The Complete Evolution of Summons

Ever since their introduction in Final Fantasy III, Summons have become a fundamental part of the Final Fantasy experience. Join us, for our latest Evolution video, as we explore how the various mechanics of Summons have been introduced and evolved over time, from Final Fantasy III all the way up to more modern games like Final Fantasy XIV, XV and the Final Fantasy 7 Remake!

[charlieprince]

I think summons are probably the most defining feature of the FF series. I think they way they've used them mechanically and story wise and evolved them has been what has set the series apart from other jrpgs.

[Forever_Zero]

FFX's approach of summons is probably the best, not only gameplay wise but there's the very emotional moment at the end, but I'm also a huge fan of what FFVII Remake did, certainly looking forward for more of it

[power]

Please do a evolution of chocobo next.

[daku]

One interesting design choice in Bravely Default was that the summons featured modern technology in their animations. Girtabulu is a modern city, Hresvelgr is a plane, Prometheus is a train, Deus Ex is a steampunk TV spider and Susano-o beats up people with power poles. Only Zisuadra shown in this video is the only one doing a classical fantasy attack without modern technology.
As the rest of the game is standard FF fare, with magitech only going as far as airships, it gave the summons an alien and outerworldly feel.

[kamikaze]

Overall, excellent video. One error I noticed was in the Tactics section. Summons can be learned by being hit by them, but they don't learn them by weapons equipped by the summoner. That's a system in the Tactics Advance series. The original Tactics had them being learned with accumulated JP, just like every other class.

[KenjiShiratsuki]

Wait a second, FFT didn't have summons learned from weapons at all. They were learned on the job screen like every other ability, you spent JP on them. Only the Samurai required specific weapons and that wasn't even to learn the skill, but to use it.

[Harpsibored]

The summons in FFIX will always be my favorite story-wise (although gameplay wise, definitely FFX). Most iconic moment from FFIX is easily the Alexander vs. Bahamut showdown. Such an amazing payoff after spending discs wondering what the hell Brahne wanted those jewel fragments for and why were they split in the first place.

[shytendeakatamanoir]

While FFX summons are definitely awesome, I also really like the FFVI approach for its more strategic feel.
It's mostly used for character building, but since their usage is limited in battle, you have to be careful when to use them.

[develynseether]

This is why FFIII will always be in my top 5 FF games, the amount of jobs to level and the summons was just epic.

[dustinhatfield]

I feel like it was worth mentioning how ff12 gave the classic summons typically present in the games not in Ivalice a cameo as flagships on the Imperial fleet. Heck Bahamut was essentially the final threat defeated

[pasqualembisceglia]

I like all Summons for Dagger and Eiko in Final Fantasy IX.

[andreaspavlides]

Wonderful job as always, thanks Union. Evolution of Moogles, Mog and Chocobos would be interesting next! 😆

[neblettadam]

And my day just keeps getting better and better with this vid!

[StevenBryceWroten]

Another fun thing from Bravely Default is that there was an optional end game job called Conjurer which used the summons to instead cast buffs.

[zidaryn]

19:27 You missed one thing when talking about XII. The names for the Espers were different from any of the summons seen in the series so far. This is partially due to the names of various ships in the world having the names of various summons, ie: Shiva and Ifrit.

Still a great vid as always.

[ern]

This man summoned a huge amount of effort to make this video👏

[TheAuron]

nice video, i was curious how would cover them in FF14, so much lore in that game alone.

my favourite game for them is (equips flame shield) FF 13, I love how it makes the connection between summoner and summon monster that much closer, seeing Odin allow Lightning to use HIS WEAPON was amazing, especially during the return to Cocoon part when its just her and Odin against the big mech, the bond is so strong that even 500 years later, he STILL helps her in the form of a chocobo.

[galone]

I believe in FFXII tho, Zodiark was the only one who didn't rebel. It was sealed away because of its terrifying growing powers despite being a "child".

[gorimbaud]

While you mentioned the Summon ability school from Record Keeper, I think you missed a big feature that is just as related: Magicite. After defeating various elemental boss fights, many of which are based on summons throughout the franchise, you're given magicite items that you can level and apply special passive abilities to, with one set as the main that can be summoned to help in combat. At the 6* level, the elemental bosses are all classic summons from the franchise, like Ifrit, Shiva, and Ramuh, culminating in a series of fights against Odin that unlock his own magicite. The Japanese version of the game has introduced the next level of magicite battles, against Neo Bahamut and Bahamut Zero, though the Global version is still a few months off from that.
Magicites are also one of the few areas in the game that implement FFRK's unique story and cast.

[jmforbes]

I really love that Melodies of Life is the background music playing in this video