Final Fantasy magic
Magic is one of the two principal forms of attack in Square Enix's (formerly Square Co., Ltd.) Final Fantasy series of computer role-playing games. Although the specific features of the magic system vary wildly from game to game, many concepts have remained more or less consistent throughout the course of the series. This article is meant to serve as a basic overview of Final Fantasy magic and the most commonly recurring Final Fantasy magic spells. For specific details about the magic system of a particular Final Fantasy title, please see the article on that particular game.
Magic spells can be divided into offensive and defensive. By default, offensive spells are cast against enemies, and defensive against party members. In some games, it is possible to cast defensive spells against the enemy (e.g. Casting Cure against undead enemies) with an offensive effect, or cast offensive spells against a party member. Another category of spells are status spells that alter the status of the target (e.g. Poison, Break, Berserk) rather than effecting HP and/or MP. Within the boundaries of the series, offensive spells are generally classified as Black Magic, and defensive spells are generally classified as White Magic. The distinction between Black and White magic is sometimes not clear, however. The spell Holy, which is classified as White Magic, does a large amount of Holy elemental damage to the target, for example. Spells designed to inflict various status enhancements or ailments are classified as various different types of magic, depending on the effect of the spell. Starting with Final Fantasy V, two new categories of magic, Blue Magic and Time/Space Magic, were introduced. Time/Space Magic incorporated a number of status-inducing spells, offensive and defensive, such as Slow, Haste, and Stop. Blue Magic was a special class of magic used by Blue Mages, and could only be learned from enemy monsters.
Spells can also be divided into elemental spells and non-elemental spells. Elemental magic is associated with a particular element or nature, such as Water, Ice, Fire, Thunder, and Earth. Non-elemental magic is not associated with any particular element.
Monsters and characters may have resistance and/or a vulnerability to certain elements, which can vary from extra damage, reduced damage, no effect, and absorption of the damage to heal the target. The magic resistance of monsters and characters tends to reduce the effect of all magic spells. Certain characters can have an affinity to casting certain elemental spells, such that a fire-based character can cast a stronger fire-based attack than an ice-based character of the same magic level.
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Spell levels
In most Final Fantasy games, certain types of magic are divided into various different power levels. As the player progresses through the game, successively more powerful versions of basic spells become available. The series has developed a naming convention to identify second, third, and fourth level magic spells, which appends a specific suffix to the name of the first level spell. In other words, the name of the second level version of Thunder is determined by appending the second level suffix (-ra) to the spell's name, hence Thundara. The three suffixes are as follows:
- Second level – -ra
- Third level – -ga
- Fourth level – -ja
The fourth level suffix (-ja) is infrequently used: few games in the series feature magic spells with four power levels.
The one exception to this rule is Final Fantasy II, which used a very different magic system from any other game in the series. Spell names in Final Fantasy II were given in katakana, and rather than appending one of the above suffixes to signify a more powerful version of a spell, a simple numerical modifier was added to the end of the name. Every spell in Final Fantasy II could be raised up to level 16.
In early English language localizations of the Final Fantasy series, translators declined to use the above suffixes, using a simple numerical modifier instead. In other words, Firaga would become Fire 3. Starting with Final Fantasy VIII, however, this practice was dropped.
Spells can target individuals or groups. In some cases, targetting a group requires a higher level of a spell, in other cases, the target can be for an individual or a group. When targeting a group, the strength and/or duration of the spell is often less than when targeting an individual.
Items, armor, and weapons
In most games, a collection of items have effects similar to various magic spells. In some cases, items can have different levels, the same as spells. For example, the item Bolt Plume in Final Fantasy VII casts Bolt 2 against all enemies, while Swift Bolt casts Bolt 3 against all enemies. These items can be useful when the character is unable to cast spells normally, possibly due to being afflicted with the status Silence. Most items may be used only once. Some can only be used in battle, while others can only be used from the field menu.
Armor can have elemental properties, generally protecting the wearer from certain elemental attacks. Armor generally has three levels. For the first level, the armor will lessen the effect of an elemental attack. For the second level, the armor will eliminate the effect of the attack. For the third level, the armor will absorb the attack, healing the wearer.
A character can wear a mixture of elemental armor, such as body armor that absorbs Fire, and a helmet that absorbs Thunder.
Some weapons can deal elemental attacks a certain percentage of the time, and/or inflict status effects. In early games in the series, weapons with elemental attack attributes could be accessed from the item list in battle and used to cast certain magic spells. Certain weapons (e.g. Healing Rod) can have restorative powers, although these same weapons would inflict damage on undead targets.
Types of magic
Roughly speaking, magic in the Final Fantasy series can be divided into distinct types: white magic, which heals or otherwise supports party members, black magic, which is used to attack enemies, time/space magic, which affects the flow of time (such as slowing down or speeding up a character's actions) or somehow warps space (Gravity spells, for example), and blue magic, which incorporates a number of special attacks used by monsters. Not every game classifies spells in this manner, and the specific classification of a spell can vary from game to game. Final Fantasy Tactics, for instance, introduced a new subdivision of magic, yin yang magic, is utilized by the job class Oracle and consists of status-affecting spells such as Poison or Sleep. This category has not subsequently appeared in any other Final Fantasy title.
What follows is only a rough guide, and does not include every spell that has appeared in the Final Fantasy series.
White magic
Cure
The Cure family of spells are the basic healing magics in the Final Fantasy series. In addition to recovering the hit points of an injured party member, since Final Fantasy II Cure has also dealt damage to undead monsters. The upgraded forms of the cure family are Cura and Curaga. In English localizations of the series, Curaja was frequently renamed to Full-Cure.
Esuna
Esuna cures most status ailments. In early English language localizations of the series, Esuna was known by a number of different names, including Heal and Remedy. Esuna can be used to cure most common status ailments, but there are usually a number of more severe ailments that are not removed by the spell.
Dispel
Dispel is a spell traditionally usually used to remove positive status effects from enemy targets such as Haste, Protect, and Regen and can be used to safely disengage Reflect without being reflected back at the caster.
Protect
When cast on a party member, Protect reduces the amount of physical damage that party member receives by 1/2 for the duration of the spell's effect, but some games it ends as soon as the battle does. Also known as Safe in Final Fantasy VI and Barrier in Final Fantasy VII.
Shell
When cast on a party member, Shell reduces the amount of magical damage that party member receives by 1/2 for the duration of the spell's effect and same here, sometimes it last till the end of the battle. Also known as MBarrier in Final Fantasy VII.
Reflect
When cast on a party member, Reflect will reflect most magic (offensive or defensive) back to its original caster, or a random character from the opposing party. The Reflect spell will have no effect on items that have magic effects. In some games, Reflect only affected black magic, allowing such characters to be cured by magic. In most games, a spell could not be reflected twice: Reflect status was ignored once the spell was first reflected. This property could be used to cast spells against enemy creatures with active Reflect status: by casting Reflect on a friendly party member, it was possible to have attack magic spells cast at that party member bounce back at the enemy creature, ignoring its own Reflect condition. In Final Fantasy VIII, however, this was not the case: if both caster and recipient had Reflect status, any spell would continue to bounce back and forth between the two characters until the Reflect status ran out. (Which was four times in normal cases.) In early English language localizations of the series, Reflect was renamed Wall. (Not to be confused with other instances of Wall, which usually casts both Protect and Shell on the target.)
Life
Life, also known as Raise, restores to consciousness any character that has been rendered unconscious (i.e., had their hit points reduced to zero). The first level version of the spell (Life) restores only a small percentage of the character's total possible hit points, while the second level version of the spell (Full-Life) restores the character to full health. Like Cure, Life doubles as offensive magic when cast against undead targets; it deals damage to the target, or in some cases, results in instant death. Some games also feature a Auto-life spell, which will automatically revive any character when their hit points reach zero.
Holy
One of the very few attack spells available in the White Magic school, and one of the strongest attack spells in the series, Holy' unleashes Holy power upon it enemies. Considering that it is a White Magic, it has elemental power of Black Magic as well. Holy is generally classified as having an elemental alignment of "Holy", and is generally most damaging to undead targets. Due to censorship restrictions of Nintendo of America, Holy was not actually referred to by that name in any English language localization of the series until Final Fantasy VII, where it plays a prominent role in the storyline, although it cannot be used by the main characters. In Final Fantasy II (the North American version of Final Fantasy IV), the spell was renamed White, while in Final Fantasy III (the North American version of Final Fantasy VI), it was renamed Pearl.
Black magic
Fire
The Fire spells are basic offensive spells, which deals Fire elemental damage to the target or targets. The higher rank Fire magics are Fira and Firaga. They are generally most effective against enemies with an elemental affinity towards ice. In early English language localizations of the series, the second and third levels were renamed Fire 2 and Fire 3, respectively.
Blizzard
The Blizzard spells are basic offensive spells, which deals Ice elemental damage to the target or targets. The higher rank Blizzard magics are Blizzara and Blizzaga They are generally most effective against enemies with an elemental affinity towards fire. In early English language localizations of the series, the first, second, and third levels were renamed Ice, Ice 2, and Ice 3, respectively.
Thunder
The Thunder spells are basic offensive spells, which deals Thunder elemental damage to the target or targets. The higher rank Thunder magics are Thundara and Thundaga They are generally most effective against enemies with an elemental affinity towards water, or against mechanical beings. In the English language localizations of Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy IV, the first, second, and third levels were renamed Lit, Lit2 and Lit3, respectively. In the English language localizations of Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy VII, the first, second, and third levels were renamed Bolt, Bolt 2, and Bolt 3, respectively.
Water
Water is a moderately powerful offensive spells that deals Water elemental damage to the target or targets. It is generally most effective against enemies with an elemental affinity towards thunder. In most games, it is a single-level spell without any more powerful counterparts, but in Final Fantasy X, second and third level Water spells were included as Watera and Wateraga.
Bio
Bio is an attack spell that can inflict the status ailment Poison on its target as well as a reasonable amount of hit point damage. It is generally most effective against humanoid enemies.
Drain
Drain transfers a certain amount of HP from the target to the caster. This spell can be used to increase the HP of the caster, or to reduce the HP of the target. This spell can be very effective against targets with high physical defense but low magic resistance. Drain deals damage to the caster when casted on an undead target, due to absorbing the "negative HP" of zombie targets.
Toad
Toad transforms the target into or out of the appearance of a frog. The frog status toggles so that casting frog on a character that already has a frog status reverts them to their normal form. in this state, Toad or Mini can only be casted. In some games in the series, such as Final Fantasy III, certain dungeons can only be accessed when all party members have been affected by the Toad spell.
Osmose
Osmose, or Absorb, transfers a certain amount of MP from the target to the caster. This spell can be used to replenish the MP of the caster, and/or to prevent the target from casting spells, once their MP drops below the required MP level.
Break
Break attempts to inflict the status ailment Stone on its target. Stone is treated as an instant kill condition: in most games in the series, a creature will disappear from battle if afflicted with the Stone condition, and if all the members of the hero's battle party are turned to stone, the game ends. In Final Fantasy Tactics and its sequel, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, creatures afflicted with Stone status remain on the battle field until the conclusion of the battle. Because of the power of the condition, Break is generally only around 50% effective. There is a variation to this spell (eg. Slow Numb in Final Fantasy VII), which creates a countdown timer above the target's head. During this time, the status can be treated with the Esuna spell, the Stona spell, Remedies, or the curative item Soft (also known as Golden Needle). When the countdown timer is extinguished, the target is inflicted with the status ailment Stone.
Death
Death instantly kills one target. It usually has a small chance of success. A related in-battle condition called Condemned places a timer on the target and, if successful, will instantly cause death when the time is up. The Condemned condition is irreversible. In North American localizations, the name Doom has frequently been applied to both the Death spell, and the Condemned status effect.
Flare
Flare is one of the most powerful attack spells in the series. It inflicts a heavy amount of non-elemental damage on its target, and in several games in the series, it is the most powerful black magic spell available.
Ultima
In the games in which Ultima appears it is the ultimate Black magic spell. Ultima inflicts massive amounts of non-elemental damage on all enemies in battle.
Time/Space magic
Regen
Regen causes the target to receive a boost in HP over time. Each turn, the characer gains a certain amount of HP while the spell is in effect. This is the opposite of Poison. Note: In later games (Final Fantasy VII through Final Fantasy X-2) it is a white magic spell due to its curative properties. In Final Fantasy IV, the character FuSoYa has this spell as a menu ability.
Degeon
When cast successfully, Degeon (also known as ZAP! and X-Zone) instantly destroys all enemies. In later games, Degeon banishes all enemies to a diffrent dimension. In Final Fantasy V it is integral to the plot.
Teleport
Teleport, or Warp allows the user's party to escape from battle and/or the current dungeon. It almost never works in boss battles. In Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy IV, Warp is a black magic spell that will send the party to the last floor visited in a dungeon, while Exit, a white magic spell, will send the party outside of the dungeon or allow the party to escape from battle. In Final Fantasy Tactics it appears as a movement ability of Time Mages, allowing them to move anywhere on the field but with a chance of failure should the unit attempt to teleport too far away. Some enemy story characters are able to use it to exit battle entirely.
Haste
Haste reduces the wait time of the target, causing it to gain a turn sooner than normal for the duration of the spell. Successive applications of this spell can increase the speed of the character, within limits. Basic Haste spells target an individual, while higher levels can target a group. In some games, this spell can be activated if the character sets Last Haste as his/her/its reaction ability, and when the character is at terminal health.
Quick
Quick allows the caster to immediately take two subsequent actions. It often takes a very large amount of MP to cast. In Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Quick appears as an ability, Smile, of the class 'Juggler' that requires no MP at all.
Slow
Slow increases the wait/reaction time of the target, causing its turn to occur later in the battle round, or, in games utilizing the Active Time Battle system, causing its battle turn to occur with far less frequency. In many games, successive applications of this spell are cumulative, within limits. Basic Slow spells target an individual, while higher levels can target a group. In Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, the basic spell actually slows down an entire group in its targeting area.
Stop
A more severe form of the Slow command, Stop causes the target to cease receiving turns for the duration of the spell.
Demi
Demi (also known as Gravity) is a gravity spell that removes an exact fraction of a target's current HP. There are different variations of it among the games in the series. In Final Fantasy VI, Demi removes one-half of one target's HP, while Final Fantasy X it removes only one-quarter, or Gravija (FFX) takes off three-quarters of multiple targets' HP.
Meteor
In most games the series, Meteor (also known as Meteo) is one of the most powerful attack spells available. It does a heavy amount of non-elemental damage on all enemy creatures in battle. Meteor has figured prominently in the storyline of Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy VII, although it cannot be used by characters of the latter title. The Meteor-esque magic usable by characters of Final Fantasy VII is called 'Comet' and 'Comet2' instead. Final Fantasy V featured both the weaker Comet and the stronger Meteor.
Blue magic
Blue magic was introduced in Final Fantasy V, and operates slightly different from other forms of magic. Blue magic spells are special attacks used by monsters, which are typically learned by Blue Mage characters through observation (though the mechanics vary somewhat from game to game). They are not divided into levels like many other schools of magic. Several games have referred to blue magic by some other name, most notably Final Fantasy VI (Lores) and Final Fantasy VII (Enemy Skills). Blue Magic was learned through various methods:
- Final Fantasy VI: It is the ability of Strago to learn blue magic by fighting monsters. (Gau's "Rage" ability, in which he latches onto a monster and returns a few battles later, isn't really the same as blue magic.)
- Final Fantasy VII: Have the enemy cast the spell on a character equipped with the Enemy Skill Materia.
- Final Fantasy VIII: It is the Limit Break of Quistis Trepe. Learned by acquiring blue magic items and using it on Quistis to learn the spell.
- Final Fantasy IX: The character Quina Quen learned an enemy's blue magic by "devouring" weakened enemies.
- Final Fantasy X: Kimahri could absorb certain enemies' skills through the use of the Lancet ability, and later use the acquired skills as an Overdrive called Ronso Rage.
- Final Fantasy X-2: The Gun Mage dressphere saw a return to the usual system of learning blue magic: a character learns any blue magic used on her whilst wearing the Gun Mage sphere.
- Final Fantasy Tactics Advance: Have the enemy cast the spell on a Blue Mage equipped with the skill Learning.
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???? inflicts damage equal to the difference between the spell caster's current hit points and the spell caster's maximum hit points.
1000 Needles
1000 Needles inflicts exactly 1,000 hit points of damage on its target, regardless of defensive status. It is most often learned from Cactuars. In the English language localizations of Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI, 1000 Needles was renamed Blow Fish.
Aqua Breath
Aqua Breath inflicts water-elemental damage on all enemy characters. In the English language localization of Final Fantasy VI (known in North America as Final Fantasy III), Aqua Breath was renamed Aqua Rake. In Final Fantasy VII, the spell was known as Aqualung.
Bad Breath
Bad Breath inflicts most major status ailments (such as poison, sleep, and confusion) on its target. Often learned from Malboros. In the English language localization of Final Fantasy VI, Bad Breath was renamed Sour Mouth.
Death Sentence
Death Sentence starts a countdown over the target. Once the countdown reaches zero, the target is instantly killed. It has occassionally appeared under the names Condemned or Doom.
Goblin Punch
Goblin Punch inflicts damage based on the experience level of the spell caster: if the caster and the target are of the same level, the attack often does increase damage. Often learned from Goblins. In Final Fantasy IV the Goblin Punch attack was included as part of the secret Goblin summoning spell.
Level 5 Death
Level 5 Death casts the spell Death on all enemies whose experience level is a multiple of five. Several games feature similar techniques which cast a different spell at a different multiple, such as Level 2 Old (Final Fantasy V), Level 4 Flare (Final Fantasy VI), Level 3 Confuse (also known as Level 3 Muddle; Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy VII), Level 4 Holy (Final Fantasy IX), and Level ? Shadow Flare (Final Fantasy Tactics Advance). The class Calculator from Final Fantasy Tactics was probably inspired by this group of spells.
Matra Magic
Matra Magic has appeared with various effects throughout the series. In Final Fantasy VII, it inflicts non-elemental damage on all enemies. In Final Fantasy IX, it is a spell that reduces the target’s HP to 1. In Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, it switches the target's HP and MP.
Mighty Guard
Mighty Guard casts various protective spells (such as Protect and Shell) on members of the battle party. In the English language localizations of Final Fantasy V, Final Fantasy VI, and Final Fantasy VII Mighty Guard was renamed Big Guard.
Roulette
Roulette randomly and instantly kills a single character on the battle field, either party member or monster.
Self Destruct
A character casting Self Destruct runs toward an enemy and blows up causing a great amount of damage to the select enemy. Character normally does not gain experience from this move after a battle ends.
White Wind
White Wind restores the hit points of all party members equal to the current hit points of the spell caster. In most games, fairy monsters are seen using this spell. In the English localization of Final Fantasy VI, White Wind was renamed Pearl Wind.