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The lost art of Final Fantasy IX (Mama Robotnik Research Thread)

Burbeting

Banned
These pictures make me appreciate FF9 even more aesthetic-wise. Utterly beautiful, really bummed that they couldn't truly flourish in PS1 :(.
 

Clott

Member
Obiovusly this isn't nearly all the BG assets in the game, but surely there must be some way to import these via emulator?

I get the impression that these are mere pictures, or screen capture of the assets. I think one of the square guys admitted to much of the assets to PS1 games being lost. But who really knows. Who could we tweet for an answer?
 

SolVanderlyn

Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
These pictures make me appreciate FF9 even more aesthetic-wise. Utterly beautiful, really bummed that they couldn't truly flourish in PS1 :(.
Ironically, it's because of this that they did show what the PS1 was capable of. FFIX really pushed it to its limit.
 

P90

Member
How did I miss this thread earlier? Mama Robotinik threads are the best. FF IX is one of the best games of all time. :)
 

Finalizer

Member
Oh man, glad I caught this thread before it got buried again, heh. Thanks for this collection, really incredible stuff. Love seeing all this art for one of my all-time favorite games.
 

NyMartin

Banned
This game is the first I ever played of the series when I was 10 years old. I got to the ice dragon and one of the vivi master clones in the ice cavern couldnt beat it then, I came back to the game when I was 17 years old and it was an amazing experience.

Many of you say Square doesn't have these assets anymore to do an HD remaster.
Just curious does this work like game franchise rights? If so who owns them now?

I think the closest remaster we'll get is if this is released on steam unfortunately
 
It won't get released on Steam because there was never a native PC port like for VII and VIII.


I've always suspected that Lindblum must've been recycled from the original concepts for Final Fantasy VII.

MIdgar concept art, FFVII:
Midgar_FFVII_Early_Concept_Art.jpg


Linblum concept art, FFIX:
puIHYym.jpg
 

[Fugo]

Member
I'm replaying FFIX in these days for the first time after release.

This game is so charming!! I think it would benefit from an HD rerelease far more than VII/VIII - it's just so much more ambitious.
The assets in the OP make me wonder if at some time they considered releasing it on PS2 too - that would explain the resolution and the detail which could never be seen at PS1 resolution. Also the battle loading - camera panning is hideous, would work so much better with quick loading a-là FFVII.
 
I did some googling for Final Fantasy concept art and stumbled across the portfolio for artist Cecil Kim. Some of his art appears in the OP but there are a few pieces more which do not.
http://www.cecilkim.com/environment/front.htm
The above link seems to be an old version of his website. His current website has just a few FFIX pieces and they are all represented in the OP.


Here are some that are not in the OP (unless I overlooked them)

05x.jpg

02x.jpg

03x.jpg

04x.jpg

07x.jpg

08x.jpg

11x.jpg

14x.jpg

15x.jpg



Is this some nutty early concept from FFIX? I vaguely recall seeing something like this in "The Art of Final Fantasy IX" (which I no longer, own, sadly). This is sandwiched between other FFIX art. EDIT: I consulted my (much-loved) Volume 2 of the Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary Ultimania, and can confirm that, yes, "Apetown" was a scapped idea and is legitimate concept art.
13x.jpg


Will post again if I dig up more.
 
Watchin all this amazing art again (FFIX is my favourite jrpg) it reminds me of Bravely Default. Its like a little FFIX-2 lol
Bravely Second needs bigger cities with houses to enter an we will be all set! Hope thevy got more money know after selling so well.
 

Alric

Member
I always wondered with older games like this if square still had the original uncompressed pre-rendered CGI backgrounds they could pretty much release a real HD version could they not?
 
I consulted my (much-loved) Volume 2 of the Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary Ultimania, and can confirm that, yes, "Apetown" was a scapped idea and is legitimate concept art.

Here's the scan I made.

Larger version available here. http://imgur.com/a/CQEHv
 

maverickjs

Neo Member
Really beautiful screens, it's cool to see that they did that kind of work back then.

I agree with op, and this is my favorite Final Fantasy as well, the characters were a welcome change of pace from the previous two games and they were actually enjoyable companions. Eiko and Vivi especially were brilliant :)
 
IX probably had the best traditional fantasy setting of the contemporary mainstream FF games. I wonder if they'll ever decide to go back to such a setting in a future installment, not counting spin-off games live Bravely Default.
 

bengraven

Member
This thread reminds me that while I remember adoring FFIX, I don't remember ANY of these settings.

I remember the characters (though none of their names except Zidane and Dagger - can't remember her real name). None of these locations in the OP look familiar to me at all, except the ship maybe.

And I put 74 hours into this game back on the PSone.

So strange.
 
In XV we trust.
Not even close. XV has a very modern day setting. There are fantasy elements as in all FF games, but XV is probably far close to something like VIII. The developers even said that XV is going to have a very contemporary setting as opposed to either fantasy or futuristic.
 

wmlk

Member
Not even close. XV has a very modern day setting. There are fantasy elements as in all FF games, but XV is probably far close to something like VIII. The developers even said that XV is going to have a very contemporary setting as opposed to either fantasy or futuristic.

I don't see anything "modern" about Accordo in that picture. There will likely be purely classical and modern settings in XV, as well as a mixture of classical and modern. That's one thing I'm really excited for.
 

Aureon

Please do not let me serve on a jury. I am actually a crazy person.
IX probably had the best traditional fantasy setting of the contemporary mainstream FF games. I wonder if they'll ever decide to go back to such a setting in a future installment, not counting spin-off games live Bravely Default.

XIV:ARR is pretty similar in style.
Not as good, but very, very similar.
 
I don't see anything "modern" about Accordo in that picture. There will likely be purely classical and modern settings in XV, as well as a mixture of classical and modern. That's one thing I'm really excited for.
According to the devs, there will be medieval elements but they're focusing on a more "realistic" style this time around. The cars look like cars that exist in our world today and some of the cities are actually based off real world places. Apparently, they are also going to tackle real world type of issues as well. That's supposed one of the "selling points" of XV in that they're going a different approach and even using the tagline "this is a fantasy based on reality."

At least from what I've seen, the closest fantasy heavy game post IX would probably be XII. Type-0 looks close to that, but that's more of a spin-off. I know it's asking to me also but I would really love for them to go back to the old overworld maps. I miss those.

XIV:ARR is pretty similar in style.
Not as good, but very, very similar.
Yeah you're right. I always forget those since I never really consider the MMOs as part of the main series, but they obviously are.
 

wmlk

Member
According to the devs, there will be medieval elements but they're focusing on a more "realistic" style this time around. The cars look like cars that exist in our world today and some of the cities are actually based off real world places. Apparently, they are also going to tackle real world type of issues as well. That's supposed one of the "selling points" of XV in that they're going a different approach and even using the tagline "this is a fantasy based on reality."

At least from what I've seen, the closest fantasy heavy game post IX would probably be XII. Type-0 looks close to that, but that's more of a spin-off. I know it's asking to me also but I would really love for them to go back to the old overworld maps. I miss those.

I understand that, but really the only two cities we have seen so far are Lucis and Accordo. Lucis looks very modern and Accordo is nearly purely classical. I don't think we will just see districts in Tokyo or New York or Venice for the entire game, we will likely see varying degrees of inspiration (for reference, Venice has been turned into a classical setting).

Also, Tenebrae is probably meant to be juxtaposed with Lucis, just how Tenebrae's white theme is juxtaposed with Lucis' black theme. Going off this, I think Tenebrae is going to be high-fantasy.
 
I understand that, but really the only two cities we have seen so far are Lucis and Accordo. Lucis looks very modern and Accordo is nearly purely classical. I don't think we will just see districts in Tokyo or New York or Venice for the entire game, we will likely see varying degrees of inspiration (for reference, Venice has been turned into a classical setting).

Also, Tenebrae is probably meant to be juxtaposed with Lucis, just how Tenebrae's white theme is juxtaposed with Lucis' black theme. Going off this, I think Tenebrae is going to be high-fantasy.
But when comparing to what setting would be closest to FFIX, XV wouldn't be the first choice. As the poster above me said, XIV and even XII are closer to a more traditional fantasy setting post IX. Of course, XV is going to have fantasy elements but when trying to compare it to IX, it doesn't even come close. Besides, I'm not just going by what we saw but what the developers themselves have said which is that this game is going to be more of a "realistic" world in many different aspects.

Sorry for the derail anyhow. In a somewhat on topic sense, I was just trying to say it would be cool to see another FF game with a similar setting and environmental art style.
 

genjiZERO

Member
Very nice thread. However, I have to say 9 has never been one of my favorites. It was fun, but I found the gameplay to be too slow and the story and characters just OK. It never really clicked with me.
 
According to the devs, there will be medieval elements but they're focusing on a more "realistic" style this time around. The cars look like cars that exist in our world today and some of the cities are actually based off real world places. Apparently, they are also going to tackle real world type of issues as well. That's supposed one of the "selling points" of XV in that they're going a different approach and even using the tagline "this is a fantasy based on reality."
The whole "fantasy based on reality" seems to be more towards the story and characters than the setting. It's supposed to be a more realistic drama, with characters more easy to relate to, and real world situations, but set within a fantasy world. I dont' think FFXV's world is less fantasy than the others, actually. They made it a point that the crystal kingdoms are modern, while the nations outside of that are in an industrial medieval state(medieval with capability of magitek weapons and other war technology).
 
The whole "fantasy based on reality" seems to be more towards the story and characters than the setting. It's supposed to be a more realistic drama, with characters more easy to relate to, and real world situations, but set within a fantasy world. I dont' think FFXV's world is less fantasy than the others, actually. They made it a point that the crystal kingdoms are modern, while the nations outside of that are in an industrial medieval state(medieval with capability of magitek weapons and other war technology).
I understand that but they also said some of the setting and technology are more similar to our modern world. I'm just saying when comparing it to FFIX which has a much stronger traditional type of fantasy setting, there are better examples such as XII and XIV.
 

meppi

Member
just stumbled onto this thread. Holy shit, subscribed for later! (still haven't played IX proper yet)

Same here, I only started it once many years ago for maybe an hour or so and got distracted by something else.
Now I want to buy it again on PSN to play it on Vita...
 
I understand that but they also said some of the setting and technology are more similar to our modern world. I'm just saying when comparing it to FFIX which has a much stronger traditional type of fantasy setting, there are better examples such as XII and XIV.

I think the closest FF game to come to FFIX's setting is the original Crystal Chronicles. FFIX has a sort of whimsical world that I don't think has been seen since in the main series(at the least). That being said, I'd be up for another mainline FF that echoes such whimsy, visually at the least. Probably will never happen, but in a perfect world, it would.
 

Chitown B

Member
started to play this on Vita after telling myself I needed to play it, for years. I remember when it was supposed to come out for PC and then never did - so I never played it because I didn't own a PS1. And then I slowly forgot about it. It's so good! Love the art style and setting, and the characters are great.
 
More art!

In addition to concept and background art, Square also subcontracted some of the FMVs of the game. Three out of the sixty minutes of FMVs were subcontracted to a French company, Ex Machina. This company, in turn, asked a sculptor, Charles-Éric Gogny, to create a model of Lindblum that would serve as the basis for the 3D work in Maya and compositing work in Adobe AfterEffect and Avid Media Illusion.

5d5zBlH.jpg


Q3TBOmi.jpg


xe6vUHD.jpg


fb5xf8v.jpg


esAiGs9.jpg


BJ0B7Xw.jpg


65scXDG.jpg


Z97aXvi.jpg


4O6Empg.jpg


Source: http://www.chimeric.org/page60.html
 

Necron

Member
Replaying Final Fantasy IX on the PS3 (with the original PS1 discs) at the moment with my girlfriend (in the kind of semi 2-player mode which was included in the game). We've just reached Lindblum.

It still holds up extremely well and runs well for the most part. The audio somehow gets slower during battle at certain stages - is that normal? Was it always like that and I just never noticed or is it because of the emulator?

This thread is fantastic and makes me wonder if the original assets are still around somewhere...
 
I'll be happy when Mama Robotnik stops ripping off my threads.
I posted all this verbatim on geonaf eleventeen years ago.

shame -__-
 

Aureon

Please do not let me serve on a jury. I am actually a crazy person.
More art!

In addition to concept and background art, Square also subcontracted some of the FMVs of the game. Three out of the sixty minutes of FMVs were subcontracted to a French company, Ex Machina. This company, in turn, asked a sculptor, Charles-Éric Gogny, to create a model of Lindblum that would serve as the basis for the 3D work in Maya and compositing work in Adobe AfterEffect and Avid Media Illusion.
<images>

Source: http://www.chimeric.org/page60.html

Okay, where's the 3d model. I'm going to 3d print this, and paint this. I swear.
I'd go outrageous lengths to acquire a 3d model of Lindblum to hold on my shelf.
 
Had to bump this.

Any way with all the HD remakes they did lately that some game journalist can ask them point blank if they still have the assets for PSone games?

Seriously, that's important don't just let them get away with easy questions go for the kill.

We kinda need it.
 
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