The best Final Fantasy has a new platform to call home.
The Square Enix role-playing game classic Final Fantasy IX is available now for iOS and Android, while the Steam version still doesn’t have a release date (although its page on the store states that it’s coming out “early 2016”). The mobile gaming industry is worth $30 billion, however, most of that money comes from free-to-play games. The mobile version of Final Fantasy IX costs $17. We don’t know how much the Steam release will go for, however, we should expect a similar price. We also don’t really know how well these mobile versions of Final Fantasy classics sell, however, they must be doing fine if Square Enix keeps making new ones. Final Fantasy Tactics is the highest-rank premium mobile re-release Square Enix has on the Google Play store at No. 165, with the role-playing game classic Final Fantasy VI following at No. 293.
Square Enix announced the ports for FFIX, which originally came out for the PlayStation back in 2000 (and sold 5.5 million copies), earlier this year. The company has released multiple Final Fantasy games for mobile, including Final Fantasy VII. All of them release at a premium price, although the company does release new games in the series on mobile, like Record Keeper, that have a free-to-play structure.
This new version includes high-definition character models and other new features, like the ability to turn off random encounters. It also includes in-game achievements and auto-saving, and the mobile version allows users to control the game entirely with their device’s touchscreen.
While not immediately as popular as some of the biggest games in the series (like Final Fantasy VII or Final Fantasy VI), Final Fantasy IX has acquired a devoted fanbase that love its charming characters and world. It was also something of a throwback to the series more medieval, fantasy settings of its earlier games (most Final Fantasy games have a steampunk or cyberpunk feel since the mid ’90s).
Several players originally looked past the game when it came out, since Square Enix announced the s3xier Final Fantasy X, which was coming to the then state-of-the-art PlayStation 2, simultaneously with Final Fantasy IX. Hopefully, these new versions will give even more players access to this RPG gem.