The Complete Evolution of Red Mages

the ability to cast magic has always been something associated with fantasy and given its roots final fantasy embraced this wholeheartedly within the first experience there were three different types of mage and as the franchise has built out this number has only increased following the addition of jobs like time age and summoner still it's those initial three mages that have stood the test of time and become synonymous with the franchise often being integrated into the story while being alluded to even when the games don't inherently feature jobs and that's because they offer rather fundamental functions white mages have acted as healers wildung spells like cure and protect black mages have acted as the antithesis of this raining down damage with classic elemental spells and more dangerous ones like Ultima and red mages well they acted as something of an intermediary able to dabble in different fields of magic offering a more balanced approach due to their lack of specialism but outside of this lack of specialism what makes a red mage inherently unique and how has this particular job evolved over time well we're about to find out as we take a look at the complete evolution of the red mage with its first appearance in Final Fantasy 1 we got to see an excellent cross-section of just what the red mage was all about red mages were one of the six starter classes available when you select new game and the basic definition as provided by the English manual states that the red magician has the ability to learn some of both black and white magic spells and is a fairly good fighter that's a pretty succinct way to describe these crimson Wizards as in Final Fantasy 1 red mages can indeed use spells from both schools of magic black for offensive spells and white for defensive they are also adept fighters able to equip a good selection of sort and armor fairly good is an apt summary of their ability in these aspects and although later on the class change upgrades them to red wizards this is still the case when comparing these red Wizards to white wizards black wizards or Knights they were designed to be the jack of all trades master of none and there was a clear reason as to why this was the case choosing classes at the very start of the game represented one of the most important decisions the player could make but for those who weren't sure the Red Mage provided an alternative they could he'll exploit elemental weaknesses with magic and when their spells were used up they were still able to defend themselves in a physical sense in exchange they were weaker than specialists like fighter or black mage with limits to the spells they could cast and limits to the weapons and armor they could equip but that was the trade-off for versatility in literal terms red mages had access to 2/3 of the game's spells and upon being upgraded to red wizard they could learn up to the seventh level of magic spells giving them access to God Tyr spells like cure 3 and fire 3 as well as a large suite of support spells but they could never gain access to the biggest flashiest spells like Holi and flare those were reserved for white wizards and black wizards red mages also had the ability to equip just under half of the game's weapons and just under two-thirds of the game bomber the handicap was clear they had access to a very wide range but there was a cap and this also applied to character stats yet in the original nez version this particular handicap didn't quite work as intended red mages were meant to have lower intelligence than white mages and black mages making their spells less effective but the intelligent stat was bogged and didn't calculate as intended so their handicap didn't actually exist in this version bugs aside though within this day B performance we can establish the basics of the red mage that we can then look to apply to the rest of the series and those basics are that red mages can access both black and white magic they have access to a wider range of spells than the specialist jobs but they don't ever gain access to the top-tier spells they are adept at combat being able to equip a large range of weapons and armor but they have average stats not excelling in one particular area they also as a bonus point sport rather fetching hats and become red wizards went up traded the result is as we specified earlier Jack of trades master of none red mages trade share power for versatility choosing to be pretty good at three things instead of being awesome at one thing in many ways there are parallels with blue mages which we covered in our previous evolutions video but anyway with our definition now in hand let's see how this particular job trope was utilized in subsequent games starting with Final Fantasy 3 as Final Fantasy 2 did away with many conventions including the job system so red mages were sidelined along with all the other classes the average player could still end up with a party of characters who could have a smattering of different spells and are not particularly amazing in any role due to the demanding level system but we don't get any real rep mages or even characters wearing dashing red hats with Final Fantasy 3 the developers brought back the job system though and the red mage came with it still using pretty much the same in-game sprite but Final Fantasy threes version of the red mage was weaker than Final Fantasy ones overall they could access the essential basic spells on both sides of the spectrum but were blocked out from the new school of summon magic and all but a selection of physical gear and this was because class changes were handled differently where heroes in the original game could choose one job which only had one upgrade path in Final Fantasy 3 the warriors of light could swap more or less at will accessing a much more diverse array of classes and upgrades the black maid could essentially upgrade to the Magus the white maids to the devout and the Avoca to a summoner these replaced the simple upgrades of the original wizard classes but in final fantasy 3 there was no equivalent upgrade for the red mage which meant it capped out pretty quickly in terms of its utility the sage did come close as this upgrade as it could use black white and summer magics and this could be seen as an evolution of the definition we established earlier but sages were useless when it came to physical attacks and didn't have any real restrictions in their repertoire of spells able to cost up to level 8 magic this Koller also comes close using the monochromatic schools but they were more interested in analyzing enemies to identify weaknesses and believed the book was mightier than the sword oddly enough a high leveled Onion Knight may also be a good equivalent to the upgraded Red Mage within Final Fantasy 3 if they're at max level Onion Knights do have access to black and white magic and are very very useful with swords or any other weapon for that matter but as opposed to being the jack-of-all-trades they all more like aces it meant that within Final Fantasy 3 the core traits were their red mages could use black and white magic and this was an unlimited capacity but there was also no second iteration of the job their spells capped out at level 4 meaning they could only end up using 1/3 of all the spells as opposed to the 2/3 we saw in Final Fantasy 1 it was a similar situation with weapons and armor and Ament red mages went from being able to do most things pretty well to being able to do most things pretty well but only in a segmented portion of the game which was something of a devolution as opposed to an evolution for Final Fantasy 3 remake English was positioned as a Red Mage in Yoshida's work it suggested that the player might do well with the standard Final Fantasy 1 party formation of fighter red mage black mage and white mage and while this may be true each of these jobs would outlive their usefulness pretty quickly in Final Fantasy 4 the job system stuck around with jobs assigned to specific characters with actual personalities and backstories yet even though the red mage was a rather venerable class it wasn't explicitly represented in the way that Dragoon white mage or Dark Knight were there were characters who could use both black and white magic like teller and foo Sonya and Rydia in her youth but outside of that single quality they exhibited no other red mage traits as a sage teller could use very high-level magic such as meteor and foo Sonya as a Lunarian also had a very high competency with magic but despite their enormous intelligence neither of them possessed strong physical attributes amend that while black and white mages had been ever-present since their first appearance the showing for red mages had been less than stellar but that all changed in Final Fantasy 5 where not only did we get to see the Red Mage return in a rather faithful manner we also got to see our first evolution of the job unlike in Final Fantasy 1 & 3 where red mages were starter jobs within Final Fantasy 5 the red mage only unlocked once the water crystal had shattered in line with the truth they were able to cast both white and black magic where the power of these spells capped out at level 3 as opposed to level 6 for specialist mages it did still give them plenty of support applications though as this allowed them to cast Ray's cure to and protect while also providing some offensive utility with rot ear spells in addition they were able to equip swords as well as rods and staves enabling players to change things around to suit their situation red mages also had a much lower base magic than the specialist mages and this will worked together to make them very much a jack-of-all-trades again but perhaps realizing this standard implementation hindered red mages a bit too much within the meta of Final Fantasy five the developers chose to imbue red mages with a unique ability called dual cast or double cast it was one of the most expensive skills to learn permanently within the game but was also very valuable as it allowed the associated character to cause two of the same spells back-to-back for red mages this was a neat trick in itself but if that red mage was given access to higher-level black and white spells or summons dual cast was a tremendous asset it's better still in the hands of a well-trained in-game freelancer and is almost mandatory for any self-respecting mage it meant that red mage finally had something that compensated for its deficiencies in other areas it had a unique strengths outside of its sheer versatility but we wouldn't get to see that strength manifest again for some time as the job system itself was notably absent for the next few iterations and even though jobs were present in Final Fantasy 6 7 & 8 and more of a fixed sense red mages were deemed surplus to requirements with the developers instead choosing jobs such as monk blue mage and ninja that was unless you looked a little closer as some of the characters during this era did exhibit some traits that we would expect to see in a Red Mage within Final Fantasy 6 this applies to our two heroines Tara and sellers even though it was possible via different means they were both able to learn a wide range of white and black magic naturally without the need for magicite and they were decent melee fighters too Tara gets discounted though due to her very high magic stat but sellers his stats are fairly even across the board with her not excelling in any particular area it makes her a very good candidate for being classified as a Red Mage even if her official designation is rune Knight to go along with this sellers also had a unique ability called runic which allowed her to negate a magical ability restoring her MP instead within Final Fantasy 7 the application was much less clear as the notion of a character class was a bit more ambiguous however red 13 does present himself as a decent candidate offering middle ground stats with strength and magic only excelling in speed this made him adept at both casting magic and using physical attacks but that's about where the case for red 13 being a Red Mage stops unless you include the useless piece of trivia relating to his name being red M if you accept that M is the thirteenth letter of the alphabet coincidence you tell me Final Fantasy 8 didn't offer anything that could even be considered an allusion to the red mage but within Final Fantasy 9 we got to see a much clearer representation of a story-based red mage thanks to Freya Crescent on the surface Freya is readily identifiable as a classic dragoon in the tradition of richard cain and sid high-wind but it was her armor that suggested dragoon wasn't the only route for her powers as she was wearing the cap of a red mage in fact Freya is dressed like a red mage in almost every regard all except the Tabard she wears which shows some of her Knightly pedigree and when looking at her specific moveset we can also see that her unique dragoon techniques combine the three specialties of a red mage healing allies viruses wind dealing magical damage via cherry blossom and dealing physical damage by dragons crest she's definitely strong as is befitting of her dragon lineage but there's enough to say that she at least has rib made equipped as a sub job if we apply some terminology that was later introduced via the MMORPGs as with Final Fantasy six through eight Final Fantasy 10 also lacked a traditional Red Mage Kumari would be the closest candidate within the main cast as his position on the sphere grid allowed him to go in any direction at the start of the game we spent he could learn both schools of magic but we already know that his OverDrive's classify him as a blue mage at heart so the only other candidate comes in the form of seymour guado although seymour is only playable for a short section of the game during this time we can see that he's able to cast raw level spells on both sides of the magical spectrum and can also summon however as a staff user he's fairly weak from a physical perspective so it's not like he's a dead ringer for the Red Mage classification Final Fantasy 10 T also chose to forego any kind of illusion to the robe made despite the developers choosing to feature some much rarer jobs but all of this was forgiven because in Final Fantasy 11 we got to see red mages return in a rather grand fashion the usual hallmarks were present versatility between magic and combat but with noticeably less effectiveness than specialists they also gained access to both black and white magic but as an evolution red mages also initially received unique variants of spells as for example while white mages were able to cast Barstow noir red mages would have the lesser bar stone in later expansions rune fences would also gain access to these spells which offered an interesting connection to sellers and within later expansions red mages also gained unique spells that allowed them to boost character stats dual cast also returned under the new name of chained spell it allowed for the casting of two spells back-to-back negating the need for additional cast time and as we saw with in Final Fantasy 5 this could be applied to spells from another job - like Black Mage or even ninja thanks to final fantasy xi mechanic it made red mages particularly useful as backup healers as they could restore the potties health at a much faster rate than white mages to offset the increased MP consumption of chain spell high-level red mages unlocked the Refresh ability a sort of regen effect for MP and if we consider cell as an honorary red mage we can consider MP manipulation as an emerging trend within the class with the likes of runic and refresh within the realm of vanity our red mages were best suited to support roles with their exceptional skill at enfeebling and enhancing they could use these skills to soften the enemy or bolster the party and when used in conjunction with effects like dispel and healing magic red mages could be seen as the glue that held a high-level party together they could truly apply their versatility here swapping between support healing and offensive roles deftly something that even allowed them to solo difficult enemies in the games earlier years when combined with weapons such as the Kraken Club it meant that with the advent of the MMO we got to see the rebbe made truly grow into its unique strengths but even though there were enhancements there was no real evolution as such outside of the couple of unique spells but they were stronger than we'd ever seen before sub jobs also went a long way to diluting the red media status as jack-of-all-trades in final fantasy xi which meant the compromises became less of a detriment and a similar mentality was also applied to the implementation of red mage within Final Fantasy 12 as although there was no practical version within the original game the International zodiac job system and the zodiac age included the red battle mage this was something of a revolution on the red mage concept as it allowed the class to use great swords and maces and gave the red mage access to a much wider range of magic including time magic and arcane magic in fact in their zodiac versions arcane magic was a unique school of magic created exclusively for red battle mages the addition of time magic continued pushing red mages towards the support role and also continued pushing them away from having only black and white magic within the later versions of this game Multi classing returned from the mmo's again giving red battle mages a chance to bolster their repertoire in one area they can take black mage to increase their potency with odd or their unique fire spell they can pick machinist or Archer to attack from a safe distance or they can lean into their sword fighting side by having Knight as the second job there wasn't an equivalent of dual cast within this game but battle mages did have a unique suite of different augments which increased their MP recovery particularly when taking or delivering damage in terms of characters princess Ashe could be considered an honorary red mage like Terra and sellers in all versions of the game she joins the party with a sword and white magic and her stats are spit pretty evenly between attack and magic but within the zodiac additions she does have the highest magic stat which makes her more like Terra and sellers Final Fantasy 13 put aside Red Mage in the traditional sense as by its nature the paradigm system made it so that each character had decent utility in a wide variety of roles you could still apply different principles though and when looking at some of the minutiae a lightening becomes a decent candidate before the crystarium expands lightning can access only Commander Ravager and medic the three hallmarks of the Red Mage but she was unable to perform all of these functions at the same time it's also interesting that unlike other characters she can only learn one gar level spell which means that she takes the box of being given less access to top tier spells than other characters within lightning returns lightning could also obtain a Red Mage garment but it was more of an aesthetic omage as opposed to anything practical in raised her attack and magic stats in equal measure but that's where it ended with in Final Fantasy 14 we got to see another strong representation of the job but there were distinct differences from what we got to see in Final Fantasy 11 for one they weren't a start a class like in Final Fantasy 5 as the Red Mage was only introduced via storm blood the game's second expansion because of this brave maid had no base class starting at level 50 and they were classified as a ranged magic DPS class their use of rapiers and healing magic and this is because final fantasy 14 bucks the conventional attack magic is black and healing magic is white the divisions are instead based on elements fire ice and lightning or black and earth wind and water are white this distinction comes from the game's backstory where the schools were developed by warring groups of sorcerers after the sixth umbral calamity the two factions called a truce and the red mages were born from their union representing an evolution of the concept we saw in Final Fantasy 11 red mages in Final Fantasy 14 received unique versions of spells but they had much wider applications some of these were based on classic spells and were denoted by the verb prefix but Red Mage had many other unique spells such as impact and scatter the developers also introduced another evolution in the form of the balanced gauge this displayed the amount of white and black mana that had been accumulated and when each side reached a certain amount weapon skills would become enhanced dealing additional damage dual cast also returned as a fundamental part of the job unlocked at level 1 this trait gave red mages the ability to instantly cast a second spell after casting an initial spell that has a cast time it meant that although there were some distinct modifications that helped to make Red Mage feel more unique through the introduction of new spells and abilities fundamentally they stayed true to the main concept of what a red mage should be and it was also pleasing to see that there was a Reb made representative in the ceilings of the seventh dawn Alice a who changes jobs and clothes in the storm blood storyline I'd like to move on to Final Fantasy 15 at this point but unfortunately our tour of the mainline games must end without a proper or mod as Final Fantasy 15 elements II system and the lack of healing magic break our mold at a fundamental level so let's take a look instead at how red mages have appeared in the various spin-offs I'd also like to say I would want to start with Final Fantasy Tactics in this regard as it had one of the best implementations of the job system but there were no red mages they did however appear in Final Fantasy Tactics advance but we actually saw an evolution as red mages could only be used by a particular race the Viera and within this installment they could also use double cost and how access to both schools of magic making their implementation very comparable with Final Fantasy five within the mobile gaming sphere red mages have appeared within record-keeper and dimensions and in both instances they were very faithful to what we saw in Final Fantasy five it representation within mobius was a bit more unique but still had the hallmarks such as chain spell and a decent affinity with physical and magical attacks perhaps the most notable cameo though is with the bravely series the dashing villain fiora Durazo granted the red mage Asterix when being defeated in both games it gave players access to black and white magic and in lieu of the ability to duel cast as that concept was actually integrated into the bravely engine the red mage gained abilities such as turntables and in the red which enabled them to benefit from the brave the engine it meant that even though Red Mage only truly appeared in five of the fifteen main series games we got to see their influence in pretty much every single game other than Final Fantasy 8 and 15 in their NFL ting red mages started out really as a compromise class they could do a little bit of everything but having one character able to fill all of these roles initially came at the cost of power output with the inclusion of dual cast red mages began to focus on casting weaker spells faster and gaining MP recovery tricks to help sustain this rapid attack fall as his went on their bag of tricks was expanded to incorporate more unique spells and it meant that red mages became viable jobs in their own right over time the downside of choosing a red mage has decreased considerably no longer is it a matter of sacrificing stats for versatility but more about playing correctly and being flexible knowing when to switch between the different aspects of their skill set the restrictions feel less detrimental and encourage creative thoughtful playing instead it's not that they're afraid or unable to cast high-level spells is that they choose not to in favor of being unpredictable and supporting all parts of a party what's interesting is that we also saw Reb mage lead to the advent of a brand-new class read battle mage and several offshoot classes share similar traits like sage and scholar or even The Onion Knight summoner and rune fencer there's also a strong tendency for red mages to be associated with women as notable characters like sellers Freya lightning ash and Alice a-all exhibit certain traits yet only read 13 and seymour guado act as loose equivalence on the other side of the spectrum it means that the evolution of the Red Mage has been an interesting one and if you enjoy the exploration of this job then please hit that like button share this video around and if you haven't done so please subscribe to our Channel we'd also love to hear what your favorite incarnation of the job has been so far so throw that in the comments and be sure to let us know if there's a particular job you would like us to cover next alright guys this is Daryl signing out I'd like to extend a big warm welcome to all our patreon and YouTube's membership supporters and of course a big thank you to everyone for watching this video I'll see you all again soon for more Final Fantasy goodness

Channel: Final Fantasy Union

Views: 431,549

Keywords: red mage, red mage ffxiv, red mage final fantasy xi, red battlemage ff12, rdm ffxiv, red mage bravely default, red mage explained, ff3 red mage, ffv red mage, freya crescent, final fantasy job system, final fantasy 5 job system, final fantasy xii international zodiac job system, final fantasy, final fantasy evolutions, final fantasy jobs

Id: BPYcAKMgae0

Length: 25min 57sec (1557 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 12 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/DSdavidDS]

My favorite class in Final Fantasy :)

[u/Qurse]

I'd love a return to a single player FF that brings back jobs with their respective outfits.

[u/mattbag1]

Wow! I’m going to level my red mage in 14 now!!