Yep, it's official: Final Fantasy XVI will be the first mainline game in the long-running RPG series to be rated M for Mature in the US, and PEGI 18+ in Europe. Now that the title can be pre-ordered following its release date announcement at The Game Awards, we know that the age ratings are going to stick (not that there was much chance of them actually changing up until this point).
Square Enix has previously gone on record saying that Final Fantasy XVI is meant to tell a darker, more mature story — and we suppose that much was evident in one of the game's previous trailers, which showed a man's decapitated head rolling across the ground.
Most of Final Fantasy's previous instalments have settled on a T for Teen or PEGI 15 rating, shying away from things like graphic violence and sexual themes. But with next year's title, the development team's clearly trying to break new ground.
What do you want from a mature Final Fantasy game? Are you ready to see Clive get some blood on his hands? Seek revenge in the comments section below.
Comments 25
Ok... now I'm even more interested.
It's awesome but at the same time I'm kinda miffed that square removed some iconic moments from VIIR simply because of a little bit of blood and now they're like hey here's an M rated FF with Blood and gore all over the place and blackjack and hookers
An 18+ dark fantasy.
That's excellent news.
I love generic high fantasy, but sometimes it's more interesting to delve in to something a little bit bleaker. The environments in a dark fantasy are what pull me in - Give me some dark ruins or a shattered village in a swamp, mix in something horrible along with some monster violence and I'm happy.
Pre-ordered the Deluxe Edition earlier today, but I might swap it for the Collector's depending on the price...
Thats fine with me, it was pretty clear since the reveal trailer anyway.
For those curious, these are the mature topics in the game.
https://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2022/11/30/final-fantasy-16-hate-crimes-drugs-prostitution-age-rating/
Cool.a more mature final fantasy game is welcome.so im glad final fantasy 16 is a rated m for mature.word up son
If being m rated means we get more scenes like titan crushing some dude screaming for his life with a thrown rock, or decapitating a person in front of Joshua triggering his awakening. Then by all means keep the series rated m. Ive never hit the preorder button faster in my life
Imagine if this is what the DQ team meant by 12 being more mature too lmao
Clive’s gonna wet his whistle.
Couldn't possibly care less. If the gameplay, story and characters are garbage, the age rating won't matter. And outside of re-releases, FF hasn't been good for a while now.
Hopefully it's properly mature and not just edgelord protagonists and swearing.
The hype is real now!
Will the combat be like 15? I liked 15 except chapter 12...
This is honestly one of the reasons why I'm excited for this game so cannot wait!
@Cutmastavictory The combat will be more similar to DMC cause of the combat director being the person who worked on DMC.
I'm not sold on the idea. It looked edgy to me from the start, and it just didn't grab me. Seeing strong language in a FF game just feels out of place and I really don't want to see a bunch of F bombs in it (I know this may not be the case and I doubt it'll be extensive). So far this feels more like compensating than something to make it compelling.
And I loved XV and lost my mind when it was announced despite not really playing any mainline FF games before. I just don't get any of that feeling here.
I'd love to change my mind towards the positive here.
Edit: Just took a look at the new trailer and it's looking better than before, still not grabbed in the same way, but I'm more interested than before.
I'm likewise mixed on this.
I certainly don't have anything against "M" rated titles (& play a few myself), but there's already a plethora of AAA dark fantasy games, mostly from western devs outside of the FromSoft games. Gives off shades of the PS360 gen where Japanese devs chased western trends & it often didn't end well for their franchise's reputations.
Japanese devs didn't really recover until the PS4/Switch came out & they modernized in terms of presentation & QOL elements, but still held true to their roots in terms of ethos.
That said the combat does look fun, so I'll keep an eye on it (still much more interested in all the FFVII projects, though).
@KaijuKaiser
Especially Cid. Man was a horrible influence on me.
Helped give me my foul mouth and my pack a day cig habit.
It looks awesome can't wait
@KaijuKaiser I think FF7 had some censored stuff, but the remake just didn't him dropping bombs, and is better and feels more like FF for it.
I'm more on the negative side, I don't think final fantasy needs to be gorey and 'mature'.
Though I'm pretty negative about this game in general, definitely not looking like one for me. Glad everyone else is looking forward to it though.
FFXVI going to be giving a whole new meaning to riding your Chocobo. 😂
Not a fan of this. It already seemed even further removed from the Final Fantasy series than 15 did, may have well called this Forspoken. Sure it has the aforementioned Chocobo and the summons but it's missing the color, anthromorphic characters, and a party.
This may turn out to be a really fun game, but I'll probably just call it Devil May Cry 6 rather than FF 16. Maybe Squenix should just make all the numbered FF games MMOs, I don't know.🤷
Getting more and more excited every time we see and hear something for this game. Need it in my console right now!
I was looking forward to FF16 being back in a medieval fantasy setting, so I am disappointed that the developer and publisher have chosen to include content that warrants a mature rating. Having been a gamer for 35 years, I'm well aware that most video games (and media in general) equate 'action' with violence, and I'm OK with the level of violence in Horizon Forbidden West. As human beings, we are great rationalizers.
I'm also not a proponent of censorship. I think that most of us are capable of deciding what type of content supports our own true nature. I'll be voting with my dollars by not buying FF16. I doubt that SE needs my $70 anyway.
FFXIV says hello. There's blood, drugs, deaths, sexy cat and bunny ladies everywhere in skimpy outfits, mentions of hate crimes, rape, prostitution, sex with dragons and good old fashioned British swear words in a Yorkshire accent. Bloody marvellous it is.
I'm personally excited as hell! Glad to know we have official confirmation of the Mature age rating.
We haven't had a M-rated FF game since Type-0, which was popular enough to spawn a manga series.
I’m way late to this discussion, but this rating is really disappointing to me. I’ve been playing Final Fantasy since the early 90s, and as epic as this game looks, it will be a pass for me. Final Fantasy has always been able to address difficult situations and still keep everything above board while creating a world I love to “live in” for a short time, but apparently more gratuitousness is better to Yoshi-P, so…
Pass for me. Hope everyone else enjoys.
I’ll probably just play FF I - XV another million more times and realize that good games with mature storylines don’t have to be rated M (and a hard M at that…).
Boo.
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