As Final Fantasy 16 players face crashes, mysterious black squares, and a flood of eternal darkness after the recent PS5 system update, Square Enix and Sony vow to find a cure

GamesJRPGFinal FantasyFinal Fantasy 16As Final Fantasy 16 players face crashes, mysterious black squares, and a flood of eternal darkness after the recent PS5 system update, Square Enix and Sony vow to find a cureWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

GamesJRPGFinal FantasyFinal Fantasy 16As Final Fantasy 16 players face crashes, mysterious black squares, and a flood of eternal darkness after the recent PS5 system update, Square Enix and Sony vow to find a cureWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

(Image credit: Square Enix)

Final Fantasy 16 protagonist Clive uses magic in closeup screenshot

Final Fantasy 16is going through it right now, as the hit RPG has suddenly become plagued with graphical glitches and crashes - and it doesn’t even seem to result from an update to the game itself.

Over on Reddit, one user describes the visual glitches as starting off with “multicolor graphical errors” before “a growing black texture spreads across the screen blacking everything out. Comes and goes intermittently, between both cutscenes and gameplay.” You can see how prominent this is in the screenshots below – it’s totally impossible to ignore.

Some would probably argue that these players are the lucky ones, though, because at least their games are still running. “I can’t play at all. My FF16 crashes often. Fast travels make the game crash. Black pixel boxes every now and then. Brand new PS5. And the same for my brother. I was a huge fan,” anotherplayer reports.

“Yeah the crashes made the game unplayable for me. Two crashes per hour for me,” a separatefan adds.

It’s far from ideal, but at leastSquare EnixandSonyare aware of the issues. “Following the recent release of the PlayStation 5 system update, there have been reports of the game crashing and graphical issues,“a tweetposted to the official Final Fantasy 16 Twitter account today reads. “We are currently working with SIE to investigate, and sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused. Please await our further updates.”

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There’s no doubt that it’s concerning to see this happen to one of last year’sbest RPGs, especially considering its PC port is releasing today, too. Here’s hoping that the devs manage to get to the bottom of things quickly.

While you’re here, be sure to check out our ranking of thebest Final Fantasy gamesof all time.

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