In Final Fantasy 16 (FF16), Midnight Raven is the strongest of Benedikta’s henchmen. You’ll have to fight him at the end of the Fanning Embers quest, in Orabelle Downs shortly before you reach Lostwing. He’s not the biggest boss you’ll have to fight, but he is one of the more difficult ones to beat.
Midnight Raven is accompanied by a squad of Royal Sigfreyrs, and you’ve got both Cid and Torgal on your side. This boss battle is mostly a toe-to-toe fight between Clive and Midnight Raven, however.
How to defeat Midnight Raven in Final Fantasy 16
Midnight Raven will teleport out of the way and counter-attack you if you try to attack him when he’s just pacing around the perimeter of the battlefield. So, don’t do that. Instead, lure him into attacking you, evade, and unleash attacks on him while he’s vulnerable. You can usually do this even if you fail to evade. He often kinda freezes with his back to you after an attack.
Other than that, I found the best strategy was to beat Midnight Raven at his own game and pretty much evade constantly while moving sideways. Most of his attacks don’t have much build-up, so it’s difficult to time your evades. But if you’re just evading all the time, then he’ll usually miss, and you can lay into him while he’s frozen in his post-attack pose.
Once he’s staggered, hit him with everything you have. Cid will join in automatically, but you might need to issue Pet Commands to Torgal to maximize your Stagger Damage, depending on which Timely Accessories you have equipped.
At some point during this battle, you’ll get your first Cinematic Clash, which is just a fancy name for a QTE where you have to bash Square to push back against Midnight Raven. So don’t go thinking this is a cutscene, and make sure you’re ready to tap Square a lot when prompted.
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After the first Cinematic Clash, Midnight Raven will start using two magic attacks. You get plenty of warnings for his Raiton lightning attacks, so they’re easy to avoid. But his Katon fire-breathing spell is much more dangerous, and you do not want to get caught in its blast. To avoid it, remember to keep evading, and don’t linger in front of Midnight Raven.
His Assassinate Ability is also very dangerous and closely resembles Zangief’s Spinning Piledriver in the Street Fighter series. It is vital to avoid that one, either by evading or side-stepping, as you definitely can’t parry it. He always does Futon first, where he disappears, so when he reappears, always be ready to get out of the way.
Once you’ve got his health low enough, a final three-part Cinematic Clash will trigger, and once you’ve completed that, Midnight Raven will be slain. You can proceed to Lostwing, which is where you’ll find the Griffin, but only much later in the game.
