The face of the original black mage

In regard to the "generic" black mage archetype of the Final Fantasy series as a whole, it seems to be common knowledge that they basically look like the heartless from Kingdom Hearts.

In the original, he was simply a human like every other party member. The huge brimmed hat and the over sized robe were meant to imply secrecy. Since he dabbled in the dark arts, it worked with his concept to be mystically and physically shrouded in mystery.

After he gets an upgrade to Black Wizard in the Citadel of Trials, we see he has a face just like everyone else.

Attachment 74170Attachment 74169

In later ports of the game (after the WonderSwan Color) his upgraded form retains the hat and mystery visage, but gets an added accessory like a scarf.

Attachment 74171

Which version do you prefer?

This thread has all the makings of a General Final Fantasy thread, but I wanted to get some action down here in the lower forums. So for this thread:

If you could choose your look after you go to the Citadel of Trials, would you choose to remain shrouded in mystery or have the hat come off?

If you create backstories for your characters, I kind of like the idea of the hatless black mage. It's like he's unashamed of using dark arts now that he's a master of them and knows he can use them for good, and he doesn't feel like he has to hide anymore.

I prefer the shrouded version... always have.

I would assume that the time spent manipulating such dark energy would only cause great taints both physically and mentally and create a truly frightening visage that is best kept hidden. Not the mention the fact that "the light ... it burneses us..."

Got prefer the later port design. It just feels like classic FF and more iconic and original. Plus that scarf is just fabulous.

I'm just browsing old post apparently, but I would have to say the shrouded in mystery version is better suited for Black Magic, besides Vivi was quite the bad ass. He's got that tough guy look after Disc 3 for sure!!!

Shrouded for sure! Back in XI someone made a .dat mod to cause the black mage head to add a dark shadow to the face of the character... it was a must! :D

The BLM sprite from FF is a classic!

Shrouded definitely, and who says the black mages is a normal human? Maybe his class transformation involves growing a human under that hat, like Teddy.

I once see a fan art of a black mage with his face wrapped in some sort of cloth bandages, since them I have this head canon that apprentice black mages use black colored bandages to protect their faces from errand sparks / shrapnel of their own spells, the black bandages are probably treated with some chemic to made them fire resistant (kind of like the fireproof balaclava that F1 pilots wear under their helmets), so they act as a measure of safety and a side effect give the Black Mages their iconic appearance.

p sure it's this

https://i.imgur.com/B2Clued.png