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Originally Posted by
Khalin
Yeah I understand, and that's basically what VeloZer0 said, but again, that's like saying "well if the game was coded so that Luminaire's multiplier was merely slightly higher, then Magus wouldn't be able to catch up to it no matter what". The point is that the game does make a lot of Tabs available.
The problem is, I am one of those guys that doesn't bother with tabs. I pretty much never use them so for me, Magus is actually a beast in my game cause he works naturally but I guess I'm just an exception to the rule. ;)
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Yeah, but only at later, like on your third or fourth New Game+ though once he's attained that level to have enough Magic for that. I don't really find much problem with using Ethers since as you said, you get astounding heaps of them. Plus there are save points conveniently placed relatively close to eachother, so Shelters help make up for that. And I'm not being rude, but for the reasons I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I really don't think this gives Magus any versatility at all. If anything, it only shows that if you want to save Ethers/etc. on your third or fourth play through the game, then Magus becomes useful for the purposes of frugality, which at that stage I feel is kinda pointless [though at this point you've likely pumped many other people with tabs as well, so he might not even have the chance to outshine others with tier 2 magic either]. The only question I really have is if he would be much higher than Lucca or not, because while his magic stat is higher than hers, she still has a pretty beast Magic development to begin with. Hers is the second highest in the game.
I actually start using Magus more often in later playthroughs cause he's actually stronger than most of the characters. Flare may pull second highest damage when you max Lucca's stats but her other skills are not as good as Magus, not to mention Magus has higher speed, evasion, and defense. Lucca gets the wonderful Prism Dress but Magus gets Moon Armor that can prevent status ailments and he has the game's best M.Def. Its not like Magus is really useless compared to the other characters.
As for the Lv. 2 Spells, Magus us actually better than everyone else, even Crono when using the Lv.2 magic cause his damage mulitpliers for his versions of the spells are much higher 7.25 as opposed to everyone else's 5.25). Hell his only nerfed ability is actually Dark Matter. As for not having a physical tech, what for? He's obviously a mage character and his normal attack isn't anything to call home about, besides, neither Marle or Lucca have any physical based techs. Frog has pitiful offensive magic and Robo needs tabs in order to actually be a contender beyond healing and physical. Ayla doesn't have any real magic attacks either.
My point is, Magus may not be the most powerful character in the game but I would hardly say he's useless.
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Could probably be true but I've never experienced this due to how many tech points they decided to shove in your face on the Mountain of Woe. Some people I know actually stay there and max out all their techs for everyone, kinda like the dinosaur forest from FF VI or the castle basement with the Statues in FF V [except in this case, you don't have to stay at the Mountain of Woe for very long]. But even if all this wasn't an issue, I still have the huge complain of Magus' lack of a single target physical tech or something. Pretty much everything has is AoE, which can cause a lot of nuisance problems that can make a battle really irritating like in the examples I gave a few posts back.
Personally, I don't feel his elemental based magic causes much hindrance at all and when you do find an enemy that is magic resistant, that's what characters like Robo and Ayla are for. There really is no "perfect party" set up for this game so you might as well build a balance one. :D
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I'm afraid I have to disagree. He gets sent flying from his time period in a place where he's separated from his beloved sister and the Gurus who actually cared for him for umpteen years because of his mother's foolish mistakes, and he doesn't have anything to say to her? I don't buy it at all, it just seems so unrealistic to me. It also seems really unrealistic that as a kid, he would find hatred towards Lavos [whom he knew very little about], as opposed to his mother which is someone that he's constantly exposed to and gets made aware of her drastic change when it occurs [he even mentions it to Schala]. Even if he didn't get along with her to begin with, it is his mother, whom he was probably around a lot. And given that he was warped out at a really young age, he hadn't had much time to grow attached or familiarity with anyone else besides close friends and family. Even if he hated her as a kid, she was still an important part of his life in that regard, aside from the obvious.
It depends on the person, you know I'm angry when I go completely silent so I can fully understand not wanting to give some mini-speech about "revenge" and "you ruined my life". From what you've told me about the types he represents, that is something I would expect them to do, Magus doesn't.
In the SNES version he basically tells her she's an idiot and he's going to end this. In the DS version he still says she's an idiot but says she at least deserves mercy.
In truth, I don't see why Magus would care to say anything really personal, he was too young to know what she was really like and what he probably remembers wasn't very good. He spends his entire time in Zeal disguising himself so he can destroy Lavos, this tells me that Magus knows that his identity to the people of Zeal is a moot gesture. Zeal is obviously mad and corrupted by Lavos and I don't think some emotionally charged "Tidus speech" about her never being a mother to him is really going to change the situation or make him a sympathetic character for the player.
If you really want to get speculative on the matter, I feel Magus didn't tell her cause she's already going to be guilt ridden for the rest of her life once she is no longer controlled by Lavos. Whether he did not tell her his identity to ease her pain of knowing his fate or whether he did it so she would always wonder what happened to the son she lost in her madness really depends on whether you want to see Magus as sympathetic or an asshole.
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I'm expecting to hear a "well as a kid, he was so smart that he reasoned that Lavos was the one truly responsible for it all, and that's where he should focus all of his anger on, and not his mom who was actually the victim and probably made his childhood miserable due to her corruption" type argument from someone, and I would roll my eyes and say "Wow a genius child prodigy that has the mindset and reasoning capabilities of an adult despite the fact that he's 7 or something, gee I have NEVER seen that one in JRPG's/anime before" [sarcasm].
I would go with the obvious excuse that his knowledge came from the people around him. I'm certain Schala explained a few things to him when he asked, and lord knows he may have overheard a few lines of dialogue from the Gurus. Not to mention when they are in the earthbound village and the party talks with Schala and Melchior to discover how to save Zeal by destroying Lavos.
As for his "anger" I would once again point out that Janus is hardly sympathetic or likable. He was an arrogant asshole who hated everyone around him to begin with and he grew up basically to become the same thing. He's got a sympathetic back story but I really doubt his personality would really be different had he not changed. I feel the amusing thing about Magus is that he's one of the "dark badass" characters that doesn't really play the sympathy card nearly as heavy, if anyone does its the fans. The game shows the player what happens but its not like Magus or any of the other cast keep bringing up why he's so angry and aloof and try to paint him as sympathetic. He's a dick and he plays it well. :magus:
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Says who? If they chose to go that route, then sure you're correct. They have the option to give his character actual depth and true soul, even if it's a cold one. They decided not to go in this direction. All of the characters at various points of the game have interesting interaction and character depth develop as you progress through the game, except Magus. There are ways to give a character much depth to make them interesting, without contradicting their personality slate.
Judging by his dialogue whenever you take him on any of the games side missions, he gives off the impression of being annoyed and wondering why the party is wasting their time. He does also play the cold asshole as he is quite indifferent in taking out his former henchmen and doesn't really seem to be bothered by Mother's human killing factory in the future. He's annoyed with Marle wasting their time in the present with her trying to save her father. I'd say the game paints a pretty clear picture of what kind of a person Magus is. The guy doesn't even say anything when he leaves your party.
In the new ending for the DS version, (SPOILER)we get a chance to see a future Magus (for some minor amusement, bring Magus with you) who finally finds Schala fused with Lavos as the Time Devourer. He gets his ass handed to him again but so does your whole party at which point Schala regains a bit of her consciousness and tells Magus that his power can't save her. She then frees Magus by erasing his memories and dumping him off in some unknown time and place. His last words was he remembered he was looking for something very important but couldn't remember what it was. So he gets a bit more closure and depth with the new ending.
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Like I said, it would be nice for me to see a Magus-like character [and they're everywhere, at least one in almost every anime/video game], prejudge them based on their looks and initial attitude/dialogue, and actually be wrong about it. And yes some people somewhere will hate something no matter what, but I really feel that this direction would be for the better. I'm sick of seeing character archetype recipes being reused over and over. And small variations like "well this one's different, because he's actually evil!" or "well this one's different, because there's no time travel in this game" or "he wants revenge on his brother instead of a big monster" aren't really enough to make the distinction between all of them for me. That's sorta like some newcomer fic writer making one Mary Sue character after another, then giving the newest one a scar on his cheek and stating that he's bad at playing the Piano, then saying "See?? Unlike the others, this one has flaws!".
My only thought is what gaming character isn't based off some RPG/anime/literary cliche that has been written in the last decade let alone the medium? The amusing thing about writing is that people don't really seek out new and original, most find simple joy from predictability and regurgitation of old ideas; packaging them slightly different creates variety despite that packaging being paper thin. I am certain that if we listed all of your favorite characters we could easily attach most of them to common literary archetypes and videogame cliches such as Gau being the "wild boy" raised by animals. ;)
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I think I've pretty much said everything I have to say about my Magus rant. My latest rage-rant is about Arumat from Star Ocean 4. I'm ready to pounce the second I see a topic about him made.
You so need to talk to Darkwolf90, he LOVES him and has been wanting me to check him out. He pretty much loves this archetype in almost everything I've ever talked to him about he always gravitates to the horribly overpowered dark brooding badass. :D
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For the record, again I'm sorry if I seem too feisty or rude, I really don't mean to be. I'm just really opinionated by nature and I get carried away with voicing it a lot.
No worries :)
