Broken Tradition

[Wolf Kanno]

I just realized that XV broke an FF tradition that has been around since FFIV. It didn't introduce a new summon that was a former FF boss in a previous game.

IV - Mindflayer
V - Golem
VI - Siren
VII - Typhon
VIII -Brothers, Gilgamesh, and Cerberus
IX - Atmos
X - Magus Sisters ( technically Yojimbo as well)
XI - Garuda
XII - Half the Lucavi, but if that doesn't count then Chaos, Zeromus, and Exodus.
XIII - Hecatoncheir
XIV - Technically there are quite a few in story mode, but none of them are playable yet... so technically XIV broke the tradition first but I figure with enough time one of them will be gameplay ready. Money is on Enkidu

All of XV's summons are ones used before and the only boss one is a loan from XI and XIV. This disappoints me a bit because I always thought this was a clever idea by the developers and helps make some famous and not-so-famous bosses shine in the series.

[Fynn]

Interesting. Never noticed that pattern. Is this confirmed as deliberate?

[Wolf Kanno]

Not that I'm aware of, but considering we've had a minimum of ten entries do so makes me feel like someone over there was doing this on purpose.

[Lord Golbez]

I still count Doomtrain as one of these no matter what anyone says.

[qwertysaur]

For XII you can also count Mateus, as a combination of first appearing as a Totema in Tactics Advance, as well as being a reference to the Emperor from FF II.

Tactics also has Salamander and Lich as summons.

[Fynn]

Also, let’s be fair, the Garuda we get to summon in XV is not the same Garuda as XIV. XV also just have very few summons, so the majority of previous summons are not represented. It’s just the classics. Plus Garuda. And she’s annoying since once you do the FFXIV event, it’s like Garuda gets summoned every single time when I just want to see the other Astrals.

[Wolf Kanno]

Yeah but Garuda isn't new though. We've had Garuda as a summon before. Even FFX had a small summon list and managed to squeak in a boss and major enemy as summons. XV should have given us Materia Keeper or Elynol as a summon.

[Lord Golbez]

Materia Keeper? If they use one from FFVII, it should be the Midgar Zolom.

[Wolf Kanno]

Midar Zolom was already a summon in VI. One of the rare cases of a reversal of this trend. Aps and Rapps would be an interesting pair of summons.

[cheesesteak]

Doesn't FF15 break the tradition of the main menu music, too?

[Wolf Kanno]

If you're talking about Prelude being featured, then that tradition was broken for awhile. Unless you're talking about something else.

[Fynn]

Let’s see. We haven’t really had prelude as the title theme since... FFVII I guess? FFVIII if you count the prelude playing in the credits. But yeah, from then on each game has had a different title theme

[Vyk]

See, now if people persist on getting mad that any new Final Fantasy title isn't traditional enough, or "not my FF", then this is the sort of material I can get behind them arguing about lol Weird that it's never been the subject of discussion before now that you mention it

[cheesesteak]

Let’s see. We haven’t really had prelude as the title theme since... FFVII I guess? FFVIII if you count the prelude playing in the credits. But yeah, from then on each game has had a different title theme

Wow, I hadn't even remembered for those other pre-XV games. I wonder why I only noticed in XV, or maybe it only bothered me now as an old man and not back when I played the other games (tho I do remember not liking it being in XIV's main menu, but was in character select, which is basically the proxy main menu).

[Christmas]

TBH, the summons are barely summon. I can't really summon them at will.