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Final Fantasy XVI Is Officially The First M-Rated Game In Main Series

There is plenty of reason to be excited for Final Fantasy XVI. There’s the fact that Naoki “Yoshi-P” Yoshida, the director of Final Fantasy XIV, is producing the game, as well as the clear throwback to the game’s classic fantasy roots. More interestingly, however, is the fact that it has also received the Mature age rating.

This was first spotted on a European newsletter, which displayed the game’s PEGI 18 (Pan European Game Information) symbol (via Push Square).

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It only makes sense given just how bloody (good) the trailer already is, with the young boy, Joshua, being splattered with blood as people get killed in front of him, and then moments later transforming into the legendary Eikon, Phoenix. We can also see the main protagonist driving their sword into a goblin’s chest with more blood squirting out.

This also means FFXVI is in the same maturity rating category as the likes of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, The Last of Us Part II, Devil May Cry 5, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Resident Evil 2, and Death Stranding, to name a few.

The rating for Final Fantasy XVI has elicited varying degrees of reactions from the community:

The last tweet above does ring some truth to just how dark and mature the tone of some of the previous mainline games have been. Given how all these older mainline titles up to XV and VII Remake have only received a PEGI 16 rating, it does make one question just what exactly constitutes an M rating for Final Fantasy games.

Interestingly, this won’t be the first Final Fantasy to receive an M rating; Final Fantasy Type-0 HD from 2015 was the first to do so, though that is a spinoff title and the original version in 2011 only received a PEGI 16/T rating.

In any case, more information on Final Fantasy XVI will be unveiled in 2021, though the game’s official site is slated to go live sometime in October.