The Complete Evolution of Magic

►Subscribe to Final Fantasy Union!
bit.ly/1ARxUIG
►Want to support us? We have a Patreon!
/ ffunion
►Check out more music by TPR on Spotify!
open.spotify.com/artist/6ImfL...
►Thumnail Credit to John Lozano
www.deviantart.com/john-lozan...
Magic is one of the fundamental gameplay elements within the Final Fantasy franchise, but its application has varied in quite significant ways from game to game.
It all started with two simple schools, Black Magic and White Magic, but as the franchise evolved, numerous other schools were included and by the end of the main numbered series there have been 21 different magic schools.
How magic can be used and learnt has also seen a lot of change and throughout this video we're going to delve into the depths to highlight how mechanics have evolved over time!
***
Twitch: / lozzadar
Website: www.finalfantasyunion.com
Facebook Page: / finalfantasyunion
Facebook Group: / ffunion
Twitter - / ffunion
Discord: / discord (we're a partner!)
Thanks for watching!

[@FinalFantasyUnion]

Thank you all so much for watching this video and interacting with us! This was such an expansive topic to delve into and there were some unfortunate discrepancies on our part! As we can't edit the video, we thought it would be prudent to make a list in this comment and we'll add more as we find more! 8:47 Instead of using Kain's sprite for the Dragoon, we accidentally used Cecil's Dark Knight sprite! 11:23 This one is quite embarrassing, but Geomancy actually first appeared in Final Fantasy III, not V 15:43 We didn't outright say it, but even though equipment could not be used to cast spells, items still could be 19:10 Not mentioned, but every character could use Double Cast, but Lulu took the concept further 23:40 Even though a lot of spells could be learnt by everyone, there were restrictions for the higher level spells 25:25 Summoners and Astrologians did have magic schools (Arcanima and Astromancy)

[@dangevad]

In XIII the spell Quake appears in your always available spells list (like libra) and costs TP. There may be more examples but quake jumps out to me since I was replaying XIII recently and noticed it

[@WingedAsarath]

A bit of a spoiler for the Shadowbringers expansion of FFXIV, but they actually revealed in that that it turns out Light is aligned with stasis and stagnation, whereas Dark is the opposite. Heck the lore is so deep in XIV I could go on for days about it! Though my favourite tidbit is a line in a book in the English language version of one of the dungeons, which explains that the in-universe reason for the I II III IV numbering system for spells is because the scholars couldn't decide which suffix to use next!

[@inquisitorlongshadow5566]

Eeseeseeeeeeeeedeeeeeese

[@inquisitorlongshadow5566]

Eeeeeesseesseesee

[@inquisitorlongshadow5566]

Eeeeeeereeerseeesese

[@noodles3559]

Have you considered “The evolution of permanently missable content and items”? Could be a real interesting one as it feels it gradually rose up until ff9 (which had an insane amount) and then became much less common afterwards

[@nexishadow]

Yes. This topic would be awesome

[@12ealDealOfficial]

Put me down for that type of video as well. Would love to see this!

[@joeboshears4210]

Please! That would be an awesome video.

[@TheGamersState]

I also back this idea! Sounds awesome!

[@ChewyPineapple]

On my first playthrough of FF9 I missed the Octagon Rod completely. It's the only way to learn Firaga/Blizzaga/Thundaga, yet the only way to get it is to buy it from a weapon shop during the middle section of Disc 3. Bonkers.

[@killerkite333]

It was Vivi that introduced me to the Mage class of RPG. Not only they're strong at almost each phase of the game, they also have a library of collectible spells. Not to mention the flashy animations lol.

[@robertgronewold3326]

I like the Ivalice classifications the most. The color coding is very appealing to me.

[@ChhalySamsokrith]

FFXII is super underrated

[@adamgray1753]

Probably because many people who played Final Fantasy XII only played the original PS2 variant, @@ChhalySamsokrith. The Zodiac Age variant is vastly superior to the original Final Fantasy XII as far as I am concerned.

[@MochaTea94406]

@@adamgray1753 oh defiently. I loved XII but Zodiac Age made it better in all the right ways.

[@adamgray1753]

I concur, @@MochaTea94406.

[@finejustgivemeaname]

Picked up XII off of game pass a couple weeks ago. Loving it. Just got to Archades. Plan on playing VII remake next since it next month’s PlayStation plus offering. XIV basically saved my life from a crippling bout of depression.

[@ace-trainer-aj]

Black Magic has some very interesting spells, that's why Black Mages/Wizards are one of my favourite classes.

[@punkrockdavid]

The old school viví looking black mages are my favorite I wish they’d bring them back instead of neo japanese model looking humans that can cast spell

[@richarddill692]

I personally found blue mages to be the most interesting. I loved being able to learn some of the enemy attacks that caught my attention.

[@joelbell6275]

My favorite is FF6's Virus/Bio! :) :) :)

[@mageyplss]

Also because Vivi is the best final fantasy character imo

[@eleos-7845]

Thank you. I’ve been writing the story for a game and I DESPERATELY NEEDED to know how all of FF’s magic work to know if I would take inspiration from it

[@FinalFantasyUnion]

You're most welcome Eleos :)

[@inflatablemattress2]

How is it going?

[@eleos-7845]

@@inflatablemattress2 about what? The game?

[@inflatablemattress2]

@@eleos-7845 Yes. You piqued my interest

[@eleos-7845]

@@inflatablemattress2 well, about the game generally, I’ve decided not to worry too much about the story and focus most of my efforts on establishing world building through unique missions that doesn’t involve fighting monsters. I think that it’s best to just go simple for my first game. About the magic system, I’ve chosen ff13 trope to base how magic is viewed, in a negative light since magic is pretty much associated with monsters and other threats to humans. I’ve pretty much ironed out how my game’s story, side-content, and progression system will pan out. I still don’t know what it’s gonna look like, specifically which pixelated style I would like to use, but I have no idea what to do after I’m done with the conception phase. Obviously, it’s to actually start MAKING the game, but I can’t draw nor make code. So to answer your question, it’s coming along very, very slowly.

[@grandedad7392]

I would say time magic or blue magic is my favorite, due to its variety and unique skills.

[@rawnorth7882]

Ff9 quinna was op honestly

[@SaraphDarklaw]

FFXI blue magic was awesome. I wish they replicated the spell list in every iteration.

[@camdenthompson4307]

personally, I'm a fan of Black Magic and time magic. yeah Cure's useful ( I mean, anytime there's a healing spell, I try an get it.) but If I'm a Mage, I'm not going to be a Glorified healer or illusionist. I'm going to stop Time and then burn them with fire Magic until what I need to do is done

[@astrisperspecto4130]

@@rawnorth7882 hell yeah. Quina dart , pumpkin trap, frog trap and healing wind plus angel cake... That's insane

[@ajzebadua]

I love the magic system and combat system of the XIII trilogy, it seemed the most efficient and balanced in my opinion and was fun to level and use.

[@Sinalve1]

In XIV up until Stormblood, certain jobs/classes could wield magic from other classes that had been leveled up as part of the cross-class system. This would allow Thaumaturge to cast Aero, a DoT spell typically used by Conjuerer or Gladiator to cast Cure or Stoneskin which pulls again from Conjurer. Due to reworking the cross class system into the cross role system with Stormblood's release, the cross class system was phased out, and now all jobs that fit a certain role will learn actions including spells, weaponskills, and abilities fitting that role.

[@bleeYeah]

Thank you for adding the option for automatic subtitles!

[@Teegres]

you kept me entertained for 28mins, fantastic loved the progression sad you didnt add the spin-offs like FFT and FFTA(1 and 2) etc. this was a nostalgic trip back to my childhood and I hope you continue to make more

[@lrod312]

It’s also worth mentioning that Hiroyuki Ito (who designed FFT and FFV) also had a hand in designing the mobile game FF Brave Exvius: War of the Visions which draw alot of influence from FFT and FFXII

[@gurvirdeol2019]

Always Impressed with the amount of research going into these videos.

[@telltellyn]

I think it's worth noting that XII returned to 4 tier levels of magic, and that the names determined if they were AoE or not. For example Fire was single target, Fira was AoE, Firaga was single target, and Firaja was AoE.

[@madambutterfly1997]

throughout the franchise with elemental magic, they treat water like its a lesser elemental to ice when its supposed to be reverse

[@PapaTaurean]

As a D&D fan I love the original setup foot magic, but I also love that games like FF3 and so forth expanded on the magic schools

[@nidohime6233]

Foot magic?

[@climrage6429]

At 8:48, you have Cecil’s Dark Knight sprite listed as Dragoon. Just a heads up, otherwise, another great video!

[@FinalFantasyUnion]

Ahh, what an annoying goof - it was meant to be Kain (obviously). I hope that didn't ruin your enjoyment of the video too much!

[@climrage6429]

Haha nope not at all! I actually loved the video and all of your videos! We all make mistakes. Just wanted to bring it to your attention Incase you wanted to fix it 😁

[@75ur15]

@@FinalFantasyUnion that and ironically you say that no one can change class, but just one of them did ;)

[@kylestupimann7658]

@@FinalFantasyUnion *points at you and laughs*

[@Beryllahawk]

I squeaked with excitement so many times throughout this video, from the brief visual 'mention' of Anduin from WoW (my boi!) and onward... As I've said before my first Final Fantasy was 7 - I had no idea about the Job system at all. I never did get the hang of the Junction stuff OR the Draw command in 8... and still had no idea what Blue magic even meant when I finally began to play Final Fantasy 14. And now I have explored so much about all of it, and have been utterly fascinated by the magic of Eorzea, to the point that I am actively hammering out ideas for a fan fic that delves more into those ideas. (I write a LOT of Final Fantasy 14 fan fic at this point, almost a million words posted in the last year, I think I have a problem LOL!) This was such a well done and thorough video. I'd like to see a sequel someday where you can touch on the magic systems in the non-main-sequence games, because Tactics had some fascinating aspects to it - but I fully understand why you wanted to try to keep the length under control, here! Thank you so much once again for a great video!

[@2bussy]

Cringe.

[@jamesorme6296]

@@2bussy how dare you? Your rabbit would be ashamed of you

[@ProjectMATHEW]

Hearing you talk about the magic system in XIV makes me wanna hear you talk about the lore in as much detail as you can. If it's a 15hour video I am ready

[@Tjag321]

Always a good day when FFUnion uploads

[@scoobsmcgee9325]

So glad to hear TPR's work featured in these videos.

[@ballroomscott]

7, and 10 probably have my favorite implementations of magic. Not terribly complicated, but still really powerful.

[@dranoradragonqueen1494]

This helped define my sense of magic for my own stories. Thank you for that!

[@DarrylCallowayJr]

What made FFVI so interesting is that the magic system was heavily tied to the plot

[@wiseguy240Winston]

Great video man, 13 Trilogy still is my favourite magic system to date. Everything felt useful with magic in 13 and it generally looked cooler than most games in the series.

[@lune5289]

Same, thx u

[@7x9000]

Two notes about FFXIV's magic. You mentioned scholar and summoner, but not their magic type: Arcanima, which takes from the glyphs and diagrams in their books. There's also Astromancy, used by Astrologians, as another school of magic that focuses on the stars (and Geomancy, it's far-eastern counterpart, focuses on the planet).

[@madambutterfly1997]

Don't remind me of geomancer and how we're probably not going to get it anytime soon in 14 despite the fact that stormblood was practically the perfect opportunity to introduce a third job

[@FinalFantasyUnion]

Thank you for the insight 7x9000! I've added a note in the pinned comment about those additional schools of magic :) ~Darryl

[@311Bambino]

can you do a video about Emet Selch's origins pls? imo his story is one of the more interesting ones when it comes to FF villains

[@BaithNa]

And the most compelling too

[@force132]

Loved the narrative and your voice, listened to the whole thing while working. GJ!

[@wildarmsman]

Thank you for making this video! I've been stuck making a rpg maker game and wasn't sure how to handle the magic system I want to go with, and this has help me with trying to figure it out😀

[@tysonsilvers4903]

I definitely enjoyed this explanation of magic. Just as many friends with final fantasy nowaday, when I first started with ff9 - ff12 - ff8 ffx- ff1&2 -& ff 7, I always took magic for granted and just used the 3 basic blk a cure. When I next played ff13, I got to really see how useful indirect magic can be and to really explore magic, playing the other main ff games, and replaying the previous games i played before.

[@johnkingsize]

Excellent work from you here to make such a broad field - both thematically and temporally - fit into such a neat and palatable video. I knew that it had to be good or otherwise you wouldn't have published it, but I'm still baffled that there was still most of it and in an easy to follow manner. Kudos to you all!

[@Blackhawk1313]

Thank you so much for this excellent video, it’s worth every penny to support y’all but it’s especially satisfying seeing it result in my personal video suggestion become reality.

[@buddah1978egypt]

Great vid! I always appreciate when people go into Final Fantasy 11 in detail :) Although some magic can only be dropped from endgame enemies like Meteor.

[@cereyza]

Love this new style in your videos, looking forward to more!

[@louisdellalucca8969]

That thumbnail! So awesome!

[@thenewguyinred]

You should talk about the history of the two most recurring and iconic super bosses next: Omega and Shinryu.

[@eW91dHViZSBpcyBjZW5zb3JzaGlw]

Some corrections: in FF14 astral polarity is passive, umbral is active. scholar is a call back to green mage, and astrologian is time mage (pre shadowbringers), conjurers/white mages can also use water spells (they only have one idk why)! great vid!

[@pacotorres5968]

This was excellent analysis on magic in final fantasy thanks guys!

[@VcassCsoto]

7 had a great magic system because it really tied itself into the story so heavily. Like I can imagine material actually existing. I would have said 15 even tho I’m not a fan. The creation and alchemy aspect of it made it so much fun to fuck with. And of course six. The beginning of it all imo. Lol

[@oriondezagrats4228]

My first entry into the Final Fantasy series was with Tactics Advance, which, when I'm watching this video, now seems like it had one of the most diverse selections of magic.

[@Sin606]

I don't think White Magic in FF14 is perverse, but I do like the video overall! Thanks for talking about Magic!

[@drunkdrag0n]

I've been a bit iffy as to who to subscribe to for Final Fantasy related content (as a huge nerd myself) but this video has secured it on my list. Well done Union team!

[@gdoubleu8045]

Magic in FF15 was a devolution. I just had no interest after the first few times crafting it. There are the odd nice moments, like you're able to freeze a lake with blizzard, but it wasn't enough to make me bothered about using it regularly.

[@lune5289]

It was tr*sh

[@JosephJohnson-gu5fw]

Note to self.....freeze lake with ice magic...

[@andreaspavlides7560]

Thank you for these videos Union, we love your Evolution videos. My personal preference of Magic interpretation is FFV. Red Mage, Blue Mage, Time Mage.... That game has it all. XD

[@bigpapamatt6488]

haha love the video. also fun to know Dark Knight is a dragoon in FF4. just teasing love you guys keep up the great work

[@garrettjohnson6914]

I know this is a final fantasy focused channel but I would love to see videos in a similar style and topic covering dragon quest. It would be awesome thanks for another great video

[@Abysia]

FF8 was the first game to use the new spell naming convention in English, but earlier games had used it in Japanese.

[@edijay940]

3:00 Dispel doesn't "weaken" anything. It removes positive status effects and some magic-based status ailments, turning them back to their normal status/self.

[@genesisz1]

The first minute I was like “uhmmm this is FF related right?” And then 2nd minute I was like “theeere it is”

[@2bussy]

If you love FF you should know exactly what inspired it into existence.

[@devinrichey]

Excellent video, thank you!

[@kryptickodex3846]

I've really been enjoying your job explained videos. I'd love to see more, and maybe topics like culture, the world, technology, societies in whole. Thanks for the work yeah do

[@jimmyjeff1777]

Are you ever going to continue your evolution of the battle system series?

[@FinalFantasyUnion]

That's a good question James! Pulling together that original video was a huge undertaking and when we published it, and saw interest was quite low, it took the wind out of our sails. There's still a chance we will revisit the concept and build out the other planned parts, but at this point I wouldn't like to say when. ~Darryl

[@orcuswells649]

@@FinalFantasyUnion it’s really a shame that didn’t do well, I thought that was a quite good video and jobs and classes are one of my favorite things to talk about in games, so analyzing all the forms they took was especially interesting to me.

[@AmbientJoe]

Amazing - 1st... I think. I love your videos. Keep them going

[@marcelzimmermann4681]

I know the video is old but thanks anyway for all that stuff. I am currently working on my own RPG Series and, without stealing content, its nice to fix your mind around how the games grew and how everything connects in terms of lore and gameplay. Really makes one think about Game Design

[@MrTimHamilton]

Nice to see Sam Neill's Merlin make the discussion. :D Such a legendary movie!

[@mageyplss]

I like how white mages aren't only defensive and restorative in 3. It's a nice touch, especially since we don't tend to associate wind with black magic

[@Makuro_XIII]

Great breakdown 😄👍🏽 ! Magic surely did have a lot of iterations during the years. I'm very curious about FFXVI magic system that seems to be tied to Summons 🤔.

[@Colgruv]

When talking about summon magic in FFXII, you said, "each character can only learn a finite number" but I think instead you meant, "each summon can only be learned by one character."

[@NikobiEyre]

I love these videos! Keep it up! =D

[@lightning4322]

7:45 "Or by emfeebling or dealing massive damage to their enemies." *does 93 damage*

[@mxtt6911]

love the background music for this video

[@joelbell6275]

Wow, this video was so complex and trippy and cool.

[@kriz2432]

Great Video!! :D

[@Cafebcs]

Congrats on almost 200k subs.

[@FinalFantasyUnion]

Thank you!

[@Cafebcs]

@@FinalFantasyUnion an episode dedicated to mobile final fantasy games would be nice. Few knows there was a java game (romancing saga, or something)

[@AzureIV]

Excellent. Now do the spinoffs like Tactics and Crystal Chronicles.

[@joaocisne556]

that was cool, will we see my favorite class, the white mages soon?

[@michealdickens8610]

You cannot watched the video that fast.

[@joaocisne556]

@@michealdickens8610 I did

[@michealdickens8610]

@@joaocisne556 is a 29 minute video that posted 18 minutes ago.

[@joaocisne556]

@@michealdickens8610 I saw enough to have an opinion

[@michealdickens8610]

@@joaocisne556 just admit you lied. This is embarrassing. You listed literally two minutes after the video was there.

[@mitchelltriggs7223]

Great video dude! Is there a reason you didnt cover freyas dragoon magic? Red mages have always been my favorite and I feel like freya deserved some coverage lol

[@mr.jeorgexiii1732]

I love the lore of FFXIV magic system and how it divided the black and white schools

[@BoBBaB0oN]

Whenever I sees Vivi, I cries.

[@12ealDealOfficial]

Difficult to say which FF game had the best magic system. I like the cheese-ability of FF8's system the most with the Triple Triad integration. This is probably because once stats were nice and padded with plenty of refined magic, you had incentive to ignore magic altogether. The only games I dabbled with magic successfully were Demon's Souls and its sequels, especially Demon's given how broken Faith made the second half of the game. FFX made magic super simple, while FF4 made every spell useful no matter how late in the game you were. Too much flexibility in games like FFXII put me off, as I never get the impression in games like those that I'm playing optimally without a guide. All in all, a pretty interesting video! Props to the new editor!

[@DaltonGoesSlow]

I was about to complain I didn't get the notification but I didn't have them enabled 😂 that's fixed now!!

[@Firestar4041]

As a famous Blue Mage once said; "Its magic, i aint gotta explain shit!" Before shortly after misscasting self destruct.

[@velasoraptor_]

Never been this early before. Awesome!

[@JavierIAcuna]

8:52 the Dark Knight Cecil sprite is labeled as Dragoon; the Dragoon was Kain.

[@SirenoftheVoid]

Thank you for this video.I would be parrtial to FF VI,it felt so right!

[@Alex55455]

I have recently been replaying all the early Final Fantasy games through the pixel remasters lately and what stood out to me how dang powerful magic is in FF6 which does make sense plot wise to it. In FF6 the level 2/ra spells are so strong in that game that they are still literally viable to use even in the final boss battle. You can easily hit an enemy for 5-6k damage with a neutral Fira at the end of the game and if they are weak to the element then you will do 9999 damage. Still the best strategy is to just go for quick then spam dual cast flare or ultima with an MP cost reducing relic.

[@saladinboss2507]

Squall and Lightning be like, "What is magic again?"

[@lune5289]

Lightning know more than all of them tho

[@RasenRendanX]

FF16 is gonna have some really wild magic to i feel

[@2bussy]

Hopefully nothing like 15, shit fuckin' SUCKED.

[@ryanjay707]

In FFXIV, in my opinion, BLK Mage are the strongest DPS along with Summoner class. I mained as a WAR/tank and always paid attention to to how fast each classes DPS hit.

[@calebmarshall5739]

Black mages are the strongest dps but it's balanced by long cast times and needing to stand in the circle

[@darkfent]

With 16 I think it would be more like 8 and 15 being tweaked based on the eikons, and with dmc style integration

[@trunksfit9403]

Since the ff7 intergrade trailer is out. Could you do a in depth video about weiss? It would be very interesting to hear it from your perspective! Thanks for all these great videos!!

[@mikhailthegreatestdragon3627]

This video is great, but when are you guys gonna do White Mages? Give us healers some love yo

[@jgvgarcia]

Red mage for life!!!

[@Omegaroth666]

12:40 You didn't mention the chemist job when mentioning magic from items. It had the capability to make all sorts of magical effects, like Mighty Guard (Protect/Shell), Float, Berserk, or even the Death spell.

[@Jebbtube]

8:50 I didn't know Cecil was also a dragoon when he was a dark knight XP

[@JeffreySmiles_]

Another evolution video!😁

[@Cloud971]

Great video as always but there's an error at 8:52 Dragoon is not Kain but Cecil Black Knight form.

[@ThePhildefer001]

Love ff14 magic, especially mudra from ninjutsus.

[@freesheep0]

I like the character specific way.

[@kevinjimenez5382]

Still waiting for the evolution of white mages

[@TheStandardBearer]

Very nice video

[@SaiyanInDisguise]

I've seen you do origin stories with other characters do you think you'll ever do an origin story on the onion Knight

[@alarsenal10]

This video is superb work. You guys are amazing. The Dia spell needs a come back (maybe XVI?). Also, the sheer number of magics FFII added to FF (Ultima among them) deserves further consideration for that game. Geomancy was in III as well, no?

[@dominiquesavoie568]

Dia actually came back in FFXIV Shadowbrigners as the White Mage's dot (replacing Aero 2 from level 72 onwards).

[@alarsenal10]

@@dominiquesavoie568 That's awesome

[@Vinylmelody1517]

Always been a fan of time magic in ff and it's various spinoff like Kingdom hearts. There's something so cool about spells like stop.

[@tiago.ramos.]

Hey Final Fantasy Union and fans! Love your channel! Can you tell me if the book *The Legacy of the Crystal* holds the story of each FF in a Prosaic style? or just curiosities and technical details about the games? Thoughtfully...

[@Jghjkl829]

The video I didn’t know I needed

[@azuza2525]

My favorite has been 4. I like the characters learning as they level up.

[@kingzerox45]

I like the part with "summon mythical beasts" and out pops a chocobo.

[@sc9573]

i think magic lore might be interesting - whether it was widely available or taboo or central to the plot in each game

[@EmanuelLordAnuEnkiEnlilMarduq9]

thank you