Square Enix’s Final Fantasy 16 is here and acts as the first mainline title in the series since Final Fantasy 15 launched in 2016. It’s a massive experience, even if you decide to stick to the story, but the development team has made no secret about how much content players can expect. How long does it take to finish the Main Quests? Let’s take a closer look.
How Long to Beat
Due to the nature of Final Fantasy 16, you can pretty much mainline the story without having to do any Side Quests or even grinding out random battles. The Main Quests will take roughly 35 to 40 hours (with cutscenes taking up 11-12 hours of the runtime). If you take your time playing through and carefully inspect each level for Potions, upgrade materials, and other items, it can easily last about 40 hours.
How Long to 100% Final Fantasy 16?
The real question is: How long does it take to 100 percent the game? First, let’s examine all of the things you can do in addition to playing the Main Quest:
- Hunts
- Notorious Marks
- Craft Weapons and Armor
- Upgrade Weapons and Armor
- Earning the Gotterdammerung
- Find Every Chest
- Side Quests (which also max out Renown)
- Chronolith Trials
- Unlock and Upgrade All Abilities
- Arcade Mode
Completing the Main and Side Quests will take about 50 to 55 hours. You’ll be upgrading your weapons, Skills and armor while opening some chests, so that’s also considered. Taking down all the Hunt Targets and Notorious Marks sees that number go up to 60 to 65 hours. If you add the Chronolith Trials, then it’s roughly 70-75 hours.
As always, playtime will depend on your build and overall skill level, especially when tackling the tougher Hunt targets and Chronolith Trials. Features like Arcade Mode are highly replayable, as you replay stages and compete for a higher score. There are also Leaderboards, which can provide a decent amount of replay value if you want to min-max a run.
New Game Plus and Final Fantasy Mode
Of course, finishing the Main Quest and everything in a regular playthrough is far from the end. New Game Plus unlocks after finishing the story, and you can carry over your levels, items and Skills. Weapons can be upgraded further as well.
However, there’s also Final Fantasy Mode. It’s Hard Mode, but the level cap increases to 100, making it easier to unlock and fully upgrade all your Eikonic Skills. You could fully upgrade them in a regular playthrough, but given the Ability Points earned from quests and activities, it’s worthwhile to play New Game Plus.
Final Fantasy Mode goes even further though. It changes enemy arrangements and even outright replaces them with tougher foes. For instance, in the Greatwood, instead of a Dragon Aevis at one point, you’ll battle a Chimera. It’s a lot tougher, with way more attacks and health.
Final Fantasy Mode lets you craft Ultima Weapon to provide an advantage, and in addition to upgrading weapons, you can also further upgrade Accessories. Given how powerful some of them can be (like the Accessory, which recharges the Limit Break gauge based on damage dealt), you can imagine the possibilities.
But wait – there’s more. Final Fantasy Mode also grants access to Final Chronolith Trials, the toughest challenges available. You can also access Ultimaniac difficulty in Arcade Mode for even more challenges. How long it will take to complete all this is unknown, but it’ll keep you busy for a long while.
However, for finishing all Main Quests in New Game Plus on Final Fantasy Mode, it should also take about 40 hours or so, if you’re well-versed with the Eikonic Skills, upgrade your gear and Accessories, and ignore most of the Side Quests. Don’t worry – you only need to finish the story in Final Fantasy Mode to earn the Trophy and gain full Trophy completion.
Final Fantasy 16 is available for PS5. Check out our review and graphical analysis here.
