Final Fantasy 16 puts a fantastic spin on the RPG genre with its quirky combat system. Built under the supervision of Devil May Cry 5‘s designer, the latest entry into the Final Fantasy series has its RPG gameplay as close to its heart as it has the narrative. But what’s different here is the addition of epic boss battles that play out on the grandest of scales. The huge creatures that you’ll see appearing on your screen are referred to as Eikons, previously termed Summons in the series.
As cool as playing with the Eikons sounds in Final Fantasy 16, you are not able to transform into them on command. The huge clashes involving the Eikons serve a narrative purpose, and although Clive transforms into a few Eikons throughout the course of the game, you can’t press a button and summon them to aid you during battle. However, Clive is what you’d call a Dominant, someone who’s able to channel Eikons’ powers apart from transforming into them. While the latter mechanic follows a highly scripted pattern, as Clive you will be able to use the powers of certain Eikons as special moves during normal combat.
After almost every Eikon versus Eikon battle, Clive will unlock a new set of Eikonic abilities. This doesn’t give you the option to transform into the Eikons themselves, but when you’re playing as Clive during missions, you’ll have a bunch of abilities at your disposal depending on the Eikon you have equipped. At a time you can equip a maximum of three Eikons and only two of their skills each, and it’s the same in New Game Plus as well. While in combat, you can cycle between your equipped Eikons by pressing L2 on the PS5 controller, and by holding down R2 and pressing Square or Triangle, you’ll be able to use the special moves of the respective Eikons.
Eikonic Abilities can further be upgraded and unlocked from the abilities tab, making them far stronger and deadlier as a result. Completing the main story missions slowly increases the number of Eikons at your disposal, so whenever you feel the side activities getting stale, head back to Cid and Jill to continue finding Ifrit in an Eikonic adventure.
Final Fantasy 16 is available now on PS5.
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