| abstract | - In earlier titles summoned monsters merely appeared to perform a single attack before vanishing. Summoning them costs MP, often more than normal spells, but their attacks tend to be stronger or have effects normal spells cannot duplicate. Starting with Final Fantasy X summoned monsters have acted as temporary party members, able to be called into battle to fight alongside their summoner in place of the rest of the party for a period of time. A recurring theme with summoned monsters is that, to earn their allegiance and the right to summon them, the summoner must best the summoned monster in battle. While this is not universal, and some summons are acquired in other ways, most often the player must adhere to this tradition. Summoned monsters often live in another dimension separate from the human world, and travel between the realms is restricted or frowned upon. In other games, summons seem to possess the ability to transport their enemies into a pocket dimension to do battle in. This is difficult to perceive when the player summons a monster against enemies, but in Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-, the summons Genesis calls to attack Zack teleport Zack into another realm for the fight, Zack returning to the normal world when the summon is defeated. There is no universal rule that governs how long summons can manifest in the normal world, varying from game to game to accommodate different gameplay mechanics. Typically, however, a summoning is only temporary and the summoner eventually dismisses the summoned monster back to its home realm.
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