A lengthy interview between the Final Fantasy 16 producer Yoshi-P and the Japanese outlet 4gamer (held in February) reveals that the story will not involve any 'grinding'. He says that fans who just follow the story will always feel like they are at the recommended level, but he also assures that the approach will be balanced enough for RPG-oriented players who are looking for a challenge. A translated excerpt from the interview reads:
YoshiP: Just by following the story, it's possible to reach the recommended level without having to think about experience points, but of course it's possible to level up beyond the recommended level by doing side quests or continuing to hunt the endless stream of enemies in the field. Gil doesn't really become an issue that you have to "earn" either. It's balanced so that you can just buy the highest quality weapons and armor from the shop when you return to your base.
As shown in the latest trailer, Clive regularly moves between the main areas and some sort of hideout or hub, and there are also facilities in this hub that the player can upgrade through side quests, such as the "Mob Hunt Board," where players can hunt rare monsters scattered around the world. This activity, along with other side elements, is said to make up half the volume of the entire game.
The balance he talks about is keeping these side quests scattered organically throughout the playthrough, where they feel challenging enough to force players to craft good equipment, but without betraying the time they have already spent on the story, or forcing them to go out of their way to prepare for these encounters.
He mentions that are enough potions in each level so that players won't run out of potions or obsess about being unprepared for bosses. Each level is also carefully designed so that players don't feel like they have to spend extra time on repetitive actions like grinding or gathering certain resources like gil (money in FF games).
Final Fantasy titles are not exactly known for being 'grindy', but chasing down their side content can get pretty exhausting. Final Fantasy X's Dark Aeons and Celestial Weapons come to mind as some of the most grindy activities in the series, along with Final Fantasy 12's many rare drops and unique items.
Grinding is not necessarily a bad thing, but it can be cumbersome if not executed correctly, as our own Rob Zak pointed out in his recent Diablo essay. It's a breath of fresh air to hear that the story won't just be half as grindy with things like accessibility items, but will also take care to weave main and side content into a unified whole without breaking the flow of the players' journey.