Final Fantasy 16 ditches the series’ menu systems and semi-real time mechanics in favour of all-out character action gameplay. Basically, you control the main hero Clive as he fights his way through Valisthea’s bestiary, magical giants, and evil empire armies to save the world. He has companions like his obvious love interest Jill and attack dog Torgal controlled via AI, but you 100% control all of Clive’s actions.

If this is your first time playing a character action game, playing an FF game like this might seem daunting, but never fear: we’re here to help. We assume you’ve already played the demo and have a good grasp of the combat, so here are some extra tips to keep in mind.

Save One Accessory Slot For A Timely Item

The developers have included Timely accessories at the start of the game that can help you while you’re fighting. The items can auto-heal you if you have potions left, make you auto-dodge, makes your dog Torgal auto-attack according to your moves, make you perform auto-combos with just one button, and slows down time when you’re about to get hit by an attack, giving you time to either dodge, parry, or block with Titan/Earth’s Eikon.

If you feel that the game’s action is tough to follow even after the demo and tutorial segments (from the tutorial captain to the Morbol boss fight), you can go ahead and equip as many Timely items as possible. However, you’ll be missing out on powerful gear and passive buffs like the Berserker Ring (which gives you buffed Limit Break attacks temporarily if you perfect dodge) and items that make you garner more Limit Break energy per attack or even lessen the cooldown for powerful attacks like Judgment Bolt.

Our advice? Just stick with the Ring of Timely Focus which slows down time when you’re about to get hit.

Learn To Play Defense

Attacking foes head-on is fine, but to whittle down the enemy’s Stagger meter better, you will have to counterattack and bait enemies to hit you. Clive has a range of moves that can evade attacks, counterattack hard-hitting enemy attacks, absorb projectile magic and send it back to enemies, and parry. The latter requires some form of timing, but you can deal a good amount of damage if you successfully parry enemy attacks.

The Best 3 Eikons To Use…

…are the ones that are already in the demo, if we’re being frank. We’re referring to Phoenix, Garuda, and Titan. Phoenix has versatile special moves, while Garuda has Deadly Grasps/DMC Snatch to get to foes or get foes to you. Plus, Rook’s Gambit is a nice counter move that destroys Stagger meter. Titan’s block is good for getting hits in while defending yourself, while Raging Fists has armour and is good as a substitute to parrying despite its cooldown.

Now if you want our personal picks, they are:

Phoenix/Fire: Ignition, Heatwave (Reflect, Damage, multiple juggling potential with Ignition)
Titan/Earth: Wind Up, Raging Fists (Damage, counter, defense)
Ramuh/Lightning: Judgment Bolt, Pile Drive (Damage after Staggering enemies)

Master The Eikon Abilities You Like, So You Can Swap Them Onto Other Eikons

While you cannot change Eikon Intrinsic Abilities (Phoenix’s shift, Garuda’s Deadly Grasp), you can take an Eikon basic ability or Ultimate ability and slot it in another Eikon’s you’re currently equipped with.

For example, you can take Ramuh’s Judgment Bolt and put it on one of the three other Eikon’s ability slots. Personally, we didn’t like Ramuh’s Intrinsic ability, but loved Judgment Bolt. So we took that and put it onto Titan instead, since we prefer his Block Intrinsic Ability.

The only catch? You need to master the ability you want before you can start with the swapping. So you’ll need to spend a lot of ability points to master the more useful abilities.

Watch Out For Boss Countdowns

Some bosses will prepare spells and initiate countdown sequences for one-hit kill moves. Just be ready for these. You’ve had a taste of it from the Fire Eikon battle in the demo; there are a good number of these, so be prepared to save some spells like Judgment Bolt to deal with these as your regular attacks won’t cut it.