"Ultimate Magic"?

[Flamethrower]

According to the FFII story, Ultima is supposedly the ultimate magic. But is that really so? I gave Ultima to Maria and it is at level 10. Frionel has level 9 Holy, and Guy has level 7 Flare. Both Holy AND Flare have been consistantly doing more damage to the enemies than Ultima is, despite being at lower levels. Ultima generally does damage around the 200 range, while Holy and Flare do damage in the 400 range. Maria even has higher magic power than Frionel and Guy.

So why is Ultima being so weak? Am I doing something wrong?

[Flashback007]

When you give Ultima to the person who was the most White Magic, it will do more damage. It depends on stats namely. I don't remember exactly what it was.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

Supposedly, Ultima's strength is dependent upon all of the stats of the person casting it. I've never had it be anything but my strongest spell, though.

[Flamethrower]

I see. That makes since then, I'm sure Maria's other stats are much lower than Frionel's and Guy's. Dang it. I just wish I knew this before I gave Maria Ultima.

[DJZen]

"Magic Power" depends on what kinda spell it is. Black Magic is affected by Intelligence while White Magic is affected by Spirit. If what Kawaii Ryukishi says is true (and it very well might be, I've never personally looked at the code) then it's probably a moot point. For my team it was just about as strong as Holy and Flare though.

[Fredde]

Actually, I've always thought that Meteo, the spell that (SPOILER)the emperor casts in the end-battle would be considered "the ultimate spell".

[Captain Maxx Power]

Ultima is unique in that it uses it's own entirely different damage property to every other in the game. Ergo I would assume that the whole "based-on-all-stats" theory might be feasible.

[DJZen]

Uhhhhhhhhh........... The Nintendo Power guide says it's white magic.....

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

In FFII, it is. So what? Aero started out as white magic, too, in FFIII.

[abrojtm]

I gave my Ultima to Frionel, at it is at level 13 where as Maria's Holy is at level 11. Ultima is consistantly weaker for me as well.

[DJZen]

In FFII, it is. So what? Aero started out as white magic, too, in FFIII.

Just wanted to verify in case they got it wrong. It wouldn't be the first time Nintendo Power printed erroneous information about a Final Fantasy....

On a similar note.... They seem to think Curse is white magic, but casting it seems to raise my intelligence... I'd like to declare shennanigans.

[DarkLadyNyara]

I'm pretty sure ultima is white magic. When I was leveling it up, my characters spirit increased. I've never really used it though, seeing as Fire, Flare and Holy all did consistently more damage.(Overrated, much?)

[Captain Maxx Power]

For the sake of technicality, Ultima IS white magic. The way in which it's damage is calculated, however, is different. Rather than simply using your character's Spirit stat it (supposedly) uses all of your stats. If this includes things like vitality/magic or hp/mp I don't know. I'll go test it now and let you all know in about, say, twenty minutes...

Results : This is so whacked out stuff!

Basically the damage of Ultima is highly erratic. Even when I put Fry's stats to 1 each the damage fluctuated greatly from 30-80 odd. Maxed Soul, the damage didnt seem to increase. Set Soul back to 1, Int to 99, same thing. Maxed out all other stats (Str/Agi/Magic/Vit), still not much improvement. Maxed out all stats, still nothing noticeable. Maxed out MP/HP, Evd and Mag Evd, and there was a slight increase in damage, but only by about 10-20 points. This was all done with Level 16 Ultima "multi-targetted". Basically I haven't the faintest idea what sort of damage Ultima is, nor what it's damage is increased by (apparently nothing). Considering how late you get this spell and how long it would take to max it does pitiful damage no matter what.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

I know that in my game, with Frioniel with maxed out stats and Level 16 spells in all slots, Ultima did more damage than anything else in the game. So, if the stats have nothing to do with it, then maybe the magic levels do.

[Flashback007]

I have looked and I found something in a walktrough:

NOTE: Ultima is a magic that is based on the casters magic arsenal. Ultima
will not do a great amount of damage unless it is leveled high and all the
other magic in the caster's arsenal are leveled high. So if you have Ultima to
level 16 and you have a full screen of magic all leveled to 16, then Ultima
will be doing a couple thousand damage per round or better (spirit is also a
factor). I suggest you level up someone's magic when you level up toad, if you
haven't begun that fiasco yet.

So, it's probarly, so that how higher your spell-level is, the higher Ultima strikes. I think I need to go and level up my magic. But it's called Ultimate Magic. But (SPOILER)it doesn't even kill the Emperor in one kill