Phoenix Downs

Aztec Triogal

Aztec Triogal

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Never given much thought to the item before... I know the Phoenix is suppose to revive the dead. I was reading "Sage Knowledge" passages from FFXII and it actually has an explanation of the item. What do you think?

Phoenix Down said:
"The undying phoenix is said to call back souls from the heavens, but to win the attention of such fabled bird, you must give up a feather as an offering. The best are the downy feathers of the tail... hence the term phoenix down, see? Mark well that not just any feather will do. Depending on quality and size, the blessing received varies greatly. Displeased? You get what you pay for." Kirrik, Pugilist
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I thought that pheonix downs are just supposed to wake you back up. o_O
You know, because...KO means knocked out, not dead. o_O

And I always have so many pheonix feather/pheonix down items in my inventory...Did someone murder a pheonix and pluck all it's feathers? Is there a pheonix feather factory? o_O
I have never had bad effects from a pheonix down. ^__^
 
Well characters are just KO'ed in FF games and not killed because random deaths during the course of the game play would not be likely to be canonical. I actually never payed much attention to Phoenix Downs, except for wondering why were they named like that. Also in FFVIII you get something called "Phoenix Pinion" (can't recall the exact name) which summoned a Phoenix that would deal heavy dammage to enemies and heal your party.

I also always thought that characters succumbed to exhaustion and were not actually killed (except when fighting Ultimacia in VIII 'cause that b-tch steals your KO'ed characters -__-)
 
Yes, phoenix downs are only meant to wake up the knocked out characters. The only thing I can think of that would warrant bad effects of phoenix downs are when players use them against the undead enemies, typically resulting in death. Good thing for us, bad thing for the enemies.
Julius said:
I actually never payed much attention to Phoenix Downs, except for wondering why were they named like that
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The "Down" refers to the down feathers of a bird, the undercoat of feathers beneath the visible layer on top. The down feathers of a Phoenix, would return people from the dead as a Phoenix itself does.
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Mitsuki said:
Yes, phoenix downs are only meant to wake up the knocked out characters. The only thing I can think of that would warrant bad effects of phoenix downs are when players use them against the undead enemies, typically resulting in death. Good thing for us, bad thing for the enemies.
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Unless of course your character is zombiefied :P

I've always wondered why it was called Phoenix Down, and now I know. Thanks.
 
Nice item, good against undeads (death), even though it's sad it only revives with 10% of the HP ._.

In FFIV , the auto-phoenix-down automatically revives a party member^^
 
i really love those things they saved my butt alot
and i am sure it helped you guys lots

but yay now i know where the name comes from ^.^
 
A perfect example of this in an FF game is in FFV when Rinoa and her dragon "Hydra" (sp?) have a cut-scene at the top of the tower. Rinoa's dragon sacrifices itself to aid the party as a summon which in turn casts Life on a party member when they meet their end. It's not neccissarily similar to what Aztec pointed out with the Downy feathers, but it involves the sacrifice of something precious/useful/relevent in order to reap the benefits of the Life added-effect.
 
So in an attempt to bump my own thread, why are there almost never any stronger versions of this item? In almost every Final Fantasy game there are potions, hi-potions, x-potions, megapotions... but for Phoenix Downs there is only Phoenix Pinions in FFVIII and FFIX and MegaPhoenix's in FFX & FFX-2. It seems kinda weak considering how much attention is given to almost every other item.
 
How about the summon Phoenix? I'm thinking it was FFIX, but when you summon Phoenix in FFIX, doesn't the summon raise any knocked out characters back to Life? Otherwise, I can't think of any spell or item that would classify itself as a multiple-use Phoenix Down. The closest I can think of is Life-All combo materia magic in FFVII, but then again, that's not an item.

However, on a side note, favorite item of all time: Megalixers!! Heal fully all characters in party 100%. Jackpot.
 
Isn't there mega-phoenix in FFX, Ive no idea if they have it in any other FF, or is it FFVIII...Im SURE there is a meg phoenix somewhere and the more I think of it, the more Im sure it's in X
 
Aztec Triogal said:
MegaPhoenix's in FFX & FFX-2.
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lol Yea, I just said that :P

But yea, those two games are the only place they exist. Even so, there are tents, cottages, houses, small one bedroom apartments, and gated communtities... and every other variation of that item... but there seems to be very little for PD's, which I think is weird because they're such an important item.
 
There's a lot of continuity errors concerning the KO factor, HP, Death (magic), Life (magic) and Phoenix Downs. The generic descriptor of 'Downs is to revive party members from KO, whereas its magical counterpart "Life" (spell) implies something wholly different on a grander scale, returning the recipient from death as opposed to merely restoring consciousness.

If successfully hit with the Death spell, there's little logic in considering the character was knocked out, so is therefore 'dead'. How is a Phoenix Down (using FF's traditional description) logically any use whatsoever? How does depletion of Health Points determine whether a character is either KO'd or dead?

The system on the whole wasn't planned out well enough if it contains these schoolboy errors; ideas from the top of someone's head perhaps, but what annoys me is that developers either don't see the issue, or leave it to one side because it's been around too long anyway. On the other hand, I could be missing a very simplistic link here. :(
 
Phoenix was the bird that always revives itself after it dies, born from fire.
I always kinda liked the name though i never really understood it properly, it just sounds better than life.
 
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