Final Fantasy 14 pre-order bonuses hint at rumored FF9 Remake

The pre-order bonuses for Final Fantasy 14’s Dawntrail expansion and comments from the game’s director hint that the leaked remake of Final Fantasy 9 is legit.

Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail director Naoki Yoshida recently discussed the new expansion’s pre-order bonuses, which include characters from Final Fantasy IX. These bonuses include an Ark Mount and Garnet Minion in the Digital Collector’s Edition and a Wind-Up Zidane Minion in retailer-specific pre-orders.

A thread on the Gaming Leaks and Rumours Reddit has explained why these pre-order bonuses, along with Yoshida’s comments, are subtle confirmations of the leaked Final Fantasy 9 remake.

During PAX East 2024, Yoshida said, “You may have noticed a lot of Final Fantasy IX references here… but the reason is a secret.” Fans think this refers to the remake, which was discovered during the NVIDIA GeForce Now leak but has yet to be officially confirmed by Square Enix.

“There are more and more hints about Final Fantasy IX remake. When will Square Enix announce it?” one fan wrote, while another said, “There’s a IX anime that hasn’t been heard of in a good while. I mean, if Grubb is talking about a remake it is or at least was real at some point, but the anime seems like it should come out sooner.”

Final Fantasy crossovers occurring within Final Fantasy 14 aren’t unusual. In fact, a Final Fantasy 16 crossover event will happen in 2024.

The fact that Yoshida linked it to a “secret” is what’s igniting the fans’ imaginations. Adding classic Final Fantasy characters as pre-order incentives usually wouldn’t cause anyone to bat their eyes, but if it’s linked to something, then it’s most likely the remake.

A Final Fantasy 9 animated series is in the works, but that was announced long ago, so there’s no secret involved.

Another possibility is that Final Fantasy 9 content is planned for Dawntrail or its post-launch patches. We already know there will be a Final Fantasy 11-themed Alliance Raid in the expansion, so maybe there will be Final Fantasy 9 content, too?

Whatever the case, it’s clear that Final Fantasy 9 fans will be eating well in the Dawntrail expansion, even if it only means having its protagonist follow you around on the new continent.