After 3 Years, a Major Mod Update Makes Final Fantasy IX More Stunning Than Ever
The great Meguri Mod project received its first update in three years. The modification remasters Final Fantasy IX, introducing, among other things, high-resolution backgrounds and the option to play at up to 120 frames per second.
Final Fantasy IX was released at the end of the first PlayStation's lifespan. The authors developed insanely detailed pre-rendered backgrounds for the game, which unfortunately lost a ton of detail when converted to the console's low resolution. To make matters worse, over the years since the production's release, Square Enix lost many of the original renders of the locations, as well as some of the source code. As a result, even the PC conversion of the game released in 2016 is full of blurry backgrounds.
The problem was fixed by a group of fans, developing the Moguri Mod, which remastered all the graphics, also introducing high-resolution backgrounds through the use of AI algorithms, as well as improving the 3D visuals. It seemed that the work on this mod was already completed, but a few days ago the authors unexpectedly broke the three-year-long silence by releasing version 9.0.0 of the project.
Compared to previous releases, the new edition of Moguri Mod has reworked all remastered backgrounds from scratch, providing even higher quality. The modification has also been integrated into FFXI's modding platform called Memoria. This makes the installation of this “fan remaster” much simpler, as the program itself will download the necessary files and place them in the right places.
Above all, however, the two projects now work perfectly together. So we can enjoy Moguri's remastered graphics with Memoria's improvements, such as:
- the option to play at 60, 90 or 120 frames per second;
- anti-aliasing;
- new fonts;
- the option to play in 16:10 and ultra-panoramic resolutions.
Especially the last thing is interesting. Since the backgrounds are pre-rendered, it was not always possible to fully fill the screen with graphics and sometimes we see black bars when playing at ultrawide resolution. However, this happens surprisingly rarely. This is due to the fact that backgrounds in FFIX were created to scroll while exploring, so for many locations the authors had something to get the extra elements needed to fill the ultrawide screens. Another interesting option is the ability to enable alternative shaders, changing the style of the game's three-dimensional elements, for example, to a more realistic or cartoonish one (“Toon” option). What this looks like in practice, you can see in the image below.
There is also an option to swap the Tetra Master card game with the Triple Triad card game derived from Final Fantasy VIII.
It is possible that this is the last major update to the Moguri Mod, as visually the authors have improved practically everything they could.However, the FFIX mod scene will continue to grow through other components of the Memoria project.
Graphic comparison
Standard version of the game:
Photo source: Square Enix and Meguri Mod Team.
Moguri Mod:
Img source: Square Enix and Meguri Mod Team.
