Why Is There a Final Fantasy 16 Boycott? Explained

Final Fantasy XVI (also known as Final Fantasy 16 or FF16 for the Roman numeral haters), out now, casts you as Clive Rosfield, a warrior with the ability to channel massively powerful spirits. We’re sure that’ll work out well and nothing will go horribly, horribly wrong. But some people won’t get to see Clive fall because they’ve made the decision to boycott this action RPG. If you’re wondering just why there is a Final Fantasy 16 boycott or if this is the first you’ve heard of it, we’ve explained it for you.

Why People Are Boycotting Final Fantasy 16

The issue some would-be purchasers have with Final Fantasy 16 is its lack of diversity; the vast majority of the game’s characters are white. However, this isn’t an oversight on Square Enix’s part, but an intentional design decision.

IGN asked Naoki Yoshida, the game’s producer, about the situation, and he essentially stated that they were emulating medieval Europe: “Our design concept from the earliest stages of development has always heavily featured medieval Europe, incorporating historical, cultural, political, and anthropological standards that were prevalent at the time.”

So according to him, it’s down to historical accuracy. However, there’s a couple of snags there. Firstly, the notion that the Middle Ages was just a sea of white faces has been challenged. Secondly, and perhaps more significantly, this is a fantasy game. As The Verge’s Ash Parrish puts it, “it doesn’t make sense that chocobos, Eikons, and magic are permitted but people of color is a step too far.”

It does strike me as strange, even if I’m white as the driven snow.

How Many People Are Actually Boycotting the Game?

Quite how many people are skipping the game is unclear, as are the kind of dent the boycott will make in the game’s sales figures. There was a poll on ResetEra, but the originator of the thread has been banned (not necessarily for this) and the poll is private.

One Redditor took a screenshot, showing that 2.9% of people were, according to the poll, planning on boycotting it. That’s not a massive percentage, though polls themselves can be notoriously unreliable.

What’s more enlightening is some of the comments posted in the thread, comments such as these:

“To be completely honest, knowing that Starfield and Dragon’s Dogma are coming with black characters and black character creation make it really easy to skip FFXVI,” one ResetEra user remarked.

“I wasn’t planning on getting it anytime soon anyway. It’s not so much the lack of POC (although that is absolutely an issue and I don’t want to downplay it) but rather the reasoning behind it,” another added.

That last comment does make a fair point. The Final Fantasy 16 team could have handled the situation a little better, even if they didn’t add in more POC characters. Though there were also other commentators who didn’t really care.

“Since the very first time I started playing games before the age of 5, I played games based on if they are fun or not. 30 some years later, this has not changed. Coming from a black person. If you want to boycott, go for it. I’m there day 1,” read one post.

So if you were wondering why there is a Final Fantasy 16 / FF16 boycott, there’s an explanation. Whether Square Enix will feel its impact is another question entirely. After all, there was a more pronounced boycott against Hogwarts Legacy, but that game had sold more than 15 million copies as of May 2023.