When it comes to the Final Fantasy XVI Eikons, which are this entry’s summons, it seems what people see is what they will get. Creative Director Kazutoyo Maehiro explained there will be no hidden ones in an IGN interview. This means as someone plays, there wouldn’t be any surprise summon to find. However, Maehiro also noted that ones that appeared in the October 2022 “Ambition” trailer’s mural may or may not appear. [Thanks, IGN!]
First, here’s Maehiro’s explanation discussing how there won’t be any hidden Eikon summons in Final Fantasy XVI. He emphasized that the goal is to really focus the characters that do appear.
Unlike the Summons of other installments in the series, there aren’t too many of them, nor are there any hidden, surprise Eikons. But this is because the story focuses on the Eikons – not including any hidden Eikons or having a huge number of them means we can explore each Eikon and their Dominant more thoroughly.
Maehiro also told IGN that the mural in “Ambition” shows historical Eikons, but may not show every summon. His answer suggested that while there won’t be any hidden ones, there are still secrets Square Enix hasn’t revealed.
The mural shown at the end of the trailer we recently revealed doesn’t recount the story being told in Final Fantasy XVI – it was painted in an ancient age, many eons ago. So, you can consider these Eikons appearing in the mural the Eikons that have historically existed in Valisthea. I can’t say anything more about the mural at this point in time – and it may actually be a little tricky to answer whether all those Eikons shown in the mural will appear… regardless, any more than this is still a secret, haha. Eikons are at the core of Final Fantasy XVI’s story.
As a reminder, here is that mural from the “Ambition” Final Fantasy XVI trailer.
Final Fantasy XVI will come to the PS5 in Summer 2023.
