Final Fantasy 16 seeks to explore more adult and complex themes

Final Fantasy XVI is the first video game in the numbered saga to receive the Mature rating (not recommended for children under 17) in the United States. In an interview with Gamespot, producer Naoki Yoshida has justified this decision and explained that the intention is not to create a violent video game for the mere fact of being violent, but they have tried to delve into the more mature and complex issues that the story required.

"When trying to tell a story with difficult adult themes, these ratings can end up becoming somewhat of a hindrance," Yoshida has admitted. "you find yourself changing things that you wanted to do in the game based on that rating. You wanted to show something, but because you have this certain rating that you need to go to, you need to move the camera away. And that ends up making the entire experience feel a little bit cheaper.."

However, on this occasion, the Square Enix team preferred to make sure that they could tell the story without these constrictions. "To make sure that we could tell the story that we wanted in the way that we wanted to, we decided to pursue a mature rating in most of the regions that will be releasing the game. But again, this is not because we simply wanted to make the game more violent or the game more explicit, this is because we felt it was necessary to allow us to explore those more mature themes that the game tackles."

Other games that obtained this rating

Outside of the numbered series, there are two other video games that have obtained this classification in the past. The first of these is Final Fantasy Type-0, a title directed by Hajime Tabata (the director of the fifteenth installment), which was initially released on PSP, and later, received a remaster on PS4, Xbox One and PC. The second is the recent Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, the Soulslike video game developed by Team Ninja.

Final Fantasy XVI will be released in summer 2023 exclusively for PS5. The game will not be open world, although it will introduce a section inspired by titles of this style.

Source | GameSpot