How long is FF16 and is it open-world? Final Fantasy 16 length and size

How much are we going to be walking through Valisthea?

By Cole Luke

Published: Thursday, 22 June 2023 at 12:00 am

It comes as no surprise that there is a lot to do in Final Fantasy 16 – so you might be wondering about the Square Enix game’s length and size, how long it takes to beat and and whether it is open-world.

Fortunately, folk around the world have had their hands on it for a bit now, and have been offering their experiences with the title so that we may answer this pressing question.

With many characters and factions, all of whom are voiced by quite the ensemble, and plenty of trophies to earn, you could end up spending quite some time with the game. To give you a taste of what’s on offer, it would be well worth checking out the demo to see if it’s for you and if you can stomach the protagonist’s name.

With that said, and hours upon hours of gaming ahead of you, we will answer the most pertinent question and delve into some estimates around how long it could take you to beat Final Fantasy 16.

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Ben Starr as Clive in Final Fantasy 16.
Square Enix

How long is FF16? Hours needed to beat

Final Fantasy 16 will take between 40-50 hours for a standard playthrough, according to GamesRadar.

This consists of the whole story without skipping any cutscenes, a good chunk of the sidequests and unlocking a decent amount of bonuses that will make your experience more fun.

Final Fantasy 16 producer Naoki Yoshida told Famitsu (translated via Google) that the main story alone would take around 35 hours to complete with the main story cutscenes alone being over 11 hours long – which is about as long as the entirety of the extended versions of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

This would mean, if you’re not one to watch cutscenes, you’d be looking at around 20 hours of gameplay.

A 100% completionist run may take you to around the 75-hour mark by Polygon’s estimate. This would involve finding every chest, unlocking all the trophies, watching all the cutscenes in their entirety and completing every side quest.

There’s a New Game Plus mode upon completion of the main story that has even more activities for you to get up to, so you will know Valisthea like the back of your hand by the time you’re done.

Is FF16 open-world? Game size explained

Final Fantasy 16 isn’t open-world in the traditional sense. In our time with FF16, we would say the game is fairly linear. It is comprised mainly of very focused missions, with a few larger explorable zones scattered along the way.

The map is comprised of two continents with Ash in the east and Storm in the West. These are populated by six realms: Rosaria, Waloed, the Iron Kingdom, the Crystalline Dominion, the Dhalmekian Republic and Sanbreque.

However, only the realms of Rosaria, Waloed, Dhalmekia and Sanbreque are playable areas. These realms feature a number of quests and locations to explore, but you cannot wander freely from realm to realm.

Once you finish a quest, you find yourself at the Hideaway, which acts as a hub for the player and characters to set off from when embarking on quests, making the game more linear than a true open-world game.

Read more: FF16 review: Game of Thrones meets Devil May Cry in fantastic PS5 game

To quickly get about there is fast-travel and it’s just as well, as director Hiroshi Takai told IGN, “We have – I think – four zones that are about two kilometres by two kilometres.”

Takai also says there are dungeons featured in the game that are part of the story, but no hidden optional ones so that players can just focus on enjoying FF16 as it comes.

So, conclusively, it is hard to say exactly how big it is, but it feels epic in its proportions and ambitions – as the best Final Fantasy games have always been.