Magic Hammer. Useful skill, also quite comical, especially in FFVII.

Magic Hammer - 4
Limit Glove - 8


Bit of a late rush there for Magic Hammer, but it's Quina's Limit Glove that moves on to the second round. Oh, and for the record, to the best of my knowledge, Magic Hammer absorbs MP in FFVII if you have the Playstation version, but only drains it if you have the PC version. And in other FFs that have it, I guess it just drains it. I suppose I could be wrong, though, I can check it if anyone wants...


Anyways, moving on...


Roulette (A blue magic spell present in several FFs. As indicated by its name, it's a bit of a gamble because it instantly kills any target-- but that target is selected randomly and could be one of your team. Oh, you're probably wasting your time if you're trying it on a boss, because like any such instant-death spell, it generally doesn't work against them.)

vs.

Frog Song - Final Fantasy VII (Pretty self-explanatory. This little spell has the power to place all targets in Frog status. This is another one that isn't likely to work against bosses, but it's still sometimes possible to work it against some tough opponents. Of course, when it does, it's great, because an enemy that's been turned into a frog can pretty much do nothing except weak physical attacks.)

Roulette.

Frog Song

Frog Song.

Frog Song

Frog Song

Frog Song, I guess.

Frog Song

Roulette.

Not so much because I like it, but rather because I have recollections of the horribly tedious battles that could ensue in FFVII when you encountered the six 'Touch Mes' in the forest near Cosmo Canyon that used 'Frog Song' every turn and generally took at least 10 minutes to finally finish off, unless you could get in quickly with a spell that targeted all of them at the beginning of the battle.

Even though Frog Song was occasionally useful in your party's hands, I still loathed it as a skill for that reason.

Edit: This must be the longest post ever in a rumble, by the way. Apologies if this rant gets in the way of vote counting.

I don't mind little rants like that! ^^

I'm not a huge fan of either ability, but I'm going for Roulette.

Roulette.

Roulette

Ceidwad-- not at all. Please, anybody, anytime that wants to, feel free. I personally think that it adds interest.

In any case...

Roulette - 5
Frog Song - 6


Actually turned out to be pretty close there, but Frog Song takes it by one vote. I get the sense of a lack of enthusiasm for either choice, though, so we'll see how it fares in Round 2.

Next up...

Laser / Missile (A skill / blue magic found in several FFs. When effective, it had the power to half an enemy's HP. Again, the type of thing that generally wouldn't work on bosses, but potentially useful against certain other high HP targets.)

vs.

Step Mine - Final Fantasy VI (A Lore blue magic usable by Strago. Damage is 1/32 of total steps taken and MP cost is variable and based on elapsed playtime x 2. Oh, and this is one of the curious ones that can also be accessed by Gau as a Rage ability.)

Step Mine can be accessed by Gau? Which enemy is it?

Anyway, Laser/Missile.

Laser/Missile

Laser / Missile b/c Micro Missiles works wonders on Tonberries in FFVIII.

Laser / Missile

As creative as Step Mine is, I prefer Laser / Missile

Laser/Missile

Laser/Missile.

Laser/Missile. Works wonders for me.

Laser/Missile - 8
Step Mine - 0


Laser/Missile wins our first blowout of the edition. Sorry, Step Mine.

Next up...

Lv# Death (A skill that allows you to deal instant death to enemies with a certain level. Sometimes that level is 5, but sometimes it's something different. Sometimes it can be "?" meaning that it's determined randomly, making it much more a factor of luck. Can be very useful sometimes, though.)

vs.

Night - Final Fantasy IX (A blue magic for Quina that casts sleep across the entire field, including your own party. Dangerous, of course, if you don't have the ability equipped on your party to protect them against sleep. Great, though, if you do, and you're facing a tough enemy, maybe even a boss that can be put to sleep.)

Lv# Death

Lv# Death

Lv# Death

Night. As well as being a cool and original ability, it was useful if you had your party in Regen, even if they weren't protected by Insomniac.

Lv# Death

Level # Death for me.

Lv#Death.

Night with insomniac was the best way to neutralize Yans

Night

Night. As well as being a cool and original ability, it was useful if you had your party in Regen, even if they weren't protected by Insomniac.

Lv# Death. Not that I like instantaneous and cold-hearted skills, I just adored it when being used by Ahrimans in "Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2: Grimoire of the Rift" and it starts wiping out the monster party i.e. in Galleria Deep when hunting for Black Chocobos. Sucks when the target Choco dies but that's gaming..

Lv# Death

Lv# Death - 8
Night - 4


Night had its supporters, but Lv# Death is the more favored skilled. It moves on to the second round.

Next...

Bad Breath (Of course, it sucked when this was used against you, but in some FFs, you could gain the use of this as well. It, of course, inflicts multiple status ailments. So depending on what game you're playing and what enemy you're fighting, you could end up with a sleeping, silenced, confused, etc. frog. Of course, many bosses are resistant or immune to status ailments, as well as many tougher monsters. And you don't usually have a chance to get it until late in the game. Even given that, though, it can still be a pretty nifty little skill...)

vs.

Degenerator - Final Fantasy VIII (A blue magic limit ability for Quistis. Quite simply, this ability vanquishes a single enemy from the screen. It works against pretty much all non-boss monsters, including tough ones such as Malboros, T-Rexaurs, and Ruby Dragons.)

Bad Breath was one of my favorites to use.

Degenerator

Bad Breath.

Bad Breath

Gotta go with Bad Breath, brings back many painful memories and is worthy of a vote on that merit alone.

Bad Breath

Bad Breath and those ugly green @#$^* that spew it are a trademark of FF series

Bad Breath was annoying when used on your party, but awesome when you actually got to use it.

Bad Breath - it was fun to turn it on the enemies for once.

You're shitting me. Degenerator all the way.

Bad Breath

Bad Breath, now that's super effective!

Bad Breath.

Bad Breath.

Bad Breath - 12
Degenerator - 2


Wow. That didn't go at all the way I expected. I kinda thought it might be an uphill battle for Bad Breath. Dunno, never found it all that useful myself, given how generally a lot of more powerful enemies could resist it, that, I found Degenerator quite helpful at times. In any case, Bad Breath moves on by a wide margin, and we move on to this next battle...

Aqualung / Aqua Breath (A skill present in several FFs. As implied by the title, it attacks for reasonably strong water-based damage.)

vs.

Frog Drop - Final Fantasy IX (A skill dealing damage based on a multiple of Quina's level and the number of frogs caught at the Qu Marshes. So it could stronger just by leveling Quina up, but in order to really pile on the damage, you had to go out catch those frogs. One of only a few skills in the game that could deal a guaranteed 9,999 damage [it maxes at 9,999], if you bothered to power it up.)

Aqualung / Aqua Breath

Aqualung / Aqua Breath

Aqualung / Aqua Breath

Aqualung / Aqua Breath

Aqualung / Aqua Breath

Aqualung / Aqua Breath

Aqualung. Water-elemental attacks in FFVII ftw, especially as so many things in that game tend to absorb at least one of the primary elements.

Aqualung ('cause Jethro Tull lolz~)

Aqualung/Aqua Breath

'K, that's a blowout, let's get this ended...

Aqualung / Aqua Breath - 9
Frog Drop - <font color="red">0</font>


The Quina skill can't muster up even a single vote. Aqualung / Aqua Breath easily moves on to the next round.

Our next battle is...

Doom (A skill available in several FFs that basically puts a single target on a countdown to death. For those targets that it works on, once the countdown finishes up, the target is KOed. I guess it's a useful skill if you just like watching a clock count down, if you think it'll reach 0 before you can just defeat the enemy properly.)

vs.

Annihilator - Final Fantasy X-2 (A Blue Bullet ability of FFX-2's Gun Mage dressphere. You learn this one from the Experiment at Djose Temple, it'll use it if its Special level is 5. It's an all-target attack that deals non-elemental magic damage that ignores Magic Defense [though not Shell.])

Doom

Doom~

Annihilator (name of a really good Canadian band, too)

Doom

Annihilator. Cool how it's hidden (you just need Special 5 and I like how that's all "Special" does) and fun to learn. Also useful.

Doom is meh nothing special and a normal magic in a lot of other games.

And not one vote for Frog Drop is appauling. Shame I missed that one.

Doom. This one is a classic.

Doom~

Annihilator

Doom~

Annihilator

Doom

Annihilator - because Doom either didn't work or took too long.

Doom

Doom.

Doom

Doom

Doom - 11
Annihilator - 5


The Blue Bullet from X-2 picks up several votes, but Doom wins this one fairly handily. 60, 59, 58...


All right, the next battle is...

Quasar - Final Fantasy VI (A Lore blue magic ability for Strago. It costs 50 MP and is a reasonably powerful attack that pierces enemy defenses and attacks all targets for non-elemental damage. Can be learned from the Goddess [statue boss] in Kefka's Tower and also [if you're lucky] from the Dark Force monster that uses numerous Lores.)

vs.

Jump - Final Fantasy X (It doesn't get much simpler than this, but it can be very effective. Kimahri doesn't actually learn this from any enemy, at least that we see. He has this skill by default. Of course, like any other of his, you can use it if he goes into Overdrive. Kimahri leaps and comes back down upon the enemy for additional damage. In other FFs, this skill is generally available to those with "Lancer" or "Dragoon" type abilities.)


BTW, this is the first of two battles in the first round in which both of the entrants are abilities that (at least as far as blue magic goes, anyway) are specific to one particular FF. ('Cause I included 14 in the many-FF grouping and 18 in the one-FF grouping.)

Jump.

Jump

Jump

Jump

Jump

Anything Dragoon-related gets my vote: Jump

Jump

Jump - cos' dragoons are awesome.

Wow, not even one vote for Quasar. And so another of Strago's Lore abilities goes down. That's 8-0 and that's a blowout...


Quasar - <font color="red">0</font>
Jump - 8


And that means we get to move straight on to...

White Wind (A type of blue magic / enemy skill present in a few different FFs. Also goes by the name "Pearl Wind." It actually can work in different ways based on which FF you're playing. One example-- in FFVII it heals all allies equal to the caster's current HP and also heals a number of negative status effects. As another example, Quina can use this skill in IX, but it heals based on Quina's max HP. Not always the easiest or most obvious skill to come by, as you generally have to take control of the enemy or confuse it in order to learn it.)

vs.

Shockwave Pulsar - Final Fantasy VIII (Considered to be Quistis's most powerful blue magic ability. Enemies are lifted into a giant explosion for massive damage-- one of the few attacks in the game that can break the 9,999 damage limit. This one is very tough to learn-- you need the item Dark Matter, which can be obtained by using Tool-RF on 100 Curse Spikes, but only if your Siren GF is at level 100. The only other alternative is to be lucky enough to win a Dark Matter from the game Chocobo World, if you have access to that.)

White Wind

White Wind

White Wind

White Wind indeed.

White Wind

White Wind easily.

White Wind

White Wind helped me so many times it's hard not to vote for it!

White Wind

White Wind

We have another blowout. Let's not waste anymore time, then. Let's get his ended...

White Wind - 10
Shockwave Pulsar - <font color="red">0</font>

Quistis's most powerful attack skill-- no match for the healing power of White Wind, which blows its way in a massive gust into the second round.


Next battle is:

Black Shock / Dischord (A skill that goes by at least a couple of different names. Either way, the result is the same-- this skill halves the level of the enemy. This can seriously weaken the enemy, and also in some cases make it vulnerable to Lv# type blue magic attacks.)

vs.

Beta - Final Fantasy VII (A powerful fire-based that can only be learned from the Midgar Zolom. It'll use this once it's knocked a character out of battle and you've worn down its HP to around 1000. This attack affects all targets and can be learned immediately after leaving Midgar with the right strategy, making it an extremely useful skill to have early on. It affects all targets and will pretty much decimate them at that point in the game and for quite a long time on.)

Black Shock / Dischord

Beta. Black Shock/Dischord sounds alot like one of the roulette effects in FFVII's Golden Saucer 8-round Arena, meaning - in my inexperienced mind - that you would still have to hack at the enemy with just a slight percentage decrease in entirety, seeing as in the Golden Saucer Arena you can still survive a long time until your level is halved to where your max HP is in the hundreds only.

Beta. Cuz it can be used against bosses.

Beta

Beta

Black Shock / Dischord

Black Shock / Dischord

Beta

Beta.

Beta

Beta

Black Shock / Dischord

Black Shock / Dischord

Beta

(wow - over a year since i posted on these boards...)

Beta

Beta!

Beta, because fake frenchman love it.

Black Shock / Dischord - 5
Beta - 12

Nice turnout on this Election Day (and in the couple days before it :) ). Black Shock / Dischord picks up some support, but nothing like that shown for the fiery Beta skill. It blazes its way to the second round. And now, another chance to make your voice heard with the next battle...


???? / Revenge / Pumpkin Head (Another skill that goes by different names. The basic thrust of it is this, though-- this skill does damage based on Max HP - Current HP. "Revenge" is, perhaps, an apt name, then, since it could potentially do some nice damage if your characters have just taken a powerful attack from the enemy. I.E., if the character's max HP is 9,999 and they're currently at 1 HP, then the skill would do 9,998 damage. Of course, use of this skill has to be balanced against whether or not the turn might be better spent healing a character before they get KOed...)

vs.

Nova - Final Fantasy X (Kimahri's most powerful attack blue magic in terms of damage. It can only be learned from either Omega Weapon or Nemesis. This attack causes massive damage to all targets.)

Nova. I could never remember to use situational skills like Revenge.

Nova - Final Fantasy X

Nova

Bah. It posted twice

Nova

Nova

Nova

Nova

Nova

Nova

Let's keep this moving...

???? / Revenge / Pumpkin Head - <font color="red">0</font>
Nova - 9


Kimahri's best attack blue magic gets a blowout victory and moves forward to the next round.


Just a few more battles left to go before that next round. Let's continue with:

Mighty/Big Guard (A defensive type of blue magic used to protect the party. It generally casts Shell / Protect type effects on the party and may also cast Haste or other protective / benefecial statuses depending on which FF you're playing.)

vs.

Shadow Flare - Final Fantasy VII (A neat looking black-and-white [hence the name "Shadow" portion of the name] that hits a single target for powerful non-elemental damage.)

Mighty/Big Guard

I can see another demolition here.

Mighty/Big Guard

Mighty/Big Guard

Mighty/Big Guard

Mighty/Big Guard

Omg Trent I love your sig <3

I c wot u did thar ^^,

Mighty Guard

I'm really going to have to go against the flow here. Shadow Flare deserves at least one vote.

I like both!

Mighty/Big Guard helped me out a lot though.

Mighty/Big Guard

Mighty/Big Guard

Mighty/Big Guard for me.

Jumping on the Mighty/Big Guard bandwagon.

Shadow Flare

Shadow Flare

Mighty/Big Guard.

All right, sorry for the wait. Let's end this...

Mighty/Big Guard - 12
Shadow Flare - 3


Pretty much walkover, though Shadow Flare does pick up some support. Three battles left in the first round. Continuing with...


Fusion / Pep Up (Another one with more than one name, but the basic idea is the same. This skill sacrifices the character's life to heavily damage the enemy. It's available as a Blue Magic in V and VI, though other FFs have skills like this as well, it's just that they're not blue magic.)

vs.

Angel's Snack - Final Fantasy IX (A Quina blue magic that uses Remedy on the entire party, allowing healing of status ailments on all of your characters at once if needed.)

Angel's Snack

Transfusion/Pep Up

Fusion / Pep Up

Fusion/Pep Up. Risky attacks should always win over regular attacks, just like Revenge should've won a few rounds ago. I mean, it's attacks like these that provide the majority of challenge in FF games. Otherwise, the battles would be even more tedious and boring than they already are.

Angels Snack.

I'm not going to look it up if someone already knows this, how effective that particular self-sacrificing skill is. If it's as bad as the normal non-blue magic abilities, in FF ten and tactics for example, then that's not very risky, it's just a 2x more powerful than a regular attack effect, and that would be what makes the game boring, not challenging..but I don't know what Fusion/Pepup does,--------------------

I have alloted (Chrono Cross foreva!) the majority of my linguistical/terminology/social media memory to more recent activities (books(keeps a sharp mind), news(waste of time unless you actually have a class or friends that give a hoot, or an interest in a particular event/location/person(s)), and video games,

like that lucid dream thread I too force my subconscious to replay video games because I currently lack the resources :'(
to record and play streaming gameplay of grand rpg/action titles to ogle at reflexively.

----------but I'm sure it's what everyone else knows it to be (because they've actually played it duh..).

Angel's Snack

Angel Snack

Angel's Snack

Fusion/Pep Up

Fusion/Pep-Up

Angel's Snack

Angel's Snack

I didn't use both abilities a lot, really. But Fusion/Pep Up somehow more. ~

Fusion/Pep Up

I've never played either of the games with Fusion/Pep Up (I did play VI and probably got it but didn't know what it did), but given your description it sounds like a Dark Knight skill from X-2 called Charon. I like that much better than Angel's Snack so it gets my vote.

Angel's Snack is quite nice to have against some bosses and monsters.

Angel's Snack

Fusion / Pep Up - 8
Angel's Snack - 9


Wow. Much closer battle than I thought. Angel's Snack takes this one, making it the only blue magic ability unique to Quina to make it through to the second round. And there are only two battles left before that. Next up...

Thrust Kick - Final Fantasy X (Kimahri's Thrust Kick launches a powerful blow that delivers non-elemental damage to a single target. It can also simply blow away the target, knocking it out of the battle entirely, unless the enemy is immune or resistant to eject-type effects.)

vs.

Cry in the Night - Final Fantasy X-2 (One of the most powerful Blue Bullet skills for the Gun Mage. This one is extremely difficult to get, as it can only be learned from an oversouled Mega Tonberry at low HP. It deals extremely powerful [breaks the damage limit] non-elemental magic damage to all targets.)

Thrust Kick. It has helped me out loads of times.

Thrust Kick

Cry in the Night. Only appreciable by those who actually got it.

Cry In the Night by a long shot. I LOVE when Blue Magic is hidden in a sneaky way no matter how much of a bitch it is to get. Like GrandTrain (not hard, just sneaky) or Pandora's Box (VII), or anything you have a limited amount of chances to get from bosses alone and stuff, and/or must have specific criteria. A lot of X-2's Blue Magic was like this.

Plus Cry in the Night is an awesome skill, looks cool. Unfortunately it'll probably lose due to Olde's statement, but... Thrust Kick? Lame, Shooting Star is FAR more fun for that purpose. Plus Kimahri sucks.

BTW you can also use Cry in the Night from Lady Luck Random Reels.

Cry in the Night. Only appreciable by those who actually got it.

Cry In the Night by a long shot. I LOVE when Blue Magic is hidden in a sneaky way no matter how much of a bitch it is to get.

This :)

Cry in the Night

Because Thrust Kick was annoying to deal with when the enemy had it and if you use it you don't get xp from the guy knocked out (if I remember correctly).

Cry In The Night

Cry in the Night. Only appreciable by those who actually got it.

So true~

Cry in the Night

Thrust Kick

Cry in the Night

I liked Thrust Kick. I'm sure Cry in the Night is every bit as awesome as those who've gone to the trouble to get it testify, but (for whatever reason) since FFVII, I can rarely be bothered with getting hyper-powerful moves like that.

Thrust Kick

Cry in the Night

Cry in the Night.

Thrust Kick

I hated having to beat the stronger YKT-11 before the YAT-99's on the highbridge in Bevelle. The YAT-99's could do more damage, but if you got them first, you got kicked out! Tidus's brotherhood sword is most effective there. Best place to level up, ever!

But the YKT-11's thrust kick is a great attack. I'm mainly voting for it because of it use for them, rather than Kimahri.

Thrust Kick - 6
Cry in the Night - 11


Good battle. Looks like more than enough people got Cry in the Night for it to win handily, though.

Our final battle of the first round...

Lv# Confuse (Like the Lv# Death type spells, but in this case, the spell confuses all targets of a certain level.)

vs.

Grand Train - Final Fantasy VI (Said to be Strago's strongest Lore ability. There's only one monster he can learn it from-- the fabled Hidon at Ebot's Rock. It's an extremely powerful non-elemental magic attack against all targets.)

Grand Train.

Grand Train

Grand Train.

Grand Train

Grand Train

Lv#Confuse

Grand Train

Grand Train

Grand Train

What game HAD Lv*Confuse? Not any one I played...

GrandTrain

Grand Train

What game HAD Lv*Confuse? Not any one I played...
Final Fantasy VI, although it was called "Muddle" in that game. Hmm... and I guess that's actually the only one. Ah well. Anyway, Grand Train by a landslide...


Lv# Confuse - 1
Grand Train - 10


We now continue to the second round...


White Wind
Mighty/Big Guard
Aqualung / Aqua Breath
Lv# Death
Doom
Blowfish / 1000 Needles
Bad Breath
Laser / Missile

Grand Train - Final Fantasy VI
Beta - Final Fantasy VII
Frog Song - Final Fantasy VII
Limit Glove - Final Fantasy IX
Angel's Snack - Final Fantasy IX
Jump - Final Fantasy X
Nova - Final Fantasy X
Cry in the Night - Final Fantasy X-2


Looks like we're left with an even number of game-specific blue magic abilities and ones that are present in multiple FFs. First battle of the second round...


Doom

vs.

Beta - Final Fantasy VII

Doom

Beta

Love skills that are hidden in a sneaky way, and actually found it useful. Plus Doom is a regular magic in most of the games!

Beta.

Beta

Beta

Doom

Beta is very overkill if you get it at the first possible point but is cool nonetheless.

Beta

Beta is very overkill if you get it at the first possible point but is cool nonetheless.

Beta

Beta

Beta

Beta

Beta

Beta.

Beta

Let's end this thrashing...

Doom - 2
Beta - 14


Doom picks up a couple of supporters, but that's all. Beta easily passes through to the quarter-finals. Let's see how things go for the next one...


Laser / Missile

vs.

Nova - Final Fantasy X


Both of these are fairly useful skills. Laser / Missile is a bit more on the practical side, while Nova is a powerful / flashy type skill. Let's see which wins out. Cast your votes!

Laser / Missile

Nova - Final Fantasy X

Laser / Missile.

Laser / Missile

Nova

Nova

Laser / Missile

Nova

Laser

Laser

Laser

Nova

Looks like the DNS is still messed up, I'm just going to go ahead and update this...

Laser / Missile - 7
Nova - 6


Laser / Missile wins a very close battle. Next is...


Lv# Death

vs.

Angel's Snack - Final Fantasy IX


Both of these can be fairly useful skills. But only one will make it to the quarter-finals. Cast your votes!

Angel's Snack - Final Fantasy IX

Angels Snack

Angel's Snack

Angel's Snack

Angel's Snack

Lv# Death !

Angel's Snack

Angel's Snack

Angel's Snack

Angel's Snack

Angel's Snack

Lv# Death - 1
Angel's Snack - 10


Wow, not even close. Lv# Death only manages one vote-- thought it would have been a bit more popular than that. Angel's Snack easily on to the quarter-finals.


Next up...


Blowfish / 1000 Needles

vs.

Cry in the Night - Final Fantasy X-2


Cry in the Night proved somewhat surprisingly popular during the first round. How will it do against the far less powerful, but perhaps more practical Blowfish / 1000 Needles? Cast your votes!

Blowfish / 1000 Needles a guarenteed 1000 points of damage and non-elemental...good stuff that was well used for me.

Blowfish / 1000 Needles

Blowfish / 1000 Needles

Blowfish / 1000 Needles

1000 Needles, always useful even until quite late in many FF games.

gahhhhhhhhhh Cry in the Night. For the same reasons as last time. Come on...

1000 Needles. :naughty:

Blowfish / 1000 Needles

Blowfish / 1000 Needles

1000 Needles

FUCK YEAH CACTAURS!

Blowfish/1000 Needles

1000 Needles

1000 Needles

Blowfish / 1000 Needles - 12
Cry in the Night - 1


Wow. The support for Cry in the Night simply evaporated. Only one vote. Well, let's move right along to the next battle...


Aqualung / Aqua Breath

vs.

Limit Glove - Final Fantasy IX


Both of these can be useful moves when applied in the right situations. Should be interesting to see how this one goes. Vote!

Aqualung / Aqua Breath