Best Blue Magic

[Skyblade]

Disclaimer: For purposes of this thread, all ability systems based around acquiring enemy skills and permanently learning them will be grouped together as "Blue Magic", regardless of what the game in question may call them.

I was playing through FFX-2 HD, and I was working on my Gun Mages, and I was struck by the oddities of the Blue Magic distribution in the game. Over half of the skills come from endgame or boss enemies, rendering you with just a handful of Blue Bullet spells for the main game.

It got me thinking about what was the best Blue Magic in the franchise. Not the best Blue Mages, but the magic itself. So rather than discussing style or personality, let's talk about the utility and balance.


I'm not honestly sure which game has the best system. Several games come to the top in particular areas, but I'm not sure which is actually the best overall. So I'm just going to review my thoughts on the systems here:

FFV made a good beginning, and I remember liking it, but it could be odd at times. Acquisition of some wasn't straightforward, and the abilities were frequently scattered all over the place, with some spells having up to ten different sources. This did make it easier to acquire, which was probably important for the introduction to the system, but it makes the hunt feel a little less special. Plus, some of the spells were not fantastic.

Not a lot of experience with Strago, so chip in with your thoughts on his abilities and learner's vision.

FFVII has, in my opinion, the best distribution of Blue Magic spells. You have a host of fantastic spells available from early on, and they maintain a steady stream throughout the game. I don't even mind the minor backtracking for a few once you obtain Manipulate, I think it's handled fairly well. The majority of them are really solid at the time you obtain them, though several are clearly outclassed later on. However, FFVII fails with the distribution of the system itself, as the Enemy Skill Materia are scattered throughout the world, and there can be quite a bit of annoying backtracking to build the ones you acquired later up to full power. You've been through that grind once, it just gets annoying after that.

FFVIII was the first game that really experimented with how you acquired the spells, getting rid of any relation to battle in exchange for "use item dropped from monster". Unfortunately, this system conflicted with the Card and Item Refining systems, which in turn meant that the spells were obtained haphazardly throughout the game and any connection to their original owner was completely forgotten.

I don't have a lot of experience with FFIX's system, so feel free to bring up the pros and cons those of you who are fans of Quina.

FFX had a pretty nifty idea with letting you claim the abilities from your enemies at your own pace, but unfortunately they were tied to a Limit Break system, vastly ruining their potential, as well as rendering the majority of the skills simply worthless.

FFX-2 had really excellent distribution of the Blue Magic learning ability. The Gun Mage is available really early in the game after a quick sidequest, and you have instant access to most of Spira to explore for abilities. But, unless you get a confusion ability really early (thank you Psychic dressphere), you're going to get a grand total of three spells during the first chapter of the game. Most of the spells are tied to bosses that will only appear once or twice, so you can miss a lot of them, in addition to having to wait a long time.

The Tactics Advance games were really solid overall, having some incredibly powerful spells peppered all across the game. They were, however, fairly tedious to learn since it was on a per-character basis and you might have as many as a dozen Humes to train in the spells.

The Vampire job in Bravely Default is obtained really late in the game, making acquisition of the Genome abilities a bit more grind-heavy than usual. Also, while there are some fantastic abilities, with the exception of the rare StreetPass spells, they're all physical-based, making the Vampire's well rounded stat distribution a bit of a mystery. This game did take the excellent approach of making the spells party-wide, so acquisition by any one character learned the spell for the team, a very welcome change.


So, which game had your favorite system? What aspects would you combine from across the series to make the ultimate Blue Magic? What are the best spells in the series? Feel free to share your thoughts!

[VeloZer0]

I liked the Enemy Skill materia for it's versatility and not forcing you to become tied to one job class if you wanted to use blue magic. The blue-magic only classes are all right if you know what you are doing, but are very annoying if you just want to play through the game and figure stuff out as you go along.

[Galuf]

i like the quina system more than any. its easy as you dont have to manipulate enemies and all that rubbish. and i got all Blue magic for her

[Loony BoB]

I disliked the Quina system because I would accidentally kill enemies too often for my liking. It was a pain to weaken them to the arbitrary level required.

I liked VII's system as it was fairly simple. You could manipulate or you could just do it the old fashioned way and wait for the mob to cast the spell on their own, which for me was often good enough. I think there are a lot of neat ways you can create blue magic systems and I look forward to them making a proper comeback.

I would say Gau's Rage system also warrants a mention, and Strago too. I never used Strago extensively though.

[Karifean]

Final Fantasy VII definitely has the most useful Blue Magic. No contest. I don't think I even need to elaborate on this.

Final Fantasy VIII had useful Blue Magic, but in terms of accessibility it got ridiculous pretty fast. Getting Degenerator from the Gesper card, getting Aqua Breath from the fishies at Balamb shore... and suddenly you got yourself two insanely strong Limit Breaks. I do like how it handled Blue Magic in the endgame though, having it excel in support and debilitating rather than pure damage. Especially Mighty Guard was amazing in this game.

Final Fantasy IX is tough. Can't say I cared much for the Blue Magic for the most part. Limit Glove is just silly and most of the others are purely situative, which is fine, but learning it was a bit annoying. It gets better at late Disk 2 though, and from then on I have few complaints.

Final Fantasy X, well the problem should be obvious. While some skills are pretty cool, like Stone Breath, they are just about all outclassed by other characters' overdrives or even just items. It totally loses its unique touch.

Final Fantasy X-2 on the other hand fixes this problem completely. Blue Magic is rare to come by but when it does it packs quite a punch. Early game you can get quick access to some great ones like Absorb, White Wind and Mighty Guard if you go look for them. Mid-game you can get Flame Breath which is a massive powerup over Firaga. In end- and postgame, Mortar and Annihilator are two of the absolute most powerful attacks.

[Depression Moon]

V: I don't really remember. Only played it once

VI: I don't really remember either. Played twice, but I think i hardly bothered trying to teach Strago it because I think it was annoying to learn. If Gau counts then his was spectacular and very easy to acquire.

VII: Pretty easy to get them as well. I don't think I used them that much though. I just remember Trine being powerful.

VIII: Though tied to a Limit Break they were good because it's easier to trigger them in this game compared to VII and X, just have your character in the yellow or close to the yellow and you can spam the hell out of them. I liked them as items for me. I think there's more than one way to get that Degenerator because I never refined cards. Mighty Guard becomes useless once you get Invincible Moon though.

IX: Somewhere in the middle. I liked having to eat enemies, but like Boko said, sometimes it could get annoying when you accidentally kill them, but I quickly learned how many attacks to use before I attempted to Eat and then you have Cook which isn't a good enough skill for Trance, but it allows you to eat enemies at higher hps, but it becomes pointless once you learn Matra Magic. The spells themselves had weird ranges. I don't ever see the point of using Night or Goblin Punch. I used Frog Drop, Pumpkin Head, Angel Snack (early game), White Wind, Matra Magic, Twister, and Earth Shake most of the time. I think I only use Mighty Guard for the fight against the Earth Guardian and 1000 needles occasionally.

X: They were a joke. You had a couple that were cool like Stone Breath, but I remember not using them for the most part just like Kimahri himself. Nova still isn't as good as everyone else's Overdrives.

X-2: I don't remember much, but I think they were more useful. It was annoying to get some enemies to use them on you and I got game overs trying to get that barrel chested monster to use it on me. I can't remember the name of the spell, but that shit is powerful.

[Loony BoB]

Freakin' loved Trine. Best move.

[metagloria]

Beta is the only answer.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

I've never really messed much with blue magic. I did enjoy degenerating enemies in VIII, though.

[Del Murder]

You forgot about FFXI, which was the best of them all. My Blue Mage in FFXI was an unstoppable force with a diverse and never-ending bag of tricks. BLU was the closest to a jack of all trades class you could get in that game. I tended to focus on the physical spells since that got you the most damage quickly, but I could heal or tank when needed. Magical attacks were a little more tricky due to the specialized gear needed to nuke effectively.