A list of recurring summons for anyone curious

Personally I'm gonna focus on the ones that I always feel are the most notable. I'm also gonna point out that FFXIV has a massive advantage on almost every other FF when they use a summon because, quite frankly, they give it an entire story with multiple missions for each summon. Needless to say it's hard to compete with. So with that in mind I'll only include them for visuals unless the player can actually summon them meaning I'll limit FFXIV for plot related stuff to Carbuncle, Titan, Garuda, Ifrit, Bahamut, Phoenix. I also don't know/remember much about FFIV and FFXI when it comes to summon relevance, so forgive me for leaving those out.

Alexander: Visuals I'll go with... FFVI. I know, I didn't expect it either. I just think the old school image of Alexander looks better as an entity, while most future versions of it just go a little overboard for my liking. Plot point? Probably FFIX. Alexander never really has much plot because it's more construct than character as far as I'm aware, but the FFIX scene stands out for me.

Bahamut: FFXIV. No question. On all counts! Kudos to FFVII and FFVIII's designs of Bahamut too, I really liked them.

Carbuncle: Visually, FFXIV. Plot? Uhhhh. I honestly can't remember getting a lot of plot stuff for Carbuncle in FFXIV, and the only game that I recall giving Carbuncle any real notable screentime (outside of the never ending in-game Carbuncle merch FFXIV has) would probably be FFXV. I'm not a fan of the FFXV/FFVII Remake Carbuncles. I like my Carbuncles as non-furry alien-like creatures.

Chocobo (and variants): FFVII's ChocoMog was always a favourite of mine, and the Stop magic being included with it at such a low overall MP cost made it a go-to for me in a lot of battles. The Remake's version was good as well, but I prefer the older one in this case for the "solo chocobo" nature of it. As for plot relevance, I mean, I don't even know where to begin. I know the chocobo we summon in FFV probably isn't actually Boko, but for me Boko is the most notable individual chocobo in the series, so let's go with that.

Diabolos: All of them generally look so similar, I've yet to see a design of Diablo/Diablolos that I think doesn't look great. I also can't remember a Diabolos that was majorly plot-relevant off the top of my head, so I'm going to just give this one to "the series" on both counts.

Garuda: Hello and welcome to another episode of FFXIV wins everything.

Gilgamesh: Technically they are all the same character so therefore there is only one winner. Actual in-game plot goes to FFV, obviously, and appearance I'll probably say the FFXIII-2 DLC version of him looks really, really cool. Never saw it before now so it was nice to watch on YouTube.

Golem: FFV for both counts. I don't like overly fancy looking golems, I like them to appear like a bunch of rocks (which Titan seems to be closer to these days).

Ifrit: Hello and welcome to another episode of FFXIV wins everything.

Leviathan: Visually, Leviathan hasn't changed much over the games, so I'll give it to FFXV as the most detailed (and epic) version of him. For plot, I'll actually give it to FFVII. I know it's minor, really, but I really enjoyed the little lore it was given and it felt more authentic than many other Leviathans.

Odin: Gotta give this one to FFXIV for visuals, rather easily too. And that's saying something because all the other ones still look great. For plot, I'm going to say... hmm. FFVIII? I know it's very minor but it felt cool.

Phoenix: FFXVI for visuals and it's not even out yet, but goddam it looks so cool. For story, I think I'll go with FFVII, I enjoyed the Fort Condor stuff, and actually getting to see Phoenix really live up to the name.

Ramuh: Visuall I have to give this one to FFXIV for the hilarious and infamous seductive beard. I don't recall any real good plot points (outside of FFXIV but as mentioned I'm not including this as he isn't actually a summon of the player).

Shiva: Shiva is always hot and always not because puns haha oh god I'll go now okay. But seriously, my favourite designs are probably... FFVII and FFIX.

Titan: One of the few summons in FFXIV that I don't really favour the appearance of, although it's still a cool design (love the lava-veins), I just like the prior designs more (exception: FFIX, so creepy). He wins in FFXIV for plot points, obviously, but the visuals I'm going with either FFXI or perhaps a rare shout for FFXIII, which I felt was interesting.

Thanks for giving me something to do to pass the time, dude xD