Final Fantasy 9 is a nostalgic and warmly regarded title from Square Enix's enduringly popular Final Fantasy franchise. An iconic and timeless entry in the franchise that goes back to the earlier game's roots, with a colorful world and characters with a gripping coming-of-age story. It's such a popular entry that a children's animated show based on FF9 is currently in the works. It also is one of the most accessible, having been re-released on many modern systems, including PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One, and even mobile devices like iOS. However, fans playing the iOS version of the game have had issues with it for the last few months.
Most notably, a game-breaking bug had emerged in this mobile version of Final Fantasy 9 that wouldn't boot up the game. This occurred after the latest Apple iOS update to version 14.5 in April, where no player was able to make any more further progress. Players had reported these issues to Apple and Square Enix, which resulted in the game's stealth removal from the Apple Store in the Summer. After several months of radio silence, this game-breaking bug has been fixed.
This stealth update was found by Reddit user Stunning_Culture_560 on the r/FinalFantasy subreddit, with a screenshot showing an Apple automatic update for the Final Fantasy 9 port. This version 1.5.3 is 3.4 GB in size and very plainly says that it fixed the bug that caused players unable to play the game on the new iOS version.
This user, along with other users who previously downloaded the game onto their iPhones were able to boot up the patched version of Final Fantasy 9, with many rejoicing they are able to continue playing the classic, picking up where they last left off. Some note that the game is still missing from the Apple Store after it was removed a few months ago, many thinking it will be added back to the storefront in the near future. Others are hoping since the iOS version got fixed, the same patch could be applied to the Android version, as it is also suffering a similar issue.
Regardless, this is a big fan for Final Fantasy fans who wish to play this on the go and in a fairly convenient fashion. Now almost every Final Fantasy game up to Final Fantasy 9 is playable on iOS, thanks to this patch and the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters. New fans can easily jump into these classic RPGs thanks to all these ports and experience what makes the franchise, and FF9 especially, such a memorable series.
Final Fantasy 9 is available now on PC, PS1, PS4, Switch, Xbox One, and mobile devices.