Final Fantasy XVI

Final Fantasy 16 sets a new benchmark in action-RPGs, featuring a rich and fascinating story, and a layered and enjoyable combat system.

83%Game Brain Score

story, gameplay

optimization, grinding

80% User Score Based on 15,355 reviews

Critic Score 87%Based on 84 reviews

Platforms

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About

Final Fantasy XVI is a single player hack and slash game with fantasy, drama, dark fantasy and violence themes. It was developed by Square Enix and was released on June 22, 2023. It received positive reviews from critics and mostly positive reviews from players.

Deluxe Edition includes the following: - The base game - Special Clive Steelbook Case - Cloth map of Valisthea

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80%

Audience ScoreBased on 15,355 reviews

story4.8k positive mentions

optimization805 negative mentions

The story is mature, emotional, and rich with political intrigue and dark fantasy themes, featuring strong character development and compelling narrative moments that deeply engage players.
The gameplay offers fast-paced, fluid, and satisfying combat inspired by Devil May Cry, with accessible mechanics and enjoyable action sequences, especially during boss and eikon battles.
The graphics and art direction are stunning and cinematic, providing highly detailed environments and a visually immersive world, complemented by a phenomenal soundtrack that richly enhances the emotional and epic tone of the game.

PC optimization is poor, causing frequent stuttering, frame drops, crashes, and severe performance issues even on high-end hardware, often requiring mods or workarounds to achieve stable play.
The pacing and side content suffer from repetitive and tedious fetch quests that disrupt narrative momentum and engagement, with many side quests lacking meaningful rewards or depth.
Replayability is limited due to linear gameplay, minimal RPG elements, and generally shallow side content, which may leave players feeling the experience is padded and mechanically shallow after the initial playthrough.

story
13,114 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
37%
56%
7%
The story of Final Fantasy XVI is widely praised for its mature, dark fantasy themes, rich worldbuilding, and emotional depth, with many reviewers highlighting its compelling narrative and engaging characters. However, the pacing is often criticized as uneven, frequently slowed by numerous repetitive and tedious fetch quests and excessive cutscenes that disrupt the story's momentum. Despite these drawbacks, the main storyline’s cinematic presentation and dramatic boss battles make it a rewarding experience for fans primarily interested in a story-driven action RPG.
- “The story slapped, the combat slayed, and the soundtrack personally dragged me into the abyss.”
- “Clive’s story is full of political twists, shocking reveals, and deeply emotional moments. Some aren’t just regular side quests — they deepen the lore, expand your understanding of Valisthea, and give humanity to the NPCs — they’re worth doing. The DLCs are definitely worth it if you love the game‘s world and want more, but they’re not necessary if you just want to focus on the main story. This isn’t just a game for me — it’s a beautifully wrecking ball of storytelling, spectacle, and emotion — and I couldn’t love it more.”
- “Final Fantasy XVI is a powerful blend of epic storytelling and fantasy action. The story is a solid 9/10 – it has strong Game of Thrones vibes with political intrigue, betrayal, and mature themes, all mixed with jaw-dropping monster encounters that elevate the narrative to another level. The eikons (summons) especially make the story feel massive and impactful. If you’re into action RPGs with a rich story and visually stunning world, I highly recommend Final Fantasy XVI.”
- “The story starts out grimdark but turns into classic Final Fantasy "power of friendship" stuff, which doesn't really gel with the bleak opening.”
- “Most of the game consists of some of the most boring fetch quests and dull dialogue possible, about 70% of the time. You will beg for the game to end and it won't end until you force yourself to slog through dozens of some of the most dull fetch quests out there.”
- “Side quests are laughably shallow and mostly pointless, with many being repetitive fetch quests or kill quests that add little to the world or story, significantly damaging the pacing and momentum of the main narrative.”
gameplay
3,513 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
34%
58%
8%
Final Fantasy XVI's gameplay is a fast-paced, action-oriented combat system heavily inspired by Devil May Cry, offering satisfying combos and fluid mechanics, especially in its cinematic boss and eikon battles. While the combat is accessible and visually impressive, it is often criticized for lacking depth, being repetitive, and simplified with minimal RPG elements, leading to a somewhat shallow experience that may not satisfy traditional RPG fans. The game balances its heavy narrative and cinematic presentation with gameplay segments, but the pacing can feel slow due to frequent cutscenes and unengaging side quests.
- “The series takes a bold turn and calls upon Ryota Suzuki (one of the lead combat designers of DMC5 and other Capcom games) to help create a true action game with RPG elements while packing the gameplay systems and mechanical depth of a hack and slash. When all the tools are at your disposal this is one of those games where it can be as fast paced and elaborate as the synapses in your brain can light up, you're only limited by "open world RPG mob fodder" enemy design and a few unavoidable pesky ability cooldowns, some more than others depending on your loadout.”
- “The gameplay is what pains me the most. However, the gameplay itself was super fun. The training mode encourages experimentation, and the more you master the mechanics, the more fluid and spectacular the combat becomes, making you want to start a New Game Plus run.”
- “Gameplay is so good, it has almost everything I want in a 3rd person hack n slash game. Combat is excellent, it has great dodging mechanics, and a very simple straightforward easy to understand progression system. You get different Eikons (summons) as the story progresses, and they give you different powers that you can switch back and forth during battle.”
- “On the other hand it has possibly the worst gameplay of both any RPG or action game I've played in recent memory; the RPG aspects may as well not exist since gear and stats are effectively useless, and the combat is just fully mindless both as Clive and Ifrit.”
- “Beat the worst best game ever, they should've removed almost all of the side content and made it a 25 to 30 hour action-adventure especially because they were bold enough to use that combat system that's only fun for like 20 hours and is all flashy effects, no engaging mechanics, and no use of elements (fire, wind, etc.) at all.”
- “The gameplay is really, really boring in this game.”
optimization
2,655 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
16%
54%
30%
Final Fantasy XVI suffers from notably poor PC optimization, with frequent reports of stuttering, significant frame drops, crashes, and persistent performance degradation over time, regardless of hardware strength. Players often need to rely on various mods, tweaks, and upscaling technologies like DLSS or FSR with frame generation just to achieve playable frame rates, and settings changes have minimal impact on improving performance. Despite the game's strong story, visuals, and voice acting, its technical performance severely hampers the experience, making it recommended primarily for those with high-end rigs or willingness to manage workarounds until official optimizations are addressed.
- “This game had a great story and amazing gameplay, but the performance for PC is where it lets it down in all aspects. On my old PC, I got a solid 25-30 FPS on the lowest settings ('potato mode'). Even with a new PC (Trailblazer) getting 45-50 FPS, the game is poorly optimized with massive memory leaks ruining the experience. Square Enix should not have released this in its current state. Performance rating: 2/10 due to lack of optimization. Overall, I cannot recommend this game in its current state but hope fixes come.”
- “I played on a PC with a 9800x3d and an RTX 5070 Ti, achieving around 160–180 FPS in closed environments and roughly 120–130 FPS during large-scale battles at ultra settings, QHD resolution, using DLSS 4.5 performance preset and frame generation enabled. These aren’t perfect numbers, but overall performance is very good.”
- “The only real noticeable problems are the performance, excessive amount of sidequests (which can be skipped), and a lack of RPG elements. Changing graphics settings barely affects performance and no external fixes are available, which shouldn't be necessary but often are with PC ports of FF games. The game basically relies on hardware vastly more powerful than PS5 consoles to brute force acceptable performance.”
- “You'll need to run through hoops with performance mods and weird Windows optimization to get a semi-decent experience and it'll still stutter because the 1% lows are straight garbage.”
- “The day Square Enix releases a performance fix for the game, I'll literally get an erection. Amazing game but, Jesus Christ, this is atrocious to run on PC unless you brute force it with insane top-of-the-line components or have to restart every 3 hours so that the stutters and horrid performance go away.”
- “This is the only game I had performance issues with a 5070. The PC optimization is so bad.”
graphics
2,453 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
56%
42%
2%
The graphics in Final Fantasy XVI are widely praised for their stunning visuals, detailed environments, and cinematic quality, often described as some of the best in the series with top-tier art direction. However, many users report significant performance and optimization issues on PC, including frame drops, stuttering, and crashes, which detract from the overall experience despite the impressive graphical fidelity. While the visuals significantly enhance the game's immersive storytelling and epic boss battles, the demanding system requirements and lack of consistent framerate smoothness limit access for players without high-end hardware.
- “The merits of this game are countless, its fun, its well made, story and soundtrack are close to perfection, the graphics and artistic direction are probably the best around at the moment, and it's one of the best incarnations of the intellectual property.”
- “The graphics are not only visually stunning but also incredibly well-designed, enhancing the overall gaming experience.”
- “[b]graphics:[/b] stunningly high-quality 3d visuals paired with a beautifully designed UI.”
- “The graphics often feel like I’m playing something from the Xbox 360 era — and at times even a PS2 game like Spyro.”
- “Poor lip-syncing and low-quality visuals during dialogue completely break immersion.”
- “Game came out over a year ago and the optimization is still poor; I'm having frame drops on a 4070ti graphics card.”
music
2,402 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
58%
41%
1%
The music in this game, composed by Masayoshi Soken, is widely praised as phenomenal, epic, and one of the best in the Final Fantasy series, notably enhancing emotional scenes and boss battles. While some find certain tracks repetitive or less memorable compared to earlier entries, the overall soundtrack richly complements the game's cinematic tone and grand storytelling. The score is considered a standout feature, frequently described as a masterpiece that elevates the entire gaming experience.
- “Masayoshi Soken's soundtrack for Final Fantasy XVI is absolutely phenomenal, delivering an epic score that perfectly complements the game's grand scale and emotional depth.”
- “The soundtrack is a masterpiece, combining powerful orchestral themes, haunting choral pieces, and memorable motifs that elevate every moment from intense battles to quiet, reflective scenes.”
- “The music is incredibly well-crafted and immersive; it stands out as one of the best in the franchise, with many tracks becoming instant favorites and enhancing the overall cinematic experience.”
- “The music is the only even slightly redeeming factor in this and that's because at least Soken can do his job well.”
- “The soundtrack is weak, there is not a single time during my playthrough where I was amazed or surprised by the OST and that never happened to me in a Final Fantasy game before.”
- “The music is lackluster and doesn't feel in place with the story and especially the environment.”
emotional
668 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
98%
2%
Final Fantasy XVI delivers a deeply emotional and mature narrative centered on Clive Rosfield's compelling journey, enriched by strong character development, powerful voice acting, and an exceptional soundtrack that amplifies every emotional beat. While some players note uneven pacing, repetitive side quests, and occasional lack of depth in supporting characters, the game's heartfelt storytelling, cinematic presentation, and impactful moments have moved many to tears, making it one of the most emotionally resonant entries in the series. Overall, it is praised as a powerful, gripping experience that blends intense action with profound emotional storytelling.
- “Every plot twist had me wanting more and more even after the ending, and there was a two week period after I finished it where I genuinely cried multiple times from how equally beautiful and heartbreaking this game is.”
- “But for me this has been one of the most awe-inspiring, moving, outright heartbreaking games I played for a while. I thought playing the Ori games was rough but this game has had me in tears for highs and lows over and over again throughout an 80 hour playthrough. There was a side quest alone with some relative of a side character that had me sobbing for like 20 minutes and its ending completely devastated me, its a long credits and I cried through the lot, and I even started during the final boss fight (that's cheating Square Enix, making me fight with eyes full of tears).”
- “The story pulls me in so deeply that I had tears in my eyes by the end – it was that beautiful and emotional.”
- “Yes, knowing your character's origin is interesting, in a 1 or 2 lines of dialogue, not a 20 hour boring story arc in which the character is a total victim and doesn't want to do the thing he does.”
- “Once Kupka is dead the game really just feels like a handful of excellent boss fights padded out by boring story content and sidequests, and after defeating Bahamut the game becomes super ugly with the clouds and remains an eyesore until the end of the game (minus the Rising Tides DLC).”
- “With 5k+ hours in FF14, this feels like all the bad parts of an MMO with some fun, fluid action combat that is short lived with an incredibly boring story.”
grinding
327 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
2%
8%
90%
Grinding in this game is generally seen as tedious and repetitive, particularly due to lengthy fetch quests, spongy enemies, and frequent interruptions with cutscenes that slow pacing. While some players appreciate side quests for world-building or lore, many find them uninspired and as filler that drags out gameplay unnecessarily without meaningful rewards or challenge. Overall, grinding and side content often hinder the experience, making progression and combat feel like a slog despite an engaging main story and solid combat fundamentals.
- “No exploration and no grinding for levels.”
- “No grinding required.”
- “No farming in the open world needed.”
- “The overwhelming majority of the sidequests are very boring and tedious fetch quests and not really worth the time, which is a bit of a shame.”
- “Side quests are like most MMORPG side quests: tedious, repetitive, with no impactful rewards (little if any lore, little gil, little materials).”
- “The grinding can feel like a job if you need to stay in one spot to gain materials to sell for gil, and when you level up it doesn't feel like you get much status increase out of your hard work.”
character development
210 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
54%
6%
Character development in the game is generally seen as strong and emotionally engaging, especially for the protagonist Clive and key characters, with many praising the mature storytelling and deep lore. However, several reviews note a lack of meaningful growth or screen time for many side characters, alongside complaints of linear progression and underwhelming side quests that sometimes fail to enrich character arcs. While character design and voice acting receive consistent acclaim, some feel that the overall development does not fully match the quality and depth expected from the series' legacy.
- “The story is emotional and mature, with strong character development.”
- “The character developments are compelling, making you want to learn more about the world and its inhabitants (which is helped with the active lore menu).”
- “Story & character bonds: unrivaled narrative focus and emotional connection to the main cast; the character development is superb.”
- “Most characters outside of the main character barely get any character development.”
- “The character development, or more accurately the lack of development towards the more important side characters, isn’t surprising, given that Yoshi P managed to do the same with expansions for XIV.”
- “The love interest has less character development than the dog; honestly, I felt I knew more about what the dog had been through in that world than I did the love interest.”
stability
190 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
30%
1%
69%
The game's stability on PC is highly mixed, with many users reporting frequent crashes, freezes—especially during cutscenes—stuttering, and performance drops even on high-end hardware. While some players experience smooth gameplay after troubleshooting or on top-tier GPUs, numerous others face persistent bugs, lengthy load times, and frustrating technical issues that significantly impact playability. Overall, the PC port appears to be poorly optimized and requires substantial patches to fully resolve stability problems.
- “The game was complete on release (even without DLC) and bug free.”
- “In the technical department, this game runs great so it doesn't ruin the experience for players who have capable machines, unlike those other recent AAA releases.”
- “I have constant 120fps and the game runs great.”
- “From a technical perspective this game has been a nightmare for me to achieve a playable experience: there is no ultrawide support; frame stutters and freezes are common; shader compilation takes 10-15 minutes after every GPU driver update and game load times are some of the worst I've seen despite using an M.2 SSD.”
- “However, in its current state, it is absolutely unbelievable how much this game crashes, freezes, or even causes my system to completely shut down and restart.”
- “How am I supposed to get into a game that freezes every 10 minutes, crashes every 15 minutes, stutters every 10 seconds and nearly sets my house on fire whenever combat starts or ends?”
humor
117 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
99%
1%
The game's humor is generally subtle, dry, and appears mostly in small moments or character interactions, often contrasting with its mature and dark tone. While some players appreciated the occasional comedic relief and over-the-top scenes, many found humor sparse compared to previous Final Fantasy titles, with side quests and dialogue lacking consistent levity. Overall, the humor adds occasional charm and depth but is limited and sometimes feels out of place amid the grim narrative.
- “Don't think I've ever played a game that could have me whooping and laughing from insane hype then genuinely shedding tears a few minutes later.”
- “It's hilarious that at a certain point you have the power of a god, you could blow up half the planet, and yet you're still playing delivery boy—go talk to this guy, go deliver that .”
- “Some of the kaiju boss fights are neat and entertaining, but much of the time, I found myself laughing at the absurdity of it.”
atmosphere
94 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
39%
57%
4%
The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its dark, mature, and immersive tone, setting it apart from previous entries with a gritty, medieval fantasy world enriched by detailed environments, strong character development, and powerful storytelling. The soundtrack and sound design consistently enhance this atmosphere, creating emotionally stirring and epic moments, though some players note occasional unevenness in pacing or combat's impact on the overall experience. Overall, the atmosphere is considered a standout feature that deeply engages players and elevates the narrative.
- “The world of Valisthea is rich with beautiful environments, atmosphere and lore, wonderful characters (with incredible performances) and an amazing soundtrack.”
- “From the very beginning, the darker atmosphere pulls you in – unusual for the series, but giving it uniqueness and courage.”
- “Each area feels distinct, and the world’s design creates a living, breathing atmosphere that invites players to get lost in it.”
- “Unfortunately, with the introduction of Barnabas as a main target, atmosphere and pacing changed dramatically and clearly became your typical Final Fantasy.”
- “The atmosphere, the story, the fighting style, the quests, the lack of "wow factor" Final Fantasy are so well-known for are completely absent.”
- “Previous Final Fantasy titles had a better focus on atmosphere and story, but struggled a bit with the gameplay.”
replayability
64 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
23%
64%
13%
Replayability varies widely, with many praising the engaging new game plus modes, additional challenges, and side content that extend playtime, while others find it limited due to linear gameplay, lack of meaningful choices, and repetitive side quests. Although the story and combat offer reasons to replay for some, overall replay value is often described as moderate to low, primarily appealing to completionists and those who enjoy challenging modes. DLCs and additional game modes add some depth, but many feel the game lacks the infinite replayability seen in other franchise entries.
- “It is endlessly replayable - whether you're going for score, style (the combo game is genuinely excellent), or survival (ultimaniac difficulty is brutal and great for challenge runs), it's one of the best action games you can play.”
- “The replayability value is also through the roof with: the possibility to replay stages of the game, arcade mode, Kairos Gate, and DLCs.”
- “Game offers great replayability with new game plus increasing level cap, offering new items and challenges.”
- “Other than NG+, there is literally no replayability to the game.”
- “After beating the game once you unlock "final fantasy mode" which is a NG+-exclusive challenge mode, but I've never cared for NG+ and I don't see this game having much replay value anyway.”
- “Despite a new difficulty setting for NG+ alongside a few additional bosses, everything else stays linear; the replay value is low.”
monetization
15 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
13%
87%
The monetization in this game is widely criticized as a blatant cash grab, featuring intrusive microtransactions and constant advertising-like pop-ups that disrupt gameplay. Many users feel it undermines the game's quality and legacy, with frustration over paid content feeling unpolished and overly commercialized.
- “Felt like a cash grab with halfway decent graphics.”
- “A waste of a saga which used to mean something to gamers abroad but I guess investors got their hands on production claims and made all these games nothing more than a quick cash grab in the end.”
- “This will likely be the last FF game I will purchase, as you can't trust them to produce anything decent these days without pulling the cash grab for questionable quality.”

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87%Critics’ scoreBased on 83 critic reviews

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21h Median play time

32h Average play time

37h Main story

79h Completionist

7-60h Spent by most gamers

*Based on 126 analyzed playthroughs

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Frequently Asked Questions

Final Fantasy XVI is a hack and slash game with fantasy, drama, dark fantasy and violence themes.

Final Fantasy XVI is available on Xbox Series X|S, PC, PlayStation 5, Windows and others.

The main story can be completed in around 37 hours, while the entire game is estimated to take about 79 hours to finish. On average players spend around 32 hours playing Final Fantasy XVI.

Final Fantasy XVI was released on June 22, 2023.

Final Fantasy XVI was developed by Square Enix.

Final Fantasy XVI has received mostly positive reviews from players. Most players liked Final Fantasy XVI for its story but disliked it for its optimization.

Final Fantasy XVI is a single player game.

Similar games include FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE INTERGRADE, Forspoken, Tales of Arise, FINAL FANTASY XIII, STRANGER OF PARADISE FINAL FANTASY ORIGIN and others.

Final Fantasy XVI

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