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[jschreier]

This is phenomenal. I'm re-playing FFIX at the moment, too. Thanks for sharing, Mama Robotnik.

 

[throwawayname]

Great thread.
My first Final Fantasy, Oh don't you cry now!

 

[Moobabe]

If someone made a fixed camera RPG on any machine I'd shit myself and then buy it.

An HD "REmake" as Mama suggested would be phenomenal.

 

[Sadist]

Subscribed.

Final Fantasy IX remains to this day one of my favourite games of all time and I'd jump like mad if they ever decided to go back to this style of fantasy. In my opinion, Final Fantasy IX is the definition of fantasy. I've completed the game about six times and every time the game is a joy to play. Sure, the loading times are pretty rough. Bit of a bummer, but I can cope with that. I just love the world Sakaguchi and his team created. It's one of the few RPG's where the beginning is actually fun and exciting. Vivi's troubles with fake tickets, the "I want to be your Canary" play and the sword fight mini-game... it's cool. (I always forced myself to get all 100 nobles to clap for me during this mini-game because of the 10k gil reward)

All the areas I visited after that... just felt so exciting. When you set foot on the Outer Continent it gives you such a sense of adventure and fantasy. Plus all the characters are amazing. Quina might have been there for the comic relief, but all of the others are fantastic. Vivi <3

And the soundtrack is one of Uematsu's best works.

 

[ScOULaris]

I would cry tears of unbridled joy if Square could somehow re-release their PS1 line-up with the original, hi-res renders of the backgrounds substituted in for the downsampled ones that we got in the original releases. Can you imagine the beauty?

Sometimes I really wish that game assets were better archived over the course of development in general. Film has been meticulously archived for a long time now, and I'm always disappointed to hear that most of the time with HD remasters there is no way of going back and using original assets as they existed before downsampling. A good example of this is how many HD remasters resort to just upscaling the original, low-res rendered cinematics rather than having access to the original video files at a higher resolution.

I know that we'll never see a day when a company like Square-Enix puts out RPGs with glorious pre-rendered backgrounds in 1080p, but I'd definitely "settle" for some kind of re-release of their older content with the original background renders placed in without downsampling.

 

[-NeoTB1-]

This is the FF that needs an HD remake.

This. Also, thank you very much for this thread, Mama Robotnik. Some amazing artwork in there.

 

[Ohnonono]

This is phenomenal. I'm re-playing FFIX at the moment, too. Thanks for sharing, Mama Robotnik.

Write something about it! Would love to read it!

 

[Fjordson]

Magnificent OP. FF IX is my favourite in the series <3

 

[Clott]

I never got how many people disdain pre-rendered backgrounds. I felt it gives atmosphere that 3D has a really hard time approaching.

This thread also triggered the FF9 OST to play in my mind.

 

[MagiusNecros]

One of the best FF's. Artstyle was fantastic.

I have disfaith in a remake by Square.

 

[crazyjah2003]

After the Prime, Soul Reaver and Wind Waker threads, I go into these praying we did not miss out on too much. It looks like only the lower res and alternate designs are the changes here; no towns or party members. The game was never released on PC, so with VII being touched again... PC/HD remasters for VIII and IX next pretty please Squarenix

 

[DragonSworne]

The rendered versions of the characters are just awful and lose the charm the artwork has.

 

[Jowy]

Just beautiful, thank you for making this thread

 

[Zeouterlimits]

Like others, this awakens a huge desire in to replay FFIX in me, nice work Mama R.

 

[zoukka]

It always blew my mind that they would create such detailed enviroments for even the most insignificant locations that maybe had a chest with a potion inside. The complete opposite of what the series is now.

 

[kvn]

Wonderful thread. Wonderful artwork.

 

[GuitarAtomik]

Ahh man. That's crazy. I would definitely play an HD up-rezzed version of 9. The first time I played it I felt like I didn't give it my full attention because I was kind of playing 10 at the same time. Never actually beat it either.

 

[Haunted]

So this proves that remakes of games with pre-rendered backgrounds could work just fine if the companies would use the original work at original resolutions.


Provided they still have the files somewhere, obviously.

 

[NekoFever]

I never noticed that Freya had visible eyes until I saw this art. I always assumed the holes in the hat were eyeholes and she was wearing a mask.

FFIX is such a wonderful game. I've had it since release and have never finished it.

 

[Jim Sterling]

Wow, this is simply delightful. FFIX being my favorite of the series, this stuff's a treat to look at!

 

[MagiusNecros]

Looking at the artwork makes the grueling wait for Bravely Default even more difficult.

 

[Mama Robotnik]

Thanks for the wonderful feedback.

Its bloody typical that I find a new silo of artwork the morning after posting what was meant to be the definitive thread. There are updates coming.

 

[LiK]

Impressive research, OP

 

[jschreier]

Write something about it! Would love to read it!

Planning to!

 

[Nags]

Thank you for the thread and sharing the art.
This game is very special to me.

 

[cutmeamango]

Write something about it! Would love to read it!

----

Great thread, love the hi-res renders, wish Square has secretly saved all assets for a next gen super HD remake of my favorite FF. :'(

 

[Sakujou]

thanks a lot for this coverage.

FF9 is the best FF ever released. super underrated game. nice story, nice characters everthing fits so well in this game. never had a better ff-feeling than this.

some of the pictures are also in the official ff9 guide book... or at least i saw some of them in there.

 

[Labadal]

I hope we can get jrpgs on consoles that uses pre-rendered backgrounds. A lot of them won't let you change camera angles anyway. It could look so good on the upcoming consoles. Just think about high resolution backgrounds like in FFIX and you're in that world exploring. We could get some amazing vistas.

 

[RPG_Fanatic]

As someone who considers FFIX to be the best final fantasy, I really appreciate this thread. Thanks for bringing this to light.

 

[Stoffinator]

If I didn't know better, I would swear some of them are from a Resident Evil game.

 

[RoninChaos]

This is amazing. Thank you!

 

[Various Artists]

Fantastic thread as usual! Great job!

 

[Shrike_Priest]

HD remake, HD remake. They don't even have to switch out the character models (although that would be cool),

Seriously.

Just switching out the backgrounds couldn't be that resource intensive from a staff point of view.

Square has to have saved the assets, and running all this stuff in 720p would mean a drastically improved look.

 

[Mama Robotnik]

Promised update with further images:

(I've added them into the OP).

I've found more but have limited time today, I'll add them when I can.

 

[ScOULaris]

Square has to have saved the assets, and running all this stuff in 720p would mean a drastically improved look.

I can almost guarantee that they didn't. You'd be surprised by how little is archived after a game has been pressed and distributed. Usually, only the final compiled code and some promotional assets remain years later.

Edit: Mama Robotnik, have you ever explained how and where you get this stuff? At this rate, we'll have enough hi-res backgrounds to make our own HD remake.

 

[daveo42]

Great thread Mama Robotnik! Getting another itch to play through this game again.

 

[Ath]

Oh man this is phenomenal stuff! Final Fantasy IX is such a beautiful game, seeing how much work went into the art makes me love it even more. Brilliant work Mama Robotnik!

 

[show me your skeleton]

I can almost guarantee that they didn't. You'd be surprised by how little is archived after a game has been pressed and distributed. Usually, only the final compiled code and some promotional assets remain years later.

Edit: Mama Robotnik, have you ever explained how and where you get this stuff? At this rate, we'll have enough hi-res backgrounds to make our own HD remake.

even if it were saved, who knows what out of date file format it was archived in.
whilst i'm pretty sure their archiving came leaps & bounds from the FFVII debacle, the problem of having files that could be accessed years later is one the entire digital world, let alone square, have yet to combat.

edit: forgot to say thanks to mama robotnik, another great thread to add to your oeuvre.

 

[Masked Devil]

Do you have a Blog?
Also, you should totally be writing books for game preservation
Your research/findings are astounding!

 

[LiquidMetal14]

I remember specifically having a conversation with a friend about how if the FF games could look sharper then it would be great as the visuals looked nice enough at that time but we would imagine things beings sharper.

Lots of pieces that really bring back memories.

I suppose the main things I think are that devs should store these things or keep as many assets intact so they could be available years later.

As some noted, there is potential for a straight 1:1 remake if they used the high res assets. Gets me all nostalgic just thinking about that and now I want to replay the game.

Excellent work. How long did it take to compile all this? I suppose you had to look for a while or even talk to some people to get to some of this art.

 

[electroplankton]

Promised update with further images:

Stupid questions: are those artwork created with a computer, or hand-drawn? I'm so naif maybe, but I could not spot the difference.

I never noticed that Freya had visible eyes until I saw this art. I always assumed the holes in the hat were eyeholes and she was wearing a mask.

FFIX is such a wonderful game. I've had it since release and have never finished it.

I thought her eyes was actually her mouth gnashing

 

[Leeness]

I do believe this summer requires an FF9 run through!

 

[CHC]

This is really amazing stuff, thank you thank you!

It's also making me sad, really, when I think of things like "All the Bravest" next to this. These lovingly crafted worlds and how much like a legit adventure the old FF games felt like. You never knew where the next destination would be, and it was all so fantastical and new.

Hope to see a return to form some time but who really knows at this point...

 

[TheJollyCorner]

never been a huge Minaba fan, but you can't deny the amazing background art direction for FFIX. Gorgeous stuff.



A shame about the character designs. They honestly bring the game down significant notches for me.

 

[Risk Breaker]

OMFG. Remaster this, SE, please.

 

[TheJollyCorner]

OMFG. Remaster this, SE, please.

I'd love a remaster of all 3 PS1 FFs.

I'm sure I'm in the minority, but I really miss the pre-rendered background FF days.
Say what you will about the character model styles of the three games, but the backgrounds for all of them have been phenomenal.

 

[legacyzero]

So awesome! I wonder if there's this much art around for FFVIII?

 

[jacksepticeye]

Fucking awesome. FFIX IS the best in the series and I hate when I see people praise FFVII so much more. THIS is the game that should be remade. Those environment shots are outstanding

 

[Dyno]

Beautiful artwork. A look at when Square was at the very top of their game.

 

[Joqu]

Man this is amazing. And having just seen your other threads-

In all honesty, Mama Robotnik, you should get paid for these threads.

- I definitely have to agree with this. How do you even find these things?