Square Enix Acknowledges Annoying Final Fantasy 16 Problem

Square-Enix has officially acknowledged a recently discovered bug revolving around Final Fantasy 16's New Game+ mode, resulting in a soft lock that does not allow players to progress. The launch of the newest main-series entry in the long-running RPG franchise last summer came with critical acclaim, lauded at the time as one of the best RPGs of 2023. Final Fantasy 16 received a nomination for «Best Role-Playing Game» at the 2023 Game Awards, and won the award for «Best Score and Music» during the show. Now, a new bug is plaguing fans' new playthroughs of the game.

Players can first unlock Final Fantasy 16's New Game+ mode after completing the game's story for the first time, offering fresh incentives for starting another run. New Game+ allows players to carry over their characters' statistics and equipment into their next playthrough of the game. New Game+ also offers players the «Final Fantasy» difficulty for Final Fantasy 16, boasting stronger enemies to challenge and rearranged appearances of the game's foes. However, a major bug is now serving as a major hindrance to freshly started New Game+ runs.

As reported by PushSquare, Square-Enix recently acknowledged a significant bug with Final Fantasy 16's New Game+ mode from its official social media. According to Square-Enix, the bug can occur when players skip the in-game Prologue, causing a small chance of party members not being properly added. The bug will prevent players from continuing Final Fantasy 16's fourth main quest, «A Chance Encounter,» locking fans from progressing in the game. Square-Enix did confirm the development team is already working on pushing out a fix for the bug.

Square-Enix also provided several temporary workarounds for players experiencing the bug within Final Fantasy 16's New Game+ challenge. The developer suggested that players should load the save data used to start a New Game+ run and travel to a different location on Final Fantasy 16's world map. Starting New Game+ with the new save