If you're interested in our Evolutions videos, we'd recommend checking out our upcoming book "The Legacy of the Crystal", as it will look at how the entire franchise has evolved chronologically over the past 35 years! If you're interested, here's the Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/finalfantasyunion/the-legacy-of-the-crystal-an-unofficial-final-fantasy-book
I always assumed that the 90 MP limit on Tellah was an intentional design decision to prevent him from using "Meteor" before his final scene, but still have it shown in his magic list. Never considered it as a callback to the limited spell casts for Sage's . Really awesome video. Thank you!
Tbh, I had no idea the Sage job existed in later FF games. Thanks for this. Also with the FFXIV Sage, every spell that uses Addersgall will cause you to recover a small percentage of MP.
I forget the first I heard about it...maybe Tactics Advance? It feels impressive they have this much material for Sage. And here I amstill hoping for even Warrior/Knight, Monk, Thief and Ninja to round out the original Jobs, since they've only done Black, Red and White Mage so far, then leaped into FF3 and beyond stuff
As a recently-graduated doctor who plays XIV, how could I not play this? The fact that spells and abilities are named after medical terms, ancient or otherwise, is cute.
A doctor sage 🤔 I can imagine the RP already 😛 You: you got some debuffs Me: 😨 You: but I can shield it Me: 😃 You: but there will be some additional effects that follow Me: 🤔 You: do you have coverage? Me: 👀 *at tank* The tank: *turns off* 🛡 Me: 😨 You: hp 0...time of death 3:47pm
If you didn't know, chirurgeon shares the same etymological origins as surgeon. Also, when I finally wrap my head around how macros work, I'm gonna make all my revive spell also tell the player, "With your current health coverage, you owe me 35,000 gil out of pocket for this resurrection."
One thing to mention: If you want to create/make a Sage in Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age. You can have White Mage and Black Mage together, adding both types of their max magical powers. However, I think most of the primal buffs won't be there (Need to test it).
"[Black Mage, White Mage, and Red Mage] all have their unique strengths and weaknesses." Especially the Red Mage, whose strengths and weaknesses sometimes change drastically between individual installments.
When I saw the FFXIV version I feel in love, it was everything I ever wanted, as a DPS main who loves Ninja and Gunbreaker, a more agressive healer with a lot of options was perfect
I was hoping when you got to FF4 you wouldn't forget FuSoYa! Yes, his class was listed as "Lunarian," but that was plot specific to FF4, and as you pointed out, he was practically a sage.
Ah, playing the Amaurot music at the beginning really hurts my heart. FFXIV has a complicated story, but Amaurot, in particular is extremely powerful for me. A Utopia where anyone can create, through sheer force of will, anything they could ever imagine. A Utopia where, ultimately, that power ends up creating the terrors and phobias that lurk within every mind and making them concrete reality. Emet-Selch.... I will remember you until the day I die. I promise.
Funnily enough, Sage in XIV, while a healer, feels very much like gunbreaker for tanks: a DPS disguised as a healer, while gunbreaker is a DPS disguised as a tank. Sage not only has more DPS options than any other healer, it's also the only one that has a sustain heal directly linked to the DPS it's dealing, with the Kardion system. So, while a healer, it retains its role as a mix of heal and dps
Never thought about Edea as a sage, but that does make sense. Though its a bit hard to really say in FF8 with the inclusion of the junctioning system and with Edea specifically Ultimecia.
She and the other Sorceresses/Witches are supposedly the only ones that use real magic in that universe, versus para magic. But the wiki considers her more a Black Mage, but that's pretty broad at times in classification for the "categories"
Yeah, I wouldn't say sage either. And NORMALLY not always, sages are historically or mythologically aligned with good and nature, their abilities are granted to them because they have the yin and yang, perfectly balanced and able to see problems through the eyes of all, even animals. Ultimecia is neither of those things, which is where Edea's power comes from.
@@TShadowStalker There's also the Oracle/Mystic that I think came before Tactics, but that's where I remember it. It's called Onmyouji in the Japanese, but there's also the Shinkan as a "Job" for Banon in FF6, Shinkan a Shinto priest versus a diviner/augur for Onmyouji, which is related to yin and yang. And in later releases of 5, the Oracle is Yougenshi in Japanese, which I think is more directly someone seeing the future (apparently meant to be a bad situation?). And in 15, the Oracle Lunafreya is the Kannagi, a Shinto role that's meant to calm the gods, iirc. That's a whole other video they could do, if they haven't already, since there are more, like the Devout as a Doushi (which I think is meant to be a Daoist priest of sorts)
Sage before seemed to be the "Ultimate Wizard" the Gandalf type, old and wise, and able to use all types of magic; geared more toward offensive (i think partially just how the games are made, grinding style rpg. No real utility style magic) Where as 14, seems to go a scholar route, study of technology and how to combine it with magic; essentially acting as the mage who went to collage, but gives me a title more than a job feel
I know it’s technically not a safe but I did take Yuna down through Lulus black mage line entirely so while she had a disposition for white magic still she had equal strength for both schools during the end of my game
The sage in FFSOP is my fave job in the game, Unlocked after obtaining the prequisite nodes under black and white Mage respectively They had access to fire, ice, thunder, water Earth and wind on the black magic bar. And on the white magic bar you have access to cure, regen, protect, shell, haste. When the sage has cast 3 consecutive skills in one magic bar, they then have access to Ultima and Holy respectively- each cost double the MP to cast and permanently deleted the MP bar by one. They could wield maces and shields and later the staff, but could not regenerate MP with mele attacks like some of the other classes. The top tier sage passive allowed units to refil their MP when using a potion.
You didn't mentioned Kuja being sort of a Sage, he also used high level black (flare, thundaga, demi and even ultima ), white (holy, reflect, curaga) and summon magic (not in battle, but he did summon bahamut). And is not seen using any physical abilities at all.
Regarding Final Fantasy Record Keeper, one characters that could be considered a more aligned Sage can be Dr. Mog. It's a character created for this gatcha game but one of his special abilities (Ultra Soul Break) allows him to follow up black magic with 4 damaging hits or white magic with a group healing. Plus, he's able to double cast black magic and white magic with his legend materias. Although he's slightly more focused on black magic, he has a good amount of abilities and magics that can be used effectively making him a Sage
I believe Fusoya also has a legend materia that double casts black or white magic, though he's generally more geared as an offensive white mage, even if some of his earlier gear included rarer holy black magic. Outside of Dr. Mog's Ultra, and maybe his first Awakening, he tends to be an omni-elemental black mage. I think a big part of why there aren't many Sages in FFRK has a lot to do with its format, and the way you can only equip two abilities at a time meaning it's usually best to focus in on which role a character will play in a party. Like, the idea behind a Sage is tat you can switch between either, but in FFRK, you would essentially need someone who can do both at the same time, like the way Bards and many Summoners overlap with healing. I think the closest to what a Sage would need to look like in FFRK is Echo, who feels more like a Dancer with a predominantly healing kit, but all of her heal chases and Sync commands work with black magic just as well as dances, though she probably wouldn't do much damage, though something _like_ that, but more DPS-friendly. I guess that would just be like if you took Eiko or Yuna and made all their summoning stuff black magic instead, though Eiko and Yuna tend to get a lot of flak for having unfocused kits while being the only healers in their respective realms.
@@gorimbaud My gosh! Finally another FFRK player 🤩🤩🤩 and agree with you with FuSoYa, Dr. Mog and others being more focused on black or white magic, as well as some other exceptions that don't use White o Black magic in their arsenal (like Echo and Yuna). I think that it can be possible to pull out a Sage with a Sync that has a command for black magic and another for white magic. Although like you mentioned, the format doesn't follow these type of things and it's more realistic to think that a character would have a White Sync and a Black Sync rather than one that can do both
@@fantomeghostblacksapphire9152 Oh yeah, I comment about FFRK on these videos every now and then. Like, love the Union and their videos, but it's very obvious they don't play FFRK, or maybe did _years_ ago, so any time they comment on it, it tends to be very outdated. Now that you mention it, Exdeath! While most hybrids would have commands that give priority to whatever stat you're geared for, and Exdeath's hero ability works that way, when they gave him holy options he got a Sync with that works with both! One command does black magic dark damage, while the other does white magic holy damage! This would make him a strictly offensive Sage, since he's certainly no healer, but it is, definitionally, a Sage soul break! The only downside is you can't get tricky about it and do white magic dark damage or black magic holy damage, though you could do that with his HA and Awakening, if you really wanted.
@@gorimbaud Oh dear, I completely forgot about Exdeath and that he's a holy user as well! I even got his awakening so far and I got dazzled by his Sync when I discovered it since it was really cool, like, having the option to do both holy and dark damage sounds great 🤩 and yeah, since we cannot have everything in life he's no healer unfortunately... But at least is better than anything~ ★
I love everything in this conversation thread. Keepers unite! Tellah, Fusoya, Dr Mog, Echo and Exdeath represent! I’ve never classified Edea as a Sage, but I will allow the above mention. Funny how much more un-Sage like she is in RK due to her nonexistent MND!
well the endwalker expansion is very focused on having FF14 original stuff instead of refferences (tho those are plrnty as well) so they redesigned the sage job and introduced the reaper, something not really seen in Final Fantasy before
I like how go into every detail in explaining the job sage, it's like you tell us a story about it and boom some of us realized the sage job is amazing and full of nice lore or something.
I think it is significant that sage in XIV is tied to Sharlayan and takes its influence from the values and culture of Sharlayan. Take this fact in conjunction with the fact that Sharlayan functions narratively in a similar way to sage npcs have in previous games, and you can see that the class is more of a narrative mirror of previous iterations than it is about the function of the class.
The only version of Sage that I thought about (before XIV) was the Nou-Mou in Tactics Advance. I will definitely try the Sage out eventually (healer main) but it'll be a while. I'm pretty far behind in the MSQ and I don't plan on buying Endwalker till I at LEAST finish the normal story for Shadowbringers.
I believe the FFXIV Sage doesn't heal for a portion of damage dealt while Kardia is active, but rather heals the linked party member for a fixed potency every time the Sage attacks.
You are correct. The potency of the Kardia heal (the buff applied to a target that heals them when the Sage damages an enemy) is set per skill. They could, in theory, make a spell that does 1 damage but full heals the kardia target. Overall, I love the design of it: it's pretty fun
Wow, I had no idea sages were as big as they apparently were in the franchise. Seriously they must've really dropped that title for me to not know of their existence. Not that I'm some sort of FF scholar. But I've played most mainline games since 7, though I didn't touch any of the handheld games. Huh. Weird. Wonder why they have neglected it so much.
Um, actually, in the original ff3, they had more mp than the other jobs. It was not until the remake that they get less. Yes, that does mean that Sage was completely op in that game.
I backed the book on Kickstarter, partly because it's an awesome looking project that I want on my shelf and in part to thank you both for the amazing video content you continue to put out. Keep it up!
In Final Fantasy Tactics you can argue that the Arithmetician / Calculator can be considered the defacto Sage class. Alone the arithmetician had abysmal speed and was physically weak, and their innate specialty is subpar. It only becomes overpowered because it was able to utilise any spell from any school of magic with the only requirement being the characters mastery of that particular school.
Tactics Advance Sage was the best. They had Physical Power, Defense, Magical Power, Magical Defense, attack magic, defensive magic, and held the two most powerful abilities in the game. They were even faster than some other mage types.
Teeeechnically, she isn't using black or white magic, she's using a combination of thaumaturgy and conjury. But that's splitting hairs. However, what's funny is, her conjury is being used to fill the gaps in thaumaturgy that would otherwise be filled by black magic. She's definitely wise enough to fill the role, though. Though the way FF14 has decided to define Sage is as "a healer who can DPS really really well, but is more limited at healing"
OMG i love this! Endwalker totally remind me of FF4,also FF4 is my favorite and first FF series i played Tellah best father!i still remember i cant stop cry when watch tellah died T.T
Mages, sages and characters/games with staffs or long distance magic are my favourite. I remember, pre mass internet for every questions era, my 4th RPG final fantasy 9 for PSX. I was like 10 and named Vivi mange. Mange stuck with me for years, I don't know why. I even Said potion like po-tin for years to. My mind as a youngster was messed.
I'd say perhaps that the Sage did appear in FFXI, albeit under a different name. The Scholar. They have the same general idea; learned individuals who were enlightened (loose term for Scholars) and studied both schools of magic. pair that with a RDM subjob and the Scholar could be a valid contender for the title- albeit, clearly, not the best at both, but still competent.
Being the fan of FFXIV that I am... heh Well, Alphinaud IS my favorite NPC. So of course Sage has me all sorts of excited! This was a very interesting video! And a great way to spend some of my time as I wait (again) to get into Eorzea... Login (Savage) is definitely going to leave an impression
I would argue that Final Fantasy Tactics's Calculator/Arithmetician fits the role, despite being given a different job name. (1) able to cast magic from all schools, but not the highest-level spells. (2) unable to calculate summons (3) unsure about strength and stamina, but definitely has low Speed. (4) low MP, but not an impediment as calculated spells use no MP (5) rods are a pretty decent weapon by comparison, able to reach 2 squares straight-line, but because this is a prestige job, some improvements are reasonable and acceptable for game balance and player expectation. The parameter use was a mechanic made possible by the 3D grid system.
Curiously, Blossom Sage Sakura loses all her magic, instead gaining magi-based abilities. Then there's Thunder Sage Sakura, AKA Ramuh Sakura, her Esper unit version recently not long ago, who regains access to Thunder magic and protect & shell. And in FFBE JP, there's a new version of Sakura in the Second Coming of the Emperor side story that is even more focused on black magic, gaining access to waterga and aeroga besides her thundaga, plus a new thunder spell called burst, and flood so she can chain with the new Nichol (wink wink nudge nudge, Citra and Folka lost the Nicholbowl)
Another con Tellah had that further associated sages with being glass cannons, as well as his advanced age, if FFU doesn't mention this later in the video, is that in in DS remake of FFIV, as you get higher in levels some of Tellah's stats, namely strength, speed, and stamina, will occasionally go DOWN a point. His magic will get stronger, but he'll occasionally get slower on top of more frail. If you get a soma drop in FFIV DS, usually through New Game+, that will raise his MP to the point where he can cast Meteor. But canonically he can't. It's just a spoony spell.
Both FF4's Sage and Lunarian are worse than the other mages, if all are leveled up. Tellah actually loses non-HP stats as he levels up (because he's old) and FuSoYa's MP never rises above his starting 190, with lower HP growth than the other characters. Edge is also less powerful than FF3's Ninja, so I think this is actually kind of a balance change as a response to Sage/Ninja's power in FF3.
Gotta hand it to FFXIV for their interpretation of classes. While I don’t particularly care if the Medical Practitioner Aesthetic of Sages continues forward the job being a Barrier Caster who heals those protected via Offence is a unique role within the roster and maintains that Black and White Mage pure caster role without stepping on the toes of Black and White Mage.
Actually, despite it being under a different name - the Scholar job in FFXI is closer to Sage than anything else - it can use pretty much every single white and black spell - has very weak physical means, and is heavily associated with knowledge over all else. This is weird - but I've always wanted to say they just misnamed it there. That said, Sage has always been a weird job to appreciate, and I'm hit and miss on it in FFXIV - but they also took Red Mage and made it offensive orientated, so Sage being Healing orientated made sense.
To note the FFXIV Sage is the most offensive healer added to the game, even more so than the Scholar. It even heals while attacking. So it's at least still linked to older iterations in that it heals and attacks. Still i would have prefered it be name Physician, or something like that. As it's not really a Sage is it?
It's a Sage in the sense that it being able to attack and heal is important to its lore *and* mechanics. Granted, that doesn't distinguish it from White Mage, who explicitly teaches you, as a Conjurer, that you should be using your attack spells (and spends like 30 levels beating it into your head), but the difference is, Sage was developed *specifically* as a healing profession, whereas Conjury was developed in order to be able to commune with the Elementals of the Twelveswood. I would prefer Physician be reserved for a potential "alchemical healer" job later down the line (though I will say that it's looking like that's never going to happen now that they've passed over the concept twice - once in Heavensward, replacing it with Machinist and Astrologian, and once again for Endwalker.)
Could it be argued that Yunalesca in FFX would also be a sage in much the same way as Edea? I know that she was a summoner turned Unsent, but the traits that you cited for Edea seem to parallel with her in the one battle with her. I’m okay if she’s just an antagonistic summoner either way.
Before I got stuck in endless 2002 login errors, I got Sage to level 71. It does play very differently than what we've seen before. There's a very dynamic offensive and defensive game to it. I am hoping I can get more 'priority based' gameplay and less rotation based - but I am sure someone will ruin the enjoyment of this class within the first month by posting the "official rotation" for it making it yet another rotational gameplay class. That said - the dynamic for swapping your heals and shields between each other, and adjusting how your attacks will work is all very fun and has a lot of room in it for making good and bad choices in the moment. I've yet to play much of anything else beyond sage and reaper thanks to the login issues of early non-access... but if the other classes had revisions like this Endwalker will be great for gameplay.
Healers rarely have ansthing akin to a "Rotation" as its more hey you got barely any dps spells, so using them and seeing when what spell is apropriate is more the style
@@BrokenRazorButterfly Yeah. That's actually why I tend to end up maining tanks and healers in FFXIV. I prefer priority based and action based gaming (two different styles), but dislike rotation play. Healers are even more priority based than tanks, so they take my top preference. But I find myself on tank more in raids because I love being in melee above all else. The most enjoyable class design for me in the last decade of MMOs was also in my LEAST LIKED MMO... WoW's 9.0 Fistweaving Monk, closely followed by it's 9.0 melee-now-mandatory redesign of Holy Paladin. If only I could just take those two classes and pop them into some other MMO... well an MMO I like like FFXIV, GW2, or ESO... I'd be set gameplay wise. - One reason I often play WHM in FFXIV is that Holy forces you into melee. I'm still casting ranged spells though, so it's not really what I want, it feels more like wearing a costume of what I want. That said... being priority based makes healers more fun for me. However, FFXIV players so extremely love their 371-memorise IT ALL rotations that sooner or later somebody always manages to ruin every class for me.
@@arcady0 dont let them ruin it for you, honestly i like almost every class in the game due to the job fantasy they provide and im huge into flavour so the better a job looks amd plays like its fantasy the more likely im gonna pick it up i dont really care about priority or rotation if the job has a nice feel and style to it im gonna pick it up aand yea im not gonna be good and memorize each optimal opener and rotation for each class and if it buggs other let them be bugged i mostly play with friends anyway and i did end up the last mnk and samurai rotations mainly due to the fantasy and me actually wanting to, not being pushed into it
I see FF14’s Sage becoming a sort of “magitech white lantern” in the future. Having the nouliths conjure primal-shaped constructs as well as doing things like functioning as flame/freezethrowers to reference the fact that past versions of them were masters of black, white, and summoning magic.
I would argue that Yuna, although calling herself a summoner, she can be built as a sage. After getting most important whm spells you can get a transport sphere that moves you to a different side of the grid. If you use this with Yuna and go to the BLM side of the grid she becomes the best blm in the game while having the whm tool kit.
Yeah, that doesn't count because my strongest Mages are Tidus, Riku, and Waka. They were the majority of players top characters simply because they could swim.
If you're interested in our Evolutions videos, we'd recommend checking out our upcoming book "The Legacy of the Crystal", as it will look at how the entire franchise has evolved chronologically over the past 35 years! If you're interested, here's the Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/finalfantasyunion/the-legacy-of-the-crystal-an-unofficial-final-fantasy-book
I always assumed that the 90 MP limit on Tellah was an intentional design decision to prevent him from using "Meteor" before his final scene, but still have it shown in his magic list.
Never considered it as a callback to the limited spell casts for Sage's . Really awesome video. Thank you!
its a bit of both. He even loses stats on level-ups to reflect his age.
I really like that Tellah, despite being a Sage is actually really short tempered and not that wise. It makes him really endearing.
Tbh, I had no idea the Sage job existed in later FF games. Thanks for this. Also with the FFXIV Sage, every spell that uses Addersgall will cause you to recover a small percentage of MP.
I forget the first I heard about it...maybe Tactics Advance? It feels impressive they have this much material for Sage. And here I amstill hoping for even Warrior/Knight, Monk, Thief and Ninja to round out the original Jobs, since they've only done Black, Red and White Mage so far, then leaped into FF3 and beyond stuff
I would say that the Scholar job of FF11 specifically fits what a Sage represents as it focuses on White and Black magic, and enhancing them each
As a recently-graduated doctor who plays XIV, how could I not play this? The fact that spells and abilities are named after medical terms, ancient or otherwise, is cute.
I always felt like the Nouliths that are their weapon reminded me visually and functionally of Scalpels.
Why can't medical doctors IRL practice medicine via gratuitous application of LASER BEAMS?
@@MisterZimbabwe some do, actually!
A doctor sage 🤔 I can imagine the RP already 😛
You: you got some debuffs
Me: 😨
You: but I can shield it
Me: 😃
You: but there will be some additional effects that follow
Me: 🤔
You: do you have coverage?
Me: 👀 *at tank*
The tank: *turns off* 🛡
Me: 😨
You: hp 0...time of death 3:47pm
If you didn't know, chirurgeon shares the same etymological origins as surgeon. Also, when I finally wrap my head around how macros work, I'm gonna make all my revive spell also tell the player, "With your current health coverage, you owe me 35,000 gil out of pocket for this resurrection."
One thing to mention:
If you want to create/make a Sage in Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age.
You can have White Mage and Black Mage together, adding both types of their max magical powers.
However, I think most of the primal buffs won't be there (Need to test it).
"[Black Mage, White Mage, and Red Mage] all have their unique strengths and weaknesses."
Especially the Red Mage, whose strengths and weaknesses sometimes change drastically between individual installments.
Makes me happy every time y’all post something new. One of my favorite channels ever.
When I saw the FFXIV version I feel in love, it was everything I ever wanted, as a DPS main who loves Ninja and Gunbreaker, a more agressive healer with a lot of options was perfect
How are you liking the ninja changes? I haven't tinkered with it for a while
Same, im a big fan of damage healers. Holy Paladin in WoW did this great too.
Could you say that in FFX Seymour played the role of a sage? He was technically playable for a battle haha
Thank you for going into so much detail of FFRK Tellah
I was hoping when you got to FF4 you wouldn't forget FuSoYa! Yes, his class was listed as "Lunarian," but that was plot specific to FF4, and as you pointed out, he was practically a sage.
Ah, playing the Amaurot music at the beginning really hurts my heart. FFXIV has a complicated story, but Amaurot, in particular is extremely powerful for me. A Utopia where anyone can create, through sheer force of will, anything they could ever imagine. A Utopia where, ultimately, that power ends up creating the terrors and phobias that lurk within every mind and making them concrete reality.
Emet-Selch.... I will remember you until the day I die. I promise.
Also a place where everyone was pressured into conformity because it was believed that self-expression in non-academic ways would breed jealousy...
Funnily enough, Sage in XIV, while a healer, feels very much like gunbreaker for tanks: a DPS disguised as a healer, while gunbreaker is a DPS disguised as a tank.
Sage not only has more DPS options than any other healer, it's also the only one that has a sustain heal directly linked to the DPS it's dealing, with the Kardion system. So, while a healer, it retains its role as a mix of heal and dps
Never thought about Edea as a sage, but that does make sense. Though its a bit hard to really say in FF8 with the inclusion of the junctioning system and with Edea specifically Ultimecia.
She and the other Sorceresses/Witches are supposedly the only ones that use real magic in that universe, versus para magic. But the wiki considers her more a Black Mage, but that's pretty broad at times in classification for the "categories"
Yeah, I wouldn't say sage either. And NORMALLY not always, sages are historically or mythologically aligned with good and nature, their abilities are granted to them because they have the yin and yang, perfectly balanced and able to see problems through the eyes of all, even animals. Ultimecia is neither of those things, which is where Edea's power comes from.
@@TShadowStalker There's also the Oracle/Mystic that I think came before Tactics, but that's where I remember it. It's called Onmyouji in the Japanese, but there's also the Shinkan as a "Job" for Banon in FF6, Shinkan a Shinto priest versus a diviner/augur for Onmyouji, which is related to yin and yang.
And in later releases of 5, the Oracle is Yougenshi in Japanese, which I think is more directly someone seeing the future (apparently meant to be a bad situation?). And in 15, the Oracle Lunafreya is the Kannagi, a Shinto role that's meant to calm the gods, iirc.
That's a whole other video they could do, if they haven't already, since there are more, like the Devout as a Doushi (which I think is meant to be a Daoist priest of sorts)
Sage before seemed to be the "Ultimate Wizard" the Gandalf type, old and wise, and able to use all types of magic; geared more toward offensive (i think partially just how the games are made, grinding style rpg. No real utility style magic)
Where as 14, seems to go a scholar route, study of technology and how to combine it with magic;
essentially acting as the mage who went to collage, but gives me a title more than a job feel
I know it’s technically not a safe but I did take Yuna down through Lulus black mage line entirely so while she had a disposition for white magic still she had equal strength for both schools during the end of my game
FFTA seemed to nail the lesser-known jobs
Sage, Summoner, Beastmaster, Ninja, Paladin….Good Stuff
FFXIV Sage is basically a doctor with floating laser-firing scalpels.
Sage ninja and summoner have always been my fav ff classes. Their pretty cool.
The sage in FFSOP is my fave job in the game,
Unlocked after obtaining the prequisite nodes under black and white Mage respectively
They had access to fire, ice, thunder, water Earth and wind on the black magic bar. And on the white magic bar you have access to cure, regen, protect, shell, haste. When the sage has cast 3 consecutive skills in one magic bar, they then have access to Ultima and Holy respectively- each cost double the MP to cast and permanently deleted the MP bar by one.
They could wield maces and shields and later the staff, but could not regenerate MP with mele attacks like some of the other classes.
The top tier sage passive allowed units to refil their MP when using a potion.
Just hit 80 after hard grinding, this couldnt have come at a better time 🧡
You didn't mentioned Kuja being sort of a Sage, he also used high level black (flare, thundaga, demi and even ultima ), white (holy, reflect, curaga) and summon magic (not in battle, but he did summon bahamut). And is not seen using any physical abilities at all.
Great overview as always. I would like to see the evolution of Monk or Summoner next if possible.
I second the Monk idea!
Yes. I already looked through your videos for one on monks. Didn't see one so I'd like to make the request
Regarding Final Fantasy Record Keeper, one characters that could be considered a more aligned Sage can be Dr. Mog. It's a character created for this gatcha game but one of his special abilities (Ultra Soul Break) allows him to follow up black magic with 4 damaging hits or white magic with a group healing. Plus, he's able to double cast black magic and white magic with his legend materias. Although he's slightly more focused on black magic, he has a good amount of abilities and magics that can be used effectively making him a Sage
I believe Fusoya also has a legend materia that double casts black or white magic, though he's generally more geared as an offensive white mage, even if some of his earlier gear included rarer holy black magic. Outside of Dr. Mog's Ultra, and maybe his first Awakening, he tends to be an omni-elemental black mage.
I think a big part of why there aren't many Sages in FFRK has a lot to do with its format, and the way you can only equip two abilities at a time meaning it's usually best to focus in on which role a character will play in a party. Like, the idea behind a Sage is tat you can switch between either, but in FFRK, you would essentially need someone who can do both at the same time, like the way Bards and many Summoners overlap with healing.
I think the closest to what a Sage would need to look like in FFRK is Echo, who feels more like a Dancer with a predominantly healing kit, but all of her heal chases and Sync commands work with black magic just as well as dances, though she probably wouldn't do much damage, though something _like_ that, but more DPS-friendly. I guess that would just be like if you took Eiko or Yuna and made all their summoning stuff black magic instead, though Eiko and Yuna tend to get a lot of flak for having unfocused kits while being the only healers in their respective realms.
@@gorimbaud My gosh! Finally another FFRK player 🤩🤩🤩 and agree with you with FuSoYa, Dr. Mog and others being more focused on black or white magic, as well as some other exceptions that don't use White o Black magic in their arsenal (like Echo and Yuna). I think that it can be possible to pull out a Sage with a Sync that has a command for black magic and another for white magic. Although like you mentioned, the format doesn't follow these type of things and it's more realistic to think that a character would have a White Sync and a Black Sync rather than one that can do both
@@fantomeghostblacksapphire9152 Oh yeah, I comment about FFRK on these videos every now and then. Like, love the Union and their videos, but it's very obvious they don't play FFRK, or maybe did _years_ ago, so any time they comment on it, it tends to be very outdated.
Now that you mention it, Exdeath! While most hybrids would have commands that give priority to whatever stat you're geared for, and Exdeath's hero ability works that way, when they gave him holy options he got a Sync with that works with both! One command does black magic dark damage, while the other does white magic holy damage! This would make him a strictly offensive Sage, since he's certainly no healer, but it is, definitionally, a Sage soul break! The only downside is you can't get tricky about it and do white magic dark damage or black magic holy damage, though you could do that with his HA and Awakening, if you really wanted.
@@gorimbaud Oh dear, I completely forgot about Exdeath and that he's a holy user as well! I even got his awakening so far and I got dazzled by his Sync when I discovered it since it was really cool, like, having the option to do both holy and dark damage sounds great 🤩 and yeah, since we cannot have everything in life he's no healer unfortunately... But at least is better than anything~ ★
I love everything in this conversation thread. Keepers unite! Tellah, Fusoya, Dr Mog, Echo and Exdeath represent!
I’ve never classified Edea as a Sage, but I will allow the above mention. Funny how much more un-Sage like she is in RK due to her nonexistent MND!
Tellah be like "I was blinded with the anger of wanting to AVENGE, and that was my downfall, Cecil, please AVENGE me"
These videos are perfect before bed!
So comfortable and interesting.
Almost like reading a book!
Thank you for reconnecting me with Fusoya and Edea, i feel the class resonates with my spiritual nature. I will be playing this job in FFXIV too.
The FF14 Sage looks weirdly futuristic, like they'd fit right in with the world of FF13.
well the endwalker expansion is very focused on having FF14 original stuff instead of refferences (tho those are plrnty as well) so they redesigned the sage job and introduced the reaper, something not really seen in Final Fantasy before
I like how go into every detail in explaining the job sage, it's like you tell us a story about it and boom some of us realized the sage job is amazing and full of nice lore or something.
Fusoya was my fav
I remember when he was dying the animation just beard lol
Damn i love final fantasy
Great seeing mention of Lukahn! I loved his appearance in the original Final Fantasy, and have been using the name online ever since.
🥺 Starting off with a cover of Neath Dark Water playing in the background. Still one of my favorite FFXIV tracks.
I think it is significant that sage in XIV is tied to Sharlayan and takes its influence from the values and culture of Sharlayan. Take this fact in conjunction with the fact that Sharlayan functions narratively in a similar way to sage npcs have in previous games, and you can see that the class is more of a narrative mirror of previous iterations than it is about the function of the class.
I adore these videos, already love the franchise but hear and seeing the changes and evolution is always welcome.
The only version of Sage that I thought about (before XIV) was the Nou-Mou in Tactics Advance.
I will definitely try the Sage out eventually (healer main) but it'll be a while. I'm pretty far behind in the MSQ and I don't plan on buying Endwalker till I at LEAST finish the normal story for Shadowbringers.
Dumb idea I would love a video to see how final fantasy jobs are portrayed in Kingdom hearts
I believe the FFXIV Sage doesn't heal for a portion of damage dealt while Kardia is active, but rather heals the linked party member for a fixed potency every time the Sage attacks.
You are correct. The potency of the Kardia heal (the buff applied to a target that heals them when the Sage damages an enemy) is set per skill. They could, in theory, make a spell that does 1 damage but full heals the kardia target. Overall, I love the design of it: it's pretty fun
Okay, perhaps this is sad of me, but finding out about the Sage class in FF14 is now the reason for me to pick up the game in the first place.
This is a great series! Looking forward to the episode on Monk fighters like Tifa!
Wow, I had no idea sages were as big as they apparently were in the franchise. Seriously they must've really dropped that title for me to not know of their existence. Not that I'm some sort of FF scholar. But I've played most mainline games since 7, though I didn't touch any of the handheld games. Huh. Weird. Wonder why they have neglected it so much.
I would say that, despite naming conventions, the Seer in FFTA2 is closer to a traditional FF Sage than the actual Sage job is.
Um, actually, in the original ff3, they had more mp than the other jobs. It was not until the remake that they get less. Yes, that does mean that Sage was completely op in that game.
Love y’all. Can’t wait for the book!!
always happy when my favorite TH-cam channel uploads something
can't wait for more evolution or character stories etc!
I backed the book on Kickstarter, partly because it's an awesome looking project that I want on my shelf and in part to thank you both for the amazing video content you continue to put out. Keep it up!
Ah, something to watch while in queue spot 2076
In Final Fantasy Tactics you can argue that the Arithmetician / Calculator can be considered the defacto Sage class. Alone the arithmetician had abysmal speed and was physically weak, and their innate specialty is subpar. It only becomes overpowered because it was able to utilise any spell from any school of magic with the only requirement being the characters mastery of that particular school.
Tactics Advance Sage was the best. They had Physical Power, Defense, Magical Power, Magical Defense, attack magic, defensive magic, and held the two most powerful abilities in the game. They were even faster than some other mage types.
sage is prob going to be my main. im enjoying it alot and summoner while really cool now is also really bloody simple
Y'shtola, classified as a sorceress, is able to use both white and black magic so she might be sort of considered a sage as well.
Teeeechnically, she isn't using black or white magic, she's using a combination of thaumaturgy and conjury. But that's splitting hairs.
However, what's funny is, her conjury is being used to fill the gaps in thaumaturgy that would otherwise be filled by black magic.
She's definitely wise enough to fill the role, though.
Though the way FF14 has decided to define Sage is as "a healer who can DPS really really well, but is more limited at healing"
Good timing... Aaaaaand something to watch in the Endwalker queue
I was personally hoping for sage to be more of a healing aspected version of red mage since Sage in previous games could use black and white magic
Instead you get "literally not a Sage, but we'll call it one anyway."
OMG i love this!
Endwalker totally remind me of FF4,also FF4 is my favorite and first FF series i played
Tellah best father!i still remember i cant stop cry when watch tellah died T.T
I'd love to see a DOTA style Final Fantasy game where you can use these various classes.
Mages, sages and characters/games with staffs or long distance magic are my favourite.
I remember, pre mass internet for every questions era, my 4th RPG final fantasy 9 for PSX. I was like 10 and named Vivi mange.
Mange stuck with me for years, I don't know why.
I even Said potion like po-tin for years to.
My mind as a youngster was messed.
Would love to see the evolution on Summoners, thx for this awesome evolution series!
I'd say perhaps that the Sage did appear in FFXI, albeit under a different name.
The Scholar. They have the same general idea; learned individuals who were enlightened (loose term for Scholars) and studied both schools of magic. pair that with a RDM subjob and the Scholar could be a valid contender for the title- albeit, clearly, not the best at both, but still competent.
I remember the day when Sage is the White Mage with Cat ear hoodie
I cannot wait for the complete evolution of the Monk. Also, I cannot wait for Legacy of the Crystal book to arrive in 2022!
Being the fan of FFXIV that I am... heh
Well, Alphinaud IS my favorite NPC. So of course Sage has me all sorts of excited!
This was a very interesting video! And a great way to spend some of my time as I wait (again) to get into Eorzea... Login (Savage) is definitely going to leave an impression
My gf will be doing sage, and I'll be playing reaper. Honestly, I'm pretty excited
This channel is a gem
Tellah is still number 1 in my books.
I would argue that Final Fantasy Tactics's Calculator/Arithmetician fits the role, despite being given a different job name. (1) able to cast magic from all schools, but not the highest-level spells. (2) unable to calculate summons (3) unsure about strength and stamina, but definitely has low Speed. (4) low MP, but not an impediment as calculated spells use no MP (5) rods are a pretty decent weapon by comparison, able to reach 2 squares straight-line, but because this is a prestige job, some improvements are reasonable and acceptable for game balance and player expectation. The parameter use was a mechanic made possible by the 3D grid system.
Calculator's low MP could be an impediment if their _other_ Job is spellcasting.
This is a great overview! I really like the sage characters, especially Tellah ahaha.
omg i love numous, ff tactics advance is one of the best, underrated and forgotten games ever
I mean, how could ghido not be the favorite appearance of sage. He's a magic turtle. Lol.
That Shoots Lasers!! (Someone will get me)
Curiously, Blossom Sage Sakura loses all her magic, instead gaining magi-based abilities. Then there's Thunder Sage Sakura, AKA Ramuh Sakura, her Esper unit version recently not long ago, who regains access to Thunder magic and protect & shell. And in FFBE JP, there's a new version of Sakura in the Second Coming of the Emperor side story that is even more focused on black magic, gaining access to waterga and aeroga besides her thundaga, plus a new thunder spell called burst, and flood so she can chain with the new Nichol (wink wink nudge nudge, Citra and Folka lost the Nicholbowl)
Another con Tellah had that further associated sages with being glass cannons, as well as his advanced age, if FFU doesn't mention this later in the video, is that in in DS remake of FFIV, as you get higher in levels some of Tellah's stats, namely strength, speed, and stamina, will occasionally go DOWN a point. His magic will get stronger, but he'll occasionally get slower on top of more frail.
If you get a soma drop in FFIV DS, usually through New Game+, that will raise his MP to the point where he can cast Meteor. But canonically he can't. It's just a spoony spell.
Both FF4's Sage and Lunarian are worse than the other mages, if all are leveled up. Tellah actually loses non-HP stats as he levels up (because he's old) and FuSoYa's MP never rises above his starting 190, with lower HP growth than the other characters. Edge is also less powerful than FF3's Ninja, so I think this is actually kind of a balance change as a response to Sage/Ninja's power in FF3.
I had an ad for a company called "sage" for this video.
Twice
Sage is the combination of white mage and black mage.
Include the bravely series in these videos please !
The Sage in Endwalker is sage by name only. They're just another healer by all accounts.
1:42 Wow. Didn't know the remake had voice acting.
My personal favorite is the Seer from final fantasy A2, fucking love magic frenzy
TIL the popular modern expression of "spoony bard" came from FF3 back in 1990
Gotta hand it to FFXIV for their interpretation of classes. While I don’t particularly care if the Medical Practitioner Aesthetic of Sages continues forward the job being a Barrier Caster who heals those protected via Offence is a unique role within the roster and maintains that Black and White Mage pure caster role without stepping on the toes of Black and White Mage.
Actually, despite it being under a different name - the Scholar job in FFXI is closer to Sage than anything else - it can use pretty much every single white and black spell - has very weak physical means, and is heavily associated with knowledge over all else. This is weird - but I've always wanted to say they just misnamed it there. That said, Sage has always been a weird job to appreciate, and I'm hit and miss on it in FFXIV - but they also took Red Mage and made it offensive orientated, so Sage being Healing orientated made sense.
90 sage here. Not tellah level but sage is fun as hell
To note the FFXIV Sage is the most offensive healer added to the game, even more so than the Scholar. It even heals while attacking. So it's at least still linked to older iterations in that it heals and attacks. Still i would have prefered it be name Physician, or something like that. As it's not really a Sage is it?
It's a Sage in the sense that it being able to attack and heal is important to its lore *and* mechanics.
Granted, that doesn't distinguish it from White Mage, who explicitly teaches you, as a Conjurer, that you should be using your attack spells (and spends like 30 levels beating it into your head), but the difference is, Sage was developed *specifically* as a healing profession, whereas Conjury was developed in order to be able to commune with the Elementals of the Twelveswood.
I would prefer Physician be reserved for a potential "alchemical healer" job later down the line (though I will say that it's looking like that's never going to happen now that they've passed over the concept twice - once in Heavensward, replacing it with Machinist and Astrologian, and once again for Endwalker.)
Could it be argued that Yunalesca in FFX would also be a sage in much the same way as Edea?
I know that she was a summoner turned Unsent, but the traits that you cited for Edea seem to parallel with her in the one battle with her.
I’m okay if she’s just an antagonistic summoner either way.
Before I got stuck in endless 2002 login errors, I got Sage to level 71. It does play very differently than what we've seen before. There's a very dynamic offensive and defensive game to it. I am hoping I can get more 'priority based' gameplay and less rotation based - but I am sure someone will ruin the enjoyment of this class within the first month by posting the "official rotation" for it making it yet another rotational gameplay class.
That said - the dynamic for swapping your heals and shields between each other, and adjusting how your attacks will work is all very fun and has a lot of room in it for making good and bad choices in the moment. I've yet to play much of anything else beyond sage and reaper thanks to the login issues of early non-access... but if the other classes had revisions like this Endwalker will be great for gameplay.
Healers rarely have ansthing akin to a "Rotation" as its more hey you got barely any dps spells, so using them and seeing when what spell is apropriate is more the style
@@BrokenRazorButterfly Yeah. That's actually why I tend to end up maining tanks and healers in FFXIV. I prefer priority based and action based gaming (two different styles), but dislike rotation play. Healers are even more priority based than tanks, so they take my top preference. But I find myself on tank more in raids because I love being in melee above all else. The most enjoyable class design for me in the last decade of MMOs was also in my LEAST LIKED MMO... WoW's 9.0 Fistweaving Monk, closely followed by it's 9.0 melee-now-mandatory redesign of Holy Paladin. If only I could just take those two classes and pop them into some other MMO... well an MMO I like like FFXIV, GW2, or ESO... I'd be set gameplay wise.
- One reason I often play WHM in FFXIV is that Holy forces you into melee. I'm still casting ranged spells though, so it's not really what I want, it feels more like wearing a costume of what I want.
That said... being priority based makes healers more fun for me.
However, FFXIV players so extremely love their 371-memorise IT ALL rotations that sooner or later somebody always manages to ruin every class for me.
@@arcady0 dont let them ruin it for you, honestly
i like almost every class in the game due to the job fantasy they provide and im huge into flavour so the better a job looks amd plays like its fantasy the more likely im gonna pick it up
i dont really care about priority or rotation if the job has a nice feel and style to it im gonna pick it up
aand yea im not gonna be good and memorize each optimal opener and rotation for each class and if it buggs other let them be bugged i mostly play with friends anyway
and i did end up the last mnk and samurai rotations mainly due to the fantasy and me actually wanting to, not being pushed into it
How about a video on the differnent spell levels like -aga and Zetas?
I see FF14’s Sage becoming a sort of “magitech white lantern” in the future.
Having the nouliths conjure primal-shaped constructs as well as doing things like functioning as flame/freezethrowers to reference the fact that past versions of them were masters of black, white, and summoning magic.
I highly disagree
Anthropomorphic hippo is quite literally the most advanced lifeform
Can we get a complete evolution video on the paladin class, please?
I fulfilled my goal of screaming spoony bard at any bards I encountered in FFXIV
Suprised Strago wasn't considered for Sage class as he'd be about the closest fit.
Seems like most games have to nerf the sages to keep the gameplay somewhat balanced, but at least I'm glad the class hasn't been forgotten
I would argue that Yuna, although calling herself a summoner, she can be built as a sage. After getting most important whm spells you can get a transport sphere that moves you to a different side of the grid. If you use this with Yuna and go to the BLM side of the grid she becomes the best blm in the game while having the whm tool kit.
Tht my ff10 set up right now on switch yuna with all of lulu. Top spells and holy , she turned out to be stronger then my lulu
to be fair though, if we're talking about jumping around the grid in ffx then the same can be said for any character.
Yeah, that doesn't count because my strongest Mages are Tidus, Riku, and Waka. They were the majority of players top characters simply because they could swim.
My favorite sages have been the hess sages I am keen to learn more about them
In FF XI, the closest we can get is the Scholar who weaves both White & Black Magics through his White & Black Grimoires respectively :)
I'd love to check out Sage in FF14, but I haven't been able to get past the long login queue or the lobby server crashing. Haven't been online once.
Thank you for this great video
Sage saw the Gundam fangs and decided they're gundams now 😛
Great work keep it up!!!!!!☺☺☺☺☺☺🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌