Final Fantasy 14’s new cyberpunk city has me hoping Dawntrail will shower more love on the series’ best entry
No, it’s not FF7
Among the slew of reveals for Final Fantasy XIV during Fan Fest Tokyo last weekend was a new town players will visit during upcoming expansion Dawntrail. While a new corner of Eorzea to explore is exciting by itself, the cyberpunk city has added to my hope that the MMO is set to shower a bit more love on the best Final Fantasy game. That’s right: Final Fantasy IX.
The latest connection to Dawntrail is in the name for the neon metropolis filled with glowing purple neon, Blade Runner-esque advertisements and buildings shaped like an Alienware PC case. It’s called Solution Nine - a callback to one of the Trance abilities of Final Fantasy 9 hero Zidane, used using the Limit Break-like status.
While the town sharing the name by itself isn’t reason to think Dawntrail will pay tribute to FF9 in the same way Endwalker drew liberally from Final Fantasy IV, for instance, there are some other glimpses that IX might pop up a little more than it has done in the past.
There’s the way that the new Viper job swaps from dual-wielding to a single bladed staff - just as Zidane wields both daggers in both hands or a bladed staff - for example. Leading into Dawntrail, the background of post-Endwalker raid Abyssos: The Eighth Circle featured a massive red eye, very similar to the memories of Garnet when recalling the eidolon-trapping airship Invincible attacking Madain Sari. Before that, one of Endwalker’s late-game quests concluded with a song titled You’re Not Alone, echoing the beautiful tune from FFIX's outstanding OST.
Of course, Final Fantasy 14 is crammed full of references to the entire series, whether it’s bosses such as Kefka and Cloud of Darkness showing up or more playful homages and spins on fan favourites. For Final Fantasy IX, we’ve battled secret boss Ozma and an Alexander with a number of similarities to the summon that protects Alexandria, while the Hildibrand quests during Heavenward introduced a miniaturised black mage called Gigi, a clear nod to FF9’s existentially-challenged spellcaster Vivi.
Even so, FFIX arguably hasn’t seen as much direct love as many of the other entries in the series, with Ozma, Gigi and a fight against the Cruise Chaser (inspired by FF9’s Ark) being notable standouts. Other references have tended to be a bit more vague - such as the Mognet mail system - or not quite as woven into the main story and its sidequests, such as Zidane’s outfit being offered as a subscription reward. There’s an argument to be made that XIV is often closer in tone and story to IX than many of the other games, which might then steer its writers away from veering too closely elsewhere - but given we likely won’t see a proper FF9 remake anytime soon, it only seems fair to chuck us a few more crumbs.
I’m obviously biased here, given that Final Fantasy IX is my favourite of the lot, but there are so many memorable characters, locations and bosses - Zorn and Thorn! Burmecia! The Black Waltzes! - that I’d love to see find their way into XIV as a full questline or raid. I'm not asking for Tetra Master but, at the very least, give us Chocobo Hot & Cold as a minigame to pass the time while we wait for a battle against Beatrix or Kuja, won’t you?