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Final Fantasy 16's combat will let you equip & use the abilities of familiar summons

Known as Eikons in Final Fantasy 16, it looks like you'll be able to equip iconic abilities like Odin's Zantetsuken and Ramuh's Thunderstorm for use in active combat.

TJ Denzer

April 13, 2023 2:40 PM

Image via Square Enix

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Final Fantasy 16 is moving much more towards action-RPG than any other previous entry, but that doesn’t mean some familiar elements won’t be there in unique ways. Today’s Final Fantasy 16-focused State of Play showed off an in-depth look at combat and customization. In there, we saw that classic Final Fantasy summons, known as Eikons here, can be gathered and utilized in combat by unlocking abilities associated with them.

We learned about Eikons and their abilities on the PlayStation State of Play that went live on April 13, 2023. Eikons are the summons Final Fantasy fans should be quite familiar with, including Ramuh, Odin, Ifrit, Shiva, and many more. More importantly, it looks like as you go through the game, you will be able to gather these Eikon and unlock skill trees associated with them. You’ll then be able to unlock abilities to use in active combat. During the gameplay preview, we saw that Odin’s iconic Zantetsuken and Ramuh’s Thunderstorm could be equipped alongside many more.

This is a unique twist to say the least. We’ve seen summons used in a variety of fun ways in the past, but Final Fantasy 16 might be the first time we’ve ever seen Ifrit, Shiva, and Odin’s abilities become equippable on a character. In that way, it looks like players will be able to specialize in the Eikons they favor and grow their abilities to suit their tastes. It seems like a large number of Eikons will also be represented in Final Fantasy 16. We’ve confirmed that Garuda, Ifrit, Odin, Titan, Ramuh, Phoenix, and Bahamut are in the game so far.

There’s likely to be even more and perhaps even secret Eikons to find. With Final Fantasy 16 approaching in June 2023, stay tuned for further details and coverage leading up to the game’s launch.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.