Ultima (Final Fantasy II)

:For the Arcane Labyrinth floor, see here
Ultima is a White Magic from Final Fantasy II. The spell serves as an important story element, being the ultimate magic spell in the game's world. It is learned from the Ultima Tome item, a legendary magic tome that was sealed by its creators at the top of the Mysidian Tower. Only one character can learn Ultima in each of the game's story scenarios.
==Story==
Many years ago, Pandaemonium rose into the world, and the Jade Passage opened far to the east of Mysidia. Demons from Pandaemonium attacked the world through the passage, until the Mysidian mages crafted the ultimate spell, Ultima, and used it. Pandaemonium sank back to Hell and the Jade Passage closed. The Mysidian mages feared for the world's safety and sealed the Ultima Tome in the Mysidian Tower. Entry to the tower was made possible with a Crystal Rod, which required a Black Mask and White Mask to be obtained. Furthermore, Leviathan served as the tower's guardian.
The Wild Rose Rebellion's fight against Palamecia is dire enough to use Ultima. Princess Hilda orders Minwu to travel to Mysidia and retrieve the Ultima Tome, but he takes longer than she expected and she sends Firion and his friends to find him. At the top of the Mysidian Tower Minwu sacrifices his life to destroy the seal on the door to the chamber where the Ultima Tome lay.
In Soul of Rebirth a teleport in Machanon leads to a recreation of the Mysidian Tower's top floors. Here Minwu and his party challenge Ultima Weapon for another Ultima Tome.
==Gameplay==
Ultima is classified as White Magic, as it raises Spirit when used repeatedly. When cast by most characters, its damage is not determined by Spirit or Intelligence; instead, Ultima's damage relies on the number of spells the caster knows and their level, as well as their weapon skill levels (unarmed and shield included). 
The more spells the character knows, and the higher their magic and skill levels are, the more damage Ultima does. Thus Ultima may do next to no damage at first, but when taught to someone with numerous high-level spells, it is the most powerful spell, far surpassing Flare and Holy, the otherwise two strongest Black and White Magic spells. 
The Pixel Remaster has boosted growth rates for the other spells and weapons to level them up faster, especially if rotated in a single battle, positioned at the top, and makes the others automatically defend with auto-battle fast-forward toggles. It is also easier to save Ultima for Leon as he is the last party member to join, and starts out with varied weapon levels but no spells. 
Ultima is unaffected by penalties to Spirit or Intelligence, so a character can wear heavy armor with no downsides. It also ignores enemy magic defense. 
When Minwu casts Ultima, it uses a different formula that does rely on his Spirit, but is still unaffected by armor penalties to the stat and ignores magic defense. Minwu's Ultima can exceed the damage of a maxed out Ultima from another character.
The player can teach Ultima to any party member, but as the Ultima Tome is unique, they can only teach it once. In Soul of Rebirth, the player can only teach Ultima to Minwu. 
The process of damage calculation for Ultima:
: If caster is not Minwu:
:: Levels = SUM ( All Weapon Skill Levels + All Magic Spell Levels )
:: Tier = FLOOR ( Levels ÷ 24 )
:: Base Damage = Ultima Level × [ Tier + FLOOR ( Tier ÷ 2 ) ]2 + 100
: Else if caster is Minwu:
:: Base Damage = 3 × Ultima Level × ( Minwu's Spirit + 100 )
: If multi-target, Base Damage is divided by 4
: Random Bonus = RANDOM ( 0 ... Base Damage % 256 )
: If 5% Critical Hit occurs, Base Damage is multiplied by 2
: Final Damage = Base Damage + Random Bonus
Magic spell levels include Ultima itself, and empty magic slots are treated as level 0.
A tier determines the base damage value used, and is calculated by the total sum of weapon and magic spell levels. Each tier is 24 levels, meaning that damage does not change within that group of 24 levels, assuming Ultima's level is consistent. For example, a character with Lv16 in all 8 weapon skills and only knows Ultima at Lv16 would have a total combined level of 144, putting them at tier 6. If they were to learn a new magic spell and leveled it up to 16, their total levels would be 160, which keeps the character still at tier 6 and Ultima has no change in damage. When this character gains another spell and levels it to 8, their total level becomes 168, placing them in tier 7.
When Final Fantasy II was originally released on the Famicom, the Ultima spell, which was difficult to acquire, was practically useless. It was initially meant to grow in power relative to the level of other spells the caster had, but due to a bug, did just around 500 damage at the most on a single target.
==Other appearances==
===Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia===
Localized as "Mightiest of Spells", Ultima makes an appearance as Minwu's finisher.
===World of Final Fantasy===
Ultima 1 appears as the unique ability of the Firion Champion Jewel available to Lann. The ability deals heavy non-elemental magic damage to a foe. This ability is exclusive to the Maxima expansion.
===Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade===
The Final Fantasy II version of Ultima appeared as a Legends character summon card for players to obtain. Several versions of the Ultima summons existed depicting several characters - Minwu, Leila, and Maria. The artwork and spell animations were based on the Ultima10 animation from the Wonderswan, GBA, PSX, and 20th Anniversary editions of the game.
FFAB Ultima IX - Leila Legend SSR.png|Ultima IX (SSR Legend) [FFII].
FFAB Ultima IX - Maria Legend SSR.png|Ultima IX (SSR Legend) [FFII].
FFAB Ultima - Minwu Legend SSR+.png|Ultima (SSR+ Legend) [FFII].
FFAB Ultima IX - Leila Legend SSR+.png|Ultima IX (SSR+ Legend) [FFII].
FFAB Ultima IX - Maria Legend SSR+.png|Ultima IX (SSR+ Legend) [FFII].
===Final Fantasy Record Keeper===
Ultima (II) is Minwu's Arcane Overstrike Soul Break available from obtaining the Rune Staff (II) relic. When used, the attack will deal three massive white magic holy-elemental attacks to one enemy. The attack can break the damage cap by default. The ability initially costs 3 Soul Break bars to perform, but once the player hones the Soul Break to rank 10, it costs 2 bars to perform.
FFRK Ultima FFII.png|Ultima (II) in battle.
==Behind the scenes==
In the later drafts of Final Fantasy II, the Ultima Tome's seal would have not killed Minwu. While the Ultima Tome is rarely mentioned after obtaining the spell in the Mysidian Tower, the original drafts hint that Firion and his friends would use Ultima to serve as the killing blow to the Emperor in Pandaemonium. This idea was dropped in the final product. 
Director Hironobu Sakaguchi has later told a humorous story relating to the bug from the original version: When Square tested the game and saw the bug, Sakaguchi asked for it to be fixed, but the person who programmed it replied a legendary spell dating back to an age before "proper techniques" would seem underwhelming from a modern point-of-view, explaining Ultima's weakness. He reasoned that the struggle to acquire it only to discover it was useless mirrors real life, and thus he was not going to fix the bug. Sakaguchi was irritated by the reply and tried to fix it himself, but the programmer had ciphered the source and Ultima was left the way it was.
In the cutscene before the battle with the Light Emperor in Soul of Rebirth, when Minwu and the party see a vision of Firion and his allies fighting the Dark Emperor, it is Firion who was taught Ultima, which is maxed out at Level 16. This scene is the same regardless of which party member the player actually taught Ultima to in the main game.
==Gallery==
;Famicom
FFII NES Ultima.png|Final Fantasy II.
;PlayStation
FFII Ultima1 PS.png|Ultima1 (single).
FFII Ultima1 All PS.png|Ultima1 (group).
FFII Ultima3 PS.png|Ultima3 (single).
FFII Ultima3 All PS.png|Ultima3 (group).
FFII Ultima6 PS.png|Ultima6 (single).
FFII Ultima6 All PS.png|Ultima6 (group).
FFII Ultima10 PS.png|Ultima10 (single).
FFII Ultima10 All PS.png|Ultima10 (group).
;GBA
FFII Ultima1 GBA.png|Ultima1 (single).
FFII Ultima1 All GBA.png|Ultima1 (group).
FFII Ultima3 GBA.png|Ultima3 (single).
FFII Ultima3 All GBA.png|Ultima3 (group).
FFII Ultima6 GBA.png|Ultima6 (single).
FFII Ultima6 All GBA.png|Ultima6 (group).
FFII Ultima10 GBA.png|Ultima10 (single).
FFII Ultima10 All GBA.png|Ultima10 (group).
;20th Anniversary (PSP version)
FFII PSP Ultima1 All.png|Ultima1 (single).
FFII PSP Ultima3.png|Ultima3 (single).
FFII PSP Ultima3 All.png|Ultima3 (group).
FFII PSP Ultima6.png|Ultima6 (single).
FFII PSP Ultima6 All.png|Ultima6 (group).
FFII PSP Ultima10.png|Ultima10 (single).
FFII PSP Ultima10 All.png|Ultima10 (group).
;Pixel Remaster
Firion using Ultima I from FFII Pixel Remaster.jpg|Ultima (I-II).
Firion using Ultima III from FFII Pixel Remaster.jpg|Ultima (III-V).
Firion using Ultima IX from FFII Pixel Remaster.jpg|Ultima (VI-IX).
==Citations==
Category:Final Fantasy II
Category:White Magic in Final Fantasy II