I’ve mentioned it before, but years ago a friend wondered if one could beat the original Final Fantasy using only four black mages. The idea is that it would be a really hard combination because they would have no heal magic, no real physical combat power, and no spells to bring party members back from the dead. It was difficult, but I eventually did it.

I told my friend and he responded with, “Oh, what about four white mages?” I seethed with rage. Would I go through all that again? Did he know all the books I could read/write in that time? How much of my life I’d have to give up to try it? Four white mages might be even harder. They would still have no physical combat power, and though they would have heal magic and spells to bring party members back from the dead, they would have no combat spells. I still attribute beating the game with four black mages to the Nuke spell (see the image above). I didn’t want to spend all that time trying it.

But I keep thinking about it….