{"id":64080,"date":"2026-03-26T13:26:40","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T04:26:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=64080"},"modified":"2026-03-26T13:26:42","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T04:26:42","slug":"final-fantasy-14s-unexpected-bump-in-age-rating-from-15-to-17-praised-in-japan-for-taking-the-players-side-despite-commercial-downsides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-14s-unexpected-bump-in-age-rating-from-15-to-17-praised-in-japan-for-taking-the-players-side-despite-commercial-downsides\/","title":{"rendered":"Final Fantasy 14\u2019s unexpected bump in age rating from 15+ to 17+ praised in Japan for \u201ctaking the players\u2019 side\u201d despite commercial downsides"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Square Enix announced on March 25 that the CERO rating for the Japanese version of <strong>Final Fantasy XIV <\/strong>will be changed from CERO C (Ages 15 and up) to CERO D (Ages 17 and up), starting with the upcoming Patch 7.5 update. The decision comes as a way to prevent imposing restrictions on the game\u2019s Group Pose feature, and maintain its current level of freedom. Note that this only constitutes a change of rating, meaning that no content in the game will be altered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">\u300c\u30d5\u30a1\u30a4\u30ca\u30eb\u30d5\u30a1\u30f3\u30bf\u30b8\u30fcXIV\u300dCERO\u30ec\u30fc\u30c6\u30a3\u30f3\u30b0\u306e\u5909\u66f4\u306b\u3064\u3044\u3066\u3001\u304a\u77e5\u3089\u305b\u304c\u3054\u3056\u3044\u307e\u3059\u3002<br><br>\u8a73\u3057\u304f\u306f\u30c8\u30d4\u30c3\u30af\u30b9\u3092\u3054\u89a7\u304f\u3060\u3055\u3044\u3002<br>\ud83c\udf10 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/PEJ7ckQVCP\">https:\/\/t.co\/PEJ7ckQVCP<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/FF14?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#FF14<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/bFvTBhxiZn\">pic.twitter.com\/bFvTBhxiZn<\/a><\/p>&mdash; FINAL FANTASY XIV\uff0fFF14 (@FF_XIV_JP) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FF_XIV_JP\/status\/2036714915621421209?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 25, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the company, keeping the game rated CERO C (according to current standards) would require them to make certain changes to its content, \u201crestricting\u201d a portion of the Group Pose feature. Currently, Final Fantasy XIV\u2019s Group Pose feature offers a high degree of freedom, and one could argue that by using certain outfits and emotes, those creative enough can even make scenes that can be considered \u201csuggestive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While Square Enix didn\u2019t explicitly confirm what elements of Group Poses were judged \u201cproblematic\u201d by CERO, it took the rather unusual step of pushing the rating to CERO D (thus narrowing down their target audience) in favor of keeping the feature as-is. To put things in perspective, this means Final Fantasy XIV will land in the same rank as Elden Ring, and many Yakuza and Resident Evil series titles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These news was taken quite positively by fans, some of whom were quite surprised that Square Enix would opt for such a \u201cplayer-friendly\u201d move despite the very obvious downsides business-wise.. As one fan on X <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ouji_kun_v\/status\/2036727577411256732?s=20\">illustrates<\/a>, \u201c[\u2026] They decided to put an MMO into the rank of more hardcore adult-oriented titles, simply to protect the players\u2019 freedom of expression in taking photos. [\u2026] You can really see how big the developers\u2019 love is for the player culture.\u201d On the other hand, others <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Ray_33_2\/status\/2036828118128951676?s=20\">pointed out<\/a> that, because FFXIV is a game based on monthly subscriptions (which probably isn\u2019t as appealing to those 16 and under) and its user base is mostly in the age range of 20~30, this shift in ratings might not be as dramatic of a business risk to Square Enix as one might assume.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Related articles:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/assassins-creed-shadows-will-be-censored-in-japan-to-comply-with-cero\/\" type=\"link\" id=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/assassins-creed-shadows-will-be-censored-in-japan-to-comply-with-cero\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Assassin\u2019s Creed: Shadows will be censored in Japan to comply with CERO\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/dying-lights-most-brutal-entry-yet-censored-across-ps5-and-steam-in-japan-to-comply-with-cero\/\" type=\"link\" id=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/dying-lights-most-brutal-entry-yet-censored-across-ps5-and-steam-in-japan-to-comply-with-cero\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Dying Light\u2019s \u201cmost brutal entry yet\u201d censored across PS5 and Steam in Japan to comply with CERO\u00a0<br><\/a><\/strong><br><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Square Enix recently announced that they would be raising the CERO rating for Final Fantasy XIV from CERO: C to CERO D.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":64081,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,3],"tags":[36,17],"class_list":["post-64080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-final-fantasy","category-news","tag-final-fantasy","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Final Fantasy 14\u2019s unexpected bump in age rating from 15+ to 17+ praised in Japan for \u201ctaking the players\u2019 side\u201d despite commercial downsides - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Square Enix recently announced that they would be raising the CERO rating for Final Fantasy 14 from CERO: C to CERO D.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-14s-unexpected-bump-in-age-rating-from-15-to-17-praised-in-japan-for-taking-the-players-side-despite-commercial-downsides\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Final Fantasy 14\u2019s unexpected bump in age rating from 15+ to 17+ praised in Japan for \u201ctaking the players\u2019 side\u201d despite commercial downsides - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Square Enix recently announced that they would be raising the CERO rating for Final Fantasy 14 from CERO: C to CERO D.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-14s-unexpected-bump-in-age-rating-from-15-to-17-praised-in-japan-for-taking-the-players-side-despite-commercial-downsides\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-26T04:26:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-26T04:26:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260326-64080-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"\u0110or\u0111e P\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\u0110or\u0111e P\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Final Fantasy 14\u2019s unexpected bump in age rating from 15+ to 17+ praised in Japan for \u201ctaking the players\u2019 side\u201d despite commercial downsides - AUTOMATON WEST","description":"Square Enix recently announced that they would be raising the CERO rating for Final Fantasy 14 from CERO: C to CERO D.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-14s-unexpected-bump-in-age-rating-from-15-to-17-praised-in-japan-for-taking-the-players-side-despite-commercial-downsides\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Final Fantasy 14\u2019s unexpected bump in age rating from 15+ to 17+ praised in Japan for \u201ctaking the players\u2019 side\u201d despite commercial downsides - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"Square Enix recently announced that they would be raising the CERO rating for Final Fantasy 14 from CERO: C to CERO D.","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-14s-unexpected-bump-in-age-rating-from-15-to-17-praised-in-japan-for-taking-the-players-side-despite-commercial-downsides\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2026-03-26T04:26:40+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-03-26T04:26:42+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":720,"url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260326-64080-header.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"\u0110or\u0111e P","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"\u0110or\u0111e P","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-14s-unexpected-bump-in-age-rating-from-15-to-17-praised-in-japan-for-taking-the-players-side-despite-commercial-downsides\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-14s-unexpected-bump-in-age-rating-from-15-to-17-praised-in-japan-for-taking-the-players-side-despite-commercial-downsides\/"},"author":{"name":"\u0110or\u0111e P","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/e62deb6406bad91fe5f441afc29c1696"},"headline":"Final Fantasy 14\u2019s unexpected bump in age rating from 15+ to 17+ praised in Japan for \u201ctaking the players\u2019 side\u201d despite commercial downsides","datePublished":"2026-03-26T04:26:40+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-26T04:26:42+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-14s-unexpected-bump-in-age-rating-from-15-to-17-praised-in-japan-for-taking-the-players-side-despite-commercial-downsides\/"},"wordCount":415,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-14s-unexpected-bump-in-age-rating-from-15-to-17-praised-in-japan-for-taking-the-players-side-despite-commercial-downsides\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260326-64080-header.jpg","keywords":["Final Fantasy","News (Japan-related)"],"articleSection":["Final Fantasy","News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-14s-unexpected-bump-in-age-rating-from-15-to-17-praised-in-japan-for-taking-the-players-side-despite-commercial-downsides\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-14s-unexpected-bump-in-age-rating-from-15-to-17-praised-in-japan-for-taking-the-players-side-despite-commercial-downsides\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-14s-unexpected-bump-in-age-rating-from-15-to-17-praised-in-japan-for-taking-the-players-side-despite-commercial-downsides\/","name":"Final Fantasy 14\u2019s unexpected bump in age rating from 15+ to 17+ praised in Japan for \u201ctaking the players\u2019 side\u201d despite commercial downsides - AUTOMATON WEST","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-14s-unexpected-bump-in-age-rating-from-15-to-17-praised-in-japan-for-taking-the-players-side-despite-commercial-downsides\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-14s-unexpected-bump-in-age-rating-from-15-to-17-praised-in-japan-for-taking-the-players-side-despite-commercial-downsides\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260326-64080-header.jpg","datePublished":"2026-03-26T04:26:40+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-26T04:26:42+00:00","description":"Square Enix recently announced that they would be raising the CERO rating for Final Fantasy 14 from CERO: C to CERO D.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-14s-unexpected-bump-in-age-rating-from-15-to-17-praised-in-japan-for-taking-the-players-side-despite-commercial-downsides\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-14s-unexpected-bump-in-age-rating-from-15-to-17-praised-in-japan-for-taking-the-players-side-despite-commercial-downsides\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-14s-unexpected-bump-in-age-rating-from-15-to-17-praised-in-japan-for-taking-the-players-side-despite-commercial-downsides\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260326-64080-header.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260326-64080-header.jpg","width":1280,"height":720},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-14s-unexpected-bump-in-age-rating-from-15-to-17-praised-in-japan-for-taking-the-players-side-despite-commercial-downsides\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u30db\u30fc\u30e0","item":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Final Fantasy 14\u2019s unexpected bump in age rating from 15+ to 17+ praised in Japan for \u201ctaking the players\u2019 side\u201d despite commercial downsides"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","name":"AUTOMATON WEST","description":"AUTOMATON is a website that covers the Japanese gaming world. We bring you the news on video games from Osaka and Tokyo.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization","name":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","width":374,"height":190,"caption":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/AUTOMATON_ENG","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCabvYnvuUUbbGUrxkaFRgSA"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/e62deb6406bad91fe5f441afc29c1696","name":"\u0110or\u0111e P","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/profil-150x150.jpg","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/profil-150x150.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/profil-150x150.jpg","caption":"\u0110or\u0111e P"},"description":"Automaton West Editor","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/djordje-p\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64080"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64083,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64080\/revisions\/64083"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}