The Importance of the Summons (Thread 2, Major Spoilers for Several FF Games)

Okay. This was a thread I started a good while back, but like most threads, good or bad, it eventually got buried. It was good then (Thread 8640), though, and it’s good now, so I’m starting it again.

Final Fantasy V — Summons aren’t quite that majorly connected to the plot in this game, but they still play an important role. Faris’s "pet," Hydra, dies and is reincarnated as the summon Hydra. At the end of the game, you get access to the Phoenix Tower. If you make it all the way up this winding tower, you get a flashback scene in which Reina/Lenna learns that her mother, the Queen, is dying. There’s only one thing that can save her — medicine made from the tongue of a dragon. But in order to do this, Reina/Lenna must cut out the tongue from a live dragon. If you choose not to have her cut it, you get the Phoenix summon. But if you screw up because you were going too fast, you lose out on the summon unless you reload and climb the tower again.

Final Fantasy VI — One of the biggest games as far as summon / plot connection. The Empire is draining espers of their life in order to create Magitek. Kefka, in particular, makes a collection of magicite. Terra is half-esper and struggles with who she is. At the end of the game, espers and magic disappear from the world.

Final Fantasy VII — This one was something of an anomaly. This game focuses on the materia and such, so the summons themselves aren’t central to the plot.

Final Fantasy VIII — Utilizing GF and the junction abilities they provide is incredibly important to success in this game. Later on, you learn that the GF is taking up a space in your characters’ brains, robbing them of their memories.

Final Fantasy IX — Dagger/Garnet is a lost member of the summoner tribe of Madain Sari. When she meets the young Eiko, she discovers someone else who has summon power. Queen Brahne, under the influence of Kuja, seized Garnet’s summon power and used it for destruction. Later, Kuja summoned Bahamut against Alexandria and Garnet and Eiko summoned the great holy eidolon Alexander (a massive robot in some of the other games) to stop it. Then, Garland put a stop to it all.

Final Fantasy X — The Aeons are manfiestations of the Fayth. Yuna is a summoner, destined to perform the Final Summoning. But she discovers a horrid truth — the Summoning is a big lie that only helps to perpetuate the cycle of Sin. The Final Aeon becomes the new Sin. Tidus, Yuna and co. kill Yunalesca and then defeat Sin / Braska’s Final Aeon.

In this game, summons can also be used against you. Isaaru summons Grothia (Ifrit), Pterya (Valefor) and Spathi (Bahamut.) Seymour has Anima, at least until you take her for your own.

Final Fantasy X-2 — The Fayth / summons have been dragged into the darkness by the turbulent memories of Shuyin.

Final Fantasy XII — I’ve not finished the game yet, but each Esper (returning from FFVI) is a Mist Ability that can be activated for a single character from the License Board. Espers can be obtained storywise and have powerful ties to important characters from Ivalice’s past history. There are also numerous optional summons to be gained. Summons in this game are called by different names because the traditional summon names are being used for airships. So Ifrit becomes Belias, etc.

I think the only game I found the summons useful AND interesting was in FFVI. The other games were either-or. They seemed to be the most useless in FFVII. Sure, finding KotR was fun, but they played no part in the story and I hardly used them. I think they were over rated and since it was the first 3D FF game visualy it was just "ooh" and "ahh"

I think the only game I found the summons useful AND interesting was in FFVI. The other games were either-or. They seemed to be the most useless in FFVII. Sure, finding KotR was fun, but they played no part in the story and I hardly used them. I think they were over rated and since it was the first 3D FF game visualy it was just "ooh" and "ahh"
Hmm. That’s strange. Because I found the summons in FFVI the most useless of all. I always found attacks and magic in that game quite helpful and so I didn’t use them much. Except for Raiden. Vanish/Raiden is a nice alternative to Vanish/Doom.

I found them most useful in FFX. Aeons could really help out at times. And FFVIII’s GFs were often pretty useless as actual summons, but provided nice abilities.

So far, I’m finding FFXII’s espers pretty useless.

Anyway, I didn’t really intend this to be a discussion of the merits of particular summons or how you use them, but if people want to, I suppose okay…

FFVI and FFIX (coincidentally my two favorite) place the most importance on summons by far. In FFVI, Espers are the way your characters can all learn magic and increase their abilities, and they play a major role in the plot as Agent said.

In FFIX, the presence of Eidolons is vastly important to the plot. Kuja’s initial plan is to obtain an Eidolon so powerful that he can defeat Garland (he later changes this plan). Thus, he manipulates Queen Brahne into seizing Garnet’s summoning power and finding all the jewels for summons. Thus, Eidolons are really one of the causes of the main conflicts in the game: the war of Alexandria. Kuja eventually takes Bahamut and tries to take Alexander, but Garland discovers Kuja’s plan and simply destroys Alexander.

i don’t really use summons in any of them unless im just messing around but i would say they are most usefull in viii because of their abilities and also in x because its pretty much impossible to beat penance without them they were useless in vii they were good to look at in 1998 but they didn’t even help much in the battles

So Ifrit becomes Belias, etc.

I haven’t played FFXII myself, but from what I hear, many summons take their names from FF Tactics, which is also set in Ivalice.

Hmm. And I haven’t played Tactics. But that is interesting.

Not sure why you left out FFIV.

In that game, Calling or Summoning is very important to the plot. The Empire fears the power of the callers, so he sends Cecil to destroy the town of the summoners, and the only survivor is Rydia, the last caller. Leviathan attacks your ship at a certain point, scattering your party across the world. Later, you get Rydia back, who had been in the land of summoned monsters, which you later visit. Very important to the plot, (Summons basically ARE Rydia’s portion of the plot), if not quite so important as in VI, IX, and X as mentioned earlier.

Also Summons KICKED ASS in that game. Very useful. Bahamut is nearly the best spell in the game. Meteo is also good, but it costs twice as much MP. By the time you get Meteo, Rydia should be doing 9999 to everything with Bahamut anyway.

I guess because I forgot most of the details about it. I was probably hoping somebody would fill them in. Which you did an admirable job of.

I guess because I forgot most of the details about it. I was probably hoping somebody would fill them in. Which you did an admirable job of.

it’s all good. 🙂 You should replay on GBA if you haven’t – bonus dungeons, and you can even use some of the other characters at the end!

I found them usefull in FF VI, mostly on bosses or hard moments. For example if i was about to fight a boss, i would equip an esper for healing, one or two for attacking and another one for somthing else (auto-regen, auto-haste or vanish were my favourite abilities the espers of vi have). And it turned out working! I thought the Espers were useless in the start but they turned out pretty usefull. VI’s and X’s were the most usefull to me. In IX, they were usefull, but at a point i just stopped using them. Havent played the rest final fantasies very much to comment on them, but i did not like them much on VIII.