Modes — Single-Player
Genres — Action Role-Playing Game
Publisher — Square Enix
Developer — Creative Business Unit III
Platform — PS5
Rating — Mature | PEGI 18+ | CERO D
Release Date — June 22, 2023
Main Director
Hiroshi Takai
Producer
Naoki Yoshida
Creative Director & Original Screenplay
Kazutoyo Maehiro
Art Director
Hiroshi Minagawa
Character & Visual Design
Kazuya Takahashi
Combat Director
Ryota Suzuki
Music Director & Main Composer
Masayoshi Soken
Localization Director
Michael-Christopher Koji Fox
For centuries, people have flocked to her Mothercrystals to partake of their blessing—the abundant aether that fuels the magicks they rely upon in their everyday lives.
As the aether begins to fade and the lifeless deadlands spread ever further, so too does the struggle for possession of the final flickers of the Mothers' light grow ever more fierce.
Yet amidst the gathering storm, there are those who believe that
the legacy of the crystals has shaped mankind's destiny for long enough.
The Eikons are the most powerful and deadly creatures in Valisthea. Each resides within a Dominant—a single man or woman who is blessed with the ability to call upon their dread power.
In some nations these Dominants are treated as royalty in admiration of this strength—in others they are bound in fear of it, and forced to serve as weapons of war.
Those who are born as Dominants cannot escape their fate, however cruel it may be.
Most men and women in Valisthea rely on the Mothercrystals to conjure their magicks. However, a small number are born with the ability to cast magicks at will.
A Bearer's lot in life differs dramatically depending on the realm in which they are born.
[h2][/h2]
Long ago, a group of small independent provinces in western Valisthea found strength in unity and formed the Grand Duchy of Rosaria.
After years of relative prosperity, the duchy now finds itself threatened by the spread of the Blight—a threat that, left unchecked, would doubtless usher the realm to ruin.
Rosaria draws its aether from Drake's Breath, a Mothercrystal situated on a volcanic island off the coast.
The Dominant of the Phoenix, Eikon of Fire, is enthroned as Archduke when they come of age.
A small group of islands off the coast of Storm, the western half of Valisthea's twin realms.
Here the Crystalline Orthodox, an extreme faith that worships crystals, reigns supreme.
The Iron Kingdom controls Drake's Breath, the Mothercrystal that sits at the heart of one of their islands—long a source of contention with neighboring Rosaria.
Isolated and aloof from the mainland nations, the Ironblood speak their own language.
Orthodox doctrine judges Dominants to be unholy abominations, and any unlucky enough to be born on the islands are executed.
Sanbreque is the largest theocratic force in Valisthea.
The Empire's holy capital Oriflamme is built around Drake's Head, the Mothercrystal that blesses the surrounding provinces with abundant aether.
The people happily take advantage of this, living in comfort and security under the watchful gaze of the Holy Emperor, whom they worship as the living incarnation of the one true deity.
The Dominant of Bahamut, Warden of Light, serves as the empire's champion, taking to the field in times of war to rout its enemies.
The Dhalmekian Republic is made up of five states, from which the members of its ruling parliament are drawn.
Its Mothercrystal, Drake's Fang, is half-hidden in the heart of a mountain range—the republic's control over it, and its aether, securing the obedience of the large part of southern Valisthea.
The Dominant of Titan, Eikon of Earth, is installed as a special advisor to parliament and has a significant say in its decision-making.
Waloed claims the entirety of Ash, the eastern half of Valisthea, as its dominion.
The kingdom's control of the continent has oft been tested by the orcs and other beastmen who make their home there, but the current ruler of the realm—Dominant of Odin, Warden of Darkness—has succeeded in quelling their rebellions.
Using the power of the kingdom's Mothercrystal, Drake's Spine, this new king has built up a mighty army, with which he now seeks to test the borders of his neighbors.
The Crystalline Dominion sits at the heart of Valisthea, built around the tallest of all the Mothercrystals, Drake's Tail.
Many bloody battles were fought for control of this small plot of land due to its strategic importance, till the warring realms finally agreed to an armistice.
As part of the peace treaty, the islands around Drake's Tail became an autonomous dominion led by a council of representatives from the surrounding nations—
each realm enjoying equal claim to the Mothercrystal's blessing. No Dominant makes their home there.
The firstborn son of the Archduke of Rosaria. Though all expected him to inherit the Phoenix's flames and awaken as its Dominant, destiny instead chose his younger brother Joshua to bear this burden.
In search of a role of his own, Clive dedicated himself to mastering the blade. His practice pays off when, at just fifteen years of age, he wins the ducal tournament and is dubbed the First Shield of Rosaria—tasked to guard the Phoenix and blessed with the ability to wield a part of his fire.
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.
The second son of the Archduke of Rosaria and Clive's younger brother by five years. Joshua awoke as the Dominant of the Phoenix soon after his birth.
Despite his noble upbringing, Joshua treats all his father's subjects with warmth and affection—none more so than Clive, whom he deeply admires.
Joshua often laments that it was he, the frail and bookish younger son, who was granted command of the firebird's flames, and not his stronger, braver brother.
While Clive will gladly throw himself into any danger, Joshua quails at the sight of a carrot on his dinner plate.
But carrots become the least of his concern when he, too, is swept up into the tragic events that change Clive's life forever.
Born in the fallen Northern Territories, Jill was taken from her homeland at a tender age to become a ward of Rosaria.
The Archduke insisted that she be raised alongside his sons, and she became as much a part of the Rosfield household as Clive and Joshua.
Alas, fate was not finished with her yet—it saw the three torn apart, and the bone-chilling power of the Eikon Shiva awaken within her.
Another outcast from the Northern Territories taken in by House Rosfield, Torgal was found alone in a snowfield during one of Archduke Elwin's expeditions to the freezing north, and gifted to his sons upon his return.
After somehow surviving the disaster that nearly ended the Rosfield line, he was reunited with Clive over a decade later, and now serves his master with the same fierce loyalty he did when he was but a pup.
Known to his friends as "Cid," this soldier-turned-outlaw strives to build a place where persecuted Bearers and exploited Dominants can die on their own terms.
A man of science, he also conducts research into how one might live in the deadlands—as he and his band of fellow heretics must.
Cid is also a Dominant—the power of the Eikon Ramuh having awoken within him shortly after he landed on Valisthean shores.
No doubt it was this power that saw him rise through the ranks of the Royal Waloeder Army—where it would seem he crossed paths with a certain Benedikta Harman…
Having emerged from the storm of youth coldhearted and ruthless, Benedikta Harman—Dominant of the Eikon Garuda, Warden of the Wind—turned her talent for swordplay and subterfuge into a command of Waloed's elite intelligencers.
It is on a mission to find the elusive second Eikon of Fire that she crosses paths with a like-minded Clive and is forced to face her past.
Permanent Economic Adviser Hugo Kupka's meteoric rise to prominence was sudden, if not unexpected.
Once a nameless foot soldier in the Republican Army, his awakening as Dominant of the Eikon Titan thrust him to the forefront of Dhalmekian politics.
It was here he used his newfound position as the most powerful man in the republic to exert influence over both the nation's armies and its policy making—amassing a personal fortune in the process.
Yet while it is said that a man who has everything wants for nothing, Benedikta Harman will teach him money and power are far from all the world has to offer.
Crown prince of the Holy Empire of Sanbreque and leader of its noblest and most feared order of knights—the dragoons.
Dion is loved and respected by both his people and his troops, not least for the many times he has turned the tide of battle in their favor.
Indeed, songs of the heroism of the warrior prince and his Eikon Bahamut, King of Dragons, are never far from the lips and lutes of Sanbrequois bards.
But all is not well in the empire, and the gathering shadows may yet be enough to quell Bahamut's light…
Arriving on the shores of Ash as a landless and titleless wanderer, it was Barnabas's skill with a blade that won him a kingdom.
And though the local beastmen were to rise in revolt against his rule, Barnabas called on the power of his Eikon, Odin, to quell their rebellions nigh single-handedly, bringing the entirety of the eastern continent under the Waloeder banner.
Now he has an army and navy that rival any in Valisthea at his disposal, yet still the king is drawn to where the fighting is thickest—
riding into battle atop his spectral steed and sundering foes with his fabled black blade, or merely observing the unfolding chaos from the sidelines, a grisly gleam of fascination ever in his eyes.