Final Fantasy XVI Shows Off Gameplay For All The Eikons And Their Skills

Today’s State of Play  livestream showed 20 minutes of new footage for Final Fantasy XVI, including more gameplay for the various Eikons and their abilities available in the game.

This follows the initial gameplay hands on from February of this year where media were invited to try out a demo build of the game.

While they didn’t go into the specifics of how each Archon would function, there were more than enough clues for the remaining Eikon Abilities we hadn’t seen- Shiva and Ramuh .

It should be noted that as the Dominant of Ifrit, Clive doesn’t have an Ifrit style, so to speak- Ifrit’s skills are baked into Clive’s regular moveset, and his skill tree reflects as much.

Here’s a brief overview of the Eikon abilities in Final Fantasy XVI

Phoenix (Phoenix Shift)

This allows Clive to teleport towards his target, following up with either magic or a melee attack. He also has various wing-themed cooldown skills, including one for breaking guards.

Garuda (Deadly Embrace)

Similar to Nero’s Snatch in the Devil May Cry series, this allows Clive to pull enemies to him, or himself to them if they’re big enough. cooldown skills include Gouge and Wicked Wheel, which are all about mashing out multi-hit attacks.

Titan (Titanic Block)

This is a parry move, allowing you to block attacks and follow them up. Note that you will need to parry a whole enemy combo to get a counterattack window, and it can also be held as a regular block. Titan’s cooldown skills include Upheaval and Windup, and are all powerful blows.

Shiva (Cold Snap)

Moving opposite to Phoenix Shift, Cold Snap is a dash that moves you through crowds of enemies, freezing them in place.  Eikonic Skills include Rime, Mesmerize and Ice Age, which focus on doing big damage to crowds of enemies. Mesmerize allows you to pull multiple targets in.

Ramuh (Blind Justice)

Activating Blind Justice puts Clive in a lock-on mode, where he can mark targets in the crosshair that shows up on screen. Releasing this will allow him to fire a barrage of lightning, which also marks enemies and does additional damage if you continue to attack them. Ramuh’s cooldown skills include Pile Driver, which does a single AoE hit, as well as Thundercloud, which juggles them in the air.

Odin (Arm of Darkness)

Switches Clive’s weapons to Odin’s swords, replacing his normal attack with a faster, multi-hitting one. Each hit fills up the Zantetsuken meter, which can be cashed out by holding the melee attack button. We were also shown new cooldown skills Gungnir and Heaven’s Cloud, which are all different multi-hitting attacks made while standing still (Gungnir) or moving through enemies (Heaven’s Cloud).

Bahamut (Wings of Light)

Puts Clive into a state where he gains the ability to hover around and dodge, while also casting ranged magic. Certain actions fill up the Megaflare bar, which can be cashed out by holding the Eikonic Ability button again. New Cooldown Skills shown include Satellite, which creates two flying objects to shoot enemies with and Gigaflare, which fires a huge beam.

Today’s overview of Final Fantasy XVI included a lot more than the Eikons, and showed many features that were previously discussed such as the new hub as well as training modes and side quests.

Final Fantasy XVI releases on June 22nd, 2023 for PS5.

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