Asterisk Guide: Summoner
Asterisk Holder: Mephilia Venus
Origin: Final Fantasy III
Was It In Bravely Default?: Yes
Overview: Summons have been a fun part of Final Fantasy for very long time, and now they’re back again! Like the Black Mage, they focus entirely on magic, and when they run out of MP they’re in trouble. It doesn’t help that Summons have a high MP cost. However, Summons are a great way to cause massive damage to the entire field, not to mention they’re neat to watch! (And skippable.) They also learn abilities for improving Friend Summons, which makes them a bit more versatile.
Personal Thoughts: I love Summons. I also love that Bravely Default’s Summons are unique in that they’re all, like…legend-possessed things we find in our everyday world. I love Bahamut and Shiva and the rest of the FF gang, but it’s also really cool to see Summons that are, for lack of a better term, “modernized”. Like these are Summons we couldn’t have seen until fairly recently. (Except for Ziusudra’s Sin, who seems more like Shiva Jr. to me.) I do wish they could be cheaper in MP, but eh, it’s a trade-off. The method of getting summons in Bravely Default is also fairly unique, and my feelings on it can alternate. In Final Fantasy Summons can be bought, granted to you through certain story events, or fought as bosses and then earned upon defeat, depending on which game (and which Summon). In Bravely Default, the idea of them being bosses is tweaked a bit: when you challenge the “Anchorite” for the Summon (when you have at least one Summoner of high enough level), you will enter battle, but the Anchorite gets first strike and immediately uses the Summon. If at least one of your party members survives, then the battle ends and you get the Summon. Now, at first, this is really difficult and sort of frustrating. But, by the time you get to higher level Summons, you’ll have so many stats and abilities that this won’t be much of an issue, not to mention you start finding things to nullify or absorb the element that’s being thrown at you (meaning guaranteed Summon Get!). It’s unique, and I guess I like it as a whole. There’s just a bit of a slope at first. ALSO, Bravely Second will be getting at least one new Summon! I don’t know what the name is supposed to be, but it appears to be a large submarine. It’s possible this is replacing Ziusudra’s Sin as the water/ice summon, or that we’re just getting more Summons in addition to those that are returning. Or both. I would like to see new Summons, but with the way Summoner and Conjurer are set up I don’t know if there’s as much they can do to expand the Summon roster. Though, I guess if Conjurer didn’t come back…no, I’d rather have Conjurer than more Summons.
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