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I betcha this has been done already, but I couldn't find it anywhere on the forums. And if it was done, I might as well bring it back for a while.

There are two things that help define final fantasy. Within the battle system, you usually have a choice between different actions. Two of them are almost always "Fight" and "Magic" (Whether it says black, or white, or time, or whatever, it's still magic.)


Over the years, I've come to realize I'm a very physical rpger, in the sense that my strategy in rpgs, namely Final Fantasys in this case, is to beef up my characters and have them hit for crazy amounts of damage. I never really liked magic. But everyone seems to have their own preference.

My cousin loves black magic, couldn't live without it.

And so, in all likeliness, a thread is revisited to ask this timeless question,






Do you prefer Fight?



Or



Do you prefer Magic?

I was just like you before, concentrating solely on physical attack. Guess I just hated to waste MP:P
But these days I really enjoy casting magic, especiall those which causes status effects.
Of course a good mix of the two is to prefer, but if I had to choose I'd chose magic.

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The end has no end.

Magic thankies

I like the versatility of mages, fighting types tend only to be able to fight, and when you encounter someone with stupidly high defence they become useless

I rather use fight then magic. But what about other abilities like Blitzes, or Rages?

Depends on the game, some final fantasies lack savespots before the bosses, hence its crucial to save your mana for that fight...

FFXII always have crystals before the big baddies, meaning you can burn your MP all you want. I still rely on physical attacks however, as mana spent on black magic, is mana you can't spend on white - and the difference in black magic and "attack" damage is not big enough to compensate for this, IMO!

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All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Broccoli to die.

I guess I prefer to attack more often than not. I mean, most of the time the best use of magic in a Final Fantasy game is to provide Cure breaks in between random battles.

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BanjoTheClown  Posted on 11th October 2007 20:58
 
I rather use fight then magic. But what about other abilities like Blitzes, or Rages?

To clarify, I'm asking whether you prefer physical attack to magical attack. Every ff has their own unique abilities, that can fall under either category. But all the same, in the grand scheme of it all which do you prefer to help you protect the world, and gather crystals, and kill clowns, and what not.

I prefer magic all the way!!! It's fun to cast varying different spells. What I mean by that is, Vivi, for example, I'll have him alternate among Firaga, Blizzaga, and Thundaga with occasional other spells in-between. I have no particular preference among Black Magic, White Magic, Status-altering Magic, and Time Magic 'cuz they all have their uses.

Nothing wrong at all with having your powerhouses clean the battlefield with pure physicality, but I think mages in general are more fun to use 'cuz more often than not, they have less HP and defense compared to primary physical attackers, thus you have to strategize more to keep them alive while they utilize to the fullest extent exactly what brought them to the dance. As opposed to a Knight or Monk, you can equip the optimum weapon/armor combination in any given situation, then plow the field by repeatedly attacking with an occasional Potion every now and then.

Blue Magic is my favorite "school of magic", but I consider it more of a special skill/Limit than the others.

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Magic. As I've used it more, it seems to usually be more powerful than Fight. Plus, healing.

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In a general way, I'd have to say fight. I usually forget to use spells, unless they aford me a huge advantage. I am a cure fanatic, but for offensive spells I just can't be bothered.

However, more often than not I really prefer special attacks. Tools or Blitzes in FF VI, Double or Triple Techs in Chrono Trigger (Does that count as magic?) that sort of thing. I really enjoy it when a charecter has something unique to bring to my strategies.

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It often depends on the game. With something like VI, I always had Terra bulk up her Magic stat and unleash spells like Ultima just to get things done fast, considering that Osmose is epic win...but everyone else would just attack, because it's what they were best at.

In a game like VII, I used regular attacking more than anything else, usually. I would occasionally use an All-ed magic spell just to get this done fast, but usually attacking worked for me.

Well, really, it depends on the game. I never used Black Magic in 1, mainly because its damage is outclassed by well placed physical attacks and MP is somewhat limited. I never found myself using Black Magic in 2,3 and 5 either...

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I use whatever the character has as a skill. If the class or character has good magic attacks I'll use magic, and if it's fighting skills then I use fight. So a little of both I guess.

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Magic uses the really cool special effects animation and stuff... Can't go wrong with that!! Hehe.

But I think I'm actually more of a phisical hit type of fighter, mostly because I get anal about having my HP/MP read anything less than max... *L* I'm like, "Nooo.... do not have MP-refilling prospects for several more areas... must not drain MP... ahhhh!!"

But in a lot of my games, I tend to use the fighters a lot more than the mages.

....unless the mage is Vivi, in which case, he's ALWAYS there.

Well, I used to ALWAYS save my mp, ethers and elixirs, but now whenever I play through a FF game I put all three to use. Some spells are kinda "useless" since you can often just whack everything to death, but Sometimes it's fun to "play" with monsters rather than kill them; sleep them, mini them, pig them, steal from them, drain their mp, poison them, etc.

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Physical attacks, always. Unless the game is designed in such a way that I am forced to use magic, I will build physically based teams every time.

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~Pacifist Badge, 1978

What you can do in one turn:

Fight = 9999 max on one target

Magic (taken from FFV) = Doublecast (Quick + Meteor) 9999 + Doublecast (Meteor + Meteor) 19998 + Doublecast (Meteor + Meteor) 19998 max, totaling 49995 to all opponets.

Magic (49995 all) > Fight (9999 one)

Nuff said

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I guess I prefer to attack more often than not. I mean, most of the time the best use of magic in a Final Fantasy game is to provide Cure breaks in between random battles.

that pretty much covers me as well. especially noting how easily (with the exception of FFXII) you can deplete your MP.

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It's funny. I prefer magic, but i always end up using all of my mp after 5 battles in dungeon, so i have everyone as a magic spammer, and melee expert afterwards. this is for ff6. in ff1 i like white, black, and red mage, plus knight. in ff2, everyone, even guy, had all of their spells at lvl 8 or more. and ultima at lvl 16 for whoever had it, i think leon. in ff3, all onion knights, at lvl 99. in ff4 cecil, rydia, rosa, palam, and porom as team. This is for all the gba nad ds remakes. for ff5, i don't remember, but i alwasy had a healer, and black magic er, a fighter, and a specialist in one area, poroboly summopner. I love magic.

Really, it depends on the character. No matter the game, I always have magic users and physical attackers which always stick to their roles. For example, in FFVI I tend to use a party of Relm, Terra, Edgar, and Strago. Edgar always Fights or use Tools, Terra alternates between spells and physical attacks, and Strago and Relm constantly cast spells. Or in FFVIII, I always have Irvine and Zell attack, Selphie and Rinoa cast spells, and Squall and Quistis alternate.

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Like apparently many people here, I generally stick to physical attacks for non-boss enemies and magic and/or physicals for boss enemies. There are exceptions to the rule, but generally the way that Final Fantasy magic works is:

Early Game: Magic is fairly underpowered except for weaknesses. Only magic cast is curative, and a little black magic in boss fights. Although everything is vulnerable to instant-death attacks, you don't have any to use.

Mid Game: Higher-level magic is prohibitively expensive for non-boss fights, and generally crucial for boss fights.

End Game: Normal monsters are immune to all but the best magics, bosses even more-so (sorry, no elemental weaknesses here!). All magic is now cheap to cast, and generally every fight contains a flare or ultima casting. Now that you have several instant-death attacks, everything is immune to them.

There are exceptions to these rules, in fact, this is so much hyperbole that it probably doesn't adhere perfectly in ANY Final Fantasy game, but this is the stereotypical trend.

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Oh sure, I don't have to get kicked in the junk to activate it, but I like it anyway. -- Thief commenting on the difference between Throw and Blue Magic.

so true...

Moderator Edit

Please don't post just to agree with something someone else said, especially if that's all you have to say. It doesn't add to the discussion. -R51

EDIT: I apologize, Ranger51, and I will discontinue this habit immiedietly. I have edited to apologize instead of posting, as posting would be spamming, as you have said. once again, I apoligize.

This post has been edited by DR FF DS on 17th October 2007 20:50

I think magic cools and can be effective, but generally, I use physical attacks mostly.
They are usually just as powerful and I usually make them elemental depending were I am on the game and such.

Also combining "death" with attack is pretty cool.

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In the end, it boils down to two simple choices. Either you do or you don't.

I prefer magic on characters who have free or close to free MP regeneration abilities like Chakra, Osmose, Psych ect. The versatility and effectiveness of spells is enough to warrant the loss of a few turns here and there for me. In fact, this is true to the degree where I'd prefer such characters who have these MP regeneration abilities to those who don't. I'll try to train all my characters to have one such ability in a game where I have control over the character's skill sets ASAP.

Otherwise I'll use fight and no cost specials as my primary commands until either a boss fight occurs or a situation where some or all of my characters are getting too close to dead for my comfort. I definitively do not like this sort of situation however, as I feel it sorta makes the random battles almost like a chore to me since there often aren't any real choices to be made within them, aside from picking a target, ganging up on it until it's dead, then picking the next target. Not exactly the most thought provoking activity, unless the targets are set up in such a way where you have to plan out your approach behind this beforehand, I'd say. A rarity in random battles indeed, as they're supposed to be easy for the majority portion of most games...

So chalk me up as the Magely sort. Definitively.

This post has been edited by Tonepoet on 25th November 2007 15:18

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Role reversal at its finest.

I like attacking often beacuse I just hate wasting MP, unless I have osmose or something. Then it's also fun to blast the enemy into tiny pieces with black magic, and it's extremly usefull at bosses. But all in all, I mostly preefer physical attacks.

I do prefer the Fight Command

conceptually, fight

but seriously Magic for FF.
I guess there is a "little bit" of casting time if you use magic, but not too much- it's just that magic in FF has no cooldown. You can use ultima and use another ultima right after it...and another if u want. In boss fights, the games ends fast with lots of magic :>

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I will be there...

I genrally fight but in FFVII I do use enemy skills a great deal becaise they're so useful, i guess its a mix really

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WTF?!

I fight if I'm gaining experience points. I save the magic for boss fights, and to get to the boss. I hate using MP points unless I need to further the story.

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Thank you Link, but our Triforce is in another castle.

I prefer Magic it's a little more fun

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Wee FF VIII rules... XD

I cannot divide myself away from both battle commands, for if an enemy I'm facing is immune to magic by casting some kind of barrier or reflecting magic, then I'm going to have to use fight. But if physical attacks are nullified or reduced, then I will have to use magic.. So in other words I prefer fight and magic. Magic is better for the strategy, but fighting hardly wastes MP and it's usually much quicker.