Summoners

[Pumpkin]

I enjoy a lot of the plots involving summoners so I'm fine with it staying.

I do not actually like summoner job classes very much BUT I love summons themselves. Heck, if there was a Final Fantasy game where the characters are some of the classic summons and you play as them (pls make this Square) I would buy the heck out of that game and play it all of the time.

Also, some of my favorite characters are summoners, Yuna and Garnet. But yes, when it comes to games like Tactics, I am really not a fan of the summoner roles. I mean I don't hate them but there's a long list of preferred jobs.

[Mercen-X]

I would love to see a Persona styled summoner though. 'Twould be awesome. You can only set one monster to actually Summon, but which one you chose determined your spells and abilities. So you set Shiva to yourself, and it turns you into an Ice Mage, etc.

Maybe summoning would transform you into the summon (gender would be character-dependent and the default weapon would remain as the primary means of attack), elemental or debuff-based attacks and spells becoming part of your repertoire and you would also attain specialized defenses. Going again with Shiva as an example and suggesting your character normally wields a sword, you sword-attack would be ice-based, you would have access to ice magic and a certain level of immunity to ice magic (and frozen status if it appears in the game). If the summon was Carbuncle, you would have access to buff spells and your attacks would deal random buffs like barrier and haste while, if Malboro (I know, it's never been a summon but I've often thought it should), attacks would deal poison, and you would have access Bad Breath.

[Loony BoB]

I never really bothered much with summons. They were alright in VII and VIII because they were just strong magic for the most part. Other than that... barely touch 'em. And even with VII and VIII after a while they become fairly pointless.

[Kalevala]

Summoners are useful in that they allow for mythological references, I guess. Which... is probably not that essential to most players. It's something I've always appreciated, though.

As far as their role plot-wise, I could take them or leave them. As long as it doesn't feel shoehorned. I would like to see them change it up a bit, though. Maybe play with our expectations a bit.

[Jiro]

I think that in job-based games, summoners cop a raw deal, but it has been elevated a few times, yeah. Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of the class, but the summons themselves I do not have a problem with. They can be important plot elements; it's always nice to have a little bit of mystery.