Karifean
08-10-2013, 10:22 PM
The Blue Mage is certainly one of the most unique classes. Its usefulness, however, is largely dependant on whether you know how to utilize them properly. Sometimes, this is very easy, other times not so much.
In Final Fantasy V, we have the Blue Mage job. With an arsenal of spells ranging from wind-elemental magicks to Level ? Spells, the usefulness of the Blue Mage is mostly a situational one. Many of its skills are directly related to the enemy's level, including Goblin Punch, the very first skill you can get. You can even learn Dark Spark to halve the levels of enemies, making them vulnerable to Level ? Spells they were immune to before. One of the most iconic uses of the Blue Mage in this game has to be using Level 5 Death to instantly kill Objets d'Art in the Castle of Bal, giving you massive EXP and ABP for that point in time.
Final Fantasy VI has multiple characters that can use the enemy's skills. Gau uses his Rages, Relm uses her Sketch and Control and Strago uses his Lores. Strago is the closest to the original Blue Mage, with an arsenal that expands when seeing an enemy perform a certain technique. I personally have not found a good way to use him yet. Traveler can deal some decent damage and Aqua Breath is pretty awesome when you first get him, but I never bothered to look too much into his skillset.
Now Final Fantasy VII has one of the most iconic Blue Magic appearances in the series: the Enemy Skill Materia. Being easily the most useful materia in the game, it is always good to have it equipped just to see if you can learn a new skill. Most of the skills you can learn for this materia are really powerful for the point at which they're learned, from Beta to Big Guard to White Wind to Magic Hammer to Magic Breath. The trio of Beta, Trine and Aqualung are easily learned and yet some of the most powerful elemental spells in the game. Simply put: know how to use it, and Enemy Skill breaks the game completely. It is possible to beat Emerald Weapon in a solo character challenge using only Enemy Skills.
Final Fantasy VIII did Blue Magic very differently. Instead of having to witness or get hit by an enemy attack, new skills are learned by using items that are usually dropped from the monsters that use those skills. The user of Blue Magic is Quistis and they're her Limit Break. The skills you get are often one-shot-kills against enemies encountered at that point in time, but the most notable of all is Degenerator: this Blue Magic skill is stupidly good for 3 reasons: 1. It instantly kills the target, 2. It works 100% of the time against all normal monsters in the game except for five, 3. It can be gotten as soon as the game starts. T-Rexaur doesn't look so tough now, does he?
Final Fantasy IX introduced yet another way of learning Blue Magic. The Blue Mage of the team this time around is Quina Quen the Qu. He/She/It learns new skills by eating foes that are below 25% HP. Quina can learn a plethora of unique and useful skills such as Angel's Snack, which uses a Remedy on every party member, Limit Glove, which deals 9999 damage if Quina's HP is 1, or Frog Drop which is another buildup skill just like Thievery and Dragon's Crest. Quina's Blue Magic is certainly useful in many cases and his/her/its skills are versatile and unique.
Now Final Fantasy X went back to Blue Magic being Limit Breaks. However, in Final Fantasy VIII Limit Breaks were infinitely usable at low HP, while in Final Fantasy X your overdrive gauge fills up over time. This limits the usefulness of Blue Magic in FFX, the wielder of which is Kimahri Ronso. He learns new skills by using the Lancet technique on specific enemies. If he succeeds, his overdrive gauge is also immediatly filled. Now it's not that Kimahri has bad Blue Magic skills - but the fact that you can use them only every once in a while push them in the background. On top of that, he learns one of his most damaging abilities in a fixed battle at the beginning of the game and many of his other abilities are mainly just to clear random encounters... they do a damn well good job of it, though. Stone Breath pretty much instantly destroys nearly every random encounter in the game. Sadly, Kimahri's strongest skill - Nova - is left hardly useful thanks to the damage cap. Nova actually deals an absurdly high amount of damage and would rival Attack Reels for place of best overdrive, but it only hits one time and does not break the 99999 barrier. How sad.
Final Fantasy X-2 went back to the old formula of get hit by an enemy attack to learn it, which hasn't been seen since Final Fantasy VII. The Blue Mage this time around is the Gun Mage dressphere who uses Blue Magic alongside Fiend Hunter, which is a set of skills that deal quad damage against specific species of enemies. Now what is Blue Magic like in Final Fantasy X-2? Really damn good. A lot of the Blue Magic skills you can get deal a really high amount of damage for a very manageable MP cost - and unlike Final Fantasy X, they can be used freely. In the International version, Blue Magic can easily be acquired with no fear of dying, giving early access to very good skills including Mighty Guard. Unfortunately, the Gun Mage has low defensive capabilities which can prove to be very bad, but it makes up for that with its more than healthy damage output. The ultimate Blue Magic skill, Annihilator, ignores the enemies' defense and is one of the most damaging abilities YRP has access to, just behind the ultimate Mascot skills! The Gun Mage is definitely not to be underestimated.
So now I'd like to know: in what games did you find Blue Magic to be particularly useful? When did you learn its capabilities and when could you not be bothered? What do you think of Blue Magic in general?
In Final Fantasy V, we have the Blue Mage job. With an arsenal of spells ranging from wind-elemental magicks to Level ? Spells, the usefulness of the Blue Mage is mostly a situational one. Many of its skills are directly related to the enemy's level, including Goblin Punch, the very first skill you can get. You can even learn Dark Spark to halve the levels of enemies, making them vulnerable to Level ? Spells they were immune to before. One of the most iconic uses of the Blue Mage in this game has to be using Level 5 Death to instantly kill Objets d'Art in the Castle of Bal, giving you massive EXP and ABP for that point in time.
Final Fantasy VI has multiple characters that can use the enemy's skills. Gau uses his Rages, Relm uses her Sketch and Control and Strago uses his Lores. Strago is the closest to the original Blue Mage, with an arsenal that expands when seeing an enemy perform a certain technique. I personally have not found a good way to use him yet. Traveler can deal some decent damage and Aqua Breath is pretty awesome when you first get him, but I never bothered to look too much into his skillset.
Now Final Fantasy VII has one of the most iconic Blue Magic appearances in the series: the Enemy Skill Materia. Being easily the most useful materia in the game, it is always good to have it equipped just to see if you can learn a new skill. Most of the skills you can learn for this materia are really powerful for the point at which they're learned, from Beta to Big Guard to White Wind to Magic Hammer to Magic Breath. The trio of Beta, Trine and Aqualung are easily learned and yet some of the most powerful elemental spells in the game. Simply put: know how to use it, and Enemy Skill breaks the game completely. It is possible to beat Emerald Weapon in a solo character challenge using only Enemy Skills.
Final Fantasy VIII did Blue Magic very differently. Instead of having to witness or get hit by an enemy attack, new skills are learned by using items that are usually dropped from the monsters that use those skills. The user of Blue Magic is Quistis and they're her Limit Break. The skills you get are often one-shot-kills against enemies encountered at that point in time, but the most notable of all is Degenerator: this Blue Magic skill is stupidly good for 3 reasons: 1. It instantly kills the target, 2. It works 100% of the time against all normal monsters in the game except for five, 3. It can be gotten as soon as the game starts. T-Rexaur doesn't look so tough now, does he?
Final Fantasy IX introduced yet another way of learning Blue Magic. The Blue Mage of the team this time around is Quina Quen the Qu. He/She/It learns new skills by eating foes that are below 25% HP. Quina can learn a plethora of unique and useful skills such as Angel's Snack, which uses a Remedy on every party member, Limit Glove, which deals 9999 damage if Quina's HP is 1, or Frog Drop which is another buildup skill just like Thievery and Dragon's Crest. Quina's Blue Magic is certainly useful in many cases and his/her/its skills are versatile and unique.
Now Final Fantasy X went back to Blue Magic being Limit Breaks. However, in Final Fantasy VIII Limit Breaks were infinitely usable at low HP, while in Final Fantasy X your overdrive gauge fills up over time. This limits the usefulness of Blue Magic in FFX, the wielder of which is Kimahri Ronso. He learns new skills by using the Lancet technique on specific enemies. If he succeeds, his overdrive gauge is also immediatly filled. Now it's not that Kimahri has bad Blue Magic skills - but the fact that you can use them only every once in a while push them in the background. On top of that, he learns one of his most damaging abilities in a fixed battle at the beginning of the game and many of his other abilities are mainly just to clear random encounters... they do a damn well good job of it, though. Stone Breath pretty much instantly destroys nearly every random encounter in the game. Sadly, Kimahri's strongest skill - Nova - is left hardly useful thanks to the damage cap. Nova actually deals an absurdly high amount of damage and would rival Attack Reels for place of best overdrive, but it only hits one time and does not break the 99999 barrier. How sad.
Final Fantasy X-2 went back to the old formula of get hit by an enemy attack to learn it, which hasn't been seen since Final Fantasy VII. The Blue Mage this time around is the Gun Mage dressphere who uses Blue Magic alongside Fiend Hunter, which is a set of skills that deal quad damage against specific species of enemies. Now what is Blue Magic like in Final Fantasy X-2? Really damn good. A lot of the Blue Magic skills you can get deal a really high amount of damage for a very manageable MP cost - and unlike Final Fantasy X, they can be used freely. In the International version, Blue Magic can easily be acquired with no fear of dying, giving early access to very good skills including Mighty Guard. Unfortunately, the Gun Mage has low defensive capabilities which can prove to be very bad, but it makes up for that with its more than healthy damage output. The ultimate Blue Magic skill, Annihilator, ignores the enemies' defense and is one of the most damaging abilities YRP has access to, just behind the ultimate Mascot skills! The Gun Mage is definitely not to be underestimated.
So now I'd like to know: in what games did you find Blue Magic to be particularly useful? When did you learn its capabilities and when could you not be bothered? What do you think of Blue Magic in general?