Final Fantasy 16 Difficulty Modes Revealed

Here is everything you need to know about Final Fantasy 16 Difficulty options, how to unlock them, and what they feature.

Final Fantasy 16 is shaping up to be a strong Game of the Year contender in a year that is already filled to the brim with big names such as Zelda, Diablo, Star Wars, and Resident Evil.

But FF16 wants to be more than just a big linear Action RPG with the franchise’s signature storytelling and attention to detail. The developers want the game to be both accessible to new players who may not the familiar with action games and give fans of the genre enough to replay the game harder and better.

We’ve compiled everything you need to know about the different difficulty modes, which ones unlock later, and which ones are suited for you.

Final Fantasy 16 Difficulty and Modes

The new FF16 will launch with 3 difficulty modes, two of which will be selectable from the start, and a new one, as well as two extra modes, will unlock once you’ve rolled the credits at least once.

Story-Focused Difficulty

Final Fantasy 16’s Story-Focused Difficulty is made for players who just want to explore the world and enjoy the narrative of Square Enix’s newest entry in the legendary franchise.

Enemies will be easier to defeat and less aggressive and the game will automatically equip Timely Accessories for you, which can be used to automate certain actions in combat. Those range from automatically healing and using spells to automatic dodges or a longer input window for those dodges.

The Timely Accessories will be available on every difficulty mode and more will unlock as the story progresses. You can learn more about them in our explainer here.

Action-Focused Difficulty

Action-Focused Difficulty is just like the name implies for players who are already familiar with action games or are looking for a crisp challenge. Enemies will use more abilities and have larger health pools.

You can however still run into more difficult challenges in the semi-open world by tackling hunts. Which put you against mightier monsters that are not always tuned to your level. But you can still use the Timely Accessories to help out. Be it to let your trusty companion Torgal attack on his practice dodge windows.

Final Fantasy Difficulty

The Final Fantasy difficulty is intended for players tackling New Game+. This raises the level cap of the normal difficulty to 100 and unlocks the crafting recipe for the Ultima Weapon from the start to help you on your journey. Some new items and equipment will also be made available here.

Enemies will be much tougher, some of them appear to have learned a few new tricks and some enemies and bosses have been shuffled around to keep it fresh. If you’re familiar with the optional difficulty modes of the Devil May Cry franchise such as Dante Must Die and Heaven and Hell you should feel right at home.

Final Fantasy difficulty also unlocks the Arcade Mode at the Artete Stone, the sort of training mode of the game. Here you can replay set pieces for high scores and place them on a global leaderboard to compete with other players or your friends. But there’s still more!

Utimania Mode

Ultimania Mode can be unlocked at the Artete Stone on the Final Fantasy difficulty and is an even harder version of the game’s linear sections. Here cutscenes will be skipped automatically and you’re only playing for high scores.

How how much will change on this difficulty will be compared to the Final Fantasy difficulty is yet unknown.

Chronolith Trials

Then there are the Chronolith Trials which could be compared to the Bloody Palace mode also featured in the Devil May Cry series. It’s a time attack mode where the player has to fight waves upon waves of enemies under the gun of a timer.

For each defeated enemy, time will be added back to your timer until you make it to the end. Since Final Fantasy 16 will feature a massive roster of monsters, beasts, and villains to defeat expect a nice variety of things to fight and potentially some even tougher rematches against some of the bosses.

How exactly this mode will play into progression is unknown, but if you’re already into FF16’s combat this will be the mode where you can flex your battle prowess.

For more on Final Fantasy 16, such as our pre-release summary of the setting and story or how and when to preload it and more, stay tuned here on ESTNN