Zidane Tribal kidnapped a princess and accidentally started one of the most beloved RPGs ever made. Twenty-five years later, you can put his face back together 1,000 pieces at a time.
The Square Enix Store is taking pre-orders for FINAL FANTASY IX Jigsaw Puzzle Denouement – 1000 PIECE, built around an iconic key visual from the 2000 original. It’s expected to begin shipping this September, though Square Enix hasn’t announced a specific release date yet.
And Denouement isn’t the only one.
Three puzzles, one anniversary
Integrity and Reclusion are also up for pre-order, each also 1,000 pieces. Every puzzle in the set runs £32.99, which is a respectable price for what amounts to a wall-sized piece of FFIX art you have to earn.
The whole collection exists to mark the game’s 25th anniversary. That’s the pitch, and it’s an honest one.
Why it’s this Final Fantasy and not one of the other 15
The franchise has 16 mainline entries now, plus spin-offs, sequels and remakes stacked on top. Square Enix could have picked any of them for a puzzle line.
It picked the ninth. There’s a reason for that.
Final Fantasy IX launched on PlayStation back in 2000 and set its story in Gaia, a medieval fantasy world. Zidane, a thief, kidnaps princess Garnet Til Alexandros XVII, then joins forces with her and others to take down her mother, the Queen, and unite the nations once more.
The one everybody kept
Critics praised it for nodding back to the earliest Final Fantasy games while folding in new mechanics, and it settled into the conversation about the greatest video games ever made. A remaster followed in 2016.
Square Enix has also announced an upcoming animated series adaptation, made in collaboration with Cyber Group Studios. That project is still ahead of us, and it may end up being the thing that puts a new light on the 2000 RPG for people who never played it.
Until then, there are puzzles. Reviews will start arriving over the next couple of months, so the question of whether these are worth the £32.99 will answer itself soon enough.
For now the pitch is simple: a key visual you’ve stared at since the PlayStation era, cut into 1,000 pieces, waiting on a kitchen table while Zidane and Garnet get ready for their second act.
