(10-27-2015, 02:09 PM)Warren Castille Wrote: Fire 1: 180 potency
Fire 2: 100 potency in a splash
Fire 3: 240 potency
Flare: 260 potency
Fire 4: 280 potency
It's game design. Your first spell is push button, receive damage. Your second button in the series is push button, do damage in a circle. Your third button in the series is push button, do more damage than first button. Your fourth button in the series of push button, blow up everything around your target. The fifth button in the series is push button, do even more damage.
There's a lot more nuance to it once you take the actual game mechanics into account (limited MP, astral stacks, all of BLM in general) but there is a very deliberate rhyme and reason to the structure. How would you rename these spells, then? Traditionally the game has always had it go Base > Ra > Ga > Ja. So... should Fire 1 be Firaga because it's more viable than Fire 3 when playing according to the mechanics?
it's not really about it being 'viable', because, again, those words only depict what order you received the spells in in the Japanese incarnation and multiple other final fantasy titles (+ kingdom hearts). Fire, Fira, Firaga, and Firaja have different uses for different situations, exactly how they function is irrelevant. They are nearly the same in terms of game design, it's as simple as remembering that you received Fira before Firaga.
