FFVIII - Did it have the best summon system ever?

June 8, 2007, 12:52 PM

Well, think about it - early FF's didn't offer anything unique/spectacular - even with VI they were rubbish in battle, gave you no incentive to use them other then for learning spells off.

VII's, no incentive to really use them unless it was a Bahamut. IX, same old summon this, attack the enemy etc. X - so you could teach them abilities. In the end, wasn't it better just to focus on getting on their overdrive and using standard attacks? XII's - pretty much like the earlier FF's - weren't really that useful for anything.

VIII's, actually made summons worthwhile, and you actually could use them for something worthwhile outside of battle, like learning valuable strength and magic boosts, increasing a summons attack/HP, learning some skills, and you could also delete pointless skills if possible. Their cards had value too - you could also convert them into special items. They also provided back up in battle - say you were on low HP, and you summoned a monster - that monster would pretty much take a hit for you, giving you time to either make a comeback/finish a fight or heal yourself.
Other things make this fun too - you could fight various summons by going to secret places - not unique I know, but, in order to fight and obtain Bahamut, you had to answer questions in a particular order, to fight and obtain Odin you had to find him in a race against time, and to get Tonberry King, you had to fight Tonberries 20 times! To get Doomtrain, you had to collect specific items. I thought it was pretty cool too when you had to draw some summons too!

Sure, you can say that other games required you to hunt for optional summons, but it wasn't exactly challenging. In VII, you had to find the materia. Whooptydo. X - you had to go to cloisters/faythy place and get Yuna to obtain them. Challenging.

XII could match VIII in terms of challenging ways to find Espers and fight them. Like completing a specific sidequest to reach Zalera and killing/defeating it in a short amount of time seeing as the match had a time limit. And Cuchulainn - the whole area had a sap effect on it. The most powerful esper Zodiark - you could only get to by capturing at least 10 other espers, speaking to Geomancer Yugelu in Jahara to get him to unlock a certain area in the Henne Mines for you.

So in other words pretty much..VIII summons > every other FF's summons.

June 8, 2007, 1:17 PM

Hmm, you know what...I agree with you completely. As much as I love VII's battle system, the Summon system was the same as learning magics and whatnot. Nothing unique about that. IX was challenging as you had to fight them before you can claim them, but after that, it's just the same old story as far as summon systems go.

I won't list the rest, but for VIII, I felt that we really had to put the extra effort of taking care of our GF's, making sure the relationship with the characters are strong and bonded. (In this case, it's best to assign a GF to a certain character permanently - so planning ahead is a must.) Like I stated before in my previous posts, everything about FVIII is sophisticated for me, especially the Junction system. It's complex and you really have to understand the whole concept.

And now that I think about it, the Summon system does indeed surpass the others, as far as uniqueness and complexity go. My opinion, of course.

So basically, you're able to customize the growth of each summons and mold them into your liking. I definitely find that refreshing.

June 8, 2007, 1:17 PM

FFVIII summons were indeed the most useful they presented the players with a unique variety of skills and bonus!

I agree when you say that in FFVI,FFVII and FFIX you don´t really need to use summons because regular atacks and magic can do quite as much or more damage than a summon and cost a lot less mp!

Although there comes a point in FFVIII where most of the summons are not really necessary in terms of battle the skills that they give are still necessary like for instance: Recovery; HP+;Strg+;Magic+; Card Mod; Refine magic and so on...

So yes you are right when you say FFVIII summons beat most of the other FF summons apart from maybe X (i haven´t played FFXII so i don´t know about that one).

June 8, 2007, 1:21 PM

I don't doubt that VIII has by far a better summon function. You could teach them enhancing abilities, you could use them to increase your character's strengths, and you could deal substantial damage with them within a battle. A vague brief on their usefulness, but I thoroughly enjoyed building up my GF's.

VII's was great, but some did have uses. Granted, the likes of Ifrit and Shiva were shoddy once you'd come and gone at Corel, but the later summons were rather useful in terms of general damage-dealing. Worth having, but the system was... actually really wank. Only being able to use them for a determined number of times was ridiculous.

IX... well, plain as they come. My favourite game, but this area was the most lacking for me. Yes, all Eidolons could ultimately deal 9999 damage, but visually - they sucked. There was no way of enhancing their effectiveness in any way, and they all solely depended on the summoner. Technically Odin could be made more effective, but that was only an addition because his main attack sucked in terms of accuracy. The only Eidolons worth summoning were Bahamut and Ark; both of which require large amounts of MP if you don't have the Half MP ability learned.

X had a great system. I loved it. However I felt it became ridiculous as when you wished to manually increase their stats without technically training, it'd cost you 70 [example] of a certain item just to increase a particular stat field by a minimal amount. Disappointing, but more than made-up for with the battle system. Controlling those Aeons was a great addition to an already-decent game, and I seriously hope we get to do it again at some point. Obtaining them was bleh, but at least the Magus Sisters and Anima were hard(ish) to get.

XII had an extremely disappointing system. I only summoned an Esper twice. The first was to try out Belias because it was the first time I obtained an Esper (wow@occasion), and the second was for him to open the gate to Giruvegan. There was simply no point in them, considering you could ultimately deal far more damage to a foe with the rest of your team present.

Generally more impressed with the way VIII brought about the whole thing. Didn't so much like the game as a whole, but I really did enjoy working on the odd GF or two.

June 8, 2007, 1:36 PM

Quote:

X had a great system. I loved it. However I felt it became ridiculous as when you wished to manually increase their stats without technically training, it'd cost you 70 [example] of a certain item just to increase a particular stat field by a minimal amount. Disappointing, but more than made-up for with the battle system. Controlling those Aeons was a great addition to an already-decent game, and I seriously hope we get to do it again at some point. Obtaining them was bleh, but at least the Magus Sisters and Anima were hard(ish) to get.

Some upgrades weren't even worth the price you had to pay for them :/

Oh, and I'll also add - FFVIII's summons don't have a limit on how many times you can use them, they can last as long as a character can do with careful looking after, plus, they don't use MP, but MP in general does not exist in the game.

June 8, 2007, 1:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Judge Rulia

Some upgrades weren't even worth the price you had to pay for them :/

Which is exactly what I was saying, dear. :p

Quote:

Originally Posted by Judge Rulia

Oh, and I'll also add - FFVIII's summons don't have a limit on how many times you can use them, they can last as long as a character can do with careful looking after, plus, they don't use MP, but MP in general does not exist in the game.

If you were making reference to my post specifically, I never said they used MP or had restrictions. I was referring to VII there. :p

June 8, 2007, 2:26 PM

I agree with that. VIII's summons were definitely one of the, if not the best, summon systems ever conceived in the FF series. I mean, it even got you involved in using 'boost' on them whereas in IX it was all done automatically, it also made you feel like the GF's were characters themselves, though I can't really explain that fully.
All the uses of the GF that you describe are totally right, now that I think of it, better than most other systems employed in the other games.

My Character Profiles · June 8, 2007, 3:26 PM

Hmm...FFVIII's summon system still reminded me of FFVII...junctioning summons to your stats was kind of like junctioning them to your weapons.
It was okay...it just...made the game 500 times easier than it already was.

June 8, 2007, 4:56 PM

Just that VIII was pretty much more advanced and actually gave summons use

Thank you Warbourne ;D