Final Fantasy 16 will have more cutscenes than Metal Gear Solid 4

Final Fantasy XVI will feature 11 hours of cinematic cutscenes, which even outstrips the notoriously cutscene-heavy Metal Gear Solid 4

Trophy hunters planning to collect all of the Final Fantasy XVI trophies better pray Square Enix took notice when the similarly lengthy Metal Gear Solid 4 included a 'skip cutscene' option. Otherwise, it won't matter if this upcoming RPG is one of the best PS5 games ever — Final Fantasy XVI's cutscenes being three hours longer than Metal Gear Solid 4 is sure to drive some players to the brink of madness.

FFXVI cutscenes will outmatch even Metal Gear Solid 4

Final Fantasy XVI cutscenes are three hours longer than Metal Gear Solid 4

According to Final Fantasy XVI's producer Naoki "Yoshi-P" Yoshida (via VG24/7), the upcoming RPG has gone out of its way to feel more complete as a story after the DLC-divided ending on Final Fantasy XV: “One thing that was important was to tell a story that was complete from beginning to end. And in that, we think we have succeeded. To facilitate this, there are over 11 hours of cinematic cutscenes alone, all seamlessly interwoven into the game, playing in-engine in real-time.”

If you've ever had the pleasure of earning those Metal Gear Solid 4 trophies, you might have noticed that the game's cutscenes are very long. According to the game's special edition documentary disc, there are over eight hours of cinematic cutscenes in Metal Gear Solid 4 — a number that will soon be topped by three hours when Final Fantasy XVI launches with a whopping 11 hours of cutscenes.

Players who had gripes with the length of Metal Gear Solid 4 are likely sweating right now, but in fairness, having lots of cutscenes was never MGS4's problem — it was how the game employed those cutscenes. To this date, MGS4 still seemingly holds the Guinness World Record for the longest single video game cutscene at 71 minutes.

Final Fantasy XVI might have more cutscenes — no wonder they included the Active Time Lore feature to help us keep on top of it all — but will it release those cutscenes in an unbroken epilogue stretching over an hour in length? We doubt it; especially when MGS4's own director Hideo Kojima hasn't even attempted to best his own record in later works like Metal Gear Solid V or Death Stranding. Even Kojima knows audiences have a limit.

That's a lot of film.

Let us know in the comments what your thoughts on the length of Final Fantasy XVI's cutscenes are, and how soon would you like confirmation of that 'skip cutscenes' option? Perhaps yesterday? We'll let you know when we know.

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Written by Lee Brady

Staff Writer Lee keeps one eye on the future (Shadow x Sonic Generations), one eye on the past (PS Plus Premium games), and his secret third eye on junk he really likes (Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts games). Then he uses his big mouth to blurt out long-winded opinions about video games.