Fire I, Fire II, Fire III

[SpookyGhost]

They decided to go with Fire I,II,III because this was the original naming of spells in FF series in the beginning.

Nah, the reason they went with I/II/III/IV is because they literally thought people wouldn't be able to work out -ara, -aga, etc. Now, because of this, instead of everyone realizing that these are all different spells we have some people who think that Fire II is a better version of Fire I and now they no longer need to use Fire I.

[Riardon]

Nah, the reason they went with I/II/III/IV is because they literally thought people wouldn't be able to work out -ara, -aga, etc. Now, because of this, instead of everyone realizing that these are all different spells we have some people who think that Fire II is a better version of Fire I and now they no longer need to use Fire I.

People can still mess it up and confuse the -ra,-ga,-ja naming scheme. It sounds and reads too similar. You can get pretty confused too. This is why skills have descriptions on them. Those who never read they will get confused no matter what. The roman numeric naming scheme is as FF traditional as the Japanese-esque -ra, -ga. There is an old interview somewhere they said they did to make more simple and I agree with them. Both styles are traditional. The roman numeric is the original though as FF goes.
That being said both systems are traditional FF style naming schemes and both are right. It's matter of personal taste for some.

[JunseiKei]

What reason is there to go from Fire Fira Firaga to Fire I Fire II and Fire III???

The numbers were used originally. Also, one of the books in the Great Gubal Library (Hard) pokes fun at the use of "ra" and "aga."

On dueling circle, watch the stream that's been saved on Twitch. It's honestly great for a couple of laughs.

[Talraen]

It should be noted that in the original Japanese, they were using Fire/Fira/Firaga-style naming from the beginning. The only game that doesn't is FF2, because that game has 16 levels per spell. The early English localizations simply didn't have enough characters per spell name to do something like this. That's also why they used "Ice" and "Lit" (later "Bolt") instead of "Blizzard" and "Thunder". FF7 was the first game that had long enough spell names, I believe, but they didn't actually implement them until FF8. At this point, FF7 (and again, FF2) are the only main series games that have never been released in English with the -/ra/ga naming scheme.

History lesson aside, there was a lore post about why they did this in XIV a while ago, but I'd personally prefer Fire/Fira/Firaga because (as has been mentioned several times already) they actually behave quite differently. Of course it doesn't help that FFXI exists and had multiple levels of all three spells (e.g., Firaga IV). And I don't know that there's an accepted fifth level in English, which would limit ability names going forward. And there are other quirks of the English localization, such as Curaja vs. Full-Cure.

[Yasuhiro]

I don't know why people say the old games were using Fire 1, 2 and 3.
For the English releases sure but that was because of space limitations and Final Fantasy VII as we all know is a poorly translated mess. The Japanese versions of the game always used ra and ga. it wasn't until Final Fantasy VIII that they decided to unify the English localization with the Japanese versions of the games.

It's exactly the same as say a game like Sonic The Hedgehog where they stopped calling Dr. Eggman, Dr Robonik in the West or how Princess Peach was once called Princess Toadstool in west before they made it more in line with the Japanese version. You may as well be saying Final Fantasy IV is really Final Fantasy II, Final Fantasy VI is really Final Fantasy III or that you SHOULD attack while it's tail is up.

That said, the numbers have grown on me, I don't mind them now but I don't know, at first I always thought numbers sounded really boring for a fantasy game.

snip

if it were me, I'd go with
Fira - > Fire-All
Blizzara -> Blizzard-all
if I absolutely had to change them atleast the all implies it attacks all enemies within range.

[JunseiKei]

-Ra means “second” and -ga means “third” in Japanese. To translate ファイラ into Fire II would be just as correct as the "Romanized" Fira. So it comes down to which you prefer.

It's really no different than translating しらゆきひめ to Shirahuki Hime, Snow-white Princess, or as we know it, Snow White (fairy tale).

[Texa]

-Ra means “second” and -ga means “third” in Japanese. To translate ファイラ into Fire II would be just as correct as the "Romanized" Fira. So it comes down to which you prefer.

It's really no different than translating しらゆきひめ to Shirahuki Hime, Snow-white Princess, or as we know it, Snow White (fairy tale).

Where are you getting that from? I know counting objects in Japanese is kind of weird, but I ran what you said by a friend who has a master's degree in Japanese and she says "First time i hear "ra" means 2nd and "ga" 3rd lol". BUT REPEATING THIS, I know counting in Japanese can be kind of weird especially when it comes to foreign words.

Also for reference I've dug up a Japanese fandom guide to black magic throughout the entire series if you ever want to skim for what spells are called in Japanese for your own reference.

[AlphaFox]

I was only slightly annoyed by it cus Firaga sounds much cooler than saying Fire 3.

[JunseiKei]

Where are you getting that from? I know counting objects in Japanese is kind of weird, but I ran what you said by a friend who has a master's degree in Japanese and she says "First time i hear "ra" means 2nd and "ga" 3rd lol". BUT REPEATING THIS, I know counting in Japanese can be kind of weird especially when it comes to foreign words.

Also for reference I've dug up a Japanese fandom guide to black magic throughout the entire series if you ever want to skim for what spells are called in Japanese for your own reference.

Especially when words and characters change when combined with others or referencing something else *points to example of Snow White.* I'll see if I can find the papers I came across with the information again upon this particular translation. I also don't mean a direct translation to meaning second and third and more akin to a honorific to denote the status.

Fire ファイア faia
Blizzard/ Ice ブリザド burizado
Bolt/Thunder サンダー sandā
Fira/ Fire II ファイラ faira
Blizzara/ Blizzard II ブリザラ burizara
Thundara/ Bolt II サンダラ sandara
Firaga/ Fire III ファイガ faiga
Blizzaga/ Ice III ブリザガ burizaga
Thundaga/ Bolt III サンダガ sandaga

[Nestama]

snip

In any other Final Fantasy, sure. In this game, though, it really just seems like the mages went with a "I learned this spell second, so I'll call it Fire II!"
If FFXIV were to adopt the way FFXI handled spell names (to differentiate), we'd get something like this.
Fire, Firaga (Fire II), Fire II (III) and Fire III (IV)
Blizzard, Blizzara (II), Blizzard II (III) and Blizzard III (IV)
Cure, Cure II, Curaga (III)

-ara being AoE around caster. -aga being AoE around target.