Sakaguchi posts old FFIX dev memos

By Tom Bramwell Published 29 November, 2010

See how the intro would have worked...

Mistwalker boss and former Squaresoft producer Hironobu Sakaguchi has been having a good old rummage around his hard disk and has dug up some of his old memos from the development of Final Fantasy IX.

Posted on the Mistwalker site in English, the Final Fantasy IX memo details how the intro sequence was intended to work – and fans of the game will note that the precise mixture of cinematics and gameplay sequences evolved considerably prior to release.

"This is an early stage of FFIX script planning. Since this is my memo-like ideas, I think it's okay to post them," Sakaguchi explained in a brief intro. "It's been 12 years."

The file is dated 17th July 1998, around two years before Final Fantasy IX was even released in Japan. It came to the west somewhat later, arriving in North America on 14th November 2000 and not launching in Europe until February 2001.

FFIX – one of our favourite instalments in the famous RPG series, actually – also made its way to PlayStation Network earlier this year. Look it up.

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About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000. Follow him on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (11) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • ZuluHero #1 2 years ago

    “Her breasts look comfortable..”

    :)

    That's a really great read - even 2 years before its release a lot of the main material made it though. Its nice to see a man with such vision and keep with it till the end. And it shows!

    I should really play it again, esp as i bought it recently on PSN, one of my favourite FFs. Maybe over my christmas break would be a good time? :)

  • Aretak #2 2 years ago

    FFIX is such a charming game. Definetly my favourite of the series.

  • GamesConnoisseur #3 2 years ago

    "FFIX – one of our favourite instalments in the famous RPG series, actually – also made its way to PlayStation Network earlier this year. Look it up."

    Statement that the game is available on PSN as from earlier this year... immediately followed below with...

    "Final Fantasy IX has not yet been dated, but is due to be released on PlayStation 3."

    WHIT?!

    Dont be sloppy EG!!

  • geeza2020 #4 2 years ago

    Great stuff. FFIX is my favourite FF after 7. You can really tell how much the series needed Sakaguchi by comparing the games from the PSone gen and the atrocious FFXIII /spit

    The final fantasy series really has dive bombed in quality since Sakaguchi's departure.

  • Whitster #5 2 years ago

    I'd love to see a revisitation to this world, rather than just milking FF7 dry.

  • estoo #6 2 years ago

    "Great stuff. FFIX is my favourite FF after 7. You can really tell how much the series needed Sakaguchi by comparing the games from the PSone gen and the atrocious FFXIII /spit

    The final fantasy series really has dive bombed in quality since Sakaguchi's departure. "

    Amen.

  • kiroquai #7 2 years ago

    Loved 9 - the atmosphere was top-notch in places like that city where it was always night (Treno?). Really tempted to go back and give it a proper play again :-).

  • NegativeZero #8 2 years ago

    It feels kind of like Sakaguchi might be leading up toward retiring or something though :(

  • Scimarad #9 2 years ago

    @geeza2020

    Yeah, but Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon had his help and those didn't turn out great...

  • geeza2020 #10 1 year ago

    Scimarad - True, but at least with Blue Dragon he was able to try something a little different (a proper JRPG in that anime style on an HD console) and with Lost Odyssey there was at least a story that I was interested in and characters that werent all teen angst (FFXIII). In fact, I would go as far as to say tha LO is the best JRPG of this gen (dont know if you can count Demon Souls, but I havent played it anyway). If only I hadn't got that horrible crash on the last disc that you can never get past!

  • Scimarad #11 1 year ago

    I think it's safe to say that I disagree with you about Lost Odyssey being the best JRPG this generation - Though that isn't saying much. It felt like somebody trying to copy Final Fantasy by way of Shadow Hearts and failing miserably...

    If any (HD) JRPG this generation deserves some praise then it's Resonance of Fate with Tales of Vesperia being a runner up. Handheld JRPGs have been a bit more healthy but I'm not much of DS/PSP player.