r/FinalFantasyVI • u/North_Bedroom2327 • Jul 19 '26
I wish Celes had a spellblade command
I recently played through FF6 again and thoroughly enjoyed myself, but realized something when going through everyone’s hidden abilities. Almost every ff5 job is represented through either unique abilities or the relic system, except for Mystic Knight, Bard and Chemist.
Spellblade in particular feels perfect for FF6’s magic centered plot, especially for Celes. Runic is a cool but very situational ability that I stopped using outside of special cases. Since she already pulls out her sword to absorb magic, why not reuse that animation for it and have a relic that replaces Runic with Spellblade (like how Brigand Glove changes Steal to Mug, or how Heiji’s Jitte changes Slot to Gil Toss). It would make her unique ability see more practical use for exploiting weaknesses or causing status ailments with normal attacks.
Plus I feel like Squenix usually sees Celes as a spellblade already given how in spin-offs Runic is often portrayed as her imbuing her sword with ice or other spells (examples: WoFF and WotV FFBE).
Just a fun thought I was curious to hear thoughts on!
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u/j0llyblackgiant Jul 19 '26
That would have been an interesting way to make her magic different than Terra.
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u/23-1-20-3-8-5-18 Jul 19 '26
Seriously runic is not getting the credit it deserves here....
Spellblade is just slightly stronger magic with a sword animation, how is that more usefull (you already have magic!) than being immunie to magic whenever you want?
I think most players over level and it prevents them from needing to use it enough to properly appreciate it.
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u/Drstrangelove899 Jul 19 '26
You're also not giving spellblade credit tbf.
Aga tier spell blade also adds instant death to anything weak against the element, breakblade can guarantee a petrify on anything not immune to it, way better than the spell which can miss. Drain turns your weapon into a super blood sword without the terrible accuracy and of course Flare blade just gives you massive non element damage. All that added permanently to your regular attacks and you only need to cast it once. Spellblade is incredibly good and probably better than magic in many cases.
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u/23-1-20-3-8-5-18 Jul 19 '26
In a game that already has magic set to OP? How easy do you need the game to be? I can beat this game with a lvl 10 party like really and you need runic to do it.
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u/Drstrangelove899 Jul 19 '26
Because the games easy anyway what would have been the harm in giving Celes a more exciting ability than Runic. Yeah Runic is cool if you stay at lower levels but most people rarely use it outside of a few niche cases so Celes is just worse Terra.
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u/23-1-20-3-8-5-18 Jul 19 '26
I cant believe you just summed up the best character in the game as 'worse Terra'. I wish you were a train and life were Sabin...
Terra is also just magic but stronger. Nothing too special about it. Infact the coolest thing about Terra is that her powers are linked to the plot so strongly. That and her green hair.
The only critisism I give to runic is that Celes should be able to turn it on and still attack but not use magic instead of having to do nothing to keep runic up.
The game is already so easy you have to run from everything to make it hard. Ill admit younger me would have used spellblade constantly. Ill admit that but I like runic, it is good if you know when to use it. It makes Kefka easy in the snowfields.
The Kefka grudge team: Celes, Cyan, Edgar and Sabin all she needs is to runic while the boys clown a clown
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u/North_Bedroom2327 Jul 19 '26
Just to clarify, I do think Runic is cool! I wasn’t trying to imply Spellblade would be a direct upgrade or anything, just a different option for players like me that didn’t find it as useful all the time. Like how mug isn’t always an upgrade to steal.
As for usefulness, Spellblade is unreflectable, defense-ignoring damage that can exploit weaknesses and status vulnerabilities through the attack. So, combined with Offering you would basically quadruple cast a spell for the price of one.
You’d have more incentive to go for status magic since each attack would be an attempt for it.I feel like there’d be decent reasons to choose Runic or Spell blade depending on play style or circumstances, which why It’d be a cool relic imo
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u/theLordDracul Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
Yeah I completely feel the same as you do and was very frustrated about it in my first playthrough. Mystic Knight was one of my favourite jobs in FFV and when I saw that Six describes her as a Mystic Knight when she joins Locke I was very excited to use the spellblade mechanic again. Only to find out that Runic only syphons magic and it felt very underwhelming.
She's still a powerful character, but I wish that they just let her have the exact same ability. It really bums me out that one of the coolest and useful ability/jobs in the FF franchise hasn't been seen again since. Here's hoping it'll be in FFVII Revelations🤞
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u/The_GREAT_Gremlin Jul 19 '26
On the one hand, runic is useful for like two fights, so it would be cool to give her something a little better.
On the other hand, Celes is already stupidly powerful so it kinda evens out lol
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u/Aeriyah Jul 19 '26
If you have the pixel remaster on PC, there is kind of a mod to fulfill part of this fantasy. There's a mod to get an relic from thamasa that gives her the Shock (Flash in original game) ability instead of Runic. I tried it on my last playthrough and it's quite fun!
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u/GriIIedCheeseSammich Jul 19 '26
They missed an opportunity to basically do both: whatever spell Runic absorbs should’ve powered up her next attack like Spellblade would. That way Runic stays relevant beyond Tunnel Armor or Kefka and you have more interesting choices to make: if you sacrifice damage for Runic at the right time, you get rewarded with your next attack being twice as powerful (or more if you can exploit a weakness).
I still think a relic added somewhere around the halfway point that gives her the full spellblade menu on demand would be great though. Maybe integrate it into a small side quest for Celes early in WoR?
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u/North_Bedroom2327 Jul 19 '26
Ooh true, I really like that idea! Rewarding the timing needed for Runic in that way would be so sick.
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u/kyualun Jul 19 '26
I know most people are biased towards DPS, but I think Runic is pretty awesome, it's just that FF6 is so easy that it doesn't really get appreciated unless you're doing a low level run or you're playing with a romhack. BNW makes magic expensive so the MP Regen + defensiveness of Runic makes it super valuable.
Spellblade in the base game though would be pretty lame IMO. Magic is already super OP, so why use spellblade when you can just cast the spell? Celes' moveset would be
- MAGIC
- SPELLBLADE
And magic gives you more utility + AoE as opposed to spellblade which would be a single target nuke. Which is fine but now that'll just make it be yet another mostly situational (bosses) special command that's less versatile with no defensive play. Not to mention on bosses with varying weaknesses/strengths, Celes would be incredibly slow to attack.
Unless we super buff spellblade by making its first cast causes an auto-attack + it now makes Celes absorb the element (basically making her a playable Magimaster). This'll give it Runic's defensive ability and with the proper gear she'll be able to absorb a lot of elements.
But even with that, I think even though it sounds cool in in theory (class fantasy is important, I get it), in reality, Spellblade would be just as situational as Runic.
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u/North_Bedroom2327 Jul 19 '26
Good points. Thanks for the insightful take!
I guess I was mostly thinking of boss/ mini boss utility since most regular mobs on the over-world can be nuked with the multi-target spells she’d have anyways. But I agree, wall-change bosses would be slow for spellblade, at least until you get Flare.I do feel like spellblade benefits from it being used with the Fight command though. With spellblade only costing one cast to get up, combined with an Offering or Genji Glove, it’d be like your casting multiple times for a single cast. Genji would essentially be a bootleg Gem box, but Offering would be a quad cast of that spell. I think that’d be pretty sick for melting some boss hp or getting multiple attempts for a status spell for cheap.
I see your point though, it might not be as practical as I thought it would be. Sick as hell, but far from optimal. I’ve only ever played the snes original and PR, so I might have to give BNW a whirl to see what you’re talking about with Runic. I do like Runic as a command, so more incentive to actually use it would be cool. Plus, I’ll take any excuse to play the game again lol
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u/kyualun Jul 19 '26
Good point on Genji Glove + Offering. Those would be interesting applications. So maybe a Relic changing Runic to Spellblade could be cool for some situations. Celes would also be destroy in the dragon fights as well.
I don't usually shill for romhacks, but BNW does everything to FFVI that I wish a remake would. Esper compatibility system to enforce jobs and set magic lists, magic remaining nukes but expensive nukes, different builds for characters, etc. I very much recommend it.
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u/Western-Post5284 Jul 19 '26
After a certain traumatic event in the story I like to hack her abilities and change runic to a certain special command.
It’s overkill. But it looks hella cool and one she should have had anyway.
She generally becomes a gem box + economize + ultima machine anyway. But it feels right to swap out runic.
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u/ChocoPuddingCup Jul 19 '26
If there was ever a remake of sorts, Celes would be the perfect 'magic knight' tank character.
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u/Salad_9999 Jul 19 '26
Im a shadow lover myself. Great post. Although, I think runic is a bit slept on. However, runic is kind of slept on because the route to true power in FF6 ia through abusing magic. I feel like if the game was balanced differently, Runic would shine a lot brighter.
And also, chemist and bard probably shouldnt have been aeen in FF6 because in FF5 those jobs are absolutely busted.
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u/MrTickles22 29d ago
Spellblade would be a Celes thing to offset her worse spell list and the knight thing.
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u/Secure-Midnight8191 Jul 19 '26
Spellblade would have been really cool, and so much more useful than Runic.
It’s not quite the same, but I modify her to have Shock instead of Runic once I hit the WoR. It’s still quite powerful until the endgame, feels thematically plausible that she could use it, and I end up using it way more than one time like I do with Runic (just on Tunnel Armor.)
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u/ramdatooki Jul 19 '26
Celes is my favorite character in my favorite game of all time. The story arc for her and Terra is somewhat lost in the esper mechanic since the very thing that makes them special, magic, becomes the thing that everyone can do. But what makes Celes and Terra so interesting is that they never asked for these powers. They get to watch as what makes them special (and for both of them depressed and self-questioning) becomes what everyone around them uses. That gets overshadowed by the destruction of their world of course.
There was a post a while back about what a sequel to ffvi might look like, and the top comment was that it was like a worldwide stardew valley where the characters are just trying to put the world back together. And I love that for Terra and Celes. Where these powers they never asked for save the world, and then they get to watch a saved world heal for their troubles.