Final Fantasy 16 Targeting a Mature Age Rating - Push Square

The teen themes of more recent mainline Final Fantasy games will be cast aside for upcoming PlayStation 5 timed exclusive Final Fantasy 16, as publisher Square Enix eyes a Mature age rating.

It’s technically a provisional rating, but should it be retained it’d be the first Final Fantasy to carry that rating since Final Fantasy Type-0 HD – although even that entry was only considered Mature in North America.

To be fair, the game did look a lot more mature than recent entries in its debut trailer, and has clearly been inspired by Western role-playing games like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

Like Type O looked like it had a purpose for being edgier, while this just looked like it wanted to be edgy.

This seems like the idea was to make it rated M before for they decided why, that’s my impression from the trailer anyway.

Might sound like a bad idea, but I just like it more when games to M rated.

As someone who has been playing final fantasy for 20 plus years the series needs a shake up to recapture the magic not seen since final fantasy x (excluding FF7 remake, which is a magical game).

Hell yeah I've always wanted a FF game with an M Rating.

@nessisonett This one is being made by the Final Fantasy 14 team, right.

You can still make games tackle mature themes, be heavy hitting and still make them accessible for wider audiences.

If people want ro make their game M Rated then let them.

I mean guys, you can make T-Rated Games too.

And some of us don’t like those games.

As a long time fan of Final Fantasy, I’m not enjoying all these changes in FF16.

There is a clear gap in the market for epic fantasy adventures that are for wider audiences, which is what I see Final Fantasy as being.

Also, I like to enjoy my games with my kids.

Games are called Final FANTASY, and I'm just not seeing the fantasy aspect.

Feels like they've gone so far into the red-blue-yellow color scheme w/ Dragon Quest they've decided to go all in on black for the FF games.

And as much as I prefer FF8 over FF9 I'd still prefer a new FF game that harkened back to FF9 and all of it's interesting FANTASY characters.

Not saying this is a bad looking game, it could grow on me, but just call it something else, like "Last Remnant", "Last Story" or "Pandora's Tower".

That said, they can do what they want, and an M rating certainly won’t keep me from playing it.

@Kienda Just because you have kids doesn't mean a game's artistic choice should suffer because of it.

I've been feeling that way for the past 10 years or so - my sons are 15 and 18 now so I care less - but there were a few games I wanted to play while my family watched that I just didn't.

Games that were like - Why is this rated M.

But I did feel like the action games I liked and my wife and kids would watch me play were moving towards M rating just b/c the game devs though tit made them look cool.

Or maybe it was just the game they wanted to make.

But it sure felt like a bunch of M rated games were releasing that could have easily been Teen w/ not much effort at all.

The drift towards more M rated games started awhile ago, and it seems to be continuing, if not getting worse for people who prefer non-M rated games.

I want to protect each and every one of those guys!

@Rob_230 Final Fantasy XIV is amazing now.

And it’s fair for me to have that critique, just as it is fair for Square Enix to make the game they want!

The fact I have kids clearly affects me personal and decisions I make.

I’m not saying a game should cater to a narrow situation like mine.

Just that is how this decision affects me and probably means I won’t be buying it.

@HotGoomba To be fair, I don't recall a lot of Final Fantasy games touching the M rating at all.

So many games don’t need the gore they add just because they think it makes them look cool?

It’s like many movies that would pass for PG if they simply removed the swearing.

@rjejr completely agree with your rant above about this Final Fantasy in particular.

I don’t think it’s a bad game, but it just isn’t want I want from a Final Fantasy.

Even if it could be described as dark fantasy, it is still a fantasy setting?

So as long as the game is good, it can be rated whatever they want.

Super excited for this regardless of rating.

@Cloud39472 Case in point books like A Song of Ice and Fire and the Witcher novels still have mystical elements and stuff like magic and fantastical creatures like dragons, so they're still rooted in fantasy, just under a darker tone.

I've wanted Final Fantasy to explore the dark fantasy route more in depth for a long time

@Kienda If that's a direction they want to go I say let them

@TheFrenchiestFry Exactly that, which is why it's been bugging me seeing people whine about this game, everyone is entitled to their opinion, don't get me wrong but I see it with every final fantasy mainline announcement and its getting to me

I think it looks great and I'm looking forward to seeing how they explore dark fantasy in a final fantasy title

I seem to remember blood being in the original versus 13 trailer so I think it's something they've wanted to do for a while

Personally I feel like T fits it better, but that might just be me

@Cloud39472 Only bloody thing I've ever seen in Final Fantasy was when Zack died in the Crisis Core game

Probably due to the gory nature of this one, but I'm happy to hear this, finally square enix evolving final fantasy

That in conjunction with this game being worked on by staff from FFXIV makes me think it's going to be a lot better than a lot of people are expecting even with the darker tone in place

I just hope they are making it actually mature with themes for adults (not talking about H), not just f-bombs, blood and forced violence with a plot deep as a puddle

@Nepp67 Yeah pretty much, they've always dabbled in some bloodier moments (squalls face being cut, zacks death, versus 13 trailer etc) but never gone full dark fantasy till now.

We are not “whining“ just because we state an opinion or aren’t entirely happy with something.

This game looks good. And I would be looking forward to it more if it wasn’t a mainline Final Fantasy. Why? Because I don’t personally want Final Fantasy to become dark fantasy and for this to be the trend moving forward.

@Cloud39472 The thing that also really helps is that since it's being worked on by the Realm Reborn staff, they probably know how to deliver a higher quality game at greater efficiency compared a team like the Kingdom Hearts staff or FFXV staff since those games have just been bogged down with delay after delay, and FFXV in particular disappointed a lot of people at release including myself personally

@Kienda I wouldn't be too worried about dark fantasy becoming the trend for these games. Each new entry explores a new setting and general thematic elements so this is probably going to be a one time thing similar to the transition from VII's cyberpunk setting to VIII's more traditional high fantasy setting with modern aesthetics, to IX's steampunkish look

@Kienda I understand your opinion and you're entitled to it, just as much as I'm entitled to my view of your opinion. Stop feeling so personally attacked all the time.

@Cloud39472 I could say the same to you. You are defending this game like it was your baby and you have personally insulted me simply for having an opinion on previous threads.

@rjejr out of interest. What games on PS4 would you recommend for a Dad who wants a fantasy game to play when the kids around.

@Kienda At the very least XVI also isn't the only game in the series that's currently in development since it's highly probable that future VII Remake games are also going to be on PS5 if you're looking for something more traditional and familiar if the dark fantasy setting isn't your cup of tea

@TheFrenchiestFry yeah, the FF7R games are the a Final Fantasy’s for me right now.

Ratings boards are idiotic these days. What was once acceptable is not anymore by certain groups. For me growing up during the 80's as a kid, PG or PG-13 rated stuff back then would be considered M or R now in many cases, for example. Basically I ignore the ratings and judge by what I see for myself. Some countries are WAY more strict than others as it is too, so this provisional rating could just be a placeholder until the come is completed for a proper rating review, which in turn would probably be rated higher than it should be anyways.

Don't let other tell you what to think about these games, even on the ratings, just judge for yourself when the time comes.

It sad to see Final Fantasy Roman number have to become like this.

Well, at least FF X-2 with cheesy storyline and girly girly things was the last thing that entertaining from Final Fantasy games.

Would be funny if all the edgelords bought it because of the mature rating only to find it was given only because the game had loads of schlongs in it. An army of schlongs. Schlong minigames.

@Kienda not sure if you know this, but a lot of the games nowadays also have filters for things like blood and gore. I am pretty sure you can turn blood off in Ghost for example, and I think that there are some options in TLOU II also. So who knows it may come out as M for combat, maybe part of the story too, but there could be options to reduce some of the violence.

@rjejr "moving towards M rating just b/c the game devs though tit made them look cool."

I don't know if this being a typo or this being intentional would make me happier! =)

@Kienda As a future father with a new baby on the way, I understand you have to make sacrifices in order to raise your children

It's a hassle, but that's what you sign up for, and just because you have to play until after your kids are asleep doesn't mean you don't get to play it at all

Irrespective of that, developers can make whatever game they want to

Just an Xbox controller, like how he's used to, and he's set

I just hope 16 isn't as boring as 15 which it looks like it won't for now

final fantasy has been missing the mature storytelling (i.e. set in the ivalice world) from final fantasy xii, tactics and vagrant story FAR too long

that said, we don't necessarily need an "M" rating but it restores some of my faith in the series knowing that s-e has a more mature audience in mind this time around

Does that mean Resident Evil is a girly game just because Leon Kennedy has the most chiseled face known to mankind

if you dig into final fantasy xv, you will soon realize that it is by far and away the most popular final fantasy game amongst females in the series — yes, even more so than final fantasy x2 which was made up of an all woman cast

i'm not against a mainline final fantasy game having widespread appeal — previous final fantasy games walked more of a neutral line and could be enjoyed by all

but the cast in final fantasy xv was completely immersion breaking and did not work for me

News Final Fantasy 16 Targeting a Mature Age Rating