Renaming Abilities?

[Morningstar1337]

Also, in the early FF games, like back on the Super Nintendo, the white mage's big powerful offensive spell was called Pearl. I wonder why they changed it to Holy.

Presumably because while both are light-related, Pearl seems too...specific? confusing? Like are the WHM throwing pearls at the mobs?

[Enkidoh]

Also, in the early FF games, like back on the Super Nintendo, the white mage's big powerful offensive spell was called Pearl. I wonder why they changed it to Holy.

It always was Holy, but because of Nintendo's draconian American censorship rules at the time, they forced Square to change it in the US versions of FFI, IV and VI to remove any trace of religious iconography (this is also why the chapels in FFI became 'clinics'). Sony had no such scruples however at portraying even distantly 'religious' terms in FFVII, so Holy was properly translated as Holy for the first time, and has been the case for each FF game ever since.

The 'Ra/Ga/Ja' thing however is more just pragmatism. Ra/Ga/Ja are suffixes that are obtuse and confusing to new players who are not familiar with past FF games, so FFXIV has reverted to the old style numbering system for spell tiers (and before you pass judgement, FFXI actually used both, leading to such silly spell names as 'Curaga VI'). It is not necessarily a bad thing, just a different thing, and as others have said, it's more easily understood if you were familiar with the older FF games pre-FFVIII which signified the change in the English-language versions from spells being numbered to 'Ra/Ga/Ja' suffixes.

[Fynlar]

^ This was also the reason why Death spells weren't actually called that, why Garland will "knock us all down" (except this one became enough of a meme that it lived on in most FF1 remakes), why Celes's blatant suicide attempt was played off as an exhilarating leap off a cliff, etc...


Censorship is a helluva drug, man.

[MartaDemireux]

I just wish there was at least consistency across the board.

Sometimes IIs are an AoE (Fire, Blizzard, Miasma (RIP), Medica). Sometimes not (Ruin, Cure, Stone).

Sometimes IIIs are an AoE (Aero (RIP), Cure). Sometimes not (Ruin, Miasma).

New AoEs are always being added and taken away and the consistency just gets worse.

There are only a handful of times when a spell directly upgrades and that is a perfect time to use the numerals in my opinion. They show it's a stronger version of the same spell. Stone I thru IV works perfectly this way.

I'd really like it if AoEs were all hard consonant -ga/-ka(-ca) spells and all ST spells were soft consonant -ra/-ja/-sa spells.

Cure II > Cura, Cure III > Curaga, Fire II > Firaga, Fire III > Fira, Fire IV > Firaja, Thunder II > Thundaga, Thunder IV > Thundaga II, Ruin II > Ruinra, etc.

It would better show which spells are different from one another and which spells are direct upgrades.

So then we have Cure, Cura, Curaga, all representing different spells and spells like Thunder, Thunder II, Thundaga, Thundaga II all representing different spells and logical progression.

Thunder advancing to Thunder III and Thunder II to Thunder IV is pretty darn confusing, especially when compared to Ruin's advancements. And don't get me started on Miasma upgrading to Miasma III even after they removed Miasma II from the game!

[Bright-Flower]

This seems like a feature that doesn't really add any value and could only lead to confusion. Doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

[Esmoire]

Love shout for the localization team for thinking the same job should have "Intervene" and "Intervention".

[Fynlar]

Love shout for the localization team for thinking the same job should have "Intervene" and "Intervention".

I have grievances about Meditate and Meditation being two separate abilities (Meditate being SAM's ability because it was one of their iconic FFXI abilities, and Meditation being MNK's because... just because), but yeah, now that I think about it, this is even worse cuz they're on the same job, and I even play PLD so I'm surprised I didn't notice.