Final Fantasy 16 players report that the game's motion blur feature is causing nausea and general sickness when playing the game, severely limiting in some cases how long someone can play. Final Fantasy 16's core story includes, roughly, 10 hours of cutscenes and 20+ hours of gameplay. Combat is the main driving factor of that gameplay, which creates a rough, nauseating experience for some players.
For the uninitiated, Motion Blur is the visual streak often seen when there's a moving camera, subject, or some combination thereof. This feature is often used to simulate speed, among other things, in a video game, but there are plenty of folks who dislike it in games. Unfortunately, there is no way to turn off Final Fantasy 16's motion blur in the accessibility settings. There are accessibility rings that change certain aspects of FF16's combat, but there's nothing in the whole game to this effect.
As first reported by IGN, multiple Final Fantasy 16 players have taken to Reddit and other social media to highlight this shortcoming. One player reports that the motion sickness caused by the feature made them vomit, another revealed it is giving them headaches. It's uncertain when/if a Final Fantasy 16 update will add the ability to turn off motion blur, but there's one way to perhaps reduce this impact. According to Digital Foundry's John Linneman, the motion sickness is seemingly worsened when players fight the camera. After watching someone play the game who was experiencing motion sickness, he said that they used "fast, jerky movements and often try to fight the camera which tries to recenter."
Those experiencing motion sickness may want to try letting the camera do its own thing and slowly panning when necessary, instead of trying to flick around to keep up. Of course, this may help some Final Fantasy 16 players, but it's not going to help everyone. And until there is some option to turn it off, it may be hampering the overall experience, which is unfortunate for hopeful fans.
Final Fantasy 16 reviews, collectively, praise the game's combat and story, though with a few irks here and there. Side-quests and pacing are a little off-balance too, but it's clear that the game is doing something fresh with the franchise formula. Many are loving the game, despite its few minor flaws, but hopefully, motion blur won't always be one of those issues.
Final Fantasy 16 is available now on PS5.
Source: IGN
