Godzilla, Evangelion, Pro Wrestling, And More: The Inspiration Behind Final Fantasy 16’s Eikon Combat

Final Fantasy XVI was the latest mainline installment in the series. It is due to be released on PlayStation 5 this Summer. Clive, my character, was the focus of most of my playtime. I also battled Cidolfus Teamon (always a Cid) during this time. Through a castle-dungeon. However, toward the end of my preview, I was able to fight Garuda, one of the game’s Eikons, while controlling Ifrit, another Eikon. 

Clive is unable to control Ifrit at this stage, which takes place approximately five hours into the game according to Naoki Yoshida (FFXVI producer). Only a few people in the world of FFXVI can become Dominants and tap into the Eikon’s power. Cidolfus can transform into the Ramuh Eikon, as an example. Clive, however, is not a Dominant (but his younger brother, Joshua, is). 

I’m not exactly sure what story events led to this moment – I tried asking the team but they remained tightlipped – but regardless, it was good fun. Ifrit is a slow-moving, sluggish fighter who lumbers about the huge battlefield attacking Garuda. Yoshida says this fight reflects Clive’s inexperience utlizing the power of Ifrit. Cidolfus, who had defeated Garuda in the final round, even transformed into Ramuh, to end my uncontrollable, angry rampage. 

During a group interview with Yoshida, the game’s director Hiroshi Takai, and its combat director, Ryota Suzuki, a question about FFXVI’s Eikon vs. Eikon combat was asked. Yoshida stated that each Eikon fight would be different for every combat situation. Creative Business Unit III, a developer of Eikon fights, drew inspiration from many sources. 

“The Eikon vs. Eikon battle that you got to play today, the Ifrit vs. Garuda – that comes very early in the game,” Yoshida says. “And basically, each of these battles that we have, have themes, and the theme for this one happened to be that we wanted to create something that felt like a giant pro wrestling match, something that had a lot of weight to it. The Eikon battles, however, are very different, as you may have noticed in the videos and trailers we shared with you. For example, we have one controlling the Phoenix and that’s more like a 3D shooter. The Titan battle is also available. [which is] very…fast paced, high speed action. And so basically, all of these are all different.” 

Yoshida says the one I played during my preview – Ifrit vs. Garuda – is inspired by the anime and shows the team watched as children. 

“Things like Evangelion, other things like Godzilla or Ultraman, those are the things that we took inspiration for that individual fight,” he says. “But then for the Titan battle, again, we didn’t use those as inspiration. Because each battle is different, we used different inspirations. And so we want players to feel that when they play each of these battles, they’ll see that we’ve spent all this time and effort and development costs to create this one battle that feels really, really unique. 

And then we never use that again in the game and you think, ‘Wow, that’s kind of a crazy thing to do.’ But that’s what we wanted to do because we wanted to challenge ourselves and challenge the player as well.”