Final Fantasy: 25 Greatest Summons

Final Fantasy XII made a very bold decision when it came to summons. None of the series mainstays were anywhere to be found, their names allocated instead to various airships. In their place were thirteen new entities, drawn from both the Lucavi featured in Final Fantasy Tactics and the final bosses of several of the franchise’s earlier entries.

In retrospect, it wasn’t a great one. Players had little attachment to the new creations and little opportunity to build any given that they were quite poorly integrated into the game’s combat, making use of Mist Charges better spent on Quickening chains.

The Zodiac Age remake gave them more usefulness, opening up new areas of the License Board for the character that they were bonded to and enabling them to use abilities and equipment that their chosen job would otherwise not be able to, but their battle effectiveness remained limited despite the fact that Mist Charges were made far easier to obtain.

Zodiark is something of an exception to the rule, dealing extensive area damage and being the best way to clear fiendishly difficult elements of the remake’s Trial mode. Similar to other ‘ultimate’ summons, such as Ark and Eden, in many ways, his sheer devastation doesn’t quite make up for how difficult he is to obtain, but it’s a spectacle to witness for sure.