Primals and Summons
In A Realm Reborn the Primals are a primary enemy. The land of Eorzea is located on the planet Hydaelyn, which is given life through the ether energy provided by the mother crystal. Beastmen Tribes believe in specific Primals as their deity, and wish to summon the Primals to fight their wars. When a Primal is summoned they feed off of the planets energy, draining the ether from the Mother Crystal. If the Primals are summoned by the Beastmen Tribes the planet itself will be destroyed, and in A Realm Reborn the goal is to prevent that from happening.
By defeating the Primals in A Realm Reborn you can to harness their power in various ways, depending on the method of engagement. Aside from the encounters while progressing through the story, there will also be much harder Primal battles that Free Companies can work towards. When progressing through the story you can obtain some power of the Primals for the new Summoner class that will be available in A Realm Reborn, which uses the power of the Primals in creatures that will fight by your side. By completing the more difficult Primal battles, the entire Free Company will earn the right to summon the full power of the Primal. This form of summon works very similar to the Limit Break system, filling up a gauge through combat and unleashing the huge attack. For comparison, think of the summons from Final Fantasy VII.
“The players will get together in their Free Companies [guilds] and they will fight Ifrit. If they defeat him, they will get the opportunity to summon him once. That Free Company will get to decide where and when to use him. Then Ifrit goes out to another place in the world for other people to go get him, so it’s like this competition between people in the world. This won’t be instanced, this will be public content, so anyone in the world can do it.” Until Ifrit is summoned, no other player group will be able to summon him. When Ifrit is actually brought into a fight it seems like nearly everyone in the server will know, because the skies will turn red. Then once the skies clear, you’ll know Ifrit is again available to defeat and acquire. “The whole world is involved in the summoning of these monsters.”