Leviathan is a level 5 summon in Final Fantasy V met in the main story, but is optional to obtain. It is a water-elemental summon who uses Tsunami, a powerful attack dealing heavy water damage to all enemies. Leviathan is one of the common summoned monsters found in Final Fantasy.
Leviathan can be used via Summon and Call once obtained, and also via Magic Lamp. With the latter two, the summoner uses no MP.
Obtained[]
Sprite at Istory Falls.
Leviathan guards Istory Falls, protecting the tablet that lies there. The player does not need to fight him when they first arrive, and can return later to confront him, if needed.
Stats[]
| Ability | MP cost | Power | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tsunami | 39 | 195 | Water-elemental damage to all enemies. |
Tsunami's damage is calculated as follows:
As a summon, there is no split damage property, and Tsunami is unaffected by reflect.
If the target absorbs water, it is healed instead of damaged; if it is immune to water, the attack misses. If the target resists water, the Attack modifier in the formula is halved, but if it is weak to water, the modifier is doubled and the attack ignores the target's Magic Defense.
Several pieces of equipment increase the power of elemental attacks by 50%, but none of them affect water. The only way to boost water damage is via the Mix Elemental Power that empowers all elements.
Use[]
Tsunami (Pixel Remaster).
Leviathan performs the attack Tsunami when summoned, dealing heavy water-elemental damage to all enemies. The damage is almost twice that of Titan and a little stronger than Syldra, but is less than Bahamut. Leviathan has a somewhat high MP cost, but one that is less prohibitively high than Bahamut.
Leviathan is one of the strongest spells available. Aside from Meteor and Bahamut, it is the best spell to cast to hit all enemies, and can be used effectively with Dualcast. Though Bahamut is stronger, Leviathan can still be a better choice when being more conservative with MP, or when targeting an elemental weakness.
Gallery[]
Etymology[]
Leviathan (Biblical Hebrew לִוְיָתָן or לווייתן Liwyāthān) is a violent sea creature referred to in the Hebrew Bible as well as the Talmud and some other ancient Jewish texts. The Ugaritic equivalent being Lotan. During the golden age of seafaring, the term Leviathan became synonymous with any large sea creature, sometimes describing whales. Bible scholars interpreted Leviathan to be either a demonic sea creature and an enemy of God.
The Talmud and other ancient Jewish sources refer to Leviathan more specifically as a sea serpent, sometimes with multiple heads capable of breathing fire, that was made on the fifth day of Creation. It is said that during the end of days, God will make tents, or sukkah, out of the skin of Leviathan for the righteous to live in. Some have speculated that Leviathan was based on a real animal, the most popular theory being the Kronosaurus and the Nile crocodile.
Leviathan is also one of the seven princes of Hell associated with the deadly sin Envy and Hell's gatekeeper in Christian demonology.
In the Final Fantasy series, Leviathan is sometimes referred to as the King of the Seas. Its incarnation in the series appears to derive from the legends of the Shinto god Ryūjin or Owatatsumi, said to be the dragon god that reigns over the seas. It also resembles the Chinese dragon, mystical beings seen as the rulers of moving bodies of water, and the Dragon God as the dispenser of rain.
Tsunami is Japanese for "harbor wave". A tsunami is caused by the displacement of a massive amount of water in an ocean, sea or large lake, as from an earthquake or an impact event. Upon impact, rather than being seen as a large ocean wave like popularly known break waves on shorelines, the water "rolls" in akin to a rising tide with a wall of water flooding everything inward.