Final Fantasy 9 character designer is leaving Square Enix

Veteran Final Fantasy character designer Toshiyuki Itahana has officially left Square Enix. Itahana has worked at Square Enix for the past three decades, and although he is best known for it Final Fantasy 9A character designer, that's just scratching the surface of Itahana's contributions to the RPG genre over the years.

While Final Fantasy 9 is a record that Toshiyuki Itahana is often associated with that he also worked on Final Fantasy 11, Final Fantasy 13-2, Final Fantasy 14and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13. Itahana also developed the art and characters for Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles series, Final Fantasy Fables series and several others Final Fantasy records such as Final Fantasy Explorers and Mobius Final Fantasy.

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FF9 character designer Toshiyuki Itahana has officially left Square Enix

On January 5, 2026, Toshiyuki Itahana published a post on the Japanese blogging platform Note.com. Itahan's post starts at Final Fantasy veteran announcing that he has officially left Square Enix and that he has decided to leave the company at the end of 2025 after the 25th celebrations. Final Fantasy 9. Explaining his decision to leave Square Enix, Itahana said the following:

“Last year marked a significant milestone for the 25th anniversary of FINAL FANTASY IX, a truly momentous event, and I was deeply grateful to see so many people celebrating FFIX. With the illustration work and oversight related to the 25th anniversary now complete, I feel a strong sense of accomplishment in fulfilling the role that was given to me. At the same time, I felt that the moment was right to draw this line under a new line.”

However, Toshiyuki Itahana is not retiring for good. In the second part of Itahana's announcement, the creator confirms that he will be working as a freelance illustrator and character designer and looks forward to creating “a wide range of new artwork” in the future. Itahana hasn't mentioned his next project, but hopes fans will support him if they come across his work. Itahan's announcement ends with a heartfelt thank you to everyone who's played the games he's worked on over the years and to his former colleagues at Square Enix.

Where is the long rumored Final Fantasy 9 remake?

All the way back in September 2021, the infamous GeForce Now leak appeared online, potentially revealing the existence of over 50 PC games that had yet to be officially announced. While many of these leaked games have appeared in an official capacity over the past four years, many still haven't. Final Fantasy 9 remake is one such game.

Although Square Enix has never officially confirmed or denied the existence of a Final Fantasy 9 remake, several leaks surrounding the alleged project have surfaced online over the years. The latest wave Final Fantasy 9 Rumors of a remake surfaced in March 2025 when Square Enix launched an official website Final Fantasy 925th anniversary along with new artwork of her characters. Of course, Square Enix didn't announce a Final Fantasy 9 remake during the game's 25th anniversary. Instead, on the game's 25th birthday (July 7, 2025), leaker NateTheHate claimed that FF9 a remake was in development, possibly canceled recently.

While a completely bloated remake Final Fantasy 9 may still be a pipe dream, there has recently been some movement on another long talked about one Final Fantasy 9 project. In 2021, Square Enix officially announced an animated series based on Final Fantasy 9 which was to be produced by Cyber Group Studios, a French developer that went into liquidation as early as April 2025. Following the closure of Cyber Group Studios last year Final Fantasy 9 the animated series was believed to have been canceled, but as of December 2025, that may not be the case.

On 22 December 2025, French magazine Écran Total reported that Final Fantasy 9 the animated series has been renewed and is now being worked on by Euro Visual. The report claims that the show will feature 2D animation and will have 13 episodes, each of which will be approximately 22 minutes long. The series is said to be released in 2028 and will follow six black magicians who are all their children FF9is Vivi.