How long is Final Fantasy 16? Main story length & time to complete

Final Fantasy XVI is the latest entry in Square Enix’s legendary JRPG series, and fans will be wondering how many hours it will take them to beat the game. Here’s everything we know about the length of Final Fantasy 16’s story and how much extra content is available.

It’s been almost seven years since the last mainline entry in the Final Fantasy series, so it’s no surprise that Final Fantasy 16 is one of the biggest games of 2023. With the game finally hitting shelves, fans are wasting no time exploring the world of Valisthea and meeting its many characters.

But after such a long wait, players might be wondering how many hours of enjoyment Final Fantasy 16 has in store for them, from both the main story and the additional objectives.

Here’s how long it will take to beat Final Fantasy XVI, whether you’re focusing on the main story or want to see and do everything.

How many hours to beat Final Fantasy XVI?

Final Fantasy 16’s story will take around 35 hours to complete, assuming that you stay on the beaten path and follow the main objective. However, for those looking to tick off every optional challenge, players can expect to invest around double the number of hours, meaning their playtime could stretch to around 70 or 80 hours.

These figures were confirmed by the game’s producer, Naoki Yoshida, in a translated interview with Everyeye before launch.

In addition to all the side objectives and collectibles, Final Fantasy 16 also features New Game Plus and Arcade Mode. New Game Plus lets players start the game over while keeping all of Clive’s abilities and puts them against tougher enemies with different placements than the first playthrough, while Arcade grades their skill combat in each level, similar to Devil May Cry.

This means that players could easily put in well over 100 hours before they’re done with Final Fantasy 16, as they look to climb the Global Leaderboards for each section of the game.

In a Famitsu interview translated by Twitter user aitaikimochi, Yoshida explained that the team originally planned for a compact runtime, but the scale of the project kept growing.

“The team aimed for 20 hours at first, but the extra content they put into it brought the story time to 35 hours. When the game development was just starting out, I had the idea in mind that gamers these days are really busy with other things, so I wanted them to be able to at least aim to complete the story,” Yoshida said.

“I thought making the game something you can complete in about 20 hours would make sense, but more and more just got packed in,” he added.

So, if you’re wondering whether or not Final Fantasy XVI gives you enough bang for your buck, don’t worry, there’s more than enough to get stuck into.

For more on the biggest upcoming games, check out our other pages:

Will Final Fantasy 16 have multiplayer or co-op? |  Will Final Fantasy 16 be on Steam Deck? | Will there be Final Fantasy 16 DLC? | How to use Active Time Lore in Final Fantasy 16 | Does Final Fantasy 16 have New Game Plus? | Is Final Fantasy 16 coming to Xbox & PC?