Final Fantasy 16 revealed a gameplay trailer and a 2023 window for its release date at Sony's State of Play, and there are now more unanswered questions about the game's world and story. With Eikons as an important part of Final Fantasy 16's story, it comes as a surprise that the new trailer seems to feature multiple Fire Eikons. This could have some interesting implications for the Eikons and Dominants if there are multiple Eikons for each element.
Scheduled to release in Summer 2023, Final Fantasy 16 takes place in Valisthea, a land blessed with aether by the Mothercrystals that tower over it. This land is home to powerful creatures called Eikons, each of which is contained within a Dominant. Dominants are able to call upon the power of the Eikons, and this leads to them being both feared and revered for this power in the action-oriented world of Final Fantasy 16. Joshua might be the Dominant for Phoenix, but Ifrit seems to have set Joshua's brother, Clive, on the path to a dangerous fate.
The Eikons in Final Fantasy 16 are familiar to players who have seen them as summons throughout many of the Final Fantasy games. One of the interesting parts of Final Fantasy 16's new gameplay trailer is the fight between two Fire Eikons, Ifrit and Phoenix, while the ending appears to show a fight between two Ifrits. So far, this is the only element seen to have more than one Eikon out of the Final Fantasy 16 confirmed summons. Not only that, but Benedikta's information on the official game website states she's looking for Ifrit, who is the illusive second Fire Eikon. This implies that Ifrit purposely avoids being found, which hasn't been shown to be the case for the other Eikons so far.
The Mystery Of Two Ifrits And Clive In Final Fantasy 16
The Final Fantasy 16 gameplay trailer leaves players with a lot of questions about the Fire Eikons in particular. The last line of the trailer happens with Clive on the screen and the voice says, "Awaken, child of fate. Awaken, Ifrit." The scene switches from Clive to the view of what appears to be one Ifrit fighting another Ifrit. With Clive's brother, Joshua, being the Dominant of Phoenix, it makes sense why Ifrit would choose Clive as its Dominant, since Phoenix is listed as the Fire Eikon but Ifrit has traditionally been a fire summon in previous FF games. What doesn't make sense is why there are multiple fire summons, but not other elements, and why two of those Eikons seem to both be Ifrit.
Benedikta Harman, Dominant for the Eikon Garuda, is hunting Ifrit, and must have a reason for doing so. In addition to being hunted, it's foreboding that Ifrit has a second version of itself given the character information for Clive on the official website. It says, "Alas, Clive's promising career is to end in tragedy at the hands of a mysterious dark Eikon, Ifrit, setting him on a dangerous road to revenge." While this doesn't give any clues about the presence of the second Ifrit, it might imply that at least one Ifrit will be the primary villain in Final Fantasy 16.
