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, and Kingdom Hearts II although the mechanics of using them differ from game to game.
Game Differences
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, as playing or stacking a different number of cards has different results, much like Magic and Friend cards (for example, one Cloud card will use a normal slash, while two make a Cross-slash and three make an Omnislash). However, Sora is unable to activate cards while the summon is active, contrary to 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
In Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, a new form of summon will be featured, known as Dimension Link (shortened "D-Link"). Players can draw power from both non-playable characters or summon one of the three main characters wirelessly from other players to aid them in action. While Cinderella, King Mickey, Zack Fair, Stitch (then known as Experiment 626), Donald Duck and others are known as the non-playable D-Link characters, Terra, Ventus and Aqua are the wireless D-Link characters.
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 him, and they both must be conscious. This means that Sora cannot perform summons during battles he is fighting if he is 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.
List of Summons
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.
Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
- Cinderella
- Snow White
- Zack
- King Mickey
- Experiment 626
- Peter Pan and Tinker Bell
- Donald Duck
- Goofy
- Moogle
- Terra
- Aqua
- Ventus
- Wireless characters
Trivia
- In the series, all summons have been Disney characters, with the exception of Cloud in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories.
- Peter Pan, Simba, and Stitch are the only characters to appear as Summons and Party Members in the main games.
- Mushu and Simba are summons in the first game, but become world-specific party characters 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.
- Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days is the first game in the series not to incorporate any form of summons.
- Dumbo, Bambi and Chicken Little are the only summons whose worlds haven't been present in any games yet.