Summoning.

[Ness]

Let's face facts...summoning has changed drastically over the past few generations of FF game. What did you think of summoning as a viable strategy in battles in XIII in particular?

I don't think I ever summoned except for extremely specific situations (Oretoise fights). I do think the system was a bit of an improvement over XII in that the player has a bit more control over the Eidolon's actions...but I still found the summon mechanic to be lacking somewhat.

Thoughts?

 

[Hayate]

I am sure they are trying to get away from EVERY game being Summon oriented. Like in VII, VIII, IX, and X the game(s) relies heavily on Summoning. Look at the games, the story basically revolves around the summons (Especially in IX and X) and FFVIII having the most summons I've yet to see in a FF game. I think they want to get away from all of them being the same way while still having the beautiful summoning process in there.

I think in FFXIII the Eidolon's were very nicely done and they have more abilities and we have more control over what they do than in FFXII. It was a nice change to the game. I guess we're so use to having Summons be such a big part we don't know how to get away from it.

 

[Æon Flux]

Ive actually never realy used summons in any game all that much beyond seeing their animations and whatnot(unless it was a class wich the summon was stronger than the attack)
I actually rather enjoy the variations on how they do the summons in the various games....I just wish ,within the past few FF games, thet the summons where more important or had better uses they realy feel flat to me lately.
In this particular game I did like seeing them though they where never realy usefull to any great extent beyond that to me ...I actually thought when I seen them "transform" from promos and stuff you would get to ride arround the worldmap and whatnot on them....That it seems was a flaw in my thinking But it would have given them a usefullness imo

 

[Squid]

The only time I summoned in FFXIII was to see what they looked like/did in battle, other wise I never touched the damn things
Also battling the summons just to obtain them was the worst thing ever (probably because I found it really hard to battle them)

I hardly use summons in any other FF game too, although I did use them a lot in IX because I liked the summons in that

 

[ribbit]

The only time I summoned in FFXIII was to see what they looked like/did in battle, other wise I never touched the damn things
Also battling the summons just to obtain them was the worst thing ever (probably because I found it really hard to battle them)

I hardly use summons in any other FF game too, although I did use them a lot in IX because I liked the summons in that

Same. I never touched any of the Espers in FFXII. They aren't very good imo. XIII, I fought them (never beat the game) and that was it. I use them all the time in VIII and IX. X I used them to start with, then I pretty much destroyed everything with normal attacks. They should go back to how they used to use summons. I can't stand how little damage the ones in XII did...

 

[OzDok]

Same. I never touched any of the Espers in FFXII. They aren't very good imo. XIII, I fought them (never beat the game) and that was it. I use them all the time in VIII and IX. X I used them to start with, then I pretty much destroyed everything with normal attacks. They should go back to how they used to use summons. I can't stand how little damage the ones in XII did...

Zodiark, Zeromus and Shemhazai all broke the damage limit with their ultimates

I liked the summon system in FF6, where you used them to give yourself stat boosts and used certain Espers as part of a strategy due to the effect of them, rather than just summoning them to hit very hard (Can I get a Golem/Palidor up in here?)

I prefer summons in games where it's limited to only one or two people being able to use them though. And I loved FF9 where they became an important plot device.

FF8 I hated them because they had a lame backstory and were suddenly the reason why everyone lost their memories half-way through the game.

FF7 they didn't even have a backstory, they were just abused.

I think in FF12 the Espers are supposed to form more of a tanking role, where they keep things busy while you heal up and revive dead characters, not as a sort of super cannon.

FF13. I have no words for disdain I have for the Eidolons in this game. I mean, they literally turned into Power Rangers. Shiva turning into a motorbike? WHAT THE HELL?

 

[ribbit]

FF13. I have no words for disdain I have for the Eidolons in this game. I mean, they literally turned into Power Rangers. Shiva turning into a motorbike? WHAT THE HELL?

I also liked VI's. It worked out nice.

 

[GalaxyFlare]

The thing about FFXIII is that you couldnt summon Eidolons repeatedly battle after battle and that the mechanism for gaining more TP was floored, Fast Battles, if you could summon ad infinitum it would be a good system coz you could gain insight in to how best to use the Eidolons.

Also being able to only select one Eidolon because of being loimited to a single chracter was bullshit..............dont get me started

 

[Zeith]

Well,I've never abused summons in any of the FFs,it just seems like,towards the end,most of them are far weaker than anything you could dish out,'cept for the awsome ones I do use,like the secret aeons in FFX.

In FFXIII,though...The process for gaining them was interesting,it would be a good way to combine character develpoment and gameplay,even if some of the battles towards the end do feel kinda forced...I say,"would be", because it was never really fully made use of in that way.

I liked the battles themselves,too;the battle system is too much on autopilot for me to like it very much,but the eidolon fights always perked me up.I would have liked it if the doom counter was used in more fights,very tense and epic.

The whole"vehicle mode"thing,though.......

 

[Ahlchamest]

This may be the only FF where I didn't use that much summons. The only one I really used was Vanille's (can't remembe what it was called), and it was to kill those Oretoises. The battle's versus the Eidolons were very difficult, which I didn't like very much

 

[Bloodred]

I too found obtaining the Eidolons to be quite difficult, Bahamut for example, I literally got one second before I would have died from doom. I only really used them if I was being lazy or I noticed I was about to stagger an enemy for burst damage, again Bahamut for example, to do a quick 400k damage. They were boring to use because all you had to do was tap x repeatably as there was no point pressing the buttons yourself. On a last note.. I couldn't even pronounce some of their names!

I prefer them in previous games where they come with a nice little scene, do their attack and disappear until summoned again.

 

[Linnaete]

In FFXII, you have the option of cycling through party members in the battlefield, while FFXIII limits you to one controllable character in battle - your party leader in a sense. At least in FFXII by cycling through characters you can have each of them summon their Espers without changing the party lineup constantly, whereas in FFXIII I was mainly limited to Odin for the latter half of the game. If I wanted to use another Eidolon, I'd have to edit my party lineup (and perhaps all the Paradigms again) and therefore I found little point in doing that, especially as the Eidolons weren't exactly spectacular.

They're certainly more effective than their FFXII counterparts however. The Espers in that game either die easily, inflict very little damage or make it so difficult to pull off their finishing attacks depending on who the Esper is. At least with the Eidolons in this game they can have some use in fully healing the party once dismissed - as well as being capable of staggering an opponent at times, though that's basically it. With the battles concluded by a timer, I find that Eidolons slow you down more than anything when your party of three can inflict the same - or more damage in the time you use the Eidolon. Still, at least they don't die in battles like the Espers easily do. The Gestalt thing is pretty silly I have to acknowledge that. I'm really unsure why having transforming summons and treading on Gundam or Super Robot Taisen territory was even necessary anyway.

 

[Gingerbread Lesbian]

I found the summoning in Final Fantasy XIII almost useless. The only use I got out of summoning was if a character died they would be revived because of the summon and to knock the Adamantortoise down straight away. As far as actually battling with summons, I never did unless I was forced to when I used them - attacking with 3 characters > using summons.

 

[Lirael]

I can't remember summoming the Eidolons very often at all in XIII. I didn't really like how they were controlled in battle. The fact they ate up TP was also somewhat frustrating. However, I don't feel XIII was a worse game for this. Summons have always been a bonus in FF games for me rather than a necessity. X is the only game in which I viewed the Summons as characters; I grew quite attached to Yuna's aeons.

Unlike XII, which I feel gave the summons very little purpose at all, the use of Eidolons in the story of XIII was fantastic. They weren't important within battles, but they were integral to the concept of l'Cie and man's relationship with the loving goddess Etro. The Eidolons aided each character at key moments in the game, often providing them with a means to escape - even crash a party. Furthermore, the Eidolons were well matched to their characters.