The eagerly awaited Final Fantasy 16 now has a ton of new information, from Eikon combat and powers to AI-controlled party members and how its world will be organized, thanks to a recent round of developer interviews. Another thing we know is that the tone of Final Fantasy 16 will be far more mature than fans of the series are used to.
Producer Naoki Yoshida of Final Fantasy 16 told GameSpot that the development team decided not to limit themselves by aiming for a “Teen” or “Everyone” rating, as most Final Fantasy games do, and instead decided to aim for a “Mature” rating in order to be able to properly tell the story they wanted to tell and tell it the way they wanted to.
These ratings may end up being a bit of a barrier when attempting to present a tale with challenging adult themes, according to Yoshida. And as a result of that ranking, you find yourself having to alter your game plans. You wanted to display something, but you had to pull the camera away because you needed to reach a particular rating. And as a result, everything seems a little bit more affordable. Therefore, this time, in order to guarantee that we could convey the tale we wanted to tell in the manner we wanted to, we chose to pursue a mature rating in the majority of the territories where the game would be released. But once more, this is not only because we wanted to make the game more violent or explicit; rather, we felt it was essential to allow us to explore the game’s more mature themes.
This is notable in especially because Final Fantasy 16 will afterward become the first major numbered game in the series to obtain a “Mature” classification, which should signal a darker and gritty tone for the game than prior mainline numbered entries.
Even outside the realm of numbered entries, Final Fantasy has only very infrequently featured games with Mature ratings; examples are Final Fantasy Type-0 and Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin.
In the summer of 2023, Final Fantasy 16 will launch for the PS5. This Fall, a new trailer and more information about the game’s plot and setting will be released.