Not a Final Fantasy player, eh?
Well, generically, the Summoned Beasts are part of a particular style of magic from the games. Instead of casting spells directly, Summoners conjure up godlike entities to attack the enemy for them. This is one blast per spell in most games, but in some of the latter versions the Beasts will actually stick around and fight.
The actual role of the Beasts in the plot varies wildly from game to game--sometimes they're just window dressing, sometimes they're what it's all about. Final Fantasy 6 (3 in America) is the closest we have to providing a coherent origin for them.
There's a "core" set of Summoned Beasts that recur in most every game, and a bunch of one- or two-offs. Each of them has a particular specialty--Ramuh the Sage hits monsters with thunder magic, Shiva is a scantily-clad lady with ice powers, Ifrit a dog-faced, ornately horned demon who unleashes the fires of hell on your opponents, et cetera.
Alexander uses the Holy Judgement attack, smiting your foes with Holy-elemental power (very good against shadowy and undead monsters); he manifests as... well, as a humanoid city, or something. St. Basil's Cathedral with arms. And glowing feathered wings, sometimes.
Here's a picture from FF9 to drool over.
Alexander is standing behind the castle and the crystal spire; the dragon he's confronting is Bahamut, the Dragon King, a fellow Beast who'd been (at that time) taken over by one of the bad guys.
Akane will basically be wearing full plate armor reminiscent of that pic. And she'll have the wings.
--Sam
"Elf finger magic. I hate that."
Well, generically, the Summoned Beasts are part of a particular style of magic from the games. Instead of casting spells directly, Summoners conjure up godlike entities to attack the enemy for them. This is one blast per spell in most games, but in some of the latter versions the Beasts will actually stick around and fight.
The actual role of the Beasts in the plot varies wildly from game to game--sometimes they're just window dressing, sometimes they're what it's all about. Final Fantasy 6 (3 in America) is the closest we have to providing a coherent origin for them.
There's a "core" set of Summoned Beasts that recur in most every game, and a bunch of one- or two-offs. Each of them has a particular specialty--Ramuh the Sage hits monsters with thunder magic, Shiva is a scantily-clad lady with ice powers, Ifrit a dog-faced, ornately horned demon who unleashes the fires of hell on your opponents, et cetera.
Alexander uses the Holy Judgement attack, smiting your foes with Holy-elemental power (very good against shadowy and undead monsters); he manifests as... well, as a humanoid city, or something. St. Basil's Cathedral with arms. And glowing feathered wings, sometimes.
Here's a picture from FF9 to drool over.
Alexander is standing behind the castle and the crystal spire; the dragon he's confronting is Bahamut, the Dragon King, a fellow Beast who'd been (at that time) taken over by one of the bad guys.
Akane will basically be wearing full plate armor reminiscent of that pic. And she'll have the wings.
--Sam
"Elf finger magic. I hate that."