The beauty and tragedy of Final Fantasy 9 is that it came out in the waning days of the PlayStation 1 and featured some of the best 2D environmental art in RPG history. Square Enix's official PC port did not do a good job of upscaling the highly detailed backgrounds to modern resolutions, but the AI upscaling process, Moguri Mod, was introduced and was able to better preserve some of the art while upscaling by about a billion pixels It is now available. Three years after we thought we had the final version of Moguri Mod, it underwent a complete overhaul, with all backgrounds being re-rendered using a different learning model.

Below, from the Moguri Mod page:

There is no comparison between this 9.0 update and the previous version, but when you put Moguri 9 side by side with the unmodified PC port, this is impressive:

This latest release includes new “toons” of character and enemy models shaders and “realism” shaders for character and enemy models. I'm not sure which is better than the original PS1's unique polygons, but it's pretty neat to have a dramatic impact on the look of a game without having to completely replace the character models.

“Moguri” is installed from the “Final Fantasy 9” mod launcher called “Memoria” and as a mod platform has actually added many features over the past three years. Most notably

the mod failed to create additional art for ultrawide displays, so if you are using a 21:9 monitor, there are places where you will see black bars on the side of the screen. However, the environment often scrolls and protrudes from the side of the original 4:3 screen, thus increasing the art available in some locations. It is wild to see this old 4:3 game in ultrawide. On the other hand, 16:10 support is great for Steam Deck, allowing them to regain some of the vertical screen space lost in the crop from the original resolution.

Additionally, there is an option to replace the “Tetra Master” card game from Final Fantasy 9 with the more popular and less random “Triple Triad” from Final Fantasy 8. Let's be clear, we would not be friends if we did this.

Memory is still in active development, so even if this is the final update to the Mogli AI upscale overhaul, Final Fantasy 9's modifications as a whole are likely to continue. At this rate, fans will likely see the game completely reworked before Square Enix's long-rumored remake finally arrives.