Blue Magic Is Stupid

It's kinda ironic that the only games that got it right were VIII and X even though it's useless in those games. Well, useless in X, kinda unnecessary in VIII.

Wait I suppose VII got it right too because it had Manipulate which allowed you to make the monsters use the desired skill on you.

Every other game? I don't know why anybody bothers. "Derpaderp, I'm gonna sit here hoping the AI uses this spell on this character. Oh he finally used it! ...on the wrong character.... Better sit here another ten minutes wasting my time depending on crappy AI."

I strongly disagree and tomorrow I will have something very long and detailed to show why I disagree

I'm of the mind that FF7 was the only one that did it really right. You could have the Enemy Skill materia sit on you and pick Blue Magic up randomly as you go. With a dedicated Blue Mage class you basically have to drag them around if you don't know what you are doing ahead of time.

Actually only FFV, VII, and the spin-off titles make being hit with the spell a requirement, all the other games don't. Also in every game since the Job Class' introduction there is a Control/Manipulate ability which can be used to make getting the spells easier. I love the Blue Mage class because they are usually broken as all hell except in VIII and X where the game's other mechanics make them worthless and I find it fun exploring the world to find all the spells, they bring help expand the scope of the game by being a pseudo-mini-game in of themselves.

If it weren't for Mighty Guard I wouldn't have beaten Neo X-Death for the first time with an average level of 36.

Blue Magic is my least favorite kind of magic. I hate it.

Blue magic is wonderful. Clearly, you're doing it wrong if you can't manage to learn the spells efficiently!

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Originally Posted by Shorty

Blue Magic is my least favorite kind of magic. I hate it.

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This. And I really hate when I actually like the Blue Mage character, but know I'm never going to get to use them in battle. Sure, you can pick up some cool skills, but there's so much effort involved. And it's no fun anyways.

Anyone who hates blue magic needs to watch the dual TAS of Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI which abuses the hell out of it in FFV to no end. It is far from useless.

>>> Quina`s blue magic was very useful, Limit glove, frog, twister. Those do lot of damage..:luca:

X is the only one I found it near useless because for one the character its restricted to I didn't use most of the time and it's harder to abuse overdrives in X until late in the game over VIII which you just need to keep your character in the yellow and you can have one every turn.

It can be annoying to get the spells in the games that require the enemies to hit you with it like in V and X-2, but VIII, IX, and X they were fine.

I used Blue Magic all the time with Quina. He has some really useful spells. Especially when Garnet is off and then you at least have Mighty Guard which was very helpful for some fights. White Wind was also great.

Blue Magic is honestly my favorite kind of magic. It has this weird imbalance where if you have no idea how to use it and where to get the skills you want, it's borderline useless, while if you do take the time to find the good stuff (or just look it up), it creates some of the most powerful skillsets in every game.

Final Fantasy V had the immensely relieving feature of having the skillset be shared, so no getting every spell for EVERY party member. I really liked the Blue Mage in this game, it could hold its own in battle and once you got some good skills... damn.

Final Fantasy VII, do I even need to say anything? Enemy Skill Materia trivializes the ENTIRE game.

Final Fantasy VIII has some really good Blue Magic as well, going from early obtainable skills that wipe out encounters like it was nothing, all the way to the best Mighty Guard appearance in the entire series, hands down. Not to mention White Wind actually heals the entire party by (Quistis' max HP - Quistis' current HP) which is wonderful seeing as how you'll most likely be in the yellow using it.

Final Fantasy IX had lots of skills that were just fun to use. Plus, eating enemies to get skills is a great concept. But even beyond the fun factor, the skills could be really damn useful.

Final Fantasy X toned down the Blue Magic spammability. After three games of obscene usefulness they might've felt the need to do that. Still, the fact that Kimahri gets a free overdrive every time he learns a new skill is pretty neat. Otherwise most of the Blue Magic is balanced to not be stronger than the other characters' overdrives, so it loses out. Nonetheless, Stone Breath and Mighty Guard certainly have their moments.

Final Fantasy X-2 had the Gun Mage. Talk about an awesome dressphere. It took me too long to realize just how good the Gun Mage actually is. You can get both Mighty Guard and White Wind just after getting Gun Mage itself. Then you have a myriad of pretty good skills, up until - deep in Chapter 5 - it becomes an extreme powerhouse. It was delightful going through the Farplane Abyss with a Spellspring'd Gun Mage just using Annihilator on every random encounter, wiping it out with clean 9999's even at low levels. With Break Damage Limit it did a lot more than that. I thank the Gun Mage for making it a trivial matter to obtain the Overkill (deal 99999 damage in one hit) trophy.

So yeah, I like Blue Magic in pretty much every game. I skipped VI since I only played it once, and the one time I did I never looked into it. I will definitely do so on my next playthrough.

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Originally Posted by The Man

Anyone who hates blue magic needs to watch the dual TAS of Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI which abuses the hell out of it in FFV to no end. It is far from useless.

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I don't think it's useless; there are battles in which it has come in quite handy. But it is still my least favorite kind of magic.

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Originally Posted by Shorty

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Originally Posted by The Man

Anyone who hates blue magic needs to watch the dual TAS of Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI which abuses the hell out of it in FFV to no end. It is far from useless.

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I don't think it's useless; there are battles in which it has come in quite handy. But it is still my least favorite kind of magic.

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Kimarhi Ronso, of the Ronso tribe. He's learned the fiends' way of fighting.

There should be other options by which a Blue Mage can acquire its skills. Maybe two or three of them can be found/purchased or perhaps there is a zoo/menagerie wherein the monsters all possess skills which can be used by a Blue Mage.

I've never liked it. It has some strong stuff but I would rather use anything else.

Blue Magic should be whittled down to its best spells: White Wind, Shadow Flare, Goblin Punch, Mighty Guard, Aqualung, Death Force, Bad Breath, Magic Breath, Magic Hammer, Angel Whisper, 100x Needles, Diamondskin
For when not available as black magic: Aero, Flare, Ultima

In what game is Goblin Punch a good move?

I had the most fun with it in FFV and FFIX. c:

Blue Magic is the most absurdly broken magic type in pretty much every game its in. Final Fantasy X was the sole exception. If Wolf thinks that it wasn't broken in FFVIII, he's never seen Quistis spam Degenerator and wipe out every enemy on the Islands Closest to Heaven and Hell before they can even move. It was useful in that game because with low HP, it was quite spammable. Also, the way the HP/Limit system worked meant that the change to White Wind's mechanics kept it just as broken as ever.

Of the main games, Final Fantasy VII has my favorite incarnation. It took knowledge and setup to get mastery of it, but you could usually pick up a decent amount of skills just by playing through and keeping it on. And you'd still find ones that were broken beyond all get out. Like Matra Magic and Aqualung.

Of the side games, I think it's most powerful in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, where it can make your party essentially invincible forever. I adore the way Bravely Default uses the codex to tell you which monsters have Genomes you can learn.

I think Bravely Default had the right number of spells to learn, but I don't think it did as great a job of diversifying them as it could. Mostly because status moves still aren't super useful, and because few of the Genomes are magical attacks (in fact, only the Norende -aja spells are magical, all other attacking Genomes are physical).

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Originally Posted by Depression Moon

In what game is Goblin Punch a good move?

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Dissidia. Most broken ability EVER in that game.

Still, it usually does physical damage that negates defense, which can be pretty awesome if you use it against the right foes.

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Originally Posted by Skyblade

Blue Magic is the most absurdly broken magic type in pretty much every game its in. Final Fantasy X was the sole exception. If Wolf thinks that it wasn't broken in FFVIII, he's never seen Quistis spam Degenerator and wipe out every enemy on the Islands Closest to Heaven and Hell before they can even move. It was useful in that game because with low HP, it was quite spammable. Also, the way the HP/Limit system worked meant that the change to White Wind's mechanics kept it just as broken as ever.

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The problem is that all of the characters can make short work of enemies by abusing the Desperation attack system. Degenerator is also useless in boss fights and Quistis only has one Blue Magic spell that can break the damage barrier and even with ideal conditions it can't match up against the abusive spamability of Rezokuken, Duel, Irvine's Biullet Hell, Rinoa's Wishing Star/Angel Wing, or even just setting the game to Wait mode so you can get The End easier. It is not so much that Blue Magic spells are worthless, it is just that like Kimarhi's version, they are both in games where the main battle mechanics are already overly abusive to begin with and so they pale in comparison.

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Originally Posted by Skyblade

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Originally Posted by Depression Moon

In what game is Goblin Punch a good move?

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Dissidia. Most broken ability EVER in that game.

Still, it usually does physical damage that negates defense, which can be pretty awesome if you use it against the right foes.

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I concur, but it is also a great ability in FFV as well. Equip the Blue Mage with Excalipor (you read that right) and just spam away because Goblin Punch uses the stat of your weapon but the formula that makes the weapon cause 1hp of damage doesn't qualify giving you an overpowered melee fighter half way through the game.

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Originally Posted by Depression Moon

In what game is Goblin Punch a good move?

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I don't know, I read it somewhere that it was the best spell in... VII? I never really used it myself. I was just covering bases.