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    Black Magic

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    In many RPGs, especially those made in Japan, magic is categorized as black or white. Black magic spells deal damage or inflict negative effects.

    Short summary describing this concept.

    Black Magic last edited by SaturdayNightSpecials on 11/12/18 10:15PM View full history

    Black magic is a branch of magic most commonly found in Japanese role-playing games. It deals mainly with offensive elemental damage-dealing spells and is the opposite of the healing branch known as white magic.

    In the Final Fantasy games, black magic most commonly encompasses these basic spells - fire, ice, water, thunder, earth, and gravity. Each are given more powerful versions and denoted with a varying suffix - as an example, the fire spell's progressively more powerful versions are almost always called fira and firaga, and deal more damage and/or target more enemies depending on the entry in the series.

    Most other JRPGs handle black magic in a similar manner. Sometimes an extra branch is included for the sake of grouping together time-altering spells, but they generally fit under one of the two main headings.

    Western role-playing games usually do not group spells the same way - they usually sort them by element type, effect, or the level required to cast them.

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