The ability to summon mighty creatures that can help you in battle has become one of the most iconic aspects of the Final Fantasy series.
This concept debuted in Final Fantasy III, where the player could go on side quests in order to seek out the most powerful creatures in the world and defeat them in combat in order to be able to call on their strength in battle.
As time went on, the summoned monsters would become integral to the stories of many Final Fantasy games.
The Eidolons of Final Fantasy IV maintained a secret kingdom where time flowed differently, while the Espers of Final Fantasy VI were hunted down and transformed into crystals so that their powers could be wielded by mortals.
Not all of the summoned monsters in Final Fantasy games are created equal, though. There are some that can win battles in a single move, while others will hang you out to dry and let the enemy steamroll you in combat.
We are here today to rank the best and the worst of the summoned creatures of the Final Fantasy series.
From the bird who can save you from annihilation at the hands of the Weapons to the warriors who can't wait to destroy your party, here are The 8 Most Powerful Final Fantasy Summons (And 8 That Are Completely Worthless)!
Powerful: Phoenix (Final Fantasy VII)
The Phoenix summon has appeared in numerous Final Fantasy games and usually shares its effect across each iteration.
Phoenix deals fire damage to the enemy and will bring all deceased party members back to life.
The version of Phoenix that appears in Final Fantasy VII is by far the most useful iteration of the summon, especially when it comes to defeating the bonus bosses.
There exists a materia in Final Fantasy VII called Final Attack, which allows you to perform an extra move when the equipped character passes in battle.
The move depends on what materia you have linked to Final Attack. If you link Phoenix to Final Attack and your whole party perishes, then Phoenix will bring everyone back to life, along with hurting the enemy.
Using a mastered Final Attack/Phoenix combo will give you an easier time with Emerald and Ruby Weapon, as you can be destroyed several times before losing the battle.
Worthless: The Secret Monster Summons (Final Fantasy IV)
The Eidolons play a huge role in the story of Final Fantasy IV. Rydia is given the chance to wield the powers of the strongest Eidolons, such as Asura and Bahamut, but she must defeat them in combat in order to do so.
Not all of the summons in Final Fantasy IV are classed as Eidolons. There are four secret monster summons that requires special item drops in order for Rydia to learn them. It's possible for Rydia to gain summons based on the Bomb, Cockatrice, Goblin, and Mind Flayer enemies.
The monster summons are all incredibly weak and not worth your time.
The real reason why they are on this is because of how rare they are to find in the first place. All of the items needed to learn the monster summons will only drop from specific enemies and they only have 0.4% chance of appearing.
Powerful: Golem (Final Fantasy Tactics)
Summoners will have a hard time at the beginning of Final Fantasy Tactics. This is due to how long it takes to cast summon spells and how they only target a fixed area.
It's possible for enemy units to move out of the way while the summoner is still casting the spell. Summons also use up a lot of magic points, which means that you won't be able to cast many of them.
By far the best summon in Final Fantasy Tactics is Golem. This is one that automatically targets every member of your party.
Golem will absorb damage from physical attacks equal to the summoner's maximum hit points.
A lot of the battles in Final Fantasy Tactics involve you fighting groups of archers, knights, and monks who just wail on you with powerful physical attacks. Golem will be your best friend when it comes to surviving these fights.
Worthless: Ark (Final Fantasy IX)
Ark is easily the most powerful summon in Final Fantasy IX.
The problem with Ark is that the steps needed to acquire it also make it redundant.
Dagger can only learn the Ark summon with the help of the Pumice item. The only way to find a complete piece of Pumice is to steal it from Ozma and beat it in battle.
You can also make Pumice from two separate pieces, but you need to defeat Hades first, as his Synthesis shop is the only place where you can synth Pumice.
Hades and Ozma are the two most difficult bosses in Final Fantasy IX. If you can defeat one, then you're almost guaranteed to be strong enough to defeat the other.
What's the point of winning the best summon in the game if you have to defeat the hardest bosses to do it?
Powerful: Ifrit (Dissidia/Dissidia 012)
Dissidia Final Fantasy and its sequel both appeared on the PlayStation Portable. The games pushed the boundaries of the what the handheld PSP could do, but there were still some limitations as to the number of models that could appear on the screen at once.
It's for this reason that the summons in the Dissidia game were little more than drawings that flashed up on the screen when you activated them.
What Ifrit lacked in aesthetics, he made up for in usefulness in the Dissidia games.
Ifrit had the ability to give you a 1.5 times boost to your Bravery score, which could vastly increase the amount of damage you could deal with an attack.
A well-timed used of the manual version of Ifrit could help you win matches quickly, as using the boost after causing a Break could give you enough power to defeat the enemy in a single hit.
Worthless: Kujata (Final Fantasy VII)
The summons in Final Fantasy usually have their powers linked to a specific element, with Ifrit wielding fire, Ramuh controlling lightning, and Shiva using ice.
Kujata (originally known as Kjata) was a summon who used three different elements in its attack-- fire, ice, and lightning. It ends its attack with an earth-shattering stomp, but this doesn't actually add the earth element to the summon.
The problem with Kujata is that it's possible for its attack to be easily rendered inert.
If the enemy is immune to one of the three elements that Kujata uses in its attack, then all of them will fail.
This is also true if the enemy can absorb one of the three elements, as it will absorb all of the damage.
Powerful: Cerberus (Final Fantasy VIII)
The Guardian Forces of Final Fantasy VIII start out as your most powerful weapon in combat... so long as you are willing to sit through the same lengthy cutscenes repeatedly.
The Guardian Forces will become less useful over time, due to how easy it is to pull off Limit Breaks in Final Fantasy VIII. There is one Guardian Force whose power will help you facilitate this quicker.
Cerberus will cast the Double and Triple spells on your party, which will allow them to cast two or three spells in the space of one turn. This can allow you to quickly set up three haste spells and three aura spells.
This combination will have you unleashing a series of devastating Limit Breaks against your opponent, without giving them time to respond.
Worthless: Gilgamesh (Final Fantasy VIII)
Odin is a recurring summon in the Final Fantasy series whose entire gimmick is based around a slim chance of being able to instantly defeat the enemy.
The low probability of Odin's attack actually working means that many players would rather use a more consistent damage dealer instead.
The version of Odin that appears in Final Fantasy VIII is the best, due to the fact that he has a chance of randomly appearing at the start of a battle and ending the fight before it begins.
Odin is destroyed during the story of Final Fantasy VIII and replaced with Gilgamesh, who only has a one in four chance of using Odin's instant destruction attack.
You are more likely to see attacks that deal a lot of damage or an attack that just deals a single point of damage, making Gilgamesh a significant step down from Odin.
Powerful: Ultima (Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire Of The Rift)
Ultima is the name often given to the most powerful spell in each Final Fantasy world. It is also the name of one of the Scions of Ivalice, who are beings of great power which the player can summon into battle.
The party can only summon a Scion a single time in battle in Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift. You need to have a character who is equipped with the corresponding accessory for the Scion and you have to wait until the smash gauge changes to orange.
This is a lot of messing around for a single summon, but Ultima is worth it.
Ultima lifts up her gown and unleashes a beam that will heal the entire party and deal holy damage to the enemy.
Saving Ultima for just the right moment can help you turn the tide of battle, should the enemy currently have the advantage.
Worthless: Whyt (Final Fantasy IV DS)
The version of Final Fantasy IV that was released on the Nintendo DS featured an exclusive Eidolon whose name was Whyt.
Whyt was created in order to show off the gimmicks of the Nintendo DS, which is why you can use the stylus to draw a face for him.
In order to increase Whyt's stats, you had to play one of five dumb minigames, which included answering math questions, holding the touch screen for a specified amount of time, tapping the enemies that are rushing the screen, spinning the stylus around Kain, and a basic shooting game.
These are mobile phone game levels of garbage and necessary if you want to make Whyt viable in combat.
Whyt was removed from the later ports of the Nintendo DS version of Final Fantasy IV and can not be found in the Android, iOS, and PC versions of the game.
Powerful: Knights Of The Round (Final Fantasy VII)
Squaresoft went a little overboard with the length of the summoning animations during the 32-bit era of the Final Fantasy series.
This was due to how much they wanted to show off their skills with the relatively new 3D graphics hardware, which often meant that players would be sat staring at the screen for minutes on end.
Knights of the Round forced the player to watch a two-minute long cutscene.
However, it was well worth it, as only three enemies have the ability to survive a single attack from the thirteen legendary warriors.
It takes a lot of messing around with the chocobo breeding mechanics to reach the island where the Knights of the Round materia is housed, but it's worth it, as it is the most powerful summon in the game.
The Knights will be your best allies when it comes to putting down Emerald and Ruby Weapon... so long as you don't mind watching cutscenes.
Worthless: Ultros (Dissidia/Dissidia 012)
One of the most annoying items that can be unleashed upon you by another player in the Mario Kart series is the Blooper. The Blooper is a squid that will cover your screen with ink and make it difficult for you to see where you are going.
The version of Ultros that appears in Dissidia Final Fantasy and its sequel has a similar effect to the Blooper, except that it only covers the Bravery score of both players.
Ultros' ink barely covers the Bravery scores, which means that you can still make out the numbers.
This means that Ultros is useless compared to every other summon in the game, which can provide bonuses to your abilities or penalties to your enemy. Ultros is little more than an annoyance.
Powerful: Anima (Final Fantasy X)
Knights of the Round was an incredibly powerful summon, but the maximum amount of damage it can do is around thirteen-thousand points.
This pales in comparison to Anima from Final Fantasy X, who can potentially deal over a million points of damage in a single attack.
There are items that you can acquire in Final Fantasy X that allow you to increase the damage limit from 9999 to 99999.
It's also possible for the Aeon summons to perform Overdrives (which are the Limit Breaks of the game) which in Anima's case, allows it to perform a sixteen-hit combo on the enemy.
With the right set-up, it's possible for Anima to deal over a million points of damage using its Overdrive.
This wasn't possible in the original Japanese and North American versions of the game, as a damage cap was placed upon Anima's Overdrive.
Worthless: Eggman (Final Fantasy V)
There is a good chance that you never used the Eggman summon in Final Fantasy V as it can only be seen in a very specific way.
In order to summon Eggman, you need to keep using the Magic Lamp item until it will only summon Chocobo.
Once you have summoned Chocobo twenty times, then you will finally summon Eggman into combat. So what does Eggman do? Nothing.
Eggman complains that it can't reach the enemy and that's all. You can't even physically see Eggman without hacking the Japanese version of the game.
Eggman was actually the star of his own series of games that were developed by Squaresoft. His inclusion was likely just a nod to another franchise, but it serves no other purpose within the game.
Powerful: Yojimbo (Final Fantasy X)
Anima can deal the most damage out of any of the Aeons in Final Fantasy X, but it takes a lot of work to get to that point.
There is another way to quickly slay your enemies using the power of an Aeon, so long as you are willing to pay the price.
Yojimbo is the favorite summon of save-scummers across the world. If you give him enough money, then there is a chance that he will instantly destroy the enemy.
This attack will work on any enemy in the game (save for the end boss) which includes the mighty post-story bosses, such as the Dark Aeons and Penance.
The presence of Yojimbo makes even the most difficult boss battles a breeze, so long as have plenty of cash to give to him. If that doesn't work, then you can always keep reloading your save until it does.
Worthless: Crusader (Final Fantasy VI)
Crusader is the name of the most powerful summon in Final Fantasy VI.
There was originally a misconception that Crusader was a precursor to Knights of the Round from Final Fantasy VII, but it was later revealed that the three beings that make up the Crusader Esper are actually manifestations of the Warring Triad, which are three gods that are important to the story of the game.
The reason why Crusader is so bad is that it deals a ton of damage... to everyone on the field.
There is a good chance that Crusader will massacre your entire party in a single attack. The only safe way to use Crusader is by making sure the Reraise spell is cast on the party, but that takes far more work than just using regular attacks to damage your enemy.
Why go through so much to make sure you will survive Crusader when you can just use the other Espers who won't destroy you when they are summoned to the field?
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What do you think? What is the most powerful or weakest Final Fantasy summon? Let us know in the comments!