Blue Magic Is Stupid

[Goldenboko]

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

[Mercen-X]

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.

[theundeadhero]

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

[Mercen-X]

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

[Depression Moon]

In what game is Goblin Punch a good move?

[Jessweeee♪]

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

[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.

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).

In what game is Goblin Punch a good move?

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.

[Wolf Kanno]

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.

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.

In what game is Goblin Punch a good move?

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.

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.

[Mercen-X]

In what game is Goblin Punch a good move?

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.