BLUE MAGIC

So, you find RPG Maker and what's the first thing that comes to your mind? If you're like me, it's "Now I can make a game like Final Fantasy! Yeah!" But as you'll soon find out, any attempt at doing so will result in failure, as a game as complex as Final Fantasy could not be made on RPG Maker. Or could it?

One of the major obstacles in my way when I first decided to use RPG Maker 2003 three or four years ago was the blue magic. For those of you unfamiliar with Final Fantasy, Blue Magic is a type of magic that basically amounts to learning your enemy's moves and firing them back at them. There are many ways of learning said moves throughout the series, but this tutorial will focus mainly on the FFVI way (your caster only has to see it cast in battle). With some tweaking, I'm sure you could make it so that the caster has to be the target or what have you.

First of all, make your spells. For sake of the tutorial, I'll use 1000 Needles as an example. You make the spell, assign it to the monsters you want to have it, now what? On the monster behavior page for the spell you want learned, make it activate a switch that I'll call "1000 Needles Learned" (You'll need one switch er spell, but NOT one per monster. So this is what you should have so far.



Now, go into the monster formation(s) that this enemy appears in and make a new battle event, conditional being that switch "1000 Needles Learned" is on. In the event, make a forked condition that the Blue Mage can act, with a custom handler if condition is not met. Under the "not met" scenario (eg, Blue Mage is not in the party, is dead or otherwise unable to learn the spell) turn off the "1000 Needles Learned" switch. Make a common event that will contain the rest of the process, and have it called in that condition (if the Blue Mage can act).

Make a fork condition with a custom handler that the Blue Mage alredy knows the spell 1000 Needles. If he does, turn off the "1000 Needles Learned" switch. The rest of the process goes under the condition that he does not already know it. Now, if you want any status ailments to prevent them from learning spells, but not necessarily make them unable to act, make a fork condition for that ailment (I'll use Poison as an example) with the custom handler if it is not met. If the character has the ailment, turn off the "1000 Needles Learned" switch. If not, show a message saying that they learned the spell and then actually have them learn the spell. Finally, have the "1000 Needles Learned" switch turned off. So this is what you should have.




If you notice any issues, let me know so I can revise. If you use this tutorial, credit would be appreciated, but you don't have to. Do link me to the games you use them in, however. =)

~Antagonist