Final Fantasy: 25 Greatest Summons

In all honesty, can you give somebody the moniker ‘the king of dragons’ and NOT see them featured at the precipice of a list such as this?

It’s unclear as to why Bahamut was originally depicted as draconian back in Final Fantasy I, given that the Bahamut of Arabic legend (which translates to Hebrew as Behemoth, a legendary Final Fantasy creature in its own right) was a giant fish that supported a giant bull (Kujata, a lesser series summon), which in turn supported an angel that supported the earth.

It’s a design decision that has stuck throughout the series, however, with the recent exception of XV, where he was somewhat eerily depicted as a humanoid. Bahamut has consistently appeared as one of the most powerful, if not the ultimate summon, in almost every game, usually requiring players to prove themselves in a gruelling boss encounter to prove their worthiness of calling upon him.

There’s a reason why dragons are omnipresent in almost every fantasy story of note – they’re flat-out brilliant to behold. Bahamut (and his many variants in the compilation of VII) is visually striking with his predominantly black colour palette and merciless with his ruinous Megaflare attack.

He’ll probably never be replaced in his role, and nobody will object.