Cherry Blossom (Final Fantasy IX)

Cherry Blossom is a Dragon ability in Final Fantasy IX used by Freya that inflicts non-elemental magic damage to all enemies for a cost of 46 MP. It does similar damage to Freya's Jump, but magical rather than physical and affects all enemies.
==Obtained==
Cherry Blossom is learned for 40 AP from Obelisk and Kain's Lance. Obelisk is bought from Daguerreo before going through the Shimmering Island portal, and Kain's Lance is found in Memoria.
==Mechanics== 
Cherry Blossom does damage similar to Freya's Jump (150% of her normal Attack) but to all enemies and magical instead of physical. It still uses Freya's Strength stat to calculate damage like with her Jump, but Cherry Blossom's damage is counted against the target's Magic Defense rather than their Defense, and the damage is halved by Shell rather than Protect. As Freya's Dragon abilities are not considered magic, they are usable in Oeilvert and enemies cannot reflect them. As Cherry Blossom is magic damage, it does not wake up sleeping enemies.
Damage is calculated as follows:
:Base = [(Attack * 15) / 10] - Magic Defense
:Bonus = Strength + A random value between 0 and [(Level + Strength) / 8]
:Damage = Base * Bonus
Bonus is halved by target's Shell and Freya being afflicted with Mini.
==Use==
Cherry Blossom is good against groups of enemies, or when dealing magic damage is better than physical damage. It can be good against Yans if Quina uses Night first. Freya will do more damage with Cherry Blossom the higher her weapon's Attack and her Strength stat, meaning she will do more damage after Might.
However, Final Fantasy IX has a dearth of enemy groups and the only tough group is the aforementioned Yans, against whom Freya's Dragon Breath can be better as a follow-up to someone else's 9999 damage. Jump does similar damage against a single target, and Freya's normal Attack with a killer ability can match it. Cherry Blossom would be the best use of Freya's turn if the enemy had Protect. Freya is in the back row by default, and using Cherry Blossom would synergize with that as it has no damage penalty for row position, whereas her normal Attack is hampered, and Jump takes a moment to execute whereas Cherry Blossom is instant.
If the player has been killing dragons, Freya's Dragon's Crest becomes her best ability as it does fixed damage, however, it only targets one enemy. Once Dragon's Crest does more than her normal attack, Freya could use it for every turn, making all other damage-dealing abilities obsolete.
==Etymology and origin==
Freya's Cherry Blossom alludes to Cloud's ultimate Limit ability from Final Fantasy Tactics.
Falling cherry blossoms are an enduring metaphor in Japanese culture for the ephemeral nature of life, often associated with Buddhistic influence, and which is embodied in the concept of mono no aware.
The kanji for "Ōka/Sakurabana" via the second kanji is written with 華 instead of 花, which somewhat changes its meaning and context.
Category:Dragon abilities in Final Fantasy IX