March 11th, 2000 - Japanese gaming magazine Jump! were the first to get the first official details and screenshots of Final Fantasy IX - even though actual details on the game itself (story aspects in particular) were rather limited.

Previously announced in a News Brief, Final Fantasy IX is set for a July release in Japan; Jump! claim that it will hit the shelves on Wednesday July 19th.

The first finer details of three of the characters were also disclosed, along with some screenshots:

Name: Vivi Age: 9 Occupation: Black Mage A young one at only 9 years of age, our little black mage is a weak-willed child and 'prone to wondering about'. Looks cute, though. :)	Name: Zitan Age: 16 Occupation: Lady Boy :) Looking kind of like a deformed Squall, Final Fantasy IX's hero Zitan is extremely popular with the ladies and has a 'brightly hot' personality.	Name: Steiner Age: 33 Occupation: Royal Knight Not your typical over-weight middle aged guy, Steiner is a hard working royal knight who is devoted to serving a princess. Sure needs to cheer up a bit. :)

Boy, this Steiner sure looks mean. :) Even borrowing his haircut, Zitan sure looks like a deformed Squall. The clunky Steiner says something while looking onto an airship (notice the speech bubbles for showing text). A very mystical island is approached by a large flying creature. The lady-boy Zitan chats to some redhead; watch yourself, boy. :) Vivi makes his way through a large town (got to love those speech bubbles). Vivi's looking rather down on quite a miserable day... is he hurt? A castle floats infront of some sort of monument. Nice. We have no idea what this is... they definitely appear to be angel's wings above some sort of evil structure perhaps? Airships play a large role in IX's land... this one is flying through some sort of huge metropolis. . Vivi looking rather mystical, but strangely cute at the same time... .