Final Fantasy IX Is Getting A Physical Release On Nintendo Switch

Really surprised the PS4 isn't getting any of these. It got VIII Remastered but I'm genuinely shocked at least VII didn't get a special physical edition at least to commemorate Remake coming out

Considering all of these games originated on PlayStation you'd think Square would probably want to put these on PS4 considering how tied to Sony this specific set of Final Fantasy games are.

9 is beautiful. 10 is always my favorite but definitely check out 9.

I've never played this series but I've always wanted to get into it. Can any fan of the series tell me where a good place to start is with the games available on the switch?

My favorite Final Fantasy. Finally seeing it on a Nintendo system is a little dream come true.

@realityxaidan I'd personally recommend Final Fantasy X. I consider it the most beginner friendly and it gives you a good taste of the kind of storytelling and cinematic production value the series would become synonymous with. After that the PlayStation 1 games (VII-IX) will definitely be more comfortable experiences.

I don't know if I can think of any other game with box art designed in that way?

This is probably the last truly great Final Fantasy game. Love the cover.

@arekdougy : There were a few in Japan. I believe Senran Kagura Reflexions had alternate sideways cover art as well.

will they fix the horrible performance? 10+ seconds loading for every battle is unacceptable

@realityxaidan I think it depends on if you have ever played any Snes, Ps1 era RPGs. If you have, and you like the older style and/or can play the older style RPGs with the newer mechanics and streamlining missing then Id say play them in order of release. So VII, VIII, and so on. I personally loved VII, but these days I'd play VIII over it. X is great, especially leveling up, but it feels too limiting in exploration except in a few spots. X is where the series stopped using the overworld map. VII VIII IX you travel across the globe from town to town, and it is part of the grand scale those older games made you feel. XII is hands down my favorite. The battles are streamlined, you auto attack, but you set up conditions, like if HP<100 heal, or Enemies health>90 focus attack on them, so it is very fun to set up and tweak. IX I've never beat, and I think is overrated, I loose interest in the second disc. VIII has a cool junction system, and the best mini game, a card game. You collect cards by playing npc and its awesome. They're all good games, but like I said, if you like RPGs start at VII.

@depwnz I believe they included the speed up function in this remaster to remedy the slow loading because they had no way to improve the load times without reworking the game from the ground up. I l personally love this game regardless but I understand the frustration.

If you need an essential FF game, that's the one.

Still one of the greatest games ever made.

@realityxaidan
Get the Super Nintendo Version of Final Fantasy VI.
It is stylewise between VII and the older ones.
Or how mentioned before X.

IX is one of my Favourites, but at Disc 3 it gets really hard (have only the PSX Version ).

Wanted to play Final Fantasy X on the Switch, but that i've just seen that the original Version is pretty cheap.
Also i like the older Charakter Models more than the newer ones.
So if you want to save some Money, get the PS2 Version

Love FFIX. (Wish Zidane wasn't such a perv, though.) Don't know if I love the angle of the graphic they chose.

Now I'm even more curious why FFVII and FFVIII Remastered were bundled together. Did those games seriously need to be in one package in order to sell? I've heard mixed things about VIII, but I figure that it being remastered would be enough of a selling point for fans of the series. Oh well, this isn't the FFIX/Tactics Twin Pack I'd hoped for, but I'll definitely pre-order this one!!

@NGNYS I actually love the PAL (and japanese) PS2 spines. I don't like the red on the Switch games though. Wish they where white or black (like the Labo releases).
But since I literally only got one physical game, it's ok.

There are many people designing spines for Switch games though.
Example: https://www.reddit.com/r/NSCollectors/comments/g6g44p/i_was_tired_of_my_nintendo_switch_collection/

@realityxaidan Start with 7. Honestly, they are all standalone games so it doesn’t matter. 7 looks ugly as sin, but plays very well and has a decent and quirky story. 8 is hot garbage. Never played 9, but people seem to have good things to say about it. 10 is ok, but uh, be prepared for awful voice acting.

That box art is ugly as heck being on its side like that.

Quina was my first-ever video game crush, actually. So seeing him/her on the cover makes me blush and smile!

(Edit: Kiddin’.)

Honestly this news upsets me. Ended up buying this game digitally along with VII. Ended up having to buy the seven and eight physical edition. Turn around and now 9 is also physical. Getting a bit upset that devs think I'm just some piggy bank.

For those talking about the different final fantasies, I enjoy playing 7, 8, and 9. 10 is good too, but I feel that's where new technology was encouraging less RPG design elements. Take away the animations and voice acting and the game feels a lot more linear then other final fantasies. Each one of 7, 8, and 9 have their own design concepts but many of them work quite effectively. 12 was also quite enjoyable, but the story was rushed and characters very shallow. Battle was much weaker in comparison and the Gambit system made battle only tedious however simple it became.

@Tasuki
Interesting. I have ordered from them twice already and always received my product in perfect condition and within two weeks of purchase. I live in the USA but don't know if that has a part in the difference of our experiences.

@realityxaidan Everyone will tell you something different but honestly, 9 is the pinnacle of the series before it got horribly stupid. Dont play X as its absolutely ruined by terrible characters.

While I already have 7-9 digitally and almost bought 7 and 8 in the physical release here, I almost regret not waiting this inevitable release...and I say almost because the physical is more expensive than the digital price here.

Resist. Urge. To. Buy physical.

The port for IX looks so bad I couldn't bring myself to play the game. The character models look like they're in a completely different game than the backgrounds. I would recommended playing on Steam with the mod that fixes the backgrounds.

Fantastic been waiting for this news all year, but for the love of Chocobos please fix that crooked cover art. It should look like this.

wow!! but....that cover is an absolute evil!! DDD disguisting

@Tasuki I order stuff from them all the time and never had any problem. Perhaps they ran out of stock of that item maybe.

@Retro_Player_77 a bilion times better!

@TG16_IS_BAE I don't think X voice acting was that but, except for that one scene everyone likes to make fun of (and the voice actor himself even made one video and emphasized it was INTENDED to be terrible).
Though he did also clarify the character's name is "tee-dus" and not "tie-dus". I did not know that.

Bought this in the recent sale. About 35 hours in - decent game but maybe slightly too long coupled with a slow burner to start.

I already bought the digital version on sale, thinking it wasn't coming in a physical version, but I will get definitely get this. The nice thing with these Asian releases, compared to the Japanese ones, is that not only do they have English language support on the cartridge; the text on the front, back and spine of the cover is also in English.

@arekdougy @Silly_G The Asian Switch version of Romancing Saga 3 (another Square Enix title) also looks that way. I kinda like it!

@realityxaidan FF7, 8, 9 and X are masterpieces of the jrpgs genre, with plots and narrations that the modern jrpgs fail to deliver ( except the Xenoblade saga). Every game of the series is very different from the others in terms of gameplay and world building, I think that FF9 is the most accessible. Most people blame FF8 because was the most experimental with the plot and the junction system, but for me was the best of the entire franchise (don't trust the internet, today people attack FF8 as a trend) . FFX2 is a silly spinoff/sequel that ruin all the seriousness of FFX. FFXII is a flat and uninspired game, the first of the bad FF IMHO.

Im waiting for a Final Fantasy Collection of the original 1-6. A couple of those are better than all the ones 7 and up in my opinion and I'm shocked they haven't been ported to the Switch already. Come on Square, take my money!

If they had it planned (I'm sure of it) they should have done a triple pack, not a twin pack. Anyway, I guess it'll come to the West sooner or later, no need to hurry and pay more for the Asian release. But I guess this one'll cost as much as the twin pack.

By the way, I want to preorder the Twin Pack, but some people warn me about VIII, saying the port is broken, full of bugs. Is that so? Hasn't it ever been patched? Does anybody know?

This might be the first Switch game for which I may buy physical even if I have the digital. This is easily in my top 5 video games ever, although I do understand the criticisms it usually gets. But at the end of the day, what a story!

They could bundle the PS1 era Fantasy games together. But, not surprised by the tactic.

Bring the three PSX games together in one pack, and I'll get it. This is just nonsense.

Gosh-darn-it I’ve just started my playthrough, 4 hours in, or I might have been tempted.

Great news! Now I just need ff6 or a snes collection with 4 to 6 on it. Not really to fussed about the first 3 as I still have the psp versions.

Oh crap, now this one I will get

@realityxaidan I think you’ve opened Pandora’s box asking for people to give you recommendations, because you will gets lots of different answers. Hehe.

Anyways, I would personally recommend starting with FFVII (7) as I personally started with this one and it was my real intro into the series.

It is also a favourite for many people. And there is a reason why it got a remake, spin off games as well as a whole movie while others in the series haven’t got any of that. That’s why if you will only ever play one then I recommend that.

Having said that, you can’t really go wrong with 6, 7, 8 and 9. They are all similar in play style, but graphically and story wise they are different. 8 is probably more complicated in the battle system if you are a first timer as they add a few random things. 9 is more traditional to the older games. 7 and 6 are also fairly simple in their battle systems, but they all have a ton of depth as you progress.

If you want to go back a bit old school then I’d recommend 6. The story on that is great l, but it is the 2D style. 10 is also a good game with more modernised graphics. It has some oddities in the gameplay, like a side game of underwater basketball, which for some reason I was really bad at. But still a good game and that’s not the main part of the game by any means. I know people who played that one first often don’t like others as much as that.

12 is also a great Final Fantasy but is not the same as the others. It’s more of an open(ish) world single player mmorpg. You set up a tank, healer and dps kind of setup. But I would rate 12 over 10 and even 8. It’s just different gameplay wise. And 8 in particular gives me massive nostalgic hits from when I was a kid so it is hard to beat.

My favourites in order are:

FF7
FF6
FF9
FF12
FF8
FF10
FF15

These are the ones I have played and everyone’s orders will be different.

Definitely adding this one to the FF Switch physical collection. So happy for the game to get another physical release and also while not a lot of people are fans of the box art I personally like it. I’ll still order a regular cover thru Etsy though. Also I see someone didn’t get their time from PA? I have ordered some games from them including DQ 1-3 Collection as well as FFVII/VIII Remastered and while they took some time they did get delivered. I plan to get IX thru them.

Well 7 and 8 I have on cartridge all ready
But I may get 9 when it's out on cartridge

Now just need capcom to do the same

@arekdougy Romancing Saga 3.

@realityxaidan
Honestly it's the aesthetic and story that's most important so first of all choose one that looks cool.

6: a girl joins a resistance group to get back at a government that brainwashed her. Epic story with a broad, amazing cast.
2d sprites at it's best.

7: The earth is being sucked dry by a corporation who is basically ruling the world. A band of amazing characters will try to stop it. Ugly graphics, great set pieces. It feels like a post apocalypse world that has rebuilt itself, for now.

8: Japanese military school students go on (epic) missions that eventually lead to the saving of the world. I loved it, the battle system is weird but manageable!

9: it's a medieval steampunk hybrid. The music is the best, the characters are really loveable. And the graphics are up to snuff enough that I think anyone would still be in awe every now and then! A great story that begins strong and keeps up the pace for me. (this, 6 and 10 are my favorites.)

10: an east Asian/tropical land world is threatened and the only way to stop it is by completing a pilgrimage through the land.

Giant leap in graphics, one of the best stories I've ever seen in a video game. Copied a lot over the last few years. Exciting battles, and a beautifull world.

The characters are kind of hate it or love it. I loved them! (The voice acting is pretty good, especially because it was so new/rare at the time!)

So basically : pick what looks good, and then what sounds interesting. You really can't go wrong with any of them!

And as you can see : the fanbase is really active, vocal and fun!

@Robzilla
You clearly haven't played FF7R. Play that first before claiming this

@Rosona That’s funny, I just got that this week and will play it when I get my PS5

@Robzilla
FF9 will be playable on PS5?

I wonder if they will re-release FF 1-6 again. Also would like to see FF Mystic Quest get a Switch release.

Don't stop now Square Enix! Would love to have physical copies of all the older single player FFs on Switch.

I'm actually surprised the eshop doesn't have the older games, considering the old Dragon Quests are there.

@realityxaidan VII and IX are my absolute favorites, both are pretty accessible. X is a great game and pretty accessible as well, but I don’t like it as much as the other two. I’d say pass on VIII, at least for now, it’s one of the least accessible. XII is a really good game, but a huge departure from what the series once was.

@Moroboshi876 I think they patched it since then.

@KayFiOS Thanks for the answer. Well, I haven't been able to find much information about it. It appears that the patch fixed some music issue, but other bugs... seem to happen only in the Spanish version. I hope the language can be toggled with in the menu, because I wanted to play these games in English anyway, regardless of my system's default language.

I kind of want to double dip and buy this, but I also wish it had some more features, such as the option to play with original graphics and font, ability to change side bars, etc. Some of the warmth of the original is lost in this version. I wish Square-Enix did more to preserve and celebrate the heritage of their releases than just mediocre ports of the mobile versions. Collection of Mana was done well, and FFVIII is probably better than the original, but most of their other ports to Switch and PS4 feel like they are missing something. Also, if you're going update things, why not boost that frame rate?? Still, FFIX is an amazing game, and perhaps my favorite Final Fantasy.

@Quarth I should have said, I like the design!

@Steelhead I just wished they went with the original art instead of the cellphone style sprites!

After the Stunt Squenix pulled with FF7/8 I will wait for a western release. Still have my ps1 copy, so no rush

I don't know if this makes sense, but for me, 9 is probably the "best" of the series in terms of polish, but 6 is my all time favorite, mainly because of great characters, story, villains, music and gameplay.

@Steelhead For Dragon Quest, it seems like they tried to release all the numbered Dragon Quests for 3DS, but 1-3 and 11 got delayed to the Switch outside Japan.
(Japanese 3DSes could play the whole series: 1-3(download), 4-6+9(DS), 7-8+11(3DS), 10(streaming).)

Definitely would be great to see FF1-6 on Switch though.

This game deserves an updatrd remake asap!

@TG16_IS_BAE

8 is not garbage.

It’s different, has a weird leveling system that makes the game trivial once you exploit it, and has pretty bad pacing.

But it’s not a bad game. It shares similarities with FFII. Both games tried entirely new mechanics and they weren’t fully developed and balanced.

The Junction system is fascinating and it had a lot of potential to be a game changer for RPGs. The issue is that you can tell they didn’t balance the game correctly; once you start playing Triple Triad and get the Card-Mod abilities (used to refine high level magic such as Flare, Holy, and Ultima early on Disc 1) the game becomes insanely easy until the very end of disc 4. If you exploit the junction system correctly you can have a fully maxed Squall before you fight Edea and he will one shot most bosses you fight throughout game and never miss (since his inherent accuracy is 255). Literally the only boss that will give you trouble is Omega Weapon since he’s insanely overpowered and is defaulted to level 100.

But it had interesting ideas and despite the pacing issues has a very good story. Not as strong as VII’s but definitely a good story.

@TheRedComet I'm glad you like it, but I hated the weak characters. The whole time I was playing I kept wishing I was playing as Seifer, instead of Squall. When I got to the missile launch mission, I just bailed out of the game. I couldn't continue. It was the first game I actually stopped playing before beating. I wouldn't say 7 has a strong story, by any stretch of the imagination, either. It got pretty heavily lost in translation. There's an interesting YouTube series on it.

Like I said, glad you liked it, but for me it was garbage.

@Tasuki It got lost in shipping or did they just refused to ship? If either happen you should request a refund.

@AlexSwitch10 imagine if they actually did them justice. 1-3 and 4-6 could be two collections. Original graphics and then updated?

@Don Mystic Quest would be great. I would love to see FF Tactics as well...

@arekdougy That would be awesome. Even if they just did widescreen support for 1-6 and left the rest alone I'd be happy.

@AlexSwitch10 Same here! My favourite versions right now are GBA carts with updated SNES audio. I don't like the new graphical updates, but get it if some people do. Just widescreen would be GORGEOUS.

My reaction was literally jumping around in happiness. 😆😆😆
YAAAY....!!! 😄😄😄

27 November 2020 ?! 😲
YAAAAY...!!! 😄😄😄

@realityxaidan I might catch some flack for this but, honestly, Final Fantasy IX's my favorite in the franchise (hence my avatar photo being Zidane!) and the first FF game I actually ever beat (just this year actually). It's a great game and, while it is a tribute to the classic era of FF that's full of references to those games, I don't think you can go wrong here.

It is worth mentioning that this game has a lot of blurry textures and poor upscaling in it though (as does FFVII and FFVIII for what it's worth). If you have even an alrightish PC, I'd recommend going for the version of the game available on Steam there. You can download something called the Moguri mod for it, which uses AI upscaling to give the game a fresh coat of paint. It sounds arbitrary, but it really transforms the game into something gorgeous, while preserving the art style. Can't go wrong with the Switch version if not though! Especially on handheld mode.

@Tasuki yeah that's a you problem I've ordered from them with no problems at all and they refunded me on order that got stolen by a porch pirate so they are extra awesome.

I should get this just to have right beside my original PlayStation release of the the game.

Now if this came with vier individual cartridges, there's nostalgia you deserve. But nein. Da ist einer.

Good stuff. I'm not much for Final Fantasy, but I always liked this game. I'll probably pick this up.

Yeah this has been up for a while on Play-Asia. You’re late to the party.

@Robzilla nah that's XII ♡♡♡

I'm surely getting it, but man that box art....

So, we can only get it from PlayAsia, right?

I really like the box art

@realityxaidan any standard numbered game is a great place to start. For the recent rerelease most would either say VII or IX. Personally IX is my favourite. The plot and graphics are great, while the battle and ability system is easy to get into.

@Donkey-Kong-Fan right now the physical release for IX is set for 4th December exclusively on playasia, correct.

I like how Armarant is shoved down out the way for the Switch logo. Irrelevant even on the boxart.

Too late for me.

@realityxaidan I know everyone says their chili is the best, but mine really is the best So here’s how I’d approach the series:

Start with FF6 for the Snes. It’s 2D RPG at its finest, like Super Mario World.

Then modernize that beautiful experience with FF9. Almost like going on to Mario 64 from SMW

Then play FF7 to cap off the best of the old part of the series. You definitely can’t go wrong with that order!

I have it downloaded already. Will my existing save file load if I get this overseas version?

@Robzilla not true at all. 10 and 12 were also good.