Final Fantasy IX released 20 years ago

On this day 20 years ago, on 7 July 2000, Final Fantasy IX was released on the original PlayStation in Japan. The game returned to the roots of the Final Fantasy series with it's medieval fantasy setting (unlike Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII) and references to past Final Fantasy games.

Square Enix celebrates this with an interview with creators involved in the original development of the game: Kazuhiko Aoki (Event Design), Toshiyuki Itahana (Character Design) and Hiroyuki Ito (Director). They have split the interview into three parts and part 1 is an interview with Kazuhiko Aoki. You can read it on the official website.

In 2019 Square Enix released the Inside Final Fantasy series on YouTube . In these series a dive-in into the making of several Final Fantasy games will be shown together with interviews with the developers of the game. If you haven't watched the one about Final Fantasy IX, you can see it below.