Final Fantasy 16’s Clive and Ifrit Theories Rumors

Since the release of the first trailer for Final Fantasy 16, many users have started finding links about Clive and Ifrit, creating different theories about them and the possible connections that the protagonist of the game and this Summon could have. Clive and Ifrit theories have become increasingly detailed and numerous over time, thanks to the publication of new trailers and above all to the release of the game demo. In the demo, in fact, it is possible to play a piece of the adventure that some users have defined as the “key” to be able to unravel this mystery. In this article, we have decided to group together some theories that fans have enjoyed developing before the official release of the game which we remember to be on June 22nd.

Who's controlling Ifrit at the end of the demo?

One of the subjects that have been discussed recently is who controls Ifrit at the end of the demo. For the time being, it appears that is Clive, but other users disagree and have developed elaborate hypotheses about it.

There is a fight at the end of the demo. What if Clive is only in control of Ifrit during the combat, as most suspect? Clive appears to come to after the fight as he says “Torgal?” in the third person while seeing the carnage. He's pleading with someone to stop him. Ifrit is completely focused on Phoenix at this point, not on Torgal or anything else. The theory states that Clive begged Ifrit to help him save Joshua. As a result, Joshua appears to come to his senses throughout the battle, but after Joshua “beats” Ifrit while you're playing, Clive returns to his body and watches as Ifrit, either under the control of the hooded man or simply being a wicked demon.

As a response, someone said that Clive is being controlled by someone else in that scene and that Clive is not yet channeling Ifrit in the demo. As previously stated, Clive hears Torgal's barking, indicating that he is somewhere nearby and not near Ifrit, who is tearing through Phoenix at the time. Also, Clive awakens exactly where he fell asleep, but Ifrit kills Phoenix near the forested area off to the side of Phoenix's gate. Ifrit may have pulled himself back to the initial location, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Ifrit is currently merely a massive unmanageable ball of aether hell-bent on murdering anything in its path. But that spirit is still tied to Clive, which is why he can see what's going on around it.

Another user believes that Clive was “invaded” by Ifrit and that there was previously some struggle between Ifrit and Phoenix, some type of old animosity that entirely took over when Ifrit met Phoenix. Maybe Ifrit chose Clive because it thought he could help it destroy its ancient nemesis. This might not have been conceivable in the past when Phoenix Dominants were stronger and more confident. Joshua wasn't ready to awaken Phoenix, and despite his strength, he was caught off guard when he least anticipated it.

Is Clive Ifrit's dominant?

This is one of the first theories that has made its way among the Final Fantasy 16 community. Although it is confirmed that Clive is the dominant of Ifrit (at least from what emerged from the published trailers), there are some users who continue to not be very convinced of this possibility. To give a complete view of what this theory is, let's retrace from the beginning the various steps and reasons that convinced fans that Clive is not Ifrit's dominant.

Some users have focused their attention on the fact that Clive does not have the ability to change Eikon and switch to Ifrit, saying that it is a strange thing if Clive is indeed the dominant of Ifrit. The theories then went further and further, analyzing the fact that Clive was presumably affiliated with a group of dominant hunters and therefore could not be Ifrit's dominant. Over time, Square Enix has then released other trailers and videos that have gradually made some of these theories less and less firm, but there are still those who are not 100% convinced.

Another user doesn't think that (always referring to what happens at the end of the demo) the perspective of the entire situation lends itself to us thinking that Clive is Ifrit's dominant. They state that during the combat, we never hear Clive's voice emanating from Ifrit, and we see a separate entity outside of Clive just before Ifrit appears. Also, we clearly see Ifrit on top of Phoenix from a different angle.

It is clear that we are only talking about conjecture and none of this has really been confirmed by the developers, so please do not assume that it could be one theory rather than another. For completeness, before the release of the game, we wanted to inform you about the theories of the fans in order to have some points of reflection that you can grasp. In any case, since the theories made are so many, it is probable that some of them or a part will prove to be right, but at the moment we cannot say with certainty.