The Complete Evolution of White Mages

[Music] individuals who are skilled in the art of attack are often the ones who steal the limelight they are there to deal maximum damage make the power play and land the finishing blow that notion relates to the classic view of warfare but it also plays over into sports where those who can score are often deemed to be a team's most valuable commodity but defensive roles can only carry a team so far support is also needed from those who are able to defend and provide sustainability and in the realm of final fantasy one of the job classes that is able to provide sustainability better than any other is the white mage even though there has been some variants owing to each game's individual categorization of white magic white mages often have a very clear designation keep the party alive it seems quite clear-cut but the role of the white mage has seen a considerable amount of evolution since its debut in the original final fantasy as the years have passed developers have added new ways to allow white mages to accomplish that objective and throughout this video we're going to delve into them all as we explore the complete evolution of white mages even though the designation of white mage was not used with any kind of regularity prior to the release of final fantasy the use of white magic was and it meant the role of the white mage was not inherently unique often those who used white magic did so for selfless purposes they practiced healing and offered blessings and throughout history were often referred to as healers wizards or white witches to signify their altruistic nature c.s lewis chose to flip this notion on its head in the lion the witch and the wardrobe but for the most part white was associated with good intentions and there was a primary focus on caring for others as fantasy creators then attempted to build out their playbooks they were keen to incorporate a similar role into the meta but instead of using some of the already established terms dungeons and dragons introduced the cleric as the primary healer and that was because they wanted to lean on the religious affiliation allowing clerics to not just be healers but also warriors who specialized in confronting unnatural forces like vampires and the undead they were also restricted to only using blunt weapons having been influenced by the baio tapestry where odo of bayo the maternal half-brother of william the conqueror who was a cleric was seen wielding a mace in battle and if you look through some of the initial abilities it's quite clear clerics would cure wounds create resistances against things like cold and fire dispel magic and even resurrect fallen allies but they could also harness the light wield some more offensive spells like earthquake and even delve into necromancy at this point clerics despite having weapon restrictions had no armor restrictions but druids a subclass could only wear leather armor and use wooden shields this subclass also introduced the use of the dagger a similar interpretation was then used in wizardry a game that had a great influence on hironobu sakaguchi and hiromichitanaka priests or clerics depending on the version were holy warriors able to fight against unholy creatures by using magic and blunt weapons but they were also able to use healing magic and it's clear that these two interpretations had an impact on what would become the white mage but as you'll see there were also plenty of original thoughts too when the white mage was first introduced in final fantasy it fulfilled the role of being a party's primary healer this role was complemented by two other types of mage the black mage and the red mage whereas white mages would have a focus on defensive play black mages were the opposite focused on using magic to cause harm red mages were then introduced as an intermediary able to use some white magic and some black magic while also wielding better weaponry but having no real specialism in any of those areas the most defining aspect of white mages was their ability to use more white magic than any other class with spells like heel stoner and fear being exclusive they could also cast white magic with more potency and when they were upgraded into white wizards they also became the only class to be able to use the most powerful white magic like the spell and full life but outside of these traits the original appearance of white mages incorporated some elements of what was seen from clerics and priests while also introducing some new traits the first was an interesting association with intelligence this attribute was often associated with more sinister schools of magic but white mages were meant to increase the potency of their spells by increasing their intelligence well that was a theory at least as due to a bug this gameplay mechanic didn't actually work within the original game white mages much like black mages also had a degree of physical frailty and lacked strength but due to their role white mages weren't quite as frail as black mages having slightly more base hp and more vitality with better stack growth in both of those areas too due to that physical frailty white mages were restricted in terms of the armor they could wear and if we're ignoring the masamune they were only able to wield hammers along with staves which adhered to the blunt weapon trait adopted by clerics in previous fantasy works another trait that followed through was an aptitude when fighting the undead as dia diara and iaga could only be cast by white mages and its predecessor the white wizard and holy was exclusive to the upgraded class from a visual perspective to help the class stand out kazuko shibuya created a rather striking avatar it saw white mages wear full white robes but to provide some character a triangular red trim was added around the sleeves and the hem and when everything was combined it helped to create a solid framework that would be iterated upon in the decades that followed [Music] final fantasy 2 ended up being a wholly different experience from its predecessor as the main playable cast could be moulded into a plethora of different class archetypes it meant that within this specific grouping which contained virion maria guy and leon there was no notion of a defined white mage but a prominent white wizard did feature as part of the narrative and their name was minwoo acting as a high-ranking member of flynn minwoo was a skilled healer and he wore white robes but instead of featuring red trim minwoo instead wore red jewels upon joining the party minwoo came equipped with the staff but unlike the previous game any of the other available weapon types could also be wielded including bladed weapons however as minwoo did display physical frailty and lacked strength it was not recommended to push mimu down the route of being a melee fighter in terms of aptitude with magic the distinction between white and black mages became a bit more defined as instead of having high intelligence as was seen within the previous game alongside a high magic stat minwoo had high spirit but low intelligence and to further emphasize the white mage designation when joining the party minwoo had high proficiency with supporting spells such as barrier cure and life it led to some interesting deviations but perhaps one of the more interesting traits came as part of the quest to obtain the ultimate white magic spell ultima as we saw minwoo make a noble sacrifice now this wasn't inherently unique as many of the temporary characters in final fantasy 2 met a similar fate but just make a mental note of this particular facet of white mages as we continue the study final fantasy 3 reverted back to using a job class system but it was much more developed than what was seen within the original final fantasy now as the game progressed new jobs could be acquired and it was possible for the player to change the party's jobs on the fly as one of the founding jobs the white mage was obtained from the wind crystal right at the start of the game and at that point it was by far the most proficient with healing and providing sustainability to help emphasize this even though red mages would have access to the same tira's spell up to level 5 white mages excelled as they had higher mind a stat that increased the power of white magic they continued to have physical frailty low strength and low intelligence and the mind stat helped to boost magic defense but to make sure they stayed in their lane on the battlefield white mages could only equip staves alongside a new type of weapon rods to make sure they were valuable as the game progressed white mages would also gain access to a suite of white magic spells that were out of reach for red mages such as stoner and kuraja but as the game entered into its final phase those spells weren't unique to the class as white mages were superseded by the devout job class devout could cast white magic that was out of reach of white mages and also had a much higher mind stat still until that happened you would get to use a class that had received some positive tweaks while other aspects such as the visual design were almost identical to what had been seen within the original game [Music] deviating away from the three previous games final fantasy 4 retained a job class system but removed the flexibility by locking jobs to certain characters some new jobs were introduced as part of this but many of the classic jobs introduced in the first and third game were retained including the white mage due to the importance of the job and the character rotation system that was implemented numerous characters could wield white magic but only two had it as their primary focus rosa and porom rosa had become a white maid after following in the footsteps of her mother but as she wished to fight alongside her partner much like her mother had done she also learned to wield a bow alongside staves and this represented an interesting evolution as rosa was the first white mage who was proficient with combat making her something of a battle mage able to support her allies with magic while also being able to provide offensive utility using physical attacks rose's utility was then reflected with her stats as she had low intelligence and high spirit but did not have the traditional physical frailty and also had moderate strength porram the other white maid was much more in line with expectations also able to use bows poram had a primary focus on staves she had slightly higher spirit than rosa but was much more frail and had very low strength through rosa we also got to see the introduction of the first unique white mage ability prey could be used as a last resort to cast cure on the party at the cost of no mp but it only had a 50 success rate it was also removed from the north american release of final fantasy 4 due to concerns about its connection with religion porham also had two unique abilities cry and twin cast but neither of them were inherently unique to white mages as one increased the propensity to steal and the other allowed her to cast powerful magic by combining with her twin brother but even though porham's abilities did little to evolve white mages she did continue the trait established by minwoo as alongside her brother she made a noble sacrifice in order to save the party from a vengeful act rosa and purim also saw some deviation with attire as neither of them adopted the quintessential white mage aesthetic rosa perhaps owing to her hybrid role wore a white cloak as opposed to white robes and she wore pink and purple armor underneath white robes were also absent from porram's design as she had an orange and white striped costume with a green cloak used to complete the look final fantasy 5 again reverted back to having a more fluid job class system with players no longer penalized in the same manner for wanting to experiment and the notion of subclasses being introduced plenty of new jobs also came to the fore but the white mage was still present as one of the staple jobs obtained from the wind crystal just as it was in final fantasy 3 the white major filled the role of healer however due to how the job system worked any character could use white magic as long as the command was equipped and they had leveled up the white mage job to the appropriate level mastery only granted a boost in mp pool but this would need to be equipped in order to gain the benefits it made the white mage useful but it was more the skills that were valuable as opposed to adopting the job itself while still learning the trade white mages could only equip staves the first time their assortment of weapons had been so limited and they had very low strength compared to the other jobs magic potency was also simplified in final fantasy v as there were no spirit or mine stats but to compensate white mages have one of the highest magic stats in the game it meant that the white mage job felt quite regressive but one thing was consistent as the white mage attire for almost all of the characters was a white robe with triangular red trimming and bartz even featured a red jewel in his concept art final fantasy vi retained the character lock job class system but despite featuring a rather bulbous cast of characters there was no room for anyone who could be considered a white mage in the traditional sense and final fantasy vii with its more fluid material system which allowed any of the characters to use any white mage spell was similar but hidden underneath the surface was a character who had white mage roots aerith it's quite common knowledge that during the initial stages of final fantasy 7's development there were plans for each of the characters to have a permanent job class just as had been the case with final fantasy 4 and 6. it would have seen cloud appear as a mystic knight and aerith was meant to adopt a hybrid role like rosa being able to use geomancy and having increased proficiency with white magic it meant that even though eris was not a white mage in the literal sense she still featured many of the traits that were incorporated into the job class throughout the first five games and perhaps the clearest area was with her limit breaks aerith had seven different limit breaks but the majority of them revolved around healing or enhancing the party in some manner fury brand for example filled the limit break bars of aerith allies and planet protector granted temporary invincibility but perhaps the most important limit breaks from a white mage perspective were healing wind breath of the earth and pulse of life healing wind was like an upgraded prey able to heal the party for a finite amount of hp without any cost to mp breath of the earth removed a multitude of status effects and pulse of life amplified both of these fully restoring hp and mp and removing all negative status effects great gospel was then the ultimate limit break replacing the removal of negative state effects with temporary invincibility it meant erith was valuable when the party was in a bind but her attributes were also geared towards the role of white mage aerith was the weakest from a physical perspective with low vitality and strength and was restricted to using staves even though some were called rods but there hath had by far the highest magic and spirit offering her a lot of defense against magic and ensuring her spells had a higher degree of potency as something of a hybrid aerith also resurfaced a trait previously seen in final fantasy 4 with rosa it saw aerith ditched the classic white robes as much like rosa her outfit was pink and perhaps as an ode she also had a red jacket within the context of the narrative aerith also made a noble sacrifice much as munmu and poram had done in previous games and when everything was combined it meant aerith was the most creative interpretation of a white mage we'd seen so far and this creative trend would be seen with many of the number games that followed in the interim white mages were a core class in final fantasy tactics a game hiroyukito oversaw from a gameplay perspective ito had played a prominent role in expanding the job class system for final fantasy v and tactics expanded it further still by introducing the notion of new job classes being unlocked as opposed to being found characters now had to attain certain levels with weaker jobs to unlock the more powerful ones and in this regard white mage could only be unlocked after a character had become a level 2 chemist once unlocked a character would gain access to arguably the best healing class in the game as if paired with a character who had high faith they will be able to cure with much more potency and further increased stat boosts and this was important as by default becoming a white mage would enhance a character's base magic while doing little to enhance their physical attributes much has been the case with the two previous games white mages were restricted to only using staves and their visual appearance was identical to what was seen within final fantasy 1 3 and 5 but there was an interesting evolution as final fantasy tactics saw white mages gain complementary abilities to help their weak physical disposition the first was a reaction ability called regenerate after learning regenerate would be triggered upon receiving damage and it would grant the affected character with auto regen regenerate could then be complemented with a support ability called arcane defense when learned arcane defense would boost a white mage's defense against magic something that turned what had previously been a default trait gained through stats like spirit and mind into an optional one alma also appeared as a cleric which harkened back to the earlier days of fantasy role-playing boosted by stronger physical attributes alma was more akin to a battle mage even countering physical damage with a physical attack of her own she could also cast spells that were classified as holy magic as opposed to white magic including the spellna and ultima but perhaps one of the more interesting moves within alma's arsenal was chant similar to prey this allowed alma to restore hp to an ally with no mp cost instead alma would need to sacrifice her own hp to ensure the move worked and the amount of hp restored would be equal to double the amount sacrificed as we had seen from previous characters who adopted a hybrid style alma wore a long pink skirt and she barked the trend by being able to equip axes something that had not been seen since final fantasy 2 and they made for quite the interesting deviation [Music] final fantasy 9 serving as a tribute to everything that had come before featured a whole host of classic job classes that were locked to specific characters garnet and aiko were both made capable of casting white magic to aid the party but even though they were both denoted as summoners from a narrative perspective from a gameplay perspective only aiko was designated as a white mage with garnett being designated as a summoner nonetheless they both featured similar stats with low hp and strength and high magic and collectively they had access to all the white mage spells in the game although as the designated white mage out of the two only aiko had access to the strongest spells such as the spell and holy something she instead shared access to with beatrix who was a holy knight alongside access to white magic both garnet and ico could learn a new support ability called concentrate which increased the effectiveness of curative spells due to her designation aiko also had an exclusive ability that was associated with her trance double white this allowed her to cast two white magic spells within a single turn but even though gameplay focused towards aiko being a white mage the classic appearance was instead associated with garnett who wore the white rose with red triangular trim in a flashback sequence outside of the flashback garnet and iko wore interesting o's to previous white mages garnett for example had an outfit that was white and orange which was similar to porrim albeit without the green cloak although her formal wear did feature a lot of green jewellery and continuing with the trend of hybrid white mages iko wore a pink bodysuit in another interesting deviation neither garnet or iko could equip staves instead they could both use a new weapon to the franchise the magic racket that allowed them to deal damage from the safety of the back row just like a bow in addition garnet could use rods much like the white mages in final fantasy 3 and aiko used another new weapon the flute it meant that with the two combined despite final fantasy 9 serving as a tribute game garnet and aiko brought forth quite a lot of evolution for the white mage job class as it was developed by the same team who worked on final fantasy 7 and 8 thanks to the sphere grid final fantasy 10 featured a system whereby any of the characters could use white magic with no spells out of reach after undergoing enough progression but unlike those two previous games due to how the sphere grid worked there was an underlying notion of job classes present and in the earlier stages the skills and stats characters learnt and gained pit and hold them into those predefined job roles as had been a common trend this saw the development of hybrid job classes and in relation to the white mage just as garnet had done so in final fantasy ix yoona combined this role with summoner which was her main focus from both a gameplay perspective but also within the narrative still even though white mage was a secondary focus for yuna numerous traits were still present she was restricted to using rods and in the earlier stages much focus was placed around sphere nose that boosted magic as opposed to strength or health yoona also learnt prey as one of her earlier abilities and this restored a small amount of hp to the party with no mp cost as part of the narrative yoona also planned to make a noble sacrifice but due to the actions of titus unlike her predecessors she was stopped from following through and from a visual perspective even though yuna's outfit had limited relevance to previous white mage garbs she did have white robes on her arms that had a pink trim continuing the trend of hybrid white mages having some kind of pink clothing it meant the appearance of white mages in final fantasy 10 was quite limited but what followed in final fantasy xi provided a much expanded view of the job class in final fantasy 11 the white mage appeared as one of these starter jobs but even as the game expanded and new jobs were added this major competition as a party's primary healer came from red mages and bards to jobs that also had support functions but when it came to pure focused healing white mages were in a league of their own and this was thanks to a significant number of changes that were made that not only built upon what had been established throughout the games that had come before but explored new and inventive ways to keep white mages fresh and interesting in the basic sense white mages adopted similar attributes they had weak physical sustainability low strength and low intelligence but to counteract this white mages had high mind an attribute that hadn't been seen since final fantasy 3 and just as it had done in that previous game mind had a direct link to the potency of white magic as well as increasing magic resistance white mages were also given access to plenty of damage mitigation spells but white magic was not exclusive to the class nor were all the highest level spells isolated to the white maze job instead there were pockets of spells locked out for each of the jobs with teleport spells for example being exclusive to white mages as well as the higher tier curative spells based on the focus towards healing white mages were not encouraged to engage enemies in a physical conflict and this was enforced by the white mages having a strong affinity with staves but they actually had a higher affinity with the new blunt forced weapon the club and until the addition of geomancers were the only job class able to use the hexa strike weapon skill it meant that although it wasn't encouraged when using weapons such as the kraken club white mages could legitimately function as battle mages when focused on the role of party support though outside of an expanded range of white magic white mages were granted access to a significant increase in abilities and one of the most important was benediction acting as the white mage special ability when used all party members within the area of effect were instantly healed to maximum hp and relieved of all negative status ailments at no mp cost to the user and this had parallels to pulse of life in final fantasy 7 albeit without restoring mp as well marta was similar to chant which had previously been seen within final fantasy tactics it allowed the white mage to sacrifice 25 percent of their health to regenerate double for the target and arcane defense also seen in final fantasy tactics made a loose reappearance as white mages had a passive ability that increased their magic defense as they leveled up and they also had auto regen which was similar to regenerate but unlike in tactics it wasn't always on passive as opposed to being activated upon hit defined seal was also similar to concentrate from final fantasy 9 but it was not innate and needed to be cast ahead of the spell it would affect but outside of a bunch of abilities that were inherited oddly from final fantasy 7 9 and tactics final fantasy 11 introduced plenty of new traits and abilities too a flower to solace in a florida's misery increased potency of the white mage depending on whether healing spells were cast or damage was being taken devotion was similar to marta but instead of granting hp it boosted the party's mp instead divine caress allowed white mages to increase resistances of party members by curing ailments sacrosancity enhanced magic defense for those within the area of effect and asylum would grant party members a powerful resistance to enfeebling magic and dispel effects there were also two other passive abilities called tranquil heart which reduced enmity and divine venison which reduced the casting time of magic related to status ailments and curative spells could also have their casting time reduced by using merit points when combined with the various forms of special armor which featured the traditional white and red complete with triangular trimming what we saw in final fantasy xi was the most comprehensive iteration of the job to date final fantasy 10 2 then borrowed some of these elements while also inserting some new traits and one of the most interesting was that even though white mages could use rods which was the only weapon they could wield they could not perform melee attacks under normal circumstances outside of this the white maze job was one of the first acquired and it featured the expected attributes with high magic and low strength white mages could also make use of the prey ability as well as an adaptation of the tier 1 merit from final fantasy 11 as white mages could reduce their casting time by significant amounts but there was also a new ability introduced called vigor which allowed white mages to restore hp to themselves without any mp cost they also wore white robes but this time the triangular red trim was gone replaced by circles instead white mages then fulfilled an interesting role in final fantasy tactics advance as what we saw deviated from a few established norms white mages still wore white robes and the triangular red trim returned but this time only humes vieira and numu could be white mages the first time they had been excluded from certain characters when a job chain system existed working along with this each race had a different visual aesthetic human white mages for example wore a red cloak and enemy white mages adopted a blue colour to help distinguish them on the battlefield as in the original tactics white mages could only use staves and they had weak physical sustain and attack but even though magic and magic resist were the highest stats for white mages they were outclassed in these areas by other mage classes still white mages did have a pretty useful ability called turbo mp this allowed white mages to increase the potency of their spells at double the mp cost but even though it was a new ability for white mages it wasn't new to the franchise as turbo mp had previously been seen in final fantasy 7 and 10. final fantasy tactics a2 adopted a similar approach for white mages as they were again locked to specific races and had the same support ability but their place within the game was different as they were only the primary healer until better options became available something that hadn't happened since final fantasy 3 when it was superseded by devout in this case devout wasn't present but a similar job class called the seer did render white mages redundant after it was acquired this style of white mage then resurfaced in final fantasy tactics s the mobile social game that was exclusive to japan as well as crystal defenders vanguard storm white mages skipped final fantasy 12 as due to the license board any of the characters could learn any ability and players could create as many pseudo job classes as they wanted but when it relaunched as the international zodiac job system and then the zodiac cage white mages did return as one of the 12 potential job classes due to how it was shoehorned in there was no visual change to any character that was assigned as a white mage and there were some interesting adjustments as the established mechanics were allocated to the various jobs one interesting deviation was that white mages now had access to a second skull of magic green magic and this gave them a bit of extra utility by allowing them to use spells like bubble and reverse very few white magic spars were also exclusive to the class with knights monks and red battle mages gaining moderate access in isolation white mages had the strongest affinity with rods but they could also use some daggers and greatswords an interesting throwback to the original final fantasy and due to their access to a host of enhancing spells even though they weren't the most adept at physical combat and had a limited number of health augments white mages could become something akin to a battle mage when squaring off against undead foes the notion of character locked job class is returned in final fantasy 12 revenant wings but even though there were a wide range of jobs on display there was no specific white mage instead we saw another hybrid iteration as pinellas blended white mage with the dancer job as such pinello had access to a variety of dancer abilities and had exclusive access to reyes pinella was also restricted to only using staves and just as had been seen within final fantasy 10 2 she was unable to use physical attacks adopting a hybrid role pinello's outfit had almost no connection to the typical wide mage aesthetic but there were some small elements of pink and purple such as an armband and crisscrossing at the top of her red trousers as well as pink jewels in her hair but perhaps the most interesting connection with pinello came with her quickening dance of rapture much as benediction had done in final fantasy xi when pinello performed her quickening allies would be restored to full health and all negative status effects would be removed the next appearance for white mages came in final fantasy for the after years as both rosa and poram returned and what we saw built upon their initial appearances while adapting to some of the more modern traits with the job class in the initial sense their roles were familiar rosa was still more of a battle mage having higher hp and strength than the other mages and along with poram she had high spirit and low intelligence to aid with their utility rose and poram would again use staves and bows but there were now no restrictions between the two they also had access to a new type of weapon for white mages as they could use the queen's whip porrim now had access to prey which could restore a moderate amount of hp with no empty cost and rosa now had access to a new ability called blessing this replicated the modified utility of prey from the final fantasy 4 remake where it restored both hp and mp and the amount restored was linked to a character's maximum hp and mp and it provided a loose link back to aeros limit break pulse of life there were also some interesting changes for each of their appearances as purim y pink ensemble with white robe and rosa wore a white outfit with pink and purple robe white mages were not present in either of the initial two crystal chronicles games but they did appear in two spin-off titles that appeared on the wii called my life as a king and my life as a dark lord in the former game white mages who had a classic visual style could be recruited to help the party and they did this as both a healer but by also providing damage as a battle mage to assist they could use rods and hammers which had not been a weapon associated with white mage since the original game and another interesting trait was that white mages were race locked as only clavats and female ukes could take up the role something that had not been seen since tactics advance the follow-up game which saw white mages appear as enemies then borrowed many of these traits without adding anything new of note the next major appearance of white mages came in final fantasy 4 heroes of light a spin-off title that looked to resurface some of the older elements of the franchise while innovating in other ways and it was because of this innovation that even though white mages existed any of the characters could use white magic irrespective of whether the crown was equipped the benefit of equipping the crown was instead a reduction of the cost of casting white magic as opposed to access when using the white mage crown the job had a strong affinity with staves and hammers appeared again but white mages had low strength to counter their high spirit alongside the cost reduction of white magic white mages also had a few other tricks to help improve utility and one of them called miracle was another throwback to pulse of life as it restored a large amount of hp and cured all ailments but it wasn't a free move and had a high ap cost life giver also had a similar application to divine seal from final fantasy xi as it increased the potency of the next spell and a new ability was introduced called life giver that increased the scale of the next spell by making it affect the entire party as opposed to an individual when throwing in the visual style which was pretty traditional with the exception of the triangular trim it meant four heroes of light featured a solid iteration of white mages and that notion would be carried forward into the bravely franchise final fantasy 13 did not explicitly feature a white mage as traditional job classes were swapped out for roles and one role the medic was very similar to what you'd expect from a white mage as they had a strong focus on healing well in theory at least because after looking a little deeper outside of a very loose association with concentrate whereby having more medics in a paradigm would increase the proficiency of their healing spells there were very few traits present the same could not be said though for final fantasy dimensions which featured a fairly comprehensive implementation of white mages that aligned well with the earlier iterations of the job obtained right at the start of the game white mages were the primary healer until they were replaced by sears much like in tactics a2 they could use staves as their main weapon but could also use bose something that had seldom in scene outside of the final fantasy 4 iterations it was also interesting to see that to juxtapose the white mage's physical frailty and low intelligence mind returned as the stat linked with white magic potency and when white mages hit level 5 they could gain an innate 20 boost to this stat white mages also gained another innate ability when achieving the maximum job level and this was similar to what was seen within four heroes of light as by mastering the job white mages could see their mp consumption decreased serving as an ode to those earlier appearances white mages sported white robes with red triangular trim but there was an interesting deviation as white mages could also be seen with grey trim in final fantasy 14 white mage has appeared as one of the original jobs and could be obtained by upgrading the kundura after reaching level 30 and completing the seer folly quest based on law white mages were a rare commodity and only the warrior of light may be a white maid as they awoke the soul of attawa khan that was slumbering inside the soul of the white mage crystal the typical white mage attire was what you'd expect with clean white robes and red trim they could also use staves and rods and their main attribute affinity was with mind but a new attribute was also introduced quarpiety although this was healer exclusive as opposed to being white mage exclusive due to the importance of the role and the breadth of the experience that final fantasy 14 now offers a whole host of abilities and traits have either been inherited or added by the developers to make it comprehensive presence of mind for example was very similar to divine benesin from final fantasy 11 and the innate trade from 10 2 as it reduced cost and recast time and benediction returned but its application was lessened as it only restored hp as opposed to removing status effects and this was similar to how it was implemented as the seer exclusive move in final fantasy dimensions healing wind was also treated in much the same way as it now only restored 25 percent of hp as opposed to a much higher percentage but it also did the same for mp now aflato solace and a florida's misery also returned in shadowbringers alongside a new move called a flotus rapture but even though these moves had the same name they no longer operated in the same way as they did in final fantasy xi solace was now just a straight single target curative spell misery was an offensive spell and rapture was an era of effect curative spell they did however link to a new mechanic that was introduced in storm blood and then enhanced his shadowbringers lilies asylum was another move that borrowed its name from final fantasy xi but again the move itself had no similarity as instead of increasing resistances it created a regenerative field final fantasy 14 also introduced some new moves such as thin air which removed all spell costs for a short period of time temperance which not only increased the potency of spells much as divine seal had done in 11 but also reduced incoming damage to all those in range and a size which would deal damage while also restoring health to the party at the same time when you throw in the sad story of lemit a white mage who sacrificed everything to try and save her world it made the final fantasy 14 iteration of white mages very comprehensive there have been plenty more games that have also featured white mages since 14's initial debut final fantasy type zero for example featured an allusion to white mages as the mughal from class 7 was a white mage final fantasy 13 2 was similar as there was a piece of downloadable content that contained a traditional white mage outfit for sarah lightning returns and took a similar approach offering a white mage garb for lightning but unlike sarah it wasn't just a cosmetic piece as equipping the white mage garb granted lightning some more focused abilities and boosted her magic white mages then appeared in the fabled final fantasy all the bravest and they were rather unorthodox decrying everything that had been established white mages could not use healing spells and according to the game's law were turned into battle mages as they only knew how to use offensive initiatives record keeper then reverted back to established norms having the white mage appear as a recruitable character right at the start of the experience as such the white mage was pretty weak in the grand scheme of things and not all that fleshed out but there were some traits that were brought back outside of the classic visual style for example the white mage could only use staves and daggers a rare affinity that had not been seen since the international zodiac job system they also had access to prey which could restore a small amount of hp to allies and two new moves called divine signet which temporarily increased the mind stat and light divine which was a powerful curative spell white mages then saw further expansion when they appeared as one of the initial jobs that could be unlocked in final fantasy explorers appearing as the primary healer white mages wore white robes with red triangular trimming down the middle they had weak physical attributes but had high magic defense in spirit and outside of their affinity to staves they could also use a new weapon tomes as well as rods and daggers after mastery had been acquired due to the nature of the game explorers were set up so that you could play as a solo white mage and in that regard they could function as a battle mage but the main application would be assisting others and they could do this by casting white magic but also by using two new abilities besiege which granted ap recovery for allies within the area of effect and charity a passive that increased the error of effective spells and reduced malice due to the nature of the experience mobius then featured a rather limited view of the white mage as it was one of the weaker jobs accessible to the player and it was quickly replaced by more powerful jobs and it was much the same in brave exvius where leah adopted the white man's job and was replaced quickly by characters who instead adopted the white magus job leah featured a design inspired by the classic white mage look and also had access to healing wind a spell that had similar application to the previous iterations serving as an enhanced healing spell the white mage job was then treated slightly differently in its follow-up game war of the visions as many characters had unique main jobs and had white mage as a sub-job but there were some characters who were still white mage mains such as ayaka naya and grace and together they served as nice homages to the past each wore clothing that was predominantly white with ayaka and naya's outfits also featuring triangular red trim they each use staves and had high magic but low attack what was most curious though was their abilities each of them had access to a reaction move called regenerator which was almost identical to regenerate from final fantasy tactics as it offered a chance to cast regen upon taking damage this notion was taken further with the addition of numerous other abilities ayaka could use slow counter and dispel which could respond by casting slow and dispel when taking damage naya had auto cure and magic reflex which allowed her to sometimes evade magic damage and grace had counter thrust which was similar to alma's counter ayaka could also use a limit burst called angelic grace which healed for large amounts and also removed the stop status effect while increasing stop resistance which removed the status effects while also increasing stop resistance it meant even though white mages were quite rare what appeared borrowed from the past and there were unsurprisingly a few nods to tactics and that brings us all the way up to the most recent iteration of the white mage which has appeared in the final fantasy 7 remake thanks to the reimagined aerith much like in the original version of final fantasy vii aerith again had the highest magic and spirit attributes while also having low physical attributes and she was again restricted to only using staves although one of her weapons was named the mithril rod for posterity most of aeros abilities were focused on offensive utility and while arcane wind lustrous shield and atb war didn't they were not inherently associated with what you typically expect from a white mage either it was the limit breaker game that offered the connection as healing wind had the same effect as the original game healing the party for half of their maximum hp and with that brief look at the white mage traits that resurfaced in the final fantasy 7 remake that marks the end of this evolutionary study if you've made it this far we hope you've enjoyed this rather comprehensive retrospective view of how the white mage has appeared and subsequently evolved throughout the final fantasy franchise and if you enjoyed it please do consider giving us a like adopting the chronological style we have delved into pretty much every single appearance of white mages across the final fantasy franchise no matter how big or small and we hope you've appreciated this rather granular look and one of the quintessential final fantasy job classes we've now covered red mages black mages and white mages but we'd love to hear what job class you'd like us to tackle next so be sure to let us know your thoughts in the comments make sure to subscribe as well as we're continuing to elevate the quality and quantity of the content we produce alright guys with that this is daryl signing out i'd like to extend a big thank you to all of our patreon and youtube membership supporters especially reigning eckham logan ninja benjamin snow and gregory who are super special ununite 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 you

Channel: Final Fantasy Union

Views: 283,063

Keywords: white mage, white mage evolution, white mage ffxiv, white mage final fantasy, white mage final fantasy xiv, white mage ff14, white mage ff11, white mage ff1, white mage guide ffxiv, white mage ff3, white mage ff5, white mage ff9, garnet, eiko, garnet ff9, eiko ff9, porom ff4, yuna, aerith, aerith ff7 remake, aerith final fantasy 7 remake, final fantasy tactics white mage, final fantasy evolutions, job class evolutions, job class guide, white mage guide

Id: 3l-gjsCAWIQ

Length: 43min 4sec (2584 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 07 2021