathan dragoon were also present alongside early concepts for black mages and burmese and dragoons and such was the significance of this stylistic departure from the two previous games that for a long time square were unsure about whether the game should even be called final fantasy 9. when speaking with next generation online on the 17th of may 1999 shinji hashimoto commented on the potential of final fantasy 9 saying whether it will be called final fantasy 9 or not is yet to be decided at squaresoft we are always looking to come up with cutting-edge storylines and systems whether that new storyline will be called final fantasy 9 has not been decided this led to speculation that the game featured within the leaked documents would instead be something else one potential was final fantasy tactics 2. another was that it would be some kind of new spin-off similar to what final fantasy tactics have been two years prior and it was also considered that due to the similarities that this game could be a hard reboot of the original final fantasy for whatever reason though many of the concepts found within these design documents were shelved or reworked into something else this then made the game fit more in line with what had been seen within previous installments and it meant that the team felt more comfortable calling it final fantasy 9 when it was officially unveiled during the square millennium event now final fantasy 9 featured a host of powerful and unique characters they each had their own motivations and at the start of the game one of them called general beatrix came across as a cold callous military general who followed the orders of her superiors without question after squaring off against her numerous times throughout the game players also got to learn about why her combat prowess was known across the land and these elements combined with the moment that beatrix defected helped to cement her as a very memorable character but according to earlier drafts of the game the role of general beatrix was planned to be very different almost a decade ago hironobu sakaguchi published some of final fantasy 9's planning notes online this was something he did as part of his blog a way of connecting with mistwalker's audience but in this particular post sakaguchi shared earlier drafts of final fantasy 9's opening sequence as he felt there were some parallels with the last story what we saw within these design documents was that the initial story followed a similar path to what was found within the final game it still revolved around sedan meeting garnett for the first time and heard an absconding from the palace but there was one key difference beatrix did not feature instead steiner was the one who appeared by the side of queen bronn alone as revisions took place it was decided that the character of steiner who has planned to be a noble paladin who commanded the alexandrian empire should be split down the middle with a new character called beatrix obtaining all the positive traits and steiner receiving the more negative ones it saw beatrix gain the noble reputation as a feared soldier and this saw her positioned as the general of the alexandrian army she was also given steiner's paladin job as well as a typical redemption story arc associated with characters who had the paladin job steiner was instead made into a knight and his more noble personality traits such as his chivalry were accentuated to the point of being made comedic his competency as a knight was also downplayed he did still command a small troop of soldiers called the knights of pluto but they provided no real utility to the alexandria army and were often seen as being inept to the point where it was humorous despite this change though steiner remained as a prominent member of the playable cast whereas beatrix served as an antagonist before shifting sides and becoming a temporarily playable character later on but one thing remained they both had steadfast loyalty to princess garnett who alongside sudan played a central role in final fantasy 9 as for much of the game she served as the party's driving force but even though she was designated as the princess of alexandria she was not the real daughter of queen braun the real princess garnett was born on the 15th of january 1784 but six years later she died and braun and her husband were distraught it just so happened though that around the same time murdain's sari had been attacked and a mother and daughter had managed to escape in terms of the story the mother unfortunately perished during the escape but the daughter who was the same age as garnett was found by dr todd and he immediately noticed that she bore a striking resemblance to the recently deceased princess they then removed her summoner's horn and convinced this girl that she was the princess of alexandra as it appears to suit all parties it was a rather interesting plot but there was an obscure twist as this story arc had a direct connection with the original final fantasy due to the real names of both the mother and the daughter which were sarah an ode to princess sarah and jane an ode to queen jane these names were not proactively shared throughout the main story and could only be found if a specific set of actions were taken on disk 4 the player would need to form a party with garnett and visit lani standing on ico's back porch within modain sari upon arriving lani would run away and the player would need to exit the village and return but only without garnett or amarant present they would then need to talk to lani twice read the message go to the idol on wall and walk clockwise from the entrance once the chime was heard the player then had to walk counterclockwise back to the entrance before repeating this action nine times if done correctly the player could then read murals to discover messages from garnett's father addressing jane and their daughter sarah sticking with a similar theme the dane sorry had a very deep connection with the lore of final fantasy 9 and central to this was a very small detail that was revealed in the final fantasy 9 ultimania after an incident with alexander the summoners were forced to leave the missed continent and they settled in modain sari due to its connection with the planet here they dedicated much of their time to understanding eidolons and how they could not only be summoned but controlled through their research they learned that eidolons were connected with the planet born via its crystal as its guardians from the accumulation of memories from the souls within and the even lesser known fact here is that these memories helped to determine how the idol is manifested it's why they all look so different and why even when the same idol is summoned it can manifest in a different form depending on the period and memories used shiva for example was described in the old legends as being a small pixie whereas in the present day she is clearly a grown woman this was a neat piece of law but it also served as a reference to those leaked design documents we mentioned earlier in the video as within those it was shown that shiva was originally intended to be a small pixie going back to the story though even though the summoners learned all of this they knew little of garland's wider plan also armed with the same knowledge garland realized that the summoners were one of his biggest threats as the eidolons created by gaia's crystal would be much more powerful than the eidolons created by terrorists dying crystal and it was for this reason that he ordered kuja to destroy modern sorry so that his work could continue unopposed well that was the plan at least now given that one of the core themes within final fantasy 9 was reflection the game is rammed for the allusions to the franchise's illustrious history but there were plenty of allusions to other entertainment properties as well many of these were front and center like the buster sword appearance we mentioned in the introduction or the inclusion of dialogue from star wars which we spoke about in our recent video about obscure allusions to star wars that have appeared in final fantasy games over the years but one of the more niche illusions was hidden right in plain sight and it was a tribute to one of the first games hironobu sakaguchi ever worked on cruz chaser blasty this was a science fiction role playing game that was released back in 1986 and in addition to sakaguchi it also featured the creative minds of nibiru umatsu and kasuhiko oyoki who was the event designer on final fantasy 9. central to that game was the use of mecca and one of them was called the sp ex-07 blasty a prototype mecca that could also transform to pay homage to one of their earlier works the developers placed a tribute in final fantasy 9 in the form of one of the eidolons arc unlike many of the other eidolons featured in this game arc was of terran origin not gaian and it was quite difficult to obtain but should you obtain it you could gain access to the most powerful eidolon in the game that had its design inspired by the blasty mecca and its utility as it could also transform and if you put the images side by side you can see the clear reference to the past moving away from the narrative and eidolons our last fact relates to the production of final fantasy 9's original soundtrack as it was a monumental undertaking due to the sheer scale of the work involved when final fantasy 9 released it featured the largest original soundtrack ever composed within the final fantasy franchise and not by a small margin the previous record was held by final fantasy 7 which featured 85 tracks but final fantasy 9 had 110 separate tracks featured on the commercially released album but that wasn't even the complete body of work as the score of final fantasy 9 was so large that a second soundtrack was released called final fantasy 9 plus and this contained an additional 42 pieces of music what's ironic is that at the start of production hiroyuki ito had told niburomatsu that it'd be fine if you compose tracks for the eight characters an exciting battle track a gloomy danger evoking piece and around 10 or so other tracks based on his experience umatsu knew it would need quite a few more and he ended up moving to hawaii so that he could be closer to the development staff but even though it was done with the intention of committing wholeheartedly to the project being based in hawaii did little to inspire umatsu's creative juices as the architecture was not even remotely medieval in nature and as that was the main style of the game it created a problem that meant he made limited progress for this reason rumatsu requested a break from production and he chose to venture to europe while there he visited numerous castles and soaked in the architecture and atmosphere and when he returned he ended up becoming consumed by the project due to how much creative freedom he was afforded it saw umatsu work more than 12 hours almost every day as he would come into the studio at 10 a.m and often leave after 11 p.m it was pretty extreme but what's even more extreme is that uematsu kept up this work schedule for just under a year it was only once the project finished that he dialed things down but then he felt a sense of emptiness he had been so absorbed in his work and then there was nothing else left to do and this was one of the reasons that uematsu then felt he needed assistance with final fantasy 10 as he had just poured so much into his work on final fantasy 9. and with that positive note i think we're done there were seven facts about final fantasy 9 that we feel you probably didn't know and as always we threw in a load of little bonus facts for good measure nonetheless we're pretty sure there was still some amongst you who knew them all let us know in the comments below which you found to be the most interesting and of course if you enjoyed the video please hit that like button and subscribe to our channel alright guys this is daryl signing out a big thanks to all of our patreon and youtube membership supporters and of course a big thanks to all of you for watching this video i hope to see you all again soon for more final fantasy goodness you

Channel: Final Fantasy Union

Views: 172,692

Rating: 4.9205489 out of 5

Keywords: final fantasy 9, final fantasy ix, ff9, ffix, final fantasy 9 secrets, final fantasy ix secrets, ff9 secrets, ffix secrets, final fantasy 9 ost, final fantasy 9 soundtrack, final fantasy ix garnet real name, final fantasy 9 eidolons, final fantasy ix eidolon wall secret, final fantasy ix eidolons, final fantasy 9 eidolon wall secret, final fantasy 9 ark eidolon, final fantasy 9 ark summon, final fantasy 9 facts, final fantasy 9 all secrets, final fantasy 9 secret character

Id: OI2dag-jyJc

Length: 18min 13sec (1093 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 21 2020