Final Fantasy 9's Upscale Mod Received A Surprise Update

Square Enix's official PC ports have long been criticized for their poor adaptation to modern systems, and they certainly didn't excel at upscaling the highly detailed backgrounds to current resolutions, especially disappointing in the case of Final Fantasy 9, which features some of the prettiest 2D environment art in JRPGs.

As is often the case, dedicated fans stepped in, and a team of enthusiasts developed Moguri Mod, a free and faithful overhaul of the PC version of Final Fantasy 9, enhanced by deep-learning techniques. The biggest improvements were made in the background art, which is now clearer, more detailed, and higher resolution. Additionally, Moguri Mod's custom implementation of Memoria Mod provides more options than the original game.

Here's the list of Moguri Mod 9.0's changes:

• Upscale re-rendered of all backgrounds, aided by Stable Diffusion, mixed with the original result
• Full rework of battle backgrounds (re-render, re-stitching, re-mood)
• Redrawing of many layer edges
• Improvements in most lights
• Animated textures upscaled on Monsters/NPC
• Rework of some FMVs
• Many visual bug fixes (battles, backgrounds)

Take a look at some screenshots from Moguri Mod 9.0 and a comparison of various Final Fantasy 9 visuals shared by one of the mod's developers four months before the 9.0 release:

Check out the team's flipbook with the process and a selection of backgrounds here and install the latest version of Moguri Mod from its official page. 

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