The Complete Evolution of Summons

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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!
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[@FinalFantasyUnion]

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[@64power72]

Please do a evolution of chocobo next.

[@charlieprince8671]

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

[@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.

[@daku5413]

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.

[@kamikaze82]

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.

[@pasqualembisceglia1989]

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

[@ern1813]

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

[@shytendeakatamanoir9740]

While FFX summons are definitely awesome, I also really like the FFVI approach for its more strategic feel.

[@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.

[@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.

[@dustinhatfield8373]

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

[@develynseether4426]

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.

[@zidaryn]

19:27

[@andreaspavlides7560]

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!

[@TheEpitomeofSass]

this was a really interesting video!! very comprehensive and I learned alot. thank you, you two, for all the work you put into it!!! ALWAYS giving quality work

[@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".

[@venabre]

FFX being my first Final Fantasy game slightly ruined summons for me because I loved being able to control them and could never really get used to summons just using one attack and then leaving once I went back to play the earlier games