Final Fantasy 16 rating warns of such horrors as "partially exposed breasts and buttocks"

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Final Fantasy 16's ESRB rating is graphically specific

Final Fantasy 16 PS5 screenshot
(Image credit: Square Enix)

Square Enix has made a big show of talking up Final Fantasy 16's Mature rating, a first for the long-running JRPG series (at least the mainline games), but it honestly should've just left it to the ESRB, because it's way funnier this way. 

The ratings board recently published an amusingly detailed breakdown of FF16's M rating, clarifying some of the elements that bumped the game above the usual – let me put on my announcer voice real quick – T for teen. It opens with the standard Final Fantasy fare of swords and magic, making note of some intense blood splatter and "cries of pain" in battle, but the more eye-raising bits are about specific injuries and incidents. 

Potential spoilers for cutscenes in Final Fantasy 16 ahead, I guess. Maybe. 

Apparently we're dealing with gore like a severed head, a slit throat, and someone impaled through the chest. Oh, and this one really smarts: "a prisoner's shoulder stabbed and twisted by an interrogator's blade." Ouch. 

The more explicit details are just plain funny out of context like this. "The words 'f**k' and 'sh*t' are heard in the game" is an ESRB staple and it still makes me laugh. We can also expect "a character caressing and straddling a man in bed," which doesn't sound like too much compared to Final Fantasy 7 Remake's Honey Bee; "sexual moaning sounds in a brothel" and references to prostitution, again not entirely unprecedented; and then finally, horror of horrors, "partially exposed breasts and buttocks."

Partial nudity? In your JRPG? It's more likely than you think. Also, props to Final Fantasy 16 for making the ESRB say buttocks again. 

Final Fantasy 16 will be a timed PlayStation exclusive, but not for nearly as long as Final Fantasy 7 Remake. 

Austin Wood
Austin Wood
Senior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.