Part 17: Episode XIII-2: Summon My Name
Music: Hymn of the Fayth
“Man, was I surprised. And here I was, thinking summoners were all old geezers."
Oh, come now Tidus. This is Final Fantasy. Main character dedicated summoners are always teenage girls or the occasional little kid. Or in one instance, a little kid that magically ages up to be a teenage girl. Final Fantasy: The only series to feature both a girl that looks nine but is really nineteen and one that looks nineteen but is really nine.
Anyway, the whole of Besaid seems pretty stoked that Yuna has become a full fledged summoner and have flocked outside to do her summoning thing. I suppose Tidus ought to follow the crowd...
Tidus heads out of the temple...
Seems Wakka wants Tidus’ attention? What for...?
An awkward man-hug, of course. Wakka is a very friendly guy.
Wakka drags Tidus by his head over to the crowd, shoving several other spectators out of the way in the process...
"I can't see anything!" Wakka unleashes Tidus from his warm embrace...
See this line? Okay. Simple enough line, right? Except when localizing the game, Square demanded that Squaresoft (their American branch) attempt to dub the game adhering to the lip flaps’ movements as closely as possible. Like to the point they had to speed up some line reads in post to make them match. While this becomes an apparent problem in quite a few scenes, it is especially bad any time Yuna has a short affirmation response like “okay” or “yes”.
The Japanese line used in most all these instances, and Yuna has more than a few of such situations, is “hai” (pronounced the same as “hi”.) Which takes all of half a second to say, resulting in a mouth movement lasting about half a second as well. English equivalents like “okay” or even just “yes” take slightly longer to speak normally. As a result, pretty much every time Yuna says such a line, it is said so quick that it sounds less like a word and more like she sneezed awkwardly. Needless to say, it doesn’t sound good. At all.
New Music: The Summoned (Note: I believe this is the only time this track plays in-game. But it also serves as the main menu’s theme.)
”So is she going to like do a song and dance routine or...?”
“Can you stop asking questions for a minute and just watch for a change? Tch... Singing...”
And so using the powers of prayer, Yuna tears the sky asunder...
...summoning forth a beast from the heavens.
One so grand it shits all over the area’s art direction as it is called forth. Seriously, game. There’s supposed to be a mountain path to the south of town. Don’t show camera angles displaying you didn’t bother to render anything beyond the southern border of the map. My immersion!
The summon, or Aeon as this game drew from the Final Fantasy terminology hat this time around, studies its new master.
It seems to find Yuna peculiar. Perhaps because she is one of the only people in Spira that dresses somewhat normally. A white stylized kimono get-up is downright simple next to shit like Wakka or Tidus’ attire.
D’aww. There’s a good little hellspawn giant birdie. I wonder if a summoner ever lost a hand by doing something like this on their first day.
In any case, everyone seems very impressed with Yuna’s new abilities. Also, one somewhat confused villager seems to believe this is tantamount to scoring a touchdown. But what do I know of Spira celebratory practices...?
“Sure, it was a little scary, but still...“ 
”And for one brief instant I wondered... I wondered and I dreamed... If anyone would ever let me ride it...”
“...How frikkin’ SWEET would that be?!”
So, if you cannot guess, Yuna and the rest of her guardians will very shortly be joining our party. As such, her summoned beasts will soon be ours as well.
Keeping that in mind, the game allows us to name the big bird we just saw. While I didn’t want to rename Tidus in the beginning, I guess it cannot hurt to let you jerks name the Aeons we collect throughout the journey. I mean the mythological Valefor is a demon lion with a head of a man (or donkey), so it’s not like its original title is all that apt.
So here’s the deal. I’ll be open to name suggestions. But I’m setting a few guidelines:
- We’ve only got EIGHT spaces to work with here. So no names over eight spaces!
- Suggestions must be BOLDED to make my life easier.
- No naming it dongs or any variations there of.
- No using other summons' names. From this game or previous titles. That's just confusing.
We’ll go with whatever you jerks come to a popular consensus upon or whatever I find most amusing.
Well then, get to it!
Valefor Summoning (Recommended viewing. Summoning is KIND of a big thing in this game...)
Valefor Concept Art