HomeAnimeDisheartening Update for Final Fantasy 9 Remake Leaves Fans in Anticipation

Disheartening Update for Final Fantasy 9 Remake Leaves Fans in Anticipation

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Fans eagerly anticipating news about the rumored remake of Final Fantasy 9 have been dealt a disappointing update. A reputable leaker has indicated that the anticipated game might be further from release than anyone anticipated. This speculation about a Final Fantasy 9 Remake first surfaced following the 2021 GeForce Now leak, which inadvertently revealed a list of games reportedly in development.

Square Enix found itself at the center of attention due to this leak. It was through this breach that fans were introduced to potential remakes of Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre, and Chrono Cross, along with the revelation of Kingdom Hearts 4. Among these, the Final Fantasy 9 Remake remains the sole title that Square Enix has not yet officially announced.

Speculation has been rife about potential development hurdles affecting the Final Fantasy 9 Remake. Reports suggest that these challenges have led Square Enix to put the project on hold. Nate the Hate, a well-regarded source for gaming leaks, has provided insight, stating that the project is currently “on ice.” However, the exact implications of this status within Square Enix remain unclear.

Final Fantasy 9 Remake Rumored To Be Frozen

Vivi Final Fantasy 9 casting a fire spell
Vivi Final Fantasy 9 casting a fire spell
Image via Square Enix

There have been rumors of development issues with the Final Fantasy 9 Remake, leading Square Enix to pause the project. These have seemingly been confirmed by Nate the Hate, a trusted leaker, who has claimed that the project is currently “on ice”, but they don’t know to what extent that means within Square Enix.

It’s possible that the project has been temporarily paused, with the intention of returning to it in the future. Regardless, the game doesn’t appear to be launching anytime soon.

Square Enix has been releasing Final Fantasy 9 products this year, including a new remixed version of the soundtrack. There’s even an FF9 anime currently in development. The company clearly understands that interest in FF9 is high, so something must be getting in the way of the in-demand remake.

The Final Fantasy 9 Remake Isn’t Dead Yet

Final Fantasy 9 Quina render
Image via Square Enix

According to Nate the Hate, there’s been no new movement on the FF9 remake since it was put on ice. However, he doesn’t seem to think it’s out of the cards, saying, “Hopefully Square Enix returns to it, and we may see a Final Fantasy 9 remake come to light.”

A straight remake of Final Fantasy 9 with visual upgrades would print money for Square Enix, so it’s unclear what the problem is. Final Fantasy 9 celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2025, with a glut of merchandise released and many hints of a connection to the current Final Fantasy 14 storyline, suggesting big things were planned, but in the end, nothing came of it.

A Final Fantasy 9 Remake is inevitable. The question is more whether it involves the revival of this supposed frozen project, or a new iteration further down the line, one closer in scope to the Final Fantasy 7 Remake project.

There’s also Final Fantasy 8, which still needs a remake, so Square Enix might not be in a rush to return to Zidane and friends, especially if this rumored troubled project is causing major internal issues for the company.


CBR Exclusive · Quiz
WHICH FINAL FANTASY
HERO ARE YOU?

The Crystal Has Chosen You
From the slums beneath Midgar to the shores of Spira, from the burning ruins of Vector to the edge of a godless future — Final Fantasy’s greatest heroes carry worlds on their shoulders. Each one is a different answer to the same question: who do you become when fate asks everything of you? Fifteen questions. One destiny.

⚔️
FFVII
Cloud Strife
Ex-SOLDIER


FFVI
Terra Branford
Magitek Warrior

🌊
FFX
Tidus
Star Blitzball Player


FFXIII
Lightning
L’Cie Warrior

01

The party is falling apart before the final dungeon. You:
Every hero faces the moment the mission starts to crack.




02

Your past is catching up with you. How do you carry it?
In Final Fantasy, no hero escapes who they were.




03

What is the source of your greatest strength?
Power in Final Fantasy always comes from somewhere real.




04

You must give something up to save everyone. You choose to sacrifice:
The hardest choices reveal a hero’s true values.




05

Someone tells you to smile more. You:
Small moments reveal the biggest personalities.




06

A prophecy names you the chosen one. Your reaction?
Fate is Final Fantasy’s oldest weapon — and its greatest test.




07

Your battle style in a crisis is:
The way you fight is the way you live.




08

The crack in your armor is:
Even the legendary have a weakness in the stats screen.




09

An ally betrays the party. Your response:
Trust is the most fragile currency in the Final Fantasy world.




10

The world is ending. What keeps you moving?
Final Fantasy always asks this. The answer defines everything.




11

Strangers meeting you for the first time would say:
First impressions in the overworld matter.




12

You discover everything you believed about yourself was a lie. You:
Final Fantasy loves this moment. So does character.




13

What does the party mean to you?
No hero wins alone. But why they need others varies.




14

The world that shaped you was:
Every hero is a product of the world that broke them.




15

Standing before the final boss, you think:
The last save point is behind you. This is what you’ve been building toward.




THE CRYSTAL HAS SPOKEN
YOUR FINAL FANTASY HERO

Your scores appear below. The character with the highest number is your match — read their description to discover which legend of the Final Fantasy universe has always lived inside you.

⚔️
FINAL FANTASY VII
Cloud Strife


FINAL FANTASY VI
Terra Branford

🌊
FINAL FANTASY X
Tidus


FINAL FANTASY XIII
Lightning

You are formidably capable and brutally self-contained. You built walls so high that even you sometimes forget there’s someone worth knowing on the other side of them. Your strength is real — but it was forged in grief, and part of you has never fully left that burning town. What makes you extraordinary isn’t the sword or the silence: it’s that underneath all the cold precision, you still care about people with an intensity that frightens you. The ones who earn your trust don’t just gain an ally. They gain someone who will walk into the end of the world for them, without ever saying a word about it.

You are extraordinary and don’t fully believe it yet. Something inside you — something ancient and luminous and untameable — has always been there, waiting. Others have tried to control it, define it, weaponize it. What they never understood is that your power isn’t the dangerous part: it’s your heart. The capacity to love that you spent so long being afraid of is your greatest strength. You are not a weapon. You are not what was done to you. You are what you choose to become — and that choice, made quietly, every day, is the most heroic act in the game.

You feel everything at full volume and refuse to apologize for it. Where others calculate, you leap. Where others grieve in silence, you cry out loud and then help everyone else back to their feet. You understand instinctively that love is not sentimental — it’s the most courageous thing a person can do. You walked into a journey you didn’t fully understand for people you had only just met, and you gave it everything you had. That isn’t naïveté. That’s the rarest kind of bravery: the kind that smiles on the way into the dark.

You are relentless in a way that unsettles people who don’t know you — and humbles the ones who do. You buried everything soft about yourself because the world required it, and you made yourself into something no fate, no god, and no system could stop. What people mistake for coldness is actually grief in armor: you loved someone so completely that losing them rewired everything. Underneath the discipline and the precision is a person who would unmake the laws of the universe for the people they love. And has. More than once.

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