FFV: Get targeted by the spell.
FFVI: Witness the spell in action and remain alive/sane 'til the end of the battle to learn it.
FFVII: Get hit with the spell and stay alive 'til the end of battle.
FFVIII: Consume items to learn new spells
FFIX: Consume enemies to learn new spells
FFX: Absorb spell/ability from foe and add it to your own list
FFX-2: Get hit by spell and survive the effects to learn the spell.
FFXI: Have a monster perform the spell in combat, must be of high enough level to learn spell.
FFTA: Get targeted with spell.
These games have “Blue Mage” (FFX-2: “Gun Mage”) as a class.
I’m quite fond of the method the FF Tabletop Game uses for blue magic; If the mage gets hit with the spell, they’ll learn it, btu they also have a skill called “Visual Learning”, where they have a certain % chance to learn the spell just by observing it, like in VI.
In theory I’m fine with getting hit before you can use the spell as it provides a healthy masochistic avenue but I hate searching multiple times for random encounters because the enemy won’t deign to hit the blue mage. Not that masochistic.
Taking it like a man sounds good, but I hate having to stand still until the fuckers randomly decide to use the required spell. The Kirby method is a lot more fun.
Mind Control doesn’t let you use their full repertoire of abilities though. There were more than a few cases where a monster wasn’t able to use an ability while mind controlled that he could otherwise.
On a side note, which was the original name? Mad/Evil Oscars (FFVI) or Marlboros (FFVII)? Somehow I got a huge kick out of fighting a muppet, either way.
(The FF6 way is what I’d prefer to learn my spells with, but I’d say Strago has only forgotten all his spells and is now collecting all the lost lore :D)
TAKE IT LIKE A MAN AND GET HIT WITH IT! And then… give it rightbackatcha! (Unless it absorbs/is immune to said ability.)
Marlboro was the original name. FF6 changed it, either due to copyright infringement, negative role models (smoking) or both.
I agree that the worst part about Blue Magic is trying to get an enemy to use the damn spell. I actually think FF9’s way is the most fun - get an enemy down to 1/4 health, and only then can you learn the spell off of him. It’s nowhere near as frustrating (or random) but neither is it easy as pie.
Well, the easiest way to get Blue Magic is to control the monster and make it cast the spell. On the other hand, if it involves getting hit by an attack (especially from POWERFUL mosters) it’s NOT a good idea. so I voted for Strago’s watch-and-learn.
But you know, from a story-related POV, Blue Mages don’t make much sense. Why gain spells the hard way when you can learn similar ones more safely? Only if monsters had certain unique abilities not duplicated by existing spells would it be worth it.
And why get hit by them? Or, if you can learn them by watching, why can’t you also learn regular spells that way?
My guess is that the most logical method of learning the abilities of monsters would be by drinking potions and such made from monster parts (that’s what I assume they did in FF8.)
