All of Square Enix’s Plans for the 25th Anniversary of Final Fantasy IX

Originally released in Japan on July 7, 2000, before making its way to North America a few months later on November 14, Final Fantasy IX would end up being the series’ final entry on the PS1 and a return to form of sorts. To close out a hugely successful run of games on the PlayStation, Square brought back series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi as Final Fantasy IX‘s producer (his first game in the series since serving as Final Fantasy V‘s director) and reintroduced all the core elements of the franchise that longtime players had come to love. For many Final Fantasy fans, Final Fantasy IX represents the peak game of one of the series’ peak eras, and its 25th anniversary has been incredibly hyped up as the potential announcement date for a long-rumored remake.

Square Enix began promoting the anniversary of Final Fantasy IX with a website launched back in April, counting down to the past weekend where a series of announcements cascaded, leading to yesterday’s culminating reveals. While we didn’t get any confirmation of a Final Fantasy IX remake (much to many fans’ dismay), Square Enix is still celebrating the occasion with a slew of new products, community events, and free giveaways that honor the game’s legacy as a fan-favorite in the studio’s flagship series. Let’s take a look at everything Square Enix is doing to celebrate the anniversary of one of the all-time great JRPGs.

One of the earlier reveals as part of Final Fantasy IX‘s anniversary celebration is a new set of character artwork depicting four of the game’s main characters. The new concept art comes from original Final Fantasy IX character designer Toshiyuki Itahana and collects gorgeous renditions of Zidane, Steiner, Vivi, and Garnet.

For the actual anniversary of Final Fantasy IX, Square Enix uploaded a commemorative video to its YouTube channel titled “Final Fantasy IX 25th Anniversary Special Movie”. This brief 72-second video collects a highlight reel of scenes from the various FMV sequences in Final Fantasy IX set to the game’s iconic theme song, “Melodies of Life”. You can check out the video here.

On just about every storefront you can think of, the remastered version of Final Fantasy IX is currently on a massive 70% discount as part of the game’s 25th anniversary celebration, bringing it down to just $6.29. While Steam lists the sale as ending on July 10, other storefronts (namely, the Nintendo eShop and PlayStation Store) have the terminal date of Final Fantasy IX‘s 70% discount set for one week later on July 17, 2025.

Notably, Square Enix posted to the official Final Fantasy Twitter account with a call for fans to submit their Final Fantasy IX artwork for an as-yet-unannounced project. Fans have from now until October to make submissions to the Final Fantasy IX Fan Art Project, which they can do here. Square Enix may be collecting these submissions as part of another video montage or perhaps for a special extra in an upcoming Final Fantasy IX-related project…

As of this past weekend, we have the full reveal and scans of a new storybook that Square Enix is printing to act as a prequel to Final Fantasy IX, telling the story of Vivi and his grandfather, Quon. While it’s only currently available for pre-order in Japanese, the book will eventually be getting an English printing in 2026 according to Square Enix.

One of the more exciting product reveals as part of Final Fantasy IX‘s anniversary celebration is the new Timeless Tale vinyl, which collects both the original soundtrack and new recordings of several of the more iconic songs. Additionally, the vinyl jacket features new artwork from character designer Toshiyuki Itahana and a set of liner notes penned by composer Nobuo Uematsu. This new pressing of Timeless Tale marks the first time the vinyl has been available since 2000 and is sure to become a collector’s item.

Along with the storybook and Timeless Tale vinyl as the centerpiece products for Final Fantasy IX‘s anniversary celebration, Square Enix has revealed a slew of new FFIX-themed merchandise that fans can now preorder. There are stickers, buttons, keychains, plushes, and more available that feature iconic characters from Final Fantasy IX.

Along with all the premium merchandise that FFIX fans can currently pre-order on Square Enix’s website, the company announced a free giveaway on its Twitter account yesterday as part of Final Fantasy IX‘s anniversary celebration. By visiting the pinned tweet here, players can download two alternate versions of a phone wallpaper featuring some gorgeous new artwork by Final Fantasy IX character designer Toshiyaki Itahana. One version is just the artwork, while the other includes a calendar for July 2025 to commemorate the game’s 25th anniversary.

Despite Square Enix doing more for Final Fantasy IX‘s 25th anniversary than it normally would do for another game in its back catalog, fans are still understandably disappointed by the lack of a remake announcement. Rumors of a Final Fantasy IX remake date back to the infamous Nvidia leak of 2021, and it’s worth noting that, of the 8 Square Enix games that were in the leak, 7 have either been confirmed, announced, or released. The only holdout? Final Fantasy IX‘s remake. With any luck, Square may just be biding its time for a bigger reveal at Tokyo Game Show in September.