30 Day Final Fantasy Challenge
Day Twenty-Three: Favorite Black Magic Spell I mentioned back in Day Five that I don't rely on White Magic much because I'm such an offense minded player. That's very true, and for that reason, it was kind of tough to pick a favorite Black Magic Spell. I employ a wide variety of destructive spells. How can I choose just one?
Stop would probably have to be my favorite simply because it has the potential to be the most devastating. It isn't that the spell is offensively powerful; it doesn't deal damage. Stop does exactly what the name implies, freezing time around the target and leaving them utterly and completely helpless. An enemy that has been afflicted by Stop status can take no action whatsoever, leaving it with no options but to sit and wait until it wears off, all the while enduring your attacks. The spell's accuracy tends to vary a bit from game to game, and the more powerful enemies are sometimes immune to the spell's effects, so casting it is always a bit of a crap-shoot, especially when compared to the spell's much more versatile cousin, Slow. Still, when it works, it's amazingly effective. Also, I think Final Fantasy Tactics' powered up incarnation of the spell, Celestial Stasis, deserves an honorable mention here. The spell not only inflicts Stop, but also Immobilize and Disable. And just because the spell apparently wasn't devastating enough, the spell's range consists of the entire battlefield. It has the potential to affect every enemy unit at once. The spell's animation is pretty cool, too.
Of course, Celestial Stasis can't really be called overpowered because it's only available to the Astronomer, a unique Job Class of which there is only one in the entire game, Olan Durai, who is only with you for a very brief time (just one battle, to be exact), and who fights as a Guest, anyway, ensuring that you can't use the spell at your discretion.