Summon

File:Stitch.jpg

Stitch, one of the Summonable characters from Kingdom Hearts II.

A Summon is a special character that can be magically called on to aid Sora in the Kingdom Hearts series. They have been present in Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Kingdom Hearts II, and Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep although the mechanics of using them differ from game to game.

Game Differences

File:FairyGodMother.jpg

The Fairy Godmother helps Sora unlock four of the Summons in the original Kingdom Hearts.

Kingdom Hearts

In the original Kingdom Hearts, most of the summons are obtained by finding special gems called "Summon Gems" in various worlds. The gems can then be given to the Fairy Godmother, staying at Merlin's House in Traverse Town; she uses her magic to restore their spirit forms and release their powers, thus making the summon creatures available. All of these summons are victims of the Heartless' quest to destroy the worlds. As explained by the Fairy Godmother, the summon gems are the crystallized forms of strong, good-hearted denizens that did not fall victim to the darkness during the destruction of their worlds, and so are able to be called into battle for a limited time.

Two summons, Genie and Tinker Bell, are allies from worlds Sora has visited, and join him of their own free will upon locking the Keyhole of their world. They do not need to be released by the Fairy Godmother before they can be used.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories

In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories there are Summon Cards that Sora obtains during his ascend in Castle Oblivion. Some Magic Cards enable Sora to perform summons. These cards are created from Sora's memories, so the summons are the same ones from Kingdom Hearts, with the addition of Cloud. They also differ in how they play out for example Cloud if you use one card will use a normal slash two Cloud clards make a Cross slash and three make an Omni Slash. So if three summon cards are put together they make a stronger power much like magic and friend cards. Sora is unable to activate cards while the summon is active though opposite of Enemy Cards.

Kingdom Hearts II

In Kingdom Hearts II, summons come from special charms found scattered throughout the worlds, which Sora can immediately use without having to unlock them. The charms from Kingdom Hearts II work differently than the summon gems from Kingdom Hearts. While most of the summon spells on the first game gave a temporary body to the soul contained within the gem, the charm actually teleports the summonable character directly from their world.

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep

Summons have recently been announced to be part of gameplay in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. How summons are acquired is still unknown.

Summon Mechanics

Kingdom Hearts

The Summon menu in Kingdom Hearts is located within the Magic menu during battle. Each summon requires a specific amount of MP to be performed, and the summon lasts until its MP bar is fully consumed (or until the player dismissed it manually). In order to perform a summon the player needs to have two friends in the battle with and they both must be conscious. This means that Sora cannot perform summons during battles he is fighting alone, or when one or both of his allies are knocked unconscious.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories

In Chain of Memories, once Sora plays that specific summon's card, the summoned character will appear, perform one or more attacks/actions (depending on the amount of cards stocked) and immediately disappear.

Kingdom Hearts II

The Summon menu was given its own area in the Command Menu in Kingdom Hearts II because of the inclusion of a second menu that could be accessed during battle. In addition, Kingdom Hearts II summons no longer require MP to be summoned; they now use the Drive Gauge to count down their time instead, and again the player must have two friends in battle in order to perform a summon.

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep

To use a Summon, you must add the it as an attack into your customized deck of attacks and can only use it when your D-Link (or Dimension Link) gauge is full. The D-Link gauge is blue and next to the HP meter. The gauge is also used in Mode Changes. You fill up your D-Link gauge by obtaining dropped blue prizes from enemies like obtaining Drive Orbs to fill your Drive Gauge in Kingdom Hearts II.

Once you have summoned a character, it changes the Command Menu gauge that is also used for Mode Changes to show how long the Summon stays on the field and the face of the companion you’ve linked to will show up on the bottom right of the screen. By linking to them you will get more powerful, and be able to use unique Finish moves which have two different power up levels.

List of Summons

File:Bbssummon.jpg

Experiment 626 summon in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep

Kingdom Hearts

• Simba: From the Earthshine Gem obtained from Leon during the second visit to Traverse Town.
• Genie: Genie joins the party after sealing Agrabah's Keyhole.
• Dumbo: From the Watergleam Gem found inside Monstro.
• Bambi: From the Naturespark Gem obtained after returning the first set of pages to Pooh's book.
• Tinker Bell: She joins the party after sealing Neverland's Keyhole.
• Mushu: From the Fireglow Gem obtained after defeating Maleficent in her Dragon form.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories

• Simba: Leon gives Sora the Simba Card after he completes his tutorial.
• Genie: Genie gives Sora the Genie Card after he completes the Agrabah floor.
• Cloud: Cloud gives Sora the Cloud Card after he completes the Olympus Coliseum floor.
• Tinker Bell: Tinker Bell gives Sora her Tinker Bell Card after he completes the Neverland floor.
• Dumbo: Sora obtains the Dumbo Card after he completes the Monstro floor.
• Mushu: The Mushu Card is located in a chest in the Key to Rewards Room on the Hollow Bastion floor.
• Bambi: Sora obtains the Bambi Card after completing the 100 Acre Wood floor.

Kingdom Hearts II

• Chicken Little: Merlin gives Sora and co. the Baseball Charm after he tells them about Pooh's book.
• Genie: Genie gives Sora the Lamp Charm after his first visit to Agrabah.
• Stitch: The Ukulele Charm is placed in a chest in Ansem's Study during the second visit to Hollow Bastion. Its chest only appears after Sora and the others return from Space Paranoids to find the password to the dataspace.
• Peter Pan and Tinker Bell: The Feather Charm is in a chest in the Ship Graveyard during the second visit to Port Royal.

Gallery

• BBSSummon2.jpg

  V Jump scan explaining the mechanics of Summoning in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep.

Trivia

• In the series, all summons have been Disney characters, with the exception of Cloud in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories.

• Genie and Tinker Bell are the only characters to appear as Summons in all three of the main games.

• Peter Pan and Simba are the only characters to appear as Summons and Party Members in the main games.

• Mushu is a Summon in the first game, but becomes a secondary character in Kingdom Hearts II.

• The ultimate Summon from the Final Fantasy video game series, Bahamut, was intended to be included Kingdom Hearts, but was cut before the final release. Through hacking, it is possible to gain a "Bahamut" option in the Summon menu; however, it is an incomplete summon, and therefore will freeze the game if selected.

• The main purpose of the Summons were to add in any extra Disney Movies that weren't already represented by a World.