Square Enix continues its sterling reputation for excellent PC ports with perfect technical implementation. That, of course, was sarcasm, because apparently a patch has managed to completely break Final Fantasy IX on PC.
According to ResetEra user Hektor, Square Enix's latest patch for Final Fantasy IX removed a massive amount of files from the game's directory. If you head over to SteamDB, the file change notes (or if you prefer in this case, patch notes) back this up. When attempting a fresh install of Final Fantasy IX on Steam after the patch has been applied, the only file that appears to be present in the directory is the launcher. Naturally, the launcher is completely useless without anything to launch, so it looks like Square Enix has managed to delete its own game with a patch. Bravo.
Over on Final Fantasy IX's Steam forum, user Xenogears describes their experience with the problem. Xenogears says they had two mods installed: the Memoria Engine, which allows modders to change aspects of the game, and the Moguri Mod, which cleans up background resolution and implements a few other changes. According to Xenogears, the game "stopped starting", so they deleted it and cleaned the folder, registry, and cache. Upon trying to download the game again, only the launcher was downloaded. Similar accounts can be seen here and here.
We're not entirely sure how Square Enix managed to let this one get by quality control. Suffice it to say they're going to have to get on this one sharpish, as not being able to play the game is a pretty big game-breaking bug. Hopefully, normal service will be resumed for Final Fantasy IX on PC sooner rather than later. Until then, let's all gather round and laugh at Square Enix. Maybe that will convince them to get to work on the problem faster. We've reached out to Square Enix for comment on this issue.
Have you experienced this "problem" with Final Fantasy IX? Let us know in the comments below!
