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

A

Aureon

Please do not let me serve on a jury. I am actually a crazy person.
How many times did we necro this thread?
Not enough.
 
G

Garlador

Member
Appreciated necro-bump.

... All this talk of FFXII remaster has me sitting her dreaming my silly dreams of FFIX being remastered... Would be in heaven.
 
I

Ingueferroque

Banned
DiipuSurotu said:
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.


Source: http://www.chimeric.org/page60.html
Click to expand...

Th...this is amazing.
 
Q

Quocia

Neo Member
Thanks for this thread, I spent a long time on final fantasy websites when I was younger, but I never had the chance to see thoses artworks. I really wish we could have a remake (even if only for this improvment). It would make more sense than those FFX remasters..

randomkid said:
This is true for literally every game!
Click to expand...

Reminds me of the last Star Ocean :
A bit too pink maybe but cute : http://i2.wp.com/gearnuke.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/star-ocean-5-screen-10.jpg
Just weird : http://squarefaction.ru/files/game/10268/gallery/20150420024710_e7a83afd.jpg
 
G

Garlador

Member
Quocia said:
Thanks for this thread, I spent a long time on final fantasy websites when I was younger, but I never had the chance to see thoses artworks. I really wish we could have a remake (even if only for this improvment). It would make more sense than those FFX remasters..
Click to expand...

Nothing wrong with the FFX remasters (well, except for the outstanding PS4 RNG and music bugs...)

I won't lie, though. Seeing this wonderful artwork has me frothing at the mouth to have it reworked back into the game as part of a FFIX remaster.
 
A

AgeEighty

Member
Teknoman said:
All the on paper art for the characters look so much better than the realistic face cg models.
Click to expand...

I love the CG models from this game. Part of the reason I want a remake is that I want to see a version that uses those models, or ones very close to them, throughout the entire game.

I imagine those character models with these full-res backgrounds from this thread and full voice acting (they could even get Emiko Shiratori to play Garnet in the JP version and a soundalike of her for the EN version), and it continues to baffle me that people claim FFIX has no reason for a remake/no room for improvement.
 
P

Pifje

Member
I just started (or more like continued a 5 years old save game from Ice Cavern) playing Final Fantasy 9 again yesterday, and while the spirit and atmosphere are still there, a remaster of this would be so nice.

Come on, Square Enix, redeem yourself and bring FF 9 back in its full glory. I really don't care about Final Fantasy 10 or 12 that much.
 
Q

Quocia

Neo Member
Garlador said:
Nothing wrong with the FFX remasters (well, except for the outstanding PS4 RNG and music bugs...)

I won't lie, though. Seeing this wonderful artwork has me frothing at the mouth to have it reworked back into the game as part of a FFIX remaster.
Click to expand...

Nothing wrong with them except the glitches you mentioned, but a remaster on three different platforms (vita, ps3 and ps4) is a lot. No big deal and it doesn't hurt, but other remakes would be welcome.
 
J

jrush64

Banned
This thread is really amazing. It seems like some of the art from the first page has disappeared.

I'm looking for maps from the game, especially of Alexandria. Does anyone know where I can get them?
 
G

gelf

Member
I've never actually played IX (sorry) but those backgrounds are absolutely gorgeous and look better to my eyes then anything I have seen from the series since (and the vast majority of other series too).

The pre-rendered then hand painted look is just timeless and would love to see that style used again.
 
N

Nohar

Member
I never thought Necromancy was a good school of magic until I saw that thread.

Mama Robotnik, I salute you. Thank you for this wonderful thread.
 
R

Randy

Member
gelf said:
I've never actually played IX (sorry) but those backgrounds are absolutely gorgeous and look better to my eyes then anything I have seen from the series since (and the vast majority of other series too).

The pre-rendered then hand painted look is just timeless and would love to see that style used again.
Click to expand...

Imagine a game with Full HD backgrounds like that.
 
M

Macrotus

Member
PhilipDoesMatter said:
I simply love FF IX. When it comes out on Steam it will be day one. I remember finishing and starting all over again and again.
Click to expand...

Same.
And at disc 2 or 3, which I don't remember, huge roots block the entrance to some villages and you can't enter them, so I'd just stop there and travel all over the world to each village again and talk to the people in town (although they say the same things lol).

People might think, why would I do that/waste of time etc,
but I really loved the atmosphere that much, so I really had fun just traveling all around the world. And the music was really great.
 
D

Dark_castle

Junior Member
gelf said:
I've never actually played IX (sorry) but those backgrounds are absolutely gorgeous and look better to my eyes then anything I have seen from the series since (and the vast majority of other series too).

The pre-rendered then hand painted look is just timeless and would love to see that style used again.
Click to expand...

What are you waiting for? Go download it from PSN now!
 
F

fates

Member
I'm playing FFIX again after not playing it since it came out, and I really have a newfound appreciation of the artwork of the game... it's beautiful.

I was crazy about this game back in the day. I had the mini-soundtrack Tokyopop released for the game, and I ended up importing the 4 disc soundtrack for a Christmas gift the following year (thanks Grandma! I miss you :( )I had (still have I hope...) the old Art of Final Fantasy IX book, but its somewhere in my parent's house basement. Tried to look for it but could never find it. Maybe one day...

I have the Memorial Ultimania Vol. 2 which covers FFIX pretty nicely, but its nothing like the artbook that came out back then.

You know what I found really impressive about the game? The monster and townspeople design. So much variety and the designs just look good. The monsters look cool. Nova Dragon, Deathguise, good stuff.

Anyways, some of the links in OP are broken! Will they be fixed?
 
S

Sesuadra

Unconfirmed Member
this freaking thread is so good. happy and sad at the same time i marvel while I watch those amazing pictures. I hope the OP updates the pictures because a few don't show anymore.
 
G

GOOCHY

Member
Of all the games that could have a remaster released this is the one that I hope for the most. I know it will never happen. Love this game. My favorite FF by a long shot.
 
P

Pro

Member
You think SE could use the original files and put out a Remaster Edition fairly easily with the existing pre-rendered backgrounds.
 
Thabass

Thabass

Member
FFIX's world was truly one of my favorites in any game. Very artistic and felt alive, even back then. It's really a shame that Square Enix doesn't talk about this game as much as VII or even VI.
 
L

L95

Member
Pro said:
You think SE could use the original files and put out a Remaster Edition fairly easily with the existing pre-rendered backgrounds.
Click to expand...

Someone posted earlier in the thread that apparently a lot of assets from the PS1 games have been lost...?
 
P

Pro

Member
L95 said:
Someone posted earlier in the thread that apparently a lot of assets from the PS1 games have been lost...?
Click to expand...

Hrm...i doubt it. Any legitimate company is not going to lose work on a major project like that. But who knows.
 
S

Slaythe

Member
I feel like voice acting would ruin the game.

I don't want those cheesy ass english VOs on my beautiful fairy tale.

But man a "remaster" à la Resident Evil HD would be beautiful !

And new character models / world map to make it more homogeneous.
 
A

AgeEighty

Member
I tend to doubt that they've "lost" the files. They may just have compatibility issues with their newer dev tools.

I mean, that's millions of dollars in assets they spent years developing. Not the kind of thing a company like them is likely to be careless with.
 
A

AgeEighty

Member
Eylos said:
well idk, this is the news
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/06/27/original-kingdom-hearts-assets-lost
Click to expand...

I was talking about for FFIX, but this seems patently absurd to me. I mean what kind of company doesn't have backups of their assets, even way back in 2001? You spend millions and several years developing a game and then all that work just gets up and walks away? "Oopsie!"

Anyway, on the flip side, this does suggest that even if the original FFIX assets were lost in a similar fashion, it doesn't make a remaster impossible. Just harder.
 
D

DiipuSurotu

Banned
They didn't "lose" the original assets so much as they never backed them up at all. Whenever they started a new project they would completely restart from scratch and never reuse stuff. Even Secret of Evermore, which has a similar gameplay to Secret of Mana, actually recoded everything from scratch instead of modifying the Secret of Mana engine.

Moreover, most of the artists for FFIX were Americans from Square USA who worked on 2 or 3 projects at most (FFIX, Parasite Eve and Spirits Within) before leaving the company forever. Modern Square Enix Japan probably have no clue who any of these guys from 1999 Square USA even are.

And that's without even mentioning the parts that Square USA themselves outsourced to other Western studios who themselves outsourced stuff to freelancers. Some of these studios don't even exist anymore.
 
A

AgeEighty

Member
DiipuSurotu said:
They didn't "lose" the original assets so much as they never backed them up at all. Whenever they started a new project they would completely restart from scratch and never reuse stuff. Even Secret of Evermore, which has a similar gameplay to Secret of Mana, actually recoded everything from scratch instead of modifying the Secret of Mana engine.

Moreover, most of the artists for FFIX were Americans from Square USA who worked on 2 or 3 projects at most (FFIX, Parasite Eve and Spirits Within) before leaving the company forever. Modern Square Enix Japan probably have no clue who any of these guys from 1999 Square USA even are.

And that's without even mentioning the parts that Square USA themselves outsourced to other Western studios who themselves outsourced stuff to freelancers. Some of these studios don't even exist anymore.
Click to expand...

That's all interesting, although none of it strikes me as good excuses for just casually discarding the assets for a major AAA game. Even back in those days there were such things as remasters, and they were already making noise about wanting to re-release the PSX FF trilogy for PS2. It had to be in someone's mind that they might need that stuff again someday.

I mean, it's not like they would need stuff like clay sculptures and early assets from contractors. Just the final work that was sent to them.

Oh well. Like I said, KH Remix shows that they can still do it all over if need be. And this thread shows that some of the assets at least survive.
 
P

potatohead

Member
Anyone have all of the image files here?

It seems a lot of them are no longer linked, might have expired on their hosting site.
 
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