The Complete Evolution of Black Mages
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ต.ค. 2024
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Black Mages are one of the quintessential job classes. They have a design that is recognisable in an instant, it’s very clear what their role is within a party and if used in the correct manner, they are nothing short of a wrecking machine, able to tear through enemy defenses with consummate ease.
But, even though all of that may be true, the role of the Black Mage has evolved quite a lot since its debut in the original Final Fantasy.
Throughout this video, we will take a look at how much the job has changed, where abilities and traits were implemented and how they were used following their introduction!
►KEY POINTS WITHIN THIS VIDEO
1. Black Mage FFXIV
2. Final Fantasy Black Mage
3. Final Fantasy 4 Parom
4. Final Fantasy 9 Vivi
5. Black Mage FFXI
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Thanks for watching!
I've always loved Vivi's casting animation, the way he swirls his staff like he's stirring a cauldron. Such a cool little detail.
I’ve always liked the little jump right after the staff whirl lol. You’re right, the details truly speak louder than anything else.
@@darriusdavis35 who?
@@bobdill5681 The black mage from FF9. They gave him more of a stand alone approach than up to that point
@@TheWetzelPretzel who asked you.
@@bobdill5681 You're welcome 👍🤣
Characters wearing robes with pointy hats setting things on fire, ice or other elements. Black Mages are one of my favourite classes.
Your favorite class of people are those who have point hats, robes and set fire to things?
I see where your elegance is sir...
@@aroccoification lol
pointy hat life = best life
Wait the abyss watchers from dark souls have pointy hat and set thing on fire. 🤔
Edit: must be cousins
I have a robe, set things on fire, and have pointy EARS. I am a black mage and I had no idea
I wish he touched a bit on FFXIV's system of fire spells dealing more damage, then using ice spells to regen mp, or at least the umbral and astral aspect. But either way, this was a great vid as always, everyone loves black mages 😊
Ffxiv 1.0 tharmatuge best healer in the game be came a black mage. Conjrer elemental spell slinger became. White mage go figure
@@qtscorpkid annnd blu mage got added and became a meme of wasted content. >.> go figure.
@@handsinthefire and then shadow bringers came out and they gabe us yshtola as the best black mage proving Thu could do it
Came here to say this. XIV absolutely added on to Black Mages' gameplay.
It's obvious the makers of these vids don't actually play XIV and just do a quick look based on information they likely just find on wikis. It's always glossed over or summarized in a single paragraph regardless of the topic.
Vivi is easily my favorite character in the entire Final Fantasy franchise.
This should not be controversial. Final Fantasy has had a lot of great characters, but he is the best character.
There is also an ode to Black Mages in Kingdom Hearts. Donald stands as a Black Mage, Vivi makes a guest appearance, and the magic using Heartless enemies are all modeled after the traditional Black Mage look.
In Kingdom Hearts, it is also referenced by Donald's reluctance to use Cure.
@@lyndsaybrown8471 He never gets that cure on fast enough. haha
@@robertgronewold3326: Goofy will burn through Potions like a Chemist faster than Donald uses 1 Cure!
@@lyndsaybrown8471Heal me, Donald!
Donald: DUCK FLARE!
I feel like your Lulu discussion is missing the fact that she IS explicitly called a Black Mage by Wakka when he wants to teach Tidus about magic.
To my knowledge, Yuna is the only other one to ever get a specific job reference, so I appreciate the allusion argument. But it needs to be fairly stated that Lulu IS a black mage, not just an allusion to black mages.
I think most people also oversell the capability of the sphere grid. In reality, you'd have to grind an insane amount in order to move a character outside of their designated starting section by the end of the game.
@@_mako In expert sphere grid, everyone started much closer to each other so getting everyone the same abilities was much faster. But you needed to know how to get the key spheres early to unlock the right paths so almost impossible to do if you played blind. It was fun to do on subsequent runs though.
And once nearing endgame it became very quick to grind by crafting an overdrive to PC mod on everyone's equipment. The only thing that took ages to max was luck (because the arena monsters dropping the spheres had insane amounts of HP, every single sphere took a long ass time).
@@_mako Very true for the standard grid. you aren't getting lvl 40 key spheres until VERY late game.
And even the expert grid isn't profoundly customizable until later. Certain things are "easy," like giving Yuna some black magic. But those are usually a lot of extra grinding OR require you to bypass the intended parts of their kit. I usually detour to give Yuna some black magic and then go back to the Whm path.
But it's not like you can easily give Yuna Power Break...
They very much are intended to fill those roles through the main game. It's only endgame, where you get full control. And you only have limited control with the expert grid.
@@ashurasama It didn't take *that* long before characters were going through others' sections. What takes too long is clearing the nodes and filling them with +4s and the like for post-game stats.
@@Brahmsonite yeah exactly, dropping the +4 spheres took much longer than the levelling to cross the board.
Vivi is my favorite Black Mage and one of my favorite characters from any FF ever.
I've always loved the Black Mages as a concept. Even before FFIX and Vivi. Vivi is of course my favourite BM, but design-wise I really dig FFXIV's Black Mages. They look so badass. Love that design!
Also, deep down I really hope one day we'll get a 3D remake of the original FFI (with a polished and extended plot) and we get introduced to the other Warriors of Light, other than the Knight. I hope Yoshitaka Amano or Tetsuya Nomura finallly design and bring them to life.
It's called Stranger of Paradise. Now weep
@@KashKey- I thought that was a prequel.
@@KashKey-why weep?
The OG Black Mage was very much a design of the D&D style wizard. A Glass Cannon, so to speak. I always did the Fire Cave as early as possible to get the Rat's Tail, so I could take it to Bahamut and age my party up.
I love how this is such a solid class it never needs changing. Basically everyone needs someone in their lives that make it go BOOM...with fir, lit, and ice lol.
My favorite black mage is mine, since I play FFXIV! That said, Lulu was my first experience with a black mage (or analog) and she is why I love the class.
Vivi is a boy.
@@obsidiansinclaire3826 OK? I don't see how that's relevant since this guy didn't mention Vivi at all.
@@intensellylit4100 this is why I usually dont comment high lmao.
".....and they would only graze most foes" At that moment the Black Mage shanks some fool into oblivion. Nice timing.
Loled at this
me: seeing vivi
me: starts tearing up after remembering his letter at the end of ff9
Same except I'm tearing up remembering him adjusting his hat whenever he fell on his little ass
@@fearlesstp really anything vivi did in the story makes me cry playing it or watching it again
Because he died in the end, right?
with the dali music playing in my head... im a sobbing mess
@@Re_V do you really want to know
The evolution of my people.
Stay strong bruh... #BMLM
I just came here to say that Vivi will always be the quintessential Black Mage for me, whenever I see the iconic yellow hat and blue jacket I always remember them and their tragic but inspiring storyline.
I see Black Mage's 8-bit sprite and all i can think of is 8-bit theatre.
Honestly, whenever i see Black Mages in general i think of 8 bit theatre BM's "HADOKEN" spell.
And his wildly inappropriate advanced toward White Mage. Dang it, now I need to go back and reread that.
Also, sword-chucks!
Boatdouken was also a useful move
The Armoire of Invincibility....
i coulda sworn one of the mobile spinoffs(or possibly a non-mobile spinoff) actually gave black mages access to one of the various magic-damaging monk techniques(i think maybe chi blast?) as a reference to that, but i don't remember which.
I saw Vivi and instantly had a lump in my throat. Black mages have always been my favourite. Thank you for making this.
5:13 Oh that scene with Palom and Porom "leaving the party" still hurts to this day
Once FF Union is done highlighting the traditional jobs, maybe he can do an Evolution videos on the reoccurring summons. Mainly their portrayals, roles in the narrative, and the summon and boss data.
Can't believe you didn't talk about the most powerful Black Mage in squeenix history Donald Duck
he's actually a res mage. he uses both white and black magic
@Phoenix Goofus heals his allies when they are in need. Dallant spams Thunder and watches his friends die.
What about Magus from Chrono Trigger?
@@RabblerouserGT Not technically part of Final Fantasy. Kingdom Hearts only gets a pass because of its inclusion of FF characters
Zettaflare!
One of my favorite things to do in Final Fantasy X was to max out Lulu's Sphere Grid and use her to attack. It is hilarious watching that little doll she is carrying to walk up to the enemy and do max damage.
What an interesting Vivisection of a character
The way FFX handled roles was the best. Lulu is a stunning representation of a black magic user. I wonder if final fantasy will ever go back to turn based gameplay.
Yeah, it's a pity though she would become useless when one could teach black magic to Yuna.
*FFIX*
Fixed for ya homie 👍🏻
@@camgoodkickslol what?
My favorite is Y'shtola from FF14
It might be cheating a bit since her official job as of Shadowbringers is Sorceress, and she does still use some white magic. That being said she uses a lot more black magic so I would still count it.
vivi is my favorit black mage, he gave a story to the class and it became essential to the story and I never forget how satisfying it is to combine steiner and vivi in battle
Fire IV, despair, xenoglossy... satifying.
Red Mages be like:
I'm good
I'm bad
I'm bad
I'm good
I find in most of the FF games I’ve played that Black Mages are the opposite lol.
I’m bad
I’m good
I’m good
I’m bad
In my experience Black Mage is such a fun class, but it’s also typically not very meta for the end-game :(
Please do a Evolution of chocobo.
And don't start in Final Fantasy. Start where they begin, in the film Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
This
Believe it or not they evolve into chocabo humanoids. There is one in FF13-2
@@crustyandcruel Wait, what?
Edit: I wouldn't mind the evolution of moogles, either.
The Vivi cameo on World of Final Fantasy was such a treat! One of my favorite moments of that game.
Black Mage was my main class in FFXIV:ARR prior to expansions, for sure one of my favorite FF classes. I love these evolution videos, I end up learning so much from FF titles I didn't get the chance to play yet. :)
My favorite Black Mage of course is Vivi. He is the heart of FFIX.
I'm disappointed Shantotto is not mentioned. She is the storyline black mage representative of FF 11 and playable in Dissidia.
I didn't get the impression he's played much of FFXI either.
He also didn't mention Estinien from 14 in his Dragoon video, being a prominent character in both the main story and Dragoon story lines.
Can’t believe you made me listen to a piano rendition of This Fleeting Life for 20+ minutes throughout this otherwise excellent video. Now my heart hurts
To be specific in XIV, you had to reach level 30 in the thaumaturge class before you and receive the Soul of the Black Mage.
Very much looking forward to the White Mage and Summoner videos :)
While Vivi is my favorite, I thought the Black Mages from Final Fantasy Tactics (The Lion War) looked the coolest. Thanks for the upload =)
Vivi is my fav Bmage. With FF9 being my favorite FF.
Lulu >>
Personally, my favorite BM would be one of FF1's Lightwarriors. I tend to name mine Eletix and give him as many lightning spells as I can, as is true to how my elder brother's Runescape character, Eletix, had started out. A lot of my naming conventions came from stealing from him or making my own. Zanark is a seemingly nice name for Cecil, my first Dungeons & Dragons character, based entirely off of the Fighter class of FF1, and a town from FF10. I also tend to reuse similar names for similar characters, such as naming a person I use for spellcasting something like "Etykus". As many archetypes as there are in the wider Final Fantasy lore, I likely have my own names for all of these people, even the non-playable ones should there ever be a mod or something.
That nod to Mario slam B-Ball put a smile on my face, one of my fave DS games as a kid and I always thought the FF character cameos were obscure, but I refused to use any other character.
Cheers for the nostalgia high
Also can we mention the fact the blackmage looks like Orco from He Man.
Didn't mention the Vivi cameo in FFXIV where he is the CHAD MANDERVILLE MAN
smh my head
Am a fully fan of this Job. :) Going for wizardly classes in any rpg game it's possible, and when playing the first online game in the series, it was so fun being a part of a group of other players and solely controlling this warrior. It was even better in XIV, since putting alot of work and time into doing the quests and getting the materials to upgrade the Artifact rods rewarded you with even more magical power.
Been binge listening to you all day while cleaning. Glad a new one popped up :)
I think the Black Mage of Final Fantasy XIV is by far the best iteration of all time!
My favorite Black Mage is my Female Black Mage from Final Fantasy Tactics 😂, Her name is Nina, I like her sprite a lot, and I give her also support Summons (+Cyclops and Zodiark) to kick even more a$$ and help the party. And the nostalgia...as she has always been in Ramza's party since my first playthrough.
Gotta say, I'm loving these "evolution of" videos. I hope you do a video for White Mages next :)
I love the Evolution videos so much I hope you can make more of these. I love the Warrior of Light Evolution as well.
You forgot to mention FF: The 4 Heroes of Light 😋
Super underrated FF title, one of my favorites and had some interesting gameplay mechanics and was surprisingly tough!
Vivi is probably my favorite character design ever
14's Black Mage class is one of my favorites. The class questline is great, and I love the way the class plays. That feels like cheating though, so I'll just go with what I feel might be the overall consensus and say that Vivi is still probably the franchise's best black mage.
It feels like cheating to simply say "Vivi"
As my own answer, Vivi is the obvious instant answer, but it's too easy.
Vivi will always be my favorite black mage
I have been working on a FF:CC Campaign, and I realized that the Black Mage as a Race may have been the basis of the Yuke Race. They are just so many similarities even if they look very different. 🧙🏿♀️
I mean.... Obviously Vivi is the greatest. But im a HUGE fan of Rydia... and Lulu... *points fingers together*
Rydia's no black mage. Your FFiv representative is Porom.
Nah, the greatest and even more powerful are the Black Mages from FFTactics. And the female black mage sprite looks more badass than Vivi (and they do not trip over every 5 minutes in the game, that got annoyingly old very quickly).
The wide rim hat makes sense if you think about it, because most black magic creates flashes of light, so having something to create shade above your eyes can help to better see where and against whom your spell is going.
No. Wide brimmed hats are mainstays for wizards and witches in folklore.
You can say most magic creates flashes of light not any more than black magic. In fact, white magic is more associated with light.
I'd love to see you cover dark knights sometime. Did you know that Yoshitaka Amano did cover art for Michael Moorcock's books? His version of Elric bears an uncanny resemblance to the concept art for Garland.
I totally forgot that the Black Mages in 9 were dolls possessed by magical beings.
That's very interesting because that's another link between 9 and Crystal Chronicles as the Yukes are magical beings possessing dolls/suits of armor that they made
Wonderful series, and super educational! I'm studying traditional jrpg party roles for a project, and this series is a huge help!
Sounds interesting. What sorta project might that be?
I watched this video doing the dishes, your voice is so relaxing and kept me calm. Thanks a lot, amazing video. My first intro to Black Mage was SSF2 and I loved him ever since.
black mage is probably my favorite dps job in ff14. it's a super fun job and I love feeling powerful as my big spells go boom
Thank you for capturing my favorite job
The title should be "The complete evolution of Vivi"
Vivi's children*
Vivi is the iconic black mage, but it’s a hard choice between him and Rydia for my favorite black mage.
@@waz207 Rydia is more of the classic Green Mage than Summoner imo.
Vivi is definitely my favorite black mage, however, I do like the style aesthetic for the black mage in FF14
Golbez was the perfect character for me. He's proficient as a fighter and black mage.
Do Final Fantasy Job: Dancer Evolution Next!
It makes me sad knowing our black mage homies only live for a year
Only in ff9
I know, still makes me sad
For some reason I have it in my mind that Vivi lives for 9 years as he was the prototype and did not have a strict expiration date set.
All we do know is he managed to learn how to make more black mages before he died and his kids look identical.
But yeah, not 100% where I got the 9 year figure from...but it's certainly longer than 1 year for Vivi
Or they end up in jail
I see what you did there...
Not cool, Door-kun!
Just a small correction, at 1:52, spell damage is technically not tied to Intelligence in Final Fantasy 1. The Intelligence stat actually did do anything in FF1 until Dawn of Souls.
I'm looking forward to seeing your Evolution of the Summoner video. This is a nice series.
In ffxiv, it’s a very deep job. Simple to learn, but the ceiling for mastery is so high. Nice to see it getting love here! 😊❤️
As a Black Mage main, I agree
I finished leveling all my casters to 80 recently, I agree 100%. I can just get a simply Enochain cycle going and spam fire IV with a few thunders as they proc, but that's my limit really.
Seen some crazy BLM players who seem to spam out flares and freeze faster than their cast times should let them while staying on max MP and seeming to get thunder procs on spam, insane DPS.
I stick with low effort for fairly high performance RDM now :P
The complete evolution of Thiefs
Yes, Zidane is my favorite mc
I'm still patiently waiting for the Evolution of Samurai, Dark Knight and Ninja. Other than jobs...probably the Evolution of Moogles or Bahamut.
Another excellent history video!
These often make me think it would be fun to see something like this that includes RPGs by Square Enix outside of Final Fantasy. Wild idea, I know, but the Bravely Default series would be perfect additions to these evolution of class videos, along with other choice games.
Super Mario RPG, Chrono trigger, Parasite Eve AND Vagrant Story!
will you do white mages too? they are my favorites
"I'm just a lonely black mage, relegated to the back space."
Vivi and Lulu also share a similar naming convention. Consonant-Vowel-Consonant-Vowel with the consonant and vowel staying the same both times.
YESSSS IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS ONE
my baby Vivi
Although the black mages in X-2 didn’t bring anything mechanically new, both the black and white mage uses Yuna’s staves as a homage to her prior journey.
Lightning also can don the classic black mage hat as a new game plus cosmetic in Lightning Returns
Black Mages in XIV are a bit more involved as they're also able to harness "void magic". This magic type allows for the use of void type (distinct from dark) spells like Foul or Xenoglossy, as well as summoning "voidsent" as seen in the historical records of an old civilization ran by black mages, Mhach.
Two people in particular are also seen with the ability to create void portals that are akin to black holes, though the true holder of space magicks belongs to Astrologian wielding spells like Gravity
Ardyn's outfit in XV could be seen as a nod to the Black Mage with it's dark theme striped pants and broad brimmed hat.
I love this headcanon. Plus he does have access to a powerful source of fire magic.
Vivi was my first black mage and I loved his character. This is now my new main class in ffxiv they hit so d@mn hard.
Can we get an Evolution of Scholar. I'd love to hear those thoughts. And don't forget to mention Tyro from Record Keeper, lol
Scholar’s had a pretty short run through FF, so sadly there wouldn’t be too much material. The few times it’s appeared it never had too many unique abilities; FFXIV’s incarnation happened to be the most fleshed-out thus far.
One of the best classes ever!
I loved the FFXI later update to give the "group casting" to bring a more powerful Meteor. A bit sad you didn't mention that, I think. Was something I loved about FFCC where you group cast to make a more powerful spell.
History of Moogles next please
We're not sure if anyone in comments requested this but We would love to see a video on the Samurai Job class. We love you guys FF videos.
I love the Black Mage hats in FFX-2! (you can see them all at 13:50) I suppose they're more like witch hats than the traditional pointy yellow hats black mages usually have, but I still love them.
A "not really" answer, but it works.
Barret, specifically from the remake, His stoneskin ability to not be knocked over makes him a great caster in general, but stacked with the right materia, He's an iron cannon, rather than the BLM glass cannon.
Vivi and Lulu are my all time favorite black mages.
Wracking machine and freaking Larry pops out i laugh so hard xD
Since we are talking about Black Mages, can I request for a video on Shantotto Origins?
iz me........
awesome , well the most powerful incarnation of destruction was on tactics when black mages learn to count numbers .
Vivi for sure , and Steiner is my favorite knight ever .
As always another great video. thank you. never stop please.
Now im so excited to continue playing FF9 with my controller on pc. I'm currently in Lindblum for the first time. Wish me luck. Go VIVI
I think you forgot to mention Vivi's appearance in Kingdom Hearts Series.
Black Magic is also present there for Donald Duck & Sora, with Donald Duck being more fitting as a Black Mage (he's the Court Mage of Mickey's Kingdom).
You may not be able to start as a black mage in XIV, but you can start as a thaumaturge, which is similar. Black mage is a direct upgrade from it; you have to specifically be a level 30 thaumaturge to unlock it, not just level 30 in anything.
I love Black Mages, especially Vivi and Lulu.
2:13 in other words a “glass cannon”
Vivi is a precious baby.
Final Fantasy Tactics released Jan 1998. Black Mages had iconic blm look(generic recruits) and could have some intesting abilities(depending on which reaction and support abilities have been learned from the other classes)
They also had exclusive access to the -aja spells(firaja, blizzaja and thundaja), the fourth level elemental attacks. Magic Counter would counterattack with the same magic used to attack the blm. And Magic Attack Up(Arcane Strength) would increase magics by 33%.