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Final Fantasy 16 New Game Plus and Difficulty Modes Explained

How hard and how easy does Final Fantasy 16 get?

Lucas White

July 7, 2023 1:15 PM

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Final Fantasy 16 is going to be a big departure for many fans, especially those players who mostly just play RPGs. While the series has been experimenting with combat ever since the beginning, there’s never been a core Final Fantasy with a full-on ‘character action’ gameplay style. The good news is, no matter what your skill level is, Final Fantasy 16 is willing to meet you on your terms. Here’s a brief rundown of Final Fantasy 16’s new game plus and difficulty options.

Starting your quest for the first time

When you initially boot up Final Fantasy 16, you can pick between two options. You can choose between Story-Focused or Action-Focused, which are fairly self-explanatory. Essentially, Story-Focused makes you hit harder, and makes enemies a lot weaker. It’s easy mode, basically. The game also starts with items called Timely Accessories equipped, which automate certain aspects of the game for you, like combos or dodging.

Action-Focused is the “default” difficulty setting, so all the numbers are crunched as originally designed. The Timely Accessories are not equipped when you start, but if you want to tinker around with them and customize your experience a little, you can still equip them.

New game plus and Final Fantasy mode

A third difficulty option becomes available once you finish the story and save your clear data. Final Fantasy mode is meant to be a challenge, so enemies are powered up and placed differently. But the level cap is also increased to 100, and new crafting options (including a new, absurdly powerful weapon) show up too. Your Eikons and ability progress all carry over, and you also get the option to skip the prologue.

Ultimania is running wild

There’s another difficulty mode in Final Fantasy 16, but it’s not one you can use for the main story. This one is specific to Arcade Mode, which you can access via the Arete Stone in the Hideaway. Ultimaniac difficulty becomes available if you’re playing in Final Fantasy mode, and is an even higher challenge for the most dedicated Final Fantasy 16 sickos. In fact, Ultimaniac mode has its own leaderboard.

Got more questions about Final Fantasy 16? You can browse our ongoing coverage of the game and read our review as well.

Lucas White

Contributing Editor

Lucas plays a lot of videogames. Sometimes he enjoys one. His favorites include Dragon Quest, SaGa, and Mystery Dungeon. He's far too rattled with ADHD to care about world-building lore but will get lost for days in essays about themes and characters. Holds a journalism degree, which makes conversations about Oxford Commas awkward to say the least. Not a trophy hunter but platinumed Sifu out of sheer spite and got 100 percent in Rondo of Blood because it rules. You can find him on Twitter @HokutoNoLucas being curmudgeonly about Square Enix discourse and occasionally saying positive things about Konami.