Summon Magic



Summon Magic is basically the ability to call on a magical, often mythological entity without the hassle of actually having it follow you around.

In most Eastern Role Playing Games, one of the most powerful means of blowing the crap out of your enemies, aside from a Limit Break, is to call some powerful mythological beast to lay the holy (or unholy) smackdown for you. A powerful spell that, for all intents and purposes, works just like any other attack spell, only with lots of (often superfluous) eye candy thrown in. Typically, one or more powerful creatures will make a flashy entrance, perform an attack (causing as much destruction as possible), and then leave. The summon may be a Limit Break or have some other restriction in order to compensate for its power.

Summons will occasionally require you to defeat them before you can use their power. In franchises, especially non-linear ones, the summoned creatures will usually remain the same across all installments, such as in the Final Fantasy and Tales (series).

These have a very high probability of being called "shô´kanjû" / "召喚獣" ("Summoned Beasts") in Japan; in translations released for the west, more individual names (Espers, Bestia) may be substituted

Note that in most Western Role Playing Games, summon spells are of the "instant ally" variety, as in the Tabletop RPGs they're modeled after: Beings summoned are much weaker than those in Eastern RPGs, but stay in the battle as fully commandable NPCs (at least for a few minutes) instead of delivering a one-shot proxy attack and vanishing. Necromancers and Demon-summoners, both who usually use a form of Hermetic Magic, fit this subset of the trope. The Japanese form of such spirits are shikigami.

"Killing" a Summon may result in its actual dying, both it and the summoner dying or just being sent back to its home until the Summoner can summon it again. Compare Mon. See also Inconvenient Summons for when the summoned is not happy to be interrupted.

It is not necessarily always 'magical' in some cases it can be an inborn superpower, a psychic ability (teleporting allies to you for example), or even from an item you hold in order to call upon the 'summoned' thing.

See also Summoning Ritual, for the more dangerous form of this kind of magic.

Anime

 * Summoning jutsu in Naruto require the user to make a pact with the creatures he summons, and are actually explained as a type of teleportation that is also used on inanimate objects to create a Hyperspace Arsenal (and the same branch of ninjutsu used to flat-out manipulate time and space). One particularly inventive ninja created a technique to "summon" himself to other places (special seal which he put on kunai to be specific) as a way of traveling quickly.
 * In chapter 409, Naruto gets "reverse-summoned" (which itself sees some more use later on) to Myobokuzan by one of his own summons, who is lounging there with other frog summons. It seems as though they hang out in very remote places that may or may not be in the same reality, much like the faerie realms in many novels.
 * In the same chapter, Fukusaku says that Myobokuzan is "a month's journey from Konoha on foot". So the summons live in distant areas of the Ninja Continent, not in their own pocket realities.
 * is capable of summoning her own teammates to her current location. This was once used to hide their numbers while on an infiltration mission.
 * Humans can also be summoned as proven early on during the Forest of Death section of the Chunin exams. The scrolls the teams had to gather summoned higher ranking Ninja telling them they passed if they did it right (having at least one of each scroll) and rendered them unconscious if they opened them otherwise.
 * Referred to as 'Stellar Spirits in Fairy Tail, and Stellar Spirit mages are summon them with 'Keys'. Also summons can change appearance depending on the owner  but always have the same personality. A few don't distinguish friend from foe, or do so in a perverted fashion...so far Lucy is the only one of note, minus one other who plays into  's backstory.
 * also turns out to be a Stellar Spirit mage,.
 * Inverted by Caprico, a.k.a  who can summon.
 * Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Striker S introduced Summon Magic to the franchise along with two summoners: Caro, who can summon dragons, and Lutecia, who can summon insect-like creatures.
 * The CHILDs in Mai-HiME are of the Western school of summoning. Once they're summoned, they stay on the battlefield until they are destroyed or their summoner willfully dematerializes them. Some can even be given vocal commands (Natsuki does this frequently when readying her ultimate attacks).
 * Persona Trinity Soul, to no one's great surprise - considering that it is set in the same Verse as Persona 3, mentioned below. The personas seem to be of a more permanent nature here, even surrounding their owner like a translucent suit of armour and enabling flight, and the evokers have been removed.
 * Fong-Fong from Rosario + Vampire has the power to summon various monsters to aid him in battle. Unfortunately, he hasn't mastered it, so he only gets a random monster.
 * His father, on the other hand, seems to have mastered this power.
 * All demons in Mahou Sensei Negima seem to require a summoning to be anywhere. They stay around till their task is complete, to which they then leave in a poof of smoke. Demon slayers are required to end their summoning by defeating them before they can complete their task (usually killing). Most higher level demons don't bother for pride's sake, but demons do act on free will to meddle in human affairs, which appears to be the only time slayers and exorcists will outright kill them. However, they only ever organize when utilized by humans. Is per Rule Magic, the amount and quality of demons summoned is directly linked to a summoner's skill or raw power.
 * Ga-Rei has, well, Ga-Rei, AKA the inugami Byakuei. There's also Ranguren, a chimera, and Kurofoudo, a giant electric eel.
 * Magic Knight Rayearth's Ascot, who thinks of his summoned beasts as his only friends—mostly because everyone else ran in fright of him when he summoned something—but doesn't hesitate to sic them on his enemies, at which point they tend to get killed. Clef can also summon great beasts, although he uses them more as vehicles than enforcers.
 * Guru Guru magic in Mahoujin Guru Guru summons monsters through magic circles. Properly performed Guru Guru spells summon anything from blasts of fire to lightning throwing demons to bad luck fairies to houses. Improperly performed Guru Guru magics summon something utterly random.
 * Final Fantasy Unlimited, an anime loosely based on the Final Fantasy series, has a character who uses a magic gun to summon monsters.
 * Umineko no Naku Koro ni: Just about all "furniture" (Think where summons and servants collide) uses this trope. At least, in the mansion. Given that the meta-world appears to be where all the magical stuff lives (at least at this point in time), anyone magical can pop up at any time.
 * Guardian ARM in MAR. They're accessories or weapons that turn into giant creatures and kick ass.
 * In There, Beyond the Beyond, magicians are sometimes seen making use of summoning magic as the article describes, but the main plot stresses the use of magic to summon flowers from the Beyond, which are permanent beings that can grant wishes, perform miracles, and enhance magical powers.
 * Shamans in Record of Lodoss War can summon elemental spirits to fight for them. Deedlit the Elf, one of the main characters, often summons a water-spirit named Undine and an air-spirit named Djinn. Her Evil Counterpart, Astar the Dark Elf, summons Behemoth, an earth-spirit, to fight her.
 * England in Axis Powers Hetalia tried to summon a demon. He accidently summoned Russia instead.
 * Rental Magica has Adilicia, a heir apparent of a magic schoool in Solomon's tradition who prefers this part. If she uses magic, it's going to be "summon demon"—or occasionally "summon angel".
 * Hotarubi from Basilisk can distract her enemies by summoning a swarm of butterflies so large it completely blocks their eyesight.

Film

 * In Big Trouble in Little China, the Big Bad and Mentor wizards duel by conjuring up huge glowing spirit-warriors that exchange sword blows.
 * In The Smurfs, Gargamel sends a moth to summon eagles so that he could escape Rikers Island in New York City. Instead, he gets a swarm of flies that help him escape.

Literature
"What do you see, oh serpent of Set? Whom do you call from the gulfs of the Night? Whose shadow falls on the waning Light? Call him to me, oh serpent of Set!"
 * In Second Apocalypse the character Iyokus is specialized in demon summoning.
 * In Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series, The Horn of Valere is used to summon heroes of legend from every age of history to kick ass on behalf of whoever blows the horn.
 * The Dresden Files. Several evil sorcerers summon demons to help them fight. When a demon is summoned, that's only its vessel. If destroyed, then whoever summoned it can make a new one easily. It's very difficult to permanently kill one, but one way to make it easier is to use a magical holy sword.
 * Inferno by Dante. As the narrator is impeded in his journey towards the next circle of Hell by a malicious demon, an angel comes out of the freaking sky for no reason, commands that he be let through, and vanishes.
 * Unsurprisingly, the source material of the Mega Ten series, Digital Devil Story, features summoning via the Demon Summoning Program.
 * In The Bartimaeus Trilogy the ability to summon, control, and torment demons is the only thing magicians can do. However, because this essentially gives them command of all the magic that the demons can do, they don't feel the loss that badly. However, it's also somewhat cumbersome, as the demons wish to kill their masters and will twist their commands if they can get away with it, and summoning them can be time consuming and must be done perfectly. The magicians try to conceal this weakness by commanding invisible demons to perform feats of magic, and can also have demons "seal" spells into objects that they can activate without the demon's aid later, so if someone doesn't know the trick it appears that magicians have magical powers in addition to commanding mighty demons.
 * There are indications that there is another magic, seen with the golem in the second book. The magic of earth and shadow that powers it is antithetical to demons, it was created by a man who did not appear to be a magician, and who was putting a lot of himself into it. However, summoning and controlling demons is presumably a easier and actually less damaging to your health than golem making, and no other spells are mentioned that use it.
 * Conan the Barbarian: In The Phoenix on the Sword, Thoth-amon's Ring of Power gives him this power.


 * The warlocks from Ian Tregillis' Bitter Seeds had no power of their own but could summon Eidolons to do their bidding. Eidolons however cannot be commanded, only bargained with.

Live Action TV

 * Andrew, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, summoned powerful demons to battle Buffy.
 * The titular character on Merlin has this. As a Dragonlord, he can summon and command the dragon by calling to it, and it was bound to obey him.

Tabletop Games

 * This is how Daemons of Chaos are brought into battle in both Warhammer 40000 and Dawn of War.
 * Dungeons and Dragons errs on the side of game balance in regards to summoning magic (a subset of the "conjuration" school of magic). All casters have some form of summoning magic, at all levels of casting, but the creatures summoned aren't all-powerful. They do, however, fight right alongside everyone else in combat, meaning nobody has to step out for the summon to take their place. There are also the Planar Binding and Planar Ally spells, which call forth an exceptionally powerful creature, by force or bargaining respectively. And at the highest end of things, there are a handful of spells that take quite a lot of time to cast, but conclude with the caster summoning his own private squad of powerful, loyal monsters.
 * One of the most powerful conjuration spells is Gate, which simply makes the monster (such as a powerful demon, archangel, titan, or god) be here...and says nothing about its attitude toward the caster.
 * Then there's the Planar Exchange spell, which switches the caster with an extraplanar being, zips him up in a pocket space, and allows him to remotely control the summon and use its senses - effectively being replaced by that creature for the duration, as in FFX.
 * As a spin-off of D&D, Pathfinder has the same exact spells for summoning creatures. In addition, a core class, the Summoner, focuses exclusively on summon magic. In addition to having lots of Summon Monster spells at his disposal, the Summoner also has an Eidolon, which is basically a Mon that he can call upon or dismiss at will.
 * In Magic: The Gathering all creature cards are actually spells that call them forth to fight in the duels.
 * Some even work in the Eastern fashion, as one-shot super-monsters. Ball Lightning is the canonical example of a very large, very damaging, very brief red summon.
 * Lorwyn's Evoke mechanic was an explicit attempt to invoke the Eastern style. A creature could be summoned, bringing with it an additional effect, or, for much cheaper, summoned very briefly for the effect alone before it vanishes into the Graveyard.
 * Of course, summoning is the primary way to beat your opponent, though it is possible to Kill It with Fire.
 * In Mage: The Awakening and Werewolf: The Forsaken, it is possible to summon spirits from the Shadow, though they are by no means obligated to serve the summoner (without additional magics or rituals, at least) and can often quite hostile. The Mage Sourcebook Summoners has details for summoning other beings, including cryptids (weird terrestrial mutants, such as Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster), chtonians (beings which inhabit the Underworld which cannot be reliably said to have ever been alive), Abyssal beings and even the denizons of the Supernal Realms. The last two are noted to be very hard to summon, quite difficult to control, and extremely dangerous.
 * Changeling: The Lost also has a minor bend into summoning with the higher levels of the Contracts of Communion, which allow you to summon a guardian made of the Contract's chosen element and bind it to serve your purpose.
 * Summon Magic is rare in Deadlands, and where it is present, it runs toward the dark, soul-devouring end of things. Shamans might be able to summon and bind nature spirits (the spirits don't like this), but the best summoners are.
 * GURPS severely limits the effectiveness of this. It takes a lot of energy, requires thirty seconds to perform the needed ritual, won't always cooperate and sometimes takes several minutes to appear once the summoning ritual is finished. Nonetheless, a sufficiently powerful necromancer could try to summon the assistance of Satan for a full hour.
 * That's using the basic GURPS Magic rules. An alternative method is to build the summoned creatures as an Ally with the "Summoning" enhancement.
 * One of the major cornerstones of Sorcery in Exalted is the Summon [X]th Circle Demon spell. It allows you to call up a demon from Malfeas and challenge it to a test of wills; if you win, it's bound to serve you until its chosen task is completed or for a year and a day, whichever comes first. If you lose, however, the results can be...messy. There are somewhat safer spells, such as Summon Elemental, and Necromancy has its own equivalents (such as Summon Ghost).

Video Games

 * Amea
 * One of the first examples is Rydia from Final Fantasy IV; while summoners were actually introduced in the previous game, Rydia brought attention to the job. Since then, Summon Magic in some shape or form has been a staple of the Final Fantasy series. In some cases the summoned beings even play a role in the plot (hello Bahamut).
 * In Final Fantasy VI, the summoned beasts, or Espers, drove the entire plot of the game. They weren't even summoned creatures in the usual sense until about an eighth of the way into the game, where they started dying and turning into Magicite. Even before that, pretty much every plot point was based on them: They hold the lost art of Magic, the Evil Empire is draining their powers to become all-powerful, the Mysterious Waif is, and their world contains the resting place of the Gods of Magic. For all their plot-importance though, the actual summoning aspect is arguably the weakest it's ever been in a Final Fantasy game. You can only equip one summon per party member, and you can only summon them once per battle, unless someone mimics the summoner. True, the summoning effects are still quite powerful, and holding the Magicite alone teaches magic, but they're no longer the bane of all enemies, like they were in IV. Though that's Justified because Magicite is actually the remains of a dead Esper. All you're doing is summoning some shadow of their former self.
 * Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy XII were unusual in that they went with a variety of the Western trope, having them replace everyone on the team but the summoner and fight like a party member.
 * It's worth noting that Espers in XII tend to be best used solely for their limit breaks, as a full party of three is much more versatile and can potentially do more damage than the Espers' own attacks, given the damage cap. This leads to something similar to the first kind, as the Espers unsummon themselves right after said limit breaks.
 * Also of particular note is Yuna's emergence as a playable character in Dissidia 012 Duodecim, summon abilities and all. Why is this noteworthy, you might ask? Well, the Dissidia games are Mascot Fighters, and all of Yuna's attacks are carried out by one (or two at once, if in her Super Mode) of the five Aeons that she obtained in her pilgrimage (sidequests not included) in FFX.
 * Final Fantasy XI summons are even more Western in battle application, making the summon a variety of 'pet' that costs Mana to summon, to keep summoned, and to use its powers. In a doubly dissonant subversion, conflicting both with their storyline role and their traditional usage in the Final Fantasy series, summons' attacks are actually fairly weak unless you use your desperation ability or reach level 70...out of 75.
 * Final Fantasy XIII has these, but they can transform into vehicles. Each character has their own summon (Odin, Shiva, Bahamut, Alexander, Hecatoncheir and Brynhildr to Lightning, Snow, Fang, Hope, Vanille and Sazh respectively) because of their status as l'Cie.
 * Final Fantasy Tactics Advance has not only the traditional Summoner job, but also an additional ability called the Totema, which were meant to represent each of the races within Ivalice. The Totema targeted all the enemy units, and two of them only targeted MP, while the other three targeted HP. But you could only use them when a unit has ten Judge Points, no less.
 * Final Fantasy VIII takes it a step further, with the entire combat system being built around your summoned creatures, called Guardian Forces. The main characters defeat Guardian Forces and thus earn their friendship and support, and "junction" these Guardian Forces. The GFs then grant them various powers, such as the ability to use magic, summon them, use special abilities, or junction magic to their physical stats to make them tougher, stronger, more powerful with magic, etc. This also has some important plot relevance, as a side effect of junctioning Guardian Forces is
 * This is the entire magic system in Flight-Plan's Summon Night series. The stones that allow you to summon act more like spellbooks in that they need to be equipped and each has a set of available abilities that a particular summon can do. Most are the Eastern variant, coming out to deal/heal damage or possess units (as buffs/debuffs). A few also follow the Western variant as they can also be summoned into units, giving the summoner an instant ally. However, doing so denies the use of said summon for any its other skills until it is recalled. If it falls in battle, all the abilities of said summon are unavailable for the rest of the battle. Summon Night 4 did allowed the player to use a summon's skills while it is out on the battlefield as a unit. It hangs a lampshade on this by having said summon teleport from its current location to pull out the attack, and then teleporting back.
 * In League of Legends, you take the role of a summoner. An anonymous character who calls into battle (or summons) a champion, whom which you control to battle other summoners to win EXP and IP or influence points, to unlock champions.
 * The Pain Rings in Black Matrix 00, another game by Flight-Plan, also follows the Eastern version.
 * Romancing SaGa does this also; but summoning elementals, to really summon the very powerful monsters you need special items to do so.
 * Frequently occurs in the Tales (series) as well, starting with the first game, Tales of Phantasia.
 * Tales of Eternia, the second game to use Summons, ratcheted up the pace of the battle in every way, including making all spells take place in real time...except summoning the Greater Craymels. But then, it also switched the summons from being just another kind of spells (as Klarth used) to being a sort of magical Limit Break charged up by repeatedly using the proper element of spells. (Anyone who's played the game enough knows how often you get to summon Undine, whose domain contains both water and healing spells.)
 * Tales of Vesperia (360) has the basic four Spirits from the series, but doesn't let you summon them in-game. Tales of Vesperia (PlayStation 3) totally makes up for it by giving Estelle a Mystic Arte that summons all four of them at once.
 * Pascal in Tales of Graces can summon the spirits Grim Sylphie (wind), Cyan Deem (water) and Blood Flamme (fire).
 * Sheena from Tales of Symphonia is a Ninja who can form pacts with each of the 8 elemental spirits, (Fire, Water, Ice, Earth, Light, Darkness, Wind, Lightning), and 2 other extremely powerful Non-Elemental ones after defeating them in battle. While these summons are incredibly powerful, they are somewhat impractical since Sheena can only summon while in Overlimit mode.
 * Nippon Ichi games don't use summon magic as a separate type, but the highest-level elemental magic is shown calling forth some massive entity to bring the pain. The later games in the Disgaea series actually have you calling in characters from Makai Kingdom.
 * Also, in La Pucelle: Tactics, you can summon various elemental beings by doing a Mass Miracle by purifying a circle of Geo Effects. Taken to a silly extreme in the Disgaea series where Priere, having as(/de)cended to become a Demon Overlord, can perform an attack where she causes a Mass Miracle and invokes herself.
 * As of Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten you can now summon anime characters. If you ever wanted to sick Holo or Anime Tenchou on your foes, now's your chance.
 * Master of Magic has creatures that can be summoned in battle AND a large number of creatures that can be summoned outside battle under your permanent control. You can see most of them during a montage in this video.
 * Western trope example: Several Hero units in Warcraft III are capable of summoning beasts, elementals, or demons to aid them in battle.
 * In World of Warcraft the Mage class also has an optional elemental summon. So do Druids, Priests and Shamans with the right talents, although their summons are rather short-lived and can't be controlled as directly. Recent addition Deathknight can call short lived ghouls, while a talent allows them to keep a ghoul as a permanent pet much like a hunter or warlock.
 * All Controllers and Dominators in City of Heroes and City of Villains, with the exception of Mind Controllers/Dominators, can summon a creature that fights for them. Dark Miasma Defenders and Corruptors can also summon the Dark Servant, while Masterminds are entirely built around having a small army of henchmen pets fight for you.
 * Phantasy Star Online also uses a summon-type attack as a Limit Break.
 * I don't know if you'd call this a subversion, but Phantasy Star Universe has something of a thing going on about summon magic in its player communities. CASTs (androids) get their massive artillery pieces teleported from satellites, BEASTs get their nanoblasts where they turn all big, furry, and dangerous, but Humans and Newmans (space elves) get nothing but the ability to wield a comparatively weak type of special weapon. As such, one of the common things posted by the newbies, ignorant that its been said by, and doomed, a thousand newbies before them, is "Wouldn't it be cool if Newmans got summons?". Cue instant storm of flames from more regular players who've heard this one and argued against it so often that it's like some kind of berserk trigger for them (although admittedly, the Phantasy Star setting has Never used summons (excluding MAG photon blasts, I suppose (see above )), and has a good few reasons against them). That and if it's big and summonable, then in Phantasy Star you're probably trying to kill it before it eats your environment control system and makes it spit out a Cute Monster Girl (Of course, that's how we got the Newmans in the first place...).
 * Golden Sun enables you to summon monsters by temporarily using up "Djinn" which are ready on standby. They can be summoned individually for minor attacks, or you can use up a lot of them at once to summon more powerful spirits; either way, they're ready to help again after a few turns of rest.
 * The problem is that while resting or in standby, you lose the stat bonuses the Djinn give. The cycle goes like this: 1) Djinn equipped, grants stat bonuses. 2) Unleash a Djinni, cause a special effect depending on the Djinni, and put it in standby mode. 3) Summon a combination of unleashed Djinn to get spiffy effects and deal major damage. The Djinn rests for a few turns each before being reset and grant bonuses again. If the character has no Djinn set, he or she is usually at almost 50% of normal capability.
 * The formula for Djinn recovery is basically 1 Djinn on the next turn at random. The way it is set up. You can also hasten the process by unleashing a certain djinn to speed up the recovery. However, given the abilities of the set classes, it is actually a lot smarter to use the customized classes rather than summons (except on Dullahan) because although summons are powerful, you are almost guaranteed to survive a good fight with a custom class. If you run out of summons and the enemy is still alive, your chatracters will get killed.
 * However, if you decide to unleash your Djinn to use their special powers (something that might come in handy), you might as well summon with them to do some damage and raise your elemental powers, and allow them to reset themselves on their own, rather than waste turns manually setting the Djinn.
 * Beating most Navis in the Mega Man Battle Network games will get you their NaviChips, which let you summon them to perform an attack. NaviChips come in multiple levels (as many as five in some games), and they always freeze time, making them especially valuable. To keep players from Navi-spamming, there's a limit of five NaviChips per folder (a deck-like structure of thirty chips), but you can increase it in various ways.
 * In the original Mega Man series, Rush, Beat, Eddie, and the only-seen-once Tango probably count. in Mega Man 8, the Unexpected Shmup Level has the possibility of calling them all ('cept Tango).
 * Dungeons and Dragons, and all its computer game adaptations, have plenty of summoning spells...although not all of the beings summoned are going to be instantly cooperative.
 * The D&D-based PC game Planescape: Torment is notable for lacking much in the way of the Western-style ally summons its similarly-based contemporaries feature, but does feature several of the Eastern-style instant-massive-damage summons, especially at very high level, where they're accompanied by spectacular CGI-video animations.
 * In games like Baldur's Gate, summoning creatures is usually an excellent way to rip medium-low level adversaries apart; however, higher level wizards tend to have spells which allow to quickly "banish" the summoned creatures, making them useless.
 * Unless you keep summoning them, in which case they very quickly run out of banishing spells. Alternatively the top level summons such as Planetar or Gate are immune to banishing spells...but totally useless, because they count as "unaligned," so you don't get Experience Points for their kills.
 * Summons were obscenely useful in the first game, since the spells summoned massive numbers of creatures, which included archers. This was noticed, and a limit of five total creature's was imposed in the sequel, as well as most spells calling only one or two at a time.
 * One major quest line in BGII focuses on a bunch of Drow seeking to summon a really powerful Demon, then bargain for its aid once it's arrived since it's too powerful for loyalty clauses in the summoning to work. Fortunately the PC steals the MacGuffin they were planning to use for leverage, with the usual consequences for team Drow.
 * Neverwinter Nights has a number of spells and items that let you summon a convenient ally to your side who'll then follow you around as basically another party member and fight for you until the spell's (generally long) duration runs out, the creature gets killed or banished, or you take your next rest, whichever comes first. Limited by the fact that you can only have one such summoned ally around at a time, although that's in addition to your usual henchman (and familiar or animal companion if your class comes with those).
 * In the Kingdom Hearts games, the summons are Disney characters from other worlds, mostly worlds that don't appear in the game. Some of them change the gameplay temporarily when summoned, like Dumbo, who makes KH's melee combat into a temporary Third-Person Shooter...er, Squirter.
 * All special and magic attacks in Persona 3 are of this variety, as the main characters' special powers (and their combat statistics) are derived from magic demons that are representations of your psyche, created by your mind through Tarot Motifs and summoned on the battlefield...By shooting yourself in the head.
 * Persona 1 and Persona 2 are similar, but without the suicide implications.
 * Nearly the same in Persona 4 (still no suicide implications).
 * Shin Megami Tensei I & II are about summoning demons with a program in your arm computer
 * Castlevania: Circle of the Moon does it with traditional mythological beasts, but Symphony of the Night has fun with it with the "Power of Sire" item, which summons an image of Vlad Tepes Dracula (the real Dracula) to attack.
 * Use the Power of Sire on Dracula himself. laughter and headaches for all!
 * Septerra Core stays firmly in the Eastern Summoning side with its card-based magic system. The Summon card, combined with elemental cards, are basically powered-up versions of normal spells. Combined with other cards, the summon often changes the card's normal effect to straight damage-dealing (with two exceptions: one, a powered-up healing spell, the other causing numerous status effects). All summons conjure beings from the in-game mythology.
 * Summoner employs both, as appropriate for their backgrounds. Monsters clearly based off of Western mythology, such as minotaurs and golems, hang around for a while to knock some heads, while the great dragons you get from the rings hidden in the ancient China-like part of the world do one thing and disappear.
 * And in Summoner 2, the main character actually becomes what she 'summons' for a short period of time.
 * Pokémon are essentially miniature summon beasts.
 * In Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs, you can draw Ranger Signs (not Guardian Signs) to summon Legendary Pokémon.
 * In Drakengard, your party members' pact-partners when summoned function like the Eastern version of this trope, whereas your dragon acts more in line with the Western version.
 * Lost Kingdoms has both Eastern and Western varieties.
 * Some games in the Super Robot Wars series have attacks where A unit summons mechs or weapons that aren't available for normal use (such as supporting characters). For example, Quatre in some games often has his strongest attack summon the Maguanac Corps to fight by his side for one ridiculously unfair beatdown. Super Robot Wars W has a variant with the "Support Request" ability, that allows you to call in a non-deployed character to perform an supporting attack.
 * The characters in the Xbox 360 RPG Blue Dragon have the ability to summon the creature that dwells in each of their shadows (a bat, a phoenix, a minotaur, a tiger, and yes, a blue dragon) to help them fight. This is pretty much the key mechanic of the game.
 * In Legend of Dragoon, the final spell all the character receives is a Dragon summon. However, given that all the magic in this game has extremely over the top destructive effects, this is overkill.
 * Most of the Ultima games have one or more "Summon Creature" spells, ranging from rats to insect swarms to demons. All of them followed the Western example (obviously) by creating them as friendly NPCs that fought until killed or the summoning wore off.
 * In theory, the The Elder Scrolls universe contains evocation magic (under the label of "Conjuration" as of Morrowind). These spells take a creature from somewhere else and bring it in front of the caster under their command. In practice, there are two main types of this:
 * "Creature summoning" takes a creature from somewhere else and brings it in front of the caster, under their control, for a fixed duration of time
 * "Item summoning" combines Summon Magic and spontaneous Item Crafting magic. In Daggerfall there was a spell that could create a type of weapon or armor at a random quality level, from nothing; in Morrowind, not only is there the aforesaid "creature summoning" spells but there is a spell that summons specific quality armor or weapons enchanted with the souls of a summoned creature (Daedric Armor).
 * This is repeated in Oblivion.
 * In Daggerfall, "Atronaches" were golems that were physically constructed and imbued with souls by a mage. The process is never explained but this is most probably a precursor to future "Conjuration" magic.
 * Enchanted weapons can be stolen here and there throughout Arcanum; aside from the usual increase-speed or deal-poison-damage modifiers, some particularly cool weapons have a chance to summon woodland beasties or even the undead. Or a naked halfling.
 * There are a number of spells for summoning temporary allies in the Exile/Avernum series. Before summoning demons, it's necessary to cast another spell to keep them from immediately turning on you.
 * Yukari of Touhou has the superpower of "altering boundaries", allowing her to teleport anything from anywhere to anywhere. During the games, she teleports bullets from one side of the screen to another to confuse the player.
 * This is taken to extremes in the many doujinshis involving her, and in a Crowning Moment of Awesome she once summoned an actual nuclear bomb before teleporting out when she was losing a fight with Yuka.
 * Which Yuuka blocked with her parasol. True, doing to destroyed said parasol, but... (It can be found here)
 * Waste Line "Aimless Journey to the Waste Station"
 * In Diablo II, the Necromancer and Druid characters have a whole list of spells devoted to summoning multiple allies, who are always loyal and fight until killed. The Amazon and Assassin can summon a single powerful ally.
 * Deckard of Lufia The Legend Returns is a benevolent pirate whose most powerful attacks are "White Whale" and "Sea God". Betcha can't guess what they do.
 * In Aion, Spiritmasters are exactly what you'd think they are - casters who specialize in taming Elemental Spirits of Water, Fire, Air, Fire and race-specific combination - Magma (Earth + Fire) or Tempest (Air + Water). Each one has a role varying from tanking, melee combat and aggro building, or simply DPS, melee or ranged. Spiritmasters use also special skills called Commands to make Spirit deal more damage, Crash or Stun the enemy, attract his attention or even suicide in a big explosion.
 * Also, Clerics can summon Divine Servant, which is an immobile ball of energy, aiding the caster in combat by attacking from distance, losing health with each attack.
 * During Fortress Sieges, players attacking the Gate can summon Siege Weapons to help break the first line of defense.
 * The Summon Elements in Chrono Cross are useful not only for sheer damage, but because killing enemies with them makes them drop Shiny materials, needed for Item Crafting the game's strongest weapons. Sadly, they're loaded with drawbacks: you need to have the entire field in their color (which means if you're interrupted after casting All(X Color), you have to start over) and you can only cast so many at a time.
 * In Torchlight every class has a skill tree dedicated to building your personal mook army.
 * Sieg in Chaos Legion has the power to summon Legions, powerful demons that are big as life and twice as nasty. When summoned the Legion usually forms a protective ring around Sieg, attacking of their own accord (Active Mode) or waiting for the player's input (Passive Mode). Sieg cannot run when the Legion's out, but they're a big help when surrounded by lots of enemies (which is most of the time). They can gain experience points and determine what kind of stat boosts and skills Sieg can acquire from them.
 * In Nethack, it can sometimes be a pain to get your pet(s) to follow you around the dungeon. The 'Magic Whistle' will instantaniously bring them to you, even if you're in a room with all the doors closed.
 * Tecmo's Deception allows the player character to call up monsters to either attack or daze enemies by using crystals known as Block Orbs. But first, the monsters themselves must be constructed from the remains of invaders (for instance, a Zombie is created from a Soldier, a Cleric, and a Pirate). Monsters also level up as they're used.
 * In Elemental War of Magic, it's possible to summon a wide variety of creatures.
 * In the Star Wars Customizable Card Game, summoning is called "deploying". All cards (except Interrupts and some Epic Events, which are one-shots) are "deployed".
 * Arc the Lad has a share of characters with summon magics such as the titular character, Arc.
 * The Tome of Eternal Darkness allows its bearer to summon Trappers, Zombies, and Horrors with the Tier, Aretak and Pargon runes, as well as one of the Ancients' runes. Just don't waste your time trying to use Mantorok to fuel the spell.
 * Inazuma Eleven has notable skills that summon hands, gaint gigas, and gods out of nowhere to show how powerful the moves are: Majin the Hand, Bakunetsu Storm, God Catch. The other silly yet cool feature involves a student of world-destroying academy summons penguins of all things to attack.
 * In the sequel, summoning is so common it gets its own term: Keshin.
 * The enemy bosses of Akai Katana summon things like battleships, aircraft carriers, swarms of fighter planes, and other things.

Visual Novels

 * The Servants in Fate Stay Night and the related works. You prepare a magic circle, usually made of blood. Optionally, you can add a relic of that hero or specify them as a Berserker. Then they show up, you make a contract for a week or two throughout the Grail War. The Servant stays until either they are defeated or the Grail War ends, at which point the Grail stops helping you supply them with Prana and they go home. Oh, and the magus who summons them generally has absolutely 0 chance of ever being able to beat their Servant in combat, though there are a few exceptions.

Web Original

 * It seems like summoning in Trinton Chronicles works very much like Western style, where the summons stay around as a new character and beat the crap out of whoever, but they aren't magic spells instead being actual supernatural powers to do the summoning although the rules of marking / making a pact with are about the same.
 * Whateley Universe: This is what makes the supervillain Devilmaster so feared. He summons, stores away, and controls all kinds of devils. Then sics them on people.

Webcomics

 * Pai from What's Shakin, is a spirit mage; a type of mage that can gain the powers from the creatures they bind to and are able to summon their spirits in the form of "haints" aka ghosts. Of course...Pai is not able to use these powers yet.
 * Cherry, the oddly Genre Savvy elf from the now-defunct RPG World could summon with magical stones.
 * In Adventurers!!, Ardam could use summon magic as well, though it usually backfired amusingly on him. Also, his Crowning Moment of Awesome hinges on This was thought to be impossible until, in the middle of battle, Ardam figured out how to do it.
 * MS Paint Adventures: Problem Sleuth affectionately parodies the one-shot-attack summon with a strange array of options: Wilford Brimley, Henry Clay, and a trio of blind jazz musicians are a few examples.
 * Done a few times in Sluggy Freelance, all involving spells found in the Book of E-Ville. Most summoned creatures are demons, who are used to grant wishes, seek vengeance, or buy beer. However, at one point Bun-Bun summons the Groundhog's shadow (yes, the one which tries to scare a groundhog every February 2 so there can be six more weeks of winter); the spell goes wrong, and the Living Shadow ends up stuck to Bun-Bun for several years.
 * Summoned creatures in El Goonish Shive are of the instant ally variety. They are dismissed if "killed" (the same critter can be re-summoned and give a report) or the summoner is knocked out.
 * Last Res0rt has a non-magical (sorta) variant of this with the Efreet, specifically Adharia's ally, Sedja (who stays in a bottle around Adharia's neck most of the time, and has so far been "summoned" by shooting her out of a gun that the bottle happens to fit). We haven't seen much of her so far, but her first appearance is a textbook example of this trope.
 * Sedja would've stayed out longer to fight...except White Noise threatened to stuff Addy in the bottle if she didn't put Sedja back first.
 * In Crimson Flag elemental spirits can be channeled through staffs to act as allies. The religion of the Red Reyn bans this type of magic as "spirits are rivals to The Lady."
 * Cerise from Eerie Cuties/Magick Chicks is mostly summoner. She only needed some outside help to make it look cool.

Western Animation

 * This is how the seeker in Huntik Secrets and Seekers get their titans out of their amulets to battle.