How to parry in Final Fantasy 16

During the Prologue of Final Fantasy 16 (FF16), you have a training session with Lord Commander Murdoch, during which he teaches you to execute combos, cast fire spells, evade attacks, execute Phoenix Shifts, and use potions. But he doesn’t teach you how to parry.

Is this because you can’t parry in Final Fantasy 16? Well, no. While the training session with Lord Commander Murdoch is the only explicit combat tutorial in the game, the game teaches you things throughout the whole Prologue and beyond. Basically, the Prologue is one big tutorial, and you should learn how to parry at some point before it’s over.

Can you parry in Final Fantasy 16?

You certainly can parry in Final Fantasy 16, but I’m pretty sure that the parrying tutorial pop-up is only triggered the first time you accidentally parry an attack. That certainly seems to be what happened for me. I was halfway through fighting the Morbol in Stillwind, when the game paused and a tutorial popped up and explained to me what I’d just done. If the same thing happened to you, you may have been impatient to close the window and continue the fight, so I can see how it would be easy to forget (or just not know) how to parry. Or I suppose it’s possible never to trigger the parrying tutorial at all.

Related: Best abilities to get early in Final Fantasy 16

What is the parry button in Final Fantasy 16?

The parry button in Final Fantasy 16 is the same as the melee attack button, although the controller layout screen doesn’t tell you this. So to parry, press Square just as an opponent attacks you. If you time it right, then time will temporarily slow down, and you’ll be able to counterattack the opponent without them being able to defend themselves.

Now that you know that the parry button is the same as the attack button, it’s easy to see how I managed to do it accidentally. In fact, I think I’ve only done it accidentally. It’s very difficult to get the timing right on purpose. I mainly parry when an enemy tries to interrupt one of my combos.

How does parrying work in Final Fantasy 16?

Parrying is just a little different in Final Fantasy 16 from parrying in other games. In most games, you parry by pressing the block button at the moment of attack, but in Final Fantasy 16, it’s the attack button. This is a little counter-intuitive, but I actually think it’s a great idea.

I really dislike when a game’s combat system rewards a passive, cautious approach like most parrying systems do. In Final Fantasy 16, I feel like I’m encouraged to be more aggressive and active (as opposed to reactive) in battle. That being said, I still use evade more than parry, as I did in the boss fight against Shiva’s Dominant.