Opinion: PS Plus Users, You Should Play Final Fantasy 16 (But Only If You Play It Like This)

I really like Final Fantasy 16, but there's no denying that it's another very divisive instalment in Square's decades-old series.

While the franchise has always attempted to innovate with each new game, it's still easy to argue that 16 is the furthest Final Fantasy has ever strayed from its traditional JRPG roots.

16 is an action game — hell, it's probably more of an action game than an RPG. Fast-paced, cinematic action combat is the title's beating heart, and the RPG stuff — character progression, quests, etc. — just kind of orbits around that.

But because 16 is so different, I've found myself recommending it to people who have never touched a Final Fantasy game before. Oftentimes, it's actually closer to the sort of gaming experiences that they're much more familiar with.

And to be fair, that's what Square Enix was going for; 16 is a very deliberate gamble in the direction of broadening the property's appeal. Basically from top to bottom, it's designed to reel in new players.

You could suggest that calling it Final Fantasy Sixteen flies in the face of that goal, but this is an example of Square Enix trying to cover all of its bases (and quite possibly damaging the game's overall appeal in the process, but that's a conversation for another time).

"See? It is a mainline Final Fantasy! But it's also new and cool! Everyone wins!"

But even with Square's blatant mismanagement of its flagship franchise fresh in the mind, I'm a Final Fantasy 16 defender.

This game has moments. Like properly memorable moments. And at least for me, that counts for a lot in an age where we're being bombarded with an unprecedented number of new releases every single week.

It's bloody difficult to make a memorable game — it can feel like everything's already been done, and the new stuff's just derivative of classics that did it, whatever it is, better in the first place.

That's not me saying 16 is some completely unique and genre-defining work of art, but throughout its main story specifically, it goes above and beyond to provide moments that'll make your jaw hit the floor.

To this day, I firmly believe that 16 houses some of the most awe-inspiring boss battles that gaming has ever seen. They're that good, and they deserve to be experienced by everyone.

Genuinely, I think it's worth playing just to see these encounters in action. They are truly outstanding in terms of scope, scale, and pure hype factor.

But this is also where the game's biggest problem trudges into view. This isn't a short adventure, and there's a lot of content that separates these all-important moments.

Most of that content is absolutely fine. Some of it is even great in its own right. But then hefty chunks of it are bafflingly dull — so dull, in fact, that they feel like they've been supplanted from a far inferior release.

I'm mainly talking about the side quests, of which there are many. If you get tangled up in completing all of them as you move between the game's various regions, you run the risk of ruining the whole thing.

That might sound dramatic, but I speak from personal experience. I've played through Final Fantasy 16 maybe... three or four times, I'm not totally sure.

And in every run but my first, I've made the decision to skip all side quests (apart from the combat-focused monster hunts, because the fighting's good fun). Honestly, it's a game-changer.

The thing with the side quests is that the vast majority are utterly vapid. Crap characters who talk too much, tedious fetch quest-style objectives, and rubbish rewards await. They're almost exclusively filler for the sake of elongating the journey — to make it more of an "RPG".

And so if you plan on playing Final Fantasy 16 for the first time through its inclusion on PS Plus Extra (it's available from the 16th June 2026), I implore you to just skip anything that sounds even remotely boring.

I promise, you can push through everything the main story throws your way without ever touching the nonsense that surrounds it. None of it is worth sacrificing the game's already methodical pacing for.

It's not quite a case of me saying "ignore the haters", but I do think Final Fantasy 16 is a fantastic game. You just need to sidestep its misguided attempts at modern RPG design, and hopefully, you'll end up enjoying it as much as I do.

Will you be giving Final Fantasy 16 a try through PS Plus Extra? Let the flames burn in the comments section below.