In an ideal world, we'll all be reading reviews of Final Fantasy 16 by now and debating whether it's a GOTY contender even before we get our hands on it. But, Square Enix had an even better idea, dropping a well-received demo for the upcoming PlayStation 5 exclusive, and all but sealing its fate as one of this generation's best outings. Of course, although FF16 was always expected to do well, especially with Naoki Yoshida at the helm, and with the help of the demo, many still prefer to read reviews of games before deciding whether to buy it or not.

Thankfully, Metacritic has confirmed when the review embargo of Final Fantasy 16 will lift.

According to the official Twitter account of Metacritic, fans can expect to read the reviews of FF16 sometime next week.

Expect Final Fantasy XVI reviews next week: https://t.co/wKJPri3PnR
Any Metascore predictions for this one? pic.twitter.com/G3eW31HKUM

— metacritic (@metacritic) June 16, 2023

FF16 is scheduled to hit the store shelves on June 22 and there isn't early access to the game, so the review embargo likely lifts at any point between June 19 to June 21.

Judging by how confident Square Enix is in the state of Final Fantasy 16 at launch, the best-case scenario is that the reviews will go online as early as Monday, June 19. Of course, with the demos already out and singing the game praises, the reviews might release at the last hour on Wednesday, June 21.

Either way, we don't think the reviews of FF16 will move the needle much in terms of sales for the game, which has topped Japan's sales charts already, among other things. But, it wouldn't hurt.

FF16 represents just one but a sizable chunk of Square Enix's plans to double down on its biggest and best-selling series. The other huge part is Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, which comes out early next year. However, the lifestream is filled with the rumors and speculations that Square Enix is also working on a remake of Final Fantasy 9 and Final Fantasy X, which comes out in 2025 and 2026, respectively. Finally, a remaster of Final Fantasy Tactics is reportedly in the works as well.

Given that Square Enix almost always favors the PlayStation platform, it's safe to say that the PS5 will continue selling well with the help of the Final Fantasy franchise for the rest of its lifecycle.

Speaking of sales, Sony finds itself having a "good" problem as soon as Marvel's Spider-Man 2 pre-orders went live. Fans are currently complaining that it's near-impossible to get their hands on the $230 Collector's Edition of the game.