Famitsu Highlights 25th Anniversary of Final Fantasy IX with New Developer Interviews

Famitsu’s July 24 issue featured a 25th Anniversary special on Final Fantasy IX, including new interviews with event designer Kazuhiko Aoki, character designer Toshiyuki Itahana, and composer Nobuo Uematsu. The feature focused on behind-the-scenes development stories and recent anniversary projects like the new vinyl record and picture book. No remake plans were discussed. The coverage was translated by RPGSite.

Aoki reflected on his role as event team leader, where he expanded Hironobu Sakaguchi’s initial plot outlines, distributed them to event staff, and supervised scenes that were difficult to understand. Late in development, he carefully tracked data sizes in Excel and managed the game’s four-disc PlayStation release. This included blocking access to certain dungeons to avoid unnecessary disc swaps.

He explained that FFIX’s flexible late-stage development would be difficult today. Vivi’s ending monologue was revised seven to eight times, and characters’ full names were not finalized until the very end. Non-simultaneous localization allowed last-minute changes such as Garland’s unique speech pattern and Blank’s petrification. He noted that in contrast, modern games with simultaneous voice recording require names and scripts to be locked early.

Aoki also recalled discussing the Crystal when asked to “return to the roots” for FFIX’s theme, but players ultimately only saw it briefly near the ending. He rarely interacted with the Battle team, which worked independently; for example, Vivi’s lack of a victory pose after defeating the Black Mage was a surprise to him.

For the anniversary picture book, Aoki said he had to consider a “public perception taboo.” He believes that FFIX’s story belongs to the players after release, each forming their own interpretation, so he was careful not to break canon. The book makes small adjustments, such as Quan giving Vivi the Theater Ticket and his name.

Aoki explained that “VIVI” can be read as Roman numerals, suggesting an ideal height of 6 feet 6 inches, while reversing it to “IVIV” yields 4 feet 4 inches, closer to Vivi’s actual size. He designed the story to focus on “living” and “enjoying life,” accessible to children and newcomers.

“I've talked about this too just before, but the main characters in this picture book—Vivi and Quan—are not good in interacting with other people, but the story will make you think that both of them "still feel that life is fun". I hope everybody will enjoy it too. The original story in FFIX talked about life and how to live while using it. I have thought that the active parts where each individual feels "I'm alive" could be established as a story. In this [picture book], in addition to the part about "living", I wrote what I could depict about parts like "enjoying one's life" and "how to rise up again after feeling down" in the two's livelihoods, so I hope you'll get to check it out.”

Itahana created three new key visuals for the anniversary: Zidane’s party looking toward the Iifa Tree, Kuja inside the tree, and a new image of Vivi gazing up at Zidane under a large moon. He intentionally depicted the characters facing away from the viewer so that players could imagine their emotions themselves.

He also reflected on his collaboration with Aoki, recalling both the FFIX picture book and their earlier Chocobo and the Airship project. If a third book is produced, Itahana would like to fully illustrate Aoki’s ideas without omitting anything.

Quote from Toshiyuki Itahana:

“Mr. Aoki is like a hermit who is similar to the grandpa in this picture book but a little smarter, and the image of him spending his time elegantly in cafes is strong. Even during the development work in Honolulu, when I realized he wasn't on his seat, I got contacted by him like "I'm drinking ice latte nearby, so you should come here too, Itahana-kun" and I got often invited to a cafe near the Ala Moana beach. He is always polishing ideas no matter where he is, and once he comes back to his seat, he fiercely inputted a lot of data. But the one that stays in my mind is in the final few months of development, when he faced the dev kit regardless of day or night and said "A game's soul resides in the final 3 months.”

Uematsu spent a year in Hawaii during FFIX’s development, where he earned a scuba diving license and completed the Honolulu Marathon in 8 hours 29 minutes, just under the cutoff time. He recalled that the Hawaii studio recreated the same isolated, windowless environment as Japan.

Before moving to Hawaii, he took a two-week European trip to visit medieval castles and study the atmosphere of old instruments. He even tried to learn ancient music performance from the Catherina Early Music Consort, who initially rejected him because video games were not yet widely respected in 2000.

Across development, Uematsu composed over 140 tracks. “The Place I’ll Return to Someday” was the first composition and set the tone for the world. Director Hiroyuki Ito wrote the lyrics to “Melodies of Life,” which originally began with the line “If I should leave this lonely world behind” before it was rearranged to satisfy singer Emiko Shiratori.

Uematsu reiterated his dislike for unrelated Hollywood-style end-credit songs and region-exclusive themes. He prefers theme songs created by the development team because they better reflect the game’s setting, a philosophy that led to cohesive songs like “Eyes on Me,” “Melodies of Life,” and “Suteki da ne.”

He admitted he was highly self-critical during production and that no tracks impressed him at the time, though he enjoys hearing later orchestral arrangements. For the final boss theme, he even instructed the synthesizer operator to “go to Hell for a bit to record the voices,” achieving the chilling opening effect.

The new anniversary vinyl reflects Uematsu’s nostalgia for records. He emphasized the impact of large covers, the focused attention vinyl requires, and the enjoyment of listening while viewing the artwork.

Quote from Nobuo Uematsu:

"[...] I've said it before, but FFIX has a lot of songs I'm also personally fond of, and one of them is the newly recorded "Melodies of Life" in this vinyl. You can also immerse yourself in nostalgia with this vinyl, and I'd be glad if you get to play the game and experience that world once again with that."

Source:

rpgsite.net

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