This command executes a normal attack, in case that wasn't obvious. Wearing a Proof of Initiation alters the way the command works as described under that accessory. In short, that's four attacks, random targetting, half damage, perfect hit rate, and no critical hits or weapon-cast spells.

Most characters have a unique ability that MIGHT trigger after selecting the Battle command while in 'near death' status. I refer to these as "secret deathblow skills" below, though I've also seen the term "desperation attack". These abilities will not occur when under 'confusion', 'transparent', 'decoy', or 'zombie' status, before 25.6 seconds of battle have elapsed, or more than once per battle. Gau and Umaro have no Battle command and thus have no secret deathblow skill.

Equip the Wyrmknight's Boots to change Battle into Jump. A character using Jump will leave the battlefield briefly, then land on the target for bonus damage.

Characters in midjump cannot be targeted or hit ('hidden' status?). Spears get a +100% damage bonus, while everything else gets +50%. If using Genji's Glove to equip two weapons, the user hits only once, with the weapon used to hit chosen randomly, though it always displays the right-hand weapon. Furthermore, having a spear as either weapon makes the damage bonus +100% in this case, even if a non-spear makes the actual hit. Jump also ignores row.

Equip the Wyvern's Horn along with the Wyrmknight's Boots to add a second, and possibly third or even fourth, attack per Jump.

The spell list appears under this command. Press up at the top of the list to select the equipped Genjuu (if available).

renzoku ma, 連続魔 in kanji.

Equip the Soul of Thamasa to change Magic into Chain Magic. This disables summoning, but allows casting two spells in one turn.

Note that each of the two spells cast is an independent action, which for one thing means that each can be counterattacked separately.

The item list appears under this command.

Aside from the obvious function of using consumable items, pressing up at the top of the item list shows the equipped weapon and shield, which may then be swapped out for any in the inventory that the character can use. Items within the inventory may also be swapped.

Off the left side of the battle menu. Use to change rows.

Characters in the back row take half damage from physical attacks, unless the attack ignores defense. However, they also inflict half damage when using physical attacks, unless the attack ignores attacker row, as certain weapons and most skills do.

Off the right side of the battle menu. Defend until next command input.

Defending characters take half damage from physical attacks, unless the attack ignores defense.

(Tina only) Unblockable defense-ignoring magic damage to one enemy, slightly weaker at 58 power than Flare, and also sets 'slip' status.

Or "Trance", but I find that less likely considering she literally changes form.

The Transform command, gained during the course of the storyline, allows Tina to change into a Genjuu-like form. While transformed, her attack and magic damage double (except when using defense-ignoring attacks), and she takes half damage from magic (also unless it ignores defense). However, staying transformed depletes a timer. If it runs out, Tina reverts automatically, and can't transform again until recharging. Win LP from battles to charge the timer.

Transformation additionally doubles the effect of 'regenerate' and 'slip' status, and also seems to affect 'poison' similarly.

Tina can act again immediately after transforming. This is not always apparent, since if any other characters are able to act, their command windows tend to appear before hers. Try making her the only party member to see it.

The transformation gauge drains half as quickly after the Major Plot Spoiler, allowing the change to last twice as long.

Revert appears when transformed and allows you to end the transformation early, useful for conserving energy. As with transforming, Tina can act again immediately after manually reverting. Similarly, automatically reverting when the timer runs out does not cost a turn.

Equipping a Thief's Bracer changes Steal into Mug. When using Mug, Lock attacks the target in addition to attempting to steal as with the Steal command. Due to a bug, using Mug negates the special effects of many weapons, treating them as ordinary weapons instead—apparently the value used to check whether the theft succeeded overwrites the special attack effect in memory. The general rule is that during-attack effects are lost (Maneater's double damage to humanoids, Ultima Weapon's unusual damage calculation, etc.), but after-attack effects (mostly weapon-cast spells) remain. This can be either beneficial or detrimental, depending on the weapon and the situation.

Mug works with the Proof of Initiation accessory, but only sort of. You'll get the four attacks just fine, but the stealing tends to foul up when there's more than a single opponent. Basically, he can only steal one item per use, but you'll see the same steal message again for every successful steal check on the following hits, even though only the first success actually steals anything. Worse, each of these steal-nothing successes will also mark the enemies in question as stolen from despite stealing nothing. In other words, if Lock Mugs four enemies like this, hitting each and passing the thieving check each time, it looks like you're getting four of the same item, but you're really only stealing from one enemy and getting one item, and you then can't actually steal from the other three.

Success and failure messages are the same as for Steal, but apply only to the attempted theft. Damage will occur regardless, provided that the attack doesn't miss outright.

hissatsu ken, 必殺剣 in kanji. "Deathblow Sword" is probably an overly literal translation. Something like "Lethal Blade" or even the more generic "Swordplay" might be preferable. Maybe "blade arts"? The Internet tells me that it's "Bushido" in the GBA remake, which is nice stylistically even if it's not very accurate (like chivalry, bushido is more a code of conduct than a style of combat).

Select this command, and a bar begins to fill. Stop it at any time to use the skill corresponding with the number the bar has reached (see below for individual skills). Be aware that combat does not pause while the bar fills, which limits its usefulness. Casting Quick negates this disadvantage, since time stops for everyone except the user until both extra turns are complete, but it's not necessarily practical thanks to the spell's rarity and cost.

I forget whether it was in an official remake or a fan-made patch, but I've heard of a modification to this skill that lets you pick from a list, then applies the charge-up time in the background after you've made the selection, while you continue to do other things with the rest of the group. Having that in the original game would have gone a long way toward making this skill more attractive.

Deathblow Sword requires that the user have a compatible weapon equipped, though the weapon's attack power unfortunately has no effect on the strength of the skills (other bonuses may, depending on the skill). In addition to katanas and other swords, some daggers also work just fine. See the weapons list for details.

Also, these all ignore the user's row.

Unblockable defense-ignoring physical damage to a single random enemy, 120 attack power.

Cayenne takes a counterattack stance and will hit back with unblockable defense-ignoring magic damage when next physically attacked. This invisible 'ready to counter' status makes him unable to avoid physical attacks, but he still counterattacks if a physical attack directed at him misses anyway (for example, when a non-damaging status attack tries to inflict a status effect he's immune to). The effect lasts until he counters or until a different command is entered, whichever comes first. 56 power, slightly less than Flare.

This skill has two interesting bugs that are relatively minor on their own but form one major glitch when combined.

Bug 1: If Cayenne is incapacitated after initiating the skill but before using the strikeback part, and is then revived, this apparently confuses the logic that's supposed to check whether he's the target of an attack. As a result, he will respond by using Sky against an enemy whenever any physical attack occurs, regardless of the target and regardless of the source.

Bug 2: If Cayenne is put in 'kappa' status after initiating the skill but before using the strikeback part, he will strike back with a normal attack instead of Sky (since characters in 'kappa' status can't use skills), but this won't clear the invisible 'ready to counter' status. He'll keep striking back when attacked for the rest of the battle, until a new command is input or 'kappa' is removed and he actually uses Sky.

Combine these for the so-called "Psycho Cyan" glitch: Since he'll "strike back" when anyone attacks anyone, he "counters" as soon as any physical attack goes off. The 'ready to counter' status never wears off, so he'll then "counter" his own attack, then "counter" that, and so on until forced to stop (by dying of 'poison' status, for instance) or all enemies are dead. If neither can occur, then you're stuck in an infinite loop.

Halves a random enemy's HP (round fractions up) and also sets 'slip' status. Counts as a physical attack. This will miss any target immune to instant death, but is otherwise completely unblockable, even by stamina.

Strikes four times with unblockable physical damage, 72 attack power, hitting a random enemy each time (when surrounded, both sides are valid targets for each strike). When possible, each strike avoids targeting any enemy that earlier strikes have fatally damaged, so when faced with up to four sufficiently weak enemies, this skill will reliably kill them all.

Unblockable defense-ignoring magic HP and MP damage to one random enemy, absorbing the damage inflicted as recovery for the user. As is typical of absorption attacks, Dragon works backwards on undead targets, and will never take more than required to max out whoever is healed. The HP portion has 49 power, not all that much weaker than Flare's 60. The MP portion has 12 power.

Unblockable magic damage at 97 power (between -ra and -ga spells in power) to all enemies (one side), and also attempts at 140 hit rate to inflict 'stop' status on each enemy.

Strikes four times with unblockable defense-ignoring physical damage, hitting a random enemy each time (when surrounded, both sides are valid targets for each strike). 70 attack power; though less than Dance, it tends to inflict significantly more damage due to ignoring defense. When possible, each strike avoids targeting any enemy that earlier strikes have fatally damaged, so when faced with up to four sufficiently weak enemies, this skill will reliably kill them all.

Sets 'incapacitated' status on all enemies (one side), dropping their HP to 0. Delays dying counterattacks when it succeeds, which usually means canceling them outright. This skill has exceptionally high accuracy at 182 hit rate, and furthermore, stamina cannot block it, unlike nearly every other instant-death attack. This virtually guarantees that it will slay anything not outright immune to instant death attacks.

Couldn't the NA version at least have said "a new SwdTech"?

Additionally, completing the Cayenne's Dream sidequest will enable all eight immediately, regardless of level.

Shadow's dog Interceptor sometimes blocks physical attacks meant for Shadow, and will sometimes use one of these attacks after blocking. Both inflict unblockable defense-ignoring magic damage using Shadow's stats, but always miss enemies with 'levitate' status. Hound Tackle, at 55 power, has slightly less impact than Flare, while Wild Fang has a bit more at 66.

Warning: A bug in the Ripple skill means that Shadow can lose his internal 'Interceptor guard' status! Don't let enemies use Ripple on him, or if they do, at least have another character (Relm seems appropriate) use Ripple on that enemy to "steal" Interceptor back.

Note that although Interceptor appears to take damage, he doesn't actually have hit points and cannot die.

This command allows Edgar to use machines intended for this purpose. He can only use machines actually in your inventory, but they never break or run out, so you only ever need one of each. Refer to the items page for details on the eight available machines and their effects.

爆裂拳 in kanji, roughly "Exploding Fist".

(left, right, left) Unblockable defense-ignoring physical damage to one random enemy, 110 attack power.

(CW spin down to left) Unblockable Holy magic damage to one random enemy, 68 power.

(X, Y, down, up) Defense-ignoring physical damage to a single random enemy, 180 attack power. Inferior to Bakuretsu Ken when there are multiple enemies, since the damage is halved when there's more than a single opponent, even though it only damages one of them. Unblockable, except that it automatically fails against certain enemies.

Typically, anything that's airborne or somehow anchored (to the ground, another monster, etc.) is immune. When using Meteor Strike against a mixture of immune and non-immune enemies, the attack will always select one that it will work against.

鳳凰の舞 in kanji, roughly "Firebird Dance".

(CCW spin left to right) Unblockable Flame magic damage to all enemies (one side), full damage even against multiple targets. 42 power, which falls somewhere between Fire and Fira against a single target, but beats Fira against multiple targets because the damage isn't reduced.

(L, R, L, R, X, Y) Heals all allies (both sides) except the user an amount equal to the user's current HP divided by the number of people healed, and also cures 'darkness', 'poison', 'silence', and 'slip' status. The effect is unblockable, ignores defense, and damages the undead.

Strictly speaking, it's actually (user's current HP) / (size of target group - 1), which makes it buggy if he uses it while confused. In particular, striking a single enemy results in a divide by zero and giving it massive amounts of healing.

真空波 in kanji, roughly "Vacuum Wave".

(CW spin up to left) Unblockable Wind magic damage to all enemies (one side), full damage even against multiple targets. 78 power, which exceeds a -ra spell against a single target, and beats -ga spells against multiple targets because the damage isn't reduced.

(R, L, X, Y, right, left) At the cost of removing the user from the battle, Spiral Soul heals heals every other character (both sides, but kills the undead) at 200 power, roughly triple Curega, and also cures 'darkness', 'zombie', 'poison', 'kappa', 'petrified', 'death sentence', 'silence', 'berserk', 'confusion', 'slip', 'sleep', 'slow', 'stop', and 'frozen' status. This effect is unblockable and ignores defense. The user cannot be revived—even 'reraise' status does nothing—remains completely unavailable until after the battle, and will have 0 HP and 0 MP even then.

My opinion? Worthless. Avoid this one at all costs unless you're really desperate, and in that case, he's probably more useful alive anyway.

That's 夢幻闘舞 in kanji, and nearly impossible to translate without knowing so. It means, approximately, "Phantasmic War Dance". And I'm not even going to speculate on where they got "Bum Rush" from...

(CW spin from left back to left) Unblockable defense-ignoring magic damage to one random enemy. 128 power, more than double Flare's 60.

Visiting Master Duncan later in the game enables Mugen Toubu, regardless of level.

mafuu ken, 魔封剣 in kanji.

When Celes uses Magicseal Sword, she can "seal" magic. The effect lasts until the user seals one spell or a different command is entered for the user, whichever comes first. Sealed spells cause no damage and instead recover the user's MP by the (normal) casting cost of the spell. Some magics ignore it, but it can seal several spell-like enemy skills in addition to every normal spell except Meteor, Quake, Tornado, Melton, Teleport, and Quick. This means that it does work against the mighty Ultima, which is great if you know an opponent is going to use it, except in that one tower that disables most commands.

One downside is that this doesn't discriminate friend from foe. Celes will seal spells cast by her allies just as readily as the ones the enemies cast. However, since she can only seal one spell per use, careful timing will let her null out most hostile magic while still leaving your own spells alone.

If more than one character has Magicseal Sword active when an affected spell with multitargeting ability is cast (even when the spell is only cast on a single target), each such character absorbs the spell and splits the MP gain. If the spell must have only a single target, only one Magicseal Sword user does the sealing animation or gets any MP, but the amount gained is still reduced as though split, and all sealers still go inactive as though having sealed the spell. In short, you should never use Magicseal Sword with multiple characters simultaneously, though having one on standby, waiting to use it after the other seals, may help.

This ability behaves strangely when combined with elemental armors. Elemental defenses affect the MP gained, so if the user is weak against Flame, immune to Ice, halves Poison, and absorbs Thunder, then Flame spells will give double MP, Poison spells half, Ice spells none, and Thunder spells will actually deduct MP (because absorption reverses the "damage").

Magicseal Sword requires that the user have a compatible weapon equipped. Despite the name, a variety of non-sword weapons work just fine, including spears and the Wizard Rod in addition to essentially anything with a blade. See the weapons list for details.

However, when the game itself, rather than the player, has control (typically due to 'confusion' status or fighting in the coliseum), a character with Magicseal Sword may use it regardless of weapon. Apparently, someone missed coding a check.

Characters have their level determined by the party average when they join or rejoin the party. Because of an oddity in the sorting of her natural magic list, if Celes reaches at least level 32 by (re)joining the party, but doesn't reach at least level 40 at the same time, she won't learn Confuse naturally. Apparently, with her level in this range, the game stops checking for learned magic once it sees the level requirement of 40 on Berserk, then checks only for exact matches when she gains levels while recruited.

More literally, "{skill} Learning'd." Learning is the passive Blue Mage skill in FFV that allows enemy skills to be learned.

死の宣告 in kanji.

20MP. Inflicts 'death sentence' status on one enemy. Unblockable, but fails if the target is immune to instant death.

Interesting, but since it only works against targets vulnerable to instant death anyway, you might as well use something more immediate.

10 MP. Unblockable instant death to one random target, enemy or ally. Fails if the target is immune to instant death, but the player version works even on the undead.

The player version of this spell also always selects an enemy when not cast manually (through Gau's Ahriman Rage, for example). Monster scripts instead use a special variant that, in addition to selecting a completely random target, heals undead like Death does.

大海嘯 in kanji. 海嘯 refers to a literal tidal wave, caused by the tide, and its proper English name is a "tidal bore". A tsunami is something different, caused by an underwater earthquake and therefore not actually tidal despite the popular name. However, 海嘯 can also refer to a tsunami, just to complicate things. The NA name may come from a misinterpretation of かいしょう as 解消 (cancellation, dissolution).

30 MP. Water magic damage to all enemies (both sides), a bit weaker at 50 power than -ra attack spells, but inflicts full damage to all regardless of how many there are, which puts it closer to -ga spells against a group. 150 hit rate.

22 MP. Wind / Water magic damage to all enemies (one side), a bit stronger at 71 spell power than -ra attack spells. 150 hit rate.

Stragus already knows this skill when he first joins the party.

41 MP. Wind magic damage to all enemies (one side), marginally stronger at 125 power than standard -ga attack spells. 150 hit rate.

It also costs less than -ga attack spells despite the higher power, though few enemies have a Wind weakness.

Though 針千本 (harisenbon) does also refer to blowfish (much like "centipede" refers to a creature but actually means "hundred legs"), the literal meaning makes more sense here.

50 MP. Inflicts exactly 1000 unblockable and undefendable damage to one enemy.

80 MP. Gives all allies (both sides) 'protect' and 'shell' status. Can't be blocked.

As of FFX-2, this is the Worst Mighty Guard Ever in FF history. Because I feel like it, here's a brief comparison list:
　　FFV: 72 MP. A real pain to learn. Gives 'levitate' in addition to reducing all defendable damage by 1/2. First appearance.
　　FFVI: 80 MP. Difficult to learn. Reduces all defendable damage by 1/3.
　　FFVII: 56 MP. Need Manipulate to learn, but not difficult. Gives 'haste' in addition to reducing all defendable damage by 1/2.
　　FFVIII: Desperation attack. Not too hard to learn. Always reduces all defendable damage by 1/2, may also give any or all of 'haste', 'levitate', 'regenerate', and 'aura' statuses, and I've heard it can even give 'invincible' status in extreme cases.
　　FFIX: 64 MP. Not especially hard to learn. Reduces all defendable damage by 1/2.
　　FFX: Overdrive. Fairly easy to learn. Reduces all defendable damage by 1/2.
　　FFX-2: 32 MP. Moderately difficult to learn. Reduces all defendable damage by 1/2.
　There you have it, FFVI's Mighty Guard is both the least powerful and most expensive (arguably excepting FFX) of any of them.

Not that it's a bad spell, it just seems like kind of a ripoff, especially when summoning Zone Seeker gets you the more useful half of the effect ('shell') for less than half the cost at 30 MP.

31 MP. Inflicts exactly the user's max HP minus user's current HP in unblockable and undefendable damage to one enemy.

Ugh. Bad NA description. It looks like "amount HP is reduced" was confused with "reduces HP".

Stragus already knows this skill when he first joins the party.

45 MP. Heals all allies (both sides) for exactly the user's current HP. Unblockable, ignores defense, and damages undead.

The NA version description, though not inaccurate as such, is hideously vague. The name change is also silly.

Being unreflectable, this spell works wonders for healing through 'reflect' status.

ほすう (hosuu, 歩数) literally means the number of steps taken.

(minutes of play time / 30) MP, but monsters always use 1 MP instead. Inflicts unblockable undefendable damage equal to exactly (total number of steps taken / 32). Both values are truncated (rounded down). The damage reaches maximum (9,999) after 319,968 steps. Total play time and total step count both appear on the menu screen.

臭い息 in kanji. Meanwhile, the NA version description is missing a necessary plural.

32 MP. Inflicts 'darkness', 'poison', 'kappa', 'silence', 'confusion', and 'sleep' status on one enemy.

Due to how the game changes sprites, monsters under 'kappa' status may not appear to be unless it's inflicted by Kappa.

融合 in kanji.

1 MP. At the cost of completely removing the caster from combat, restores one ally to full HP and MP (even if undead), and cures 'darkness', 'zombie', 'poison', 'petrified', 'death sentence', 'silence', 'berserk', 'confusion', 'slip', 'sleep', 'slow', and 'stop' status. The user cannot be revived, remains completely unavailable until after the battle, and will have 0 HP and 0 MP even then.

Save the party. Wow. How about that. Too bad it's nowhere near as good as that makes it sound.

My opinion? Worthless. Avoid using even if you're really desperate. This skill makes Mash's Spiral Soul look good by comparison, though at least it won't kill off undead characters.

Stragus already knows this skill when he first joins the party.

50 MP. Unblockable defense-ignoring magic damage to all enemies (both sides), over 50% stronger at 57 power than Meteor.

A grand trine means an arrangement of three planets (or the moon or sun) all 120 degrees from each other, something astrology finds significant.

64 MP. Unblockable defense-ignoring magic damage to all enemies (both sides). With 84 power, it's about 50% stronger than Quasar, or a bit better than half as strong as Ultima.

This ability can ONLY be learned from Hidden, which uses it when all its minions are killed. Don't worry about missing it, though, since the boss reappears and can be fought again if you keep talking to the NPC that started the sidequest.

自爆 in kanji.

1 MP. Inflicts the caster's current HP in unblockable and undefendable damage to both caster and target (which will knock out the caster).

Setzer starts up a semi-interactive slot machine, which has a wide variety of possible effects, depending on the outcome of the spin. The outcome is NOT fully random, and the slots ARE rigged to make it much harder to get certain combinations, though they will also nudge results toward valid outcomes after partially completing them (for example, once you have two chocobos lined up, you're practically guaranteed to get the third to finish spinning Chocobo Rush). See below for possible spins.

Chocobo Rush and Seven Flash (and, of course, Mysidia Rabbit) can always come up, and tend to do so very easily. 7-7-BAR is also always a possiblity, but the game will never attempt to steer results toward it (unlike every other special spin that it allows at the time), so your odds of seeing it are very low unless you're deliberately trying to land on it. BAR-BAR-BAR and Diving Bomb are possible spins roughly half the time, Sun Flare roughy one fourth of the time, and 7-7-7 only one thirty-second of the time. For details of how the slot rigging works and how to manipulate it in your favor, look up Master ZED's Slot ability Guide.

diamond - diamond - diamond

Unblockable magic damage to all enemies (both sides), stronger at 80 power than -ra attack spells.

If anything, it ought to be Diamond Flush. Sevens have nothing to do with it as far as I can tell, and anyway, a flush means all cards in a hand have the same suit, not the same value.

kahran042 suggests, and this makes more sense than any other explanation I've seen, that the "seven" refers to the seven colors of the rainbow. The screen does, after all, flash multiple colors during the attack. This tips the balance back in favor of "flash" over "flush". The English version of the GBA remake apparently calls this "Prismatic Flash", which fits the same idea as well.

That's normally the sound of munching on something with a closed mouth.

Mog can learn eight dance sets, each of which includes four moves. Mog learns a dance set by winning a battle in the corresponding terrain.

Note that the terrain must remain unchanged during the battle to learn the corresponding dance (meaning you can't successfully use a different Dance if you're triyng to learn a new one), but the only other requirement is that Mog be in the active party. It doesn't even matter what condition he's in.

Using Dance starts Mog uncontrollably dancing one of these sets as chosen by the player, and he will keep using a random move from that set automatically each turn for the rest of the battle or until incapacitated. If the terrain doesn't match the dance, Mog may stumble and fail to start dancing, but success will change the terrain to match the dance.

Dances fail at a 50% rate when on incompatible terrain, but since the terrain changes once the dance works, that's only a problem when starting off. Multiple dancers trying to use different dance sets will still trip each other up, though.

See below for the eight dance sets and their abilities, with the abilities within each set in decreasing probability of appearance. The first occurs with a 7/16 chance, the second with a 6/16 chance, the third with a 2/16 chance, and the fourth with a 1/16 chance. I've only described the individual abilities the first time each appears, so where one has no description, check the earlier dance sets. All Dance abilities are unreflectable.

To give an oversimplified description, かまいたち (kamaitachi), 鎌鼬 in kanji, basically refers to gashes caused by intense winds.

Wind Scythe inflicts unblockable Wind magic damage on all enemies (both sides) at 48 power, not quite as strong as the -ra attack spells, but it keeps full damage against multiple targets, putting it closer to -ga spells against a group.

Sunbathing is 日光浴 in kanji.

Sunbathing recovers HP for all allies (both sides) at 50 power, which is five times as effective as Cure and more than 75% as strong as Curega. Unblockable and ignores defense, but damages undead targets.

Plasma inflicts unblockable Thunder magic damage on one enemy, a bit stronger than Thundara at 70 power.

Cockatrice inflicts defense-ignoring magic damage, a bit weaker than Flare at 50 power, on one enemy, and also inflicts 'petrified'. 96 hit rate, giving it a small chance to miss even a target with no magic evade, and it additionally always entirely misses targets immune to instant death, not even dealing damage.

Leaf Flurry is 木の葉乱舞 in kanji.

Leaf Flurry inflicts unblockable magic damage at 50 power on all enemies (both sides) and inflicts full damage to multiple targets, making it marginally stronger than Wind Scythe but without the element.

しんりんよく (shinrin'yoku), 森林浴 in kanji, refers to walking through a forest to soak in the clean air and attain emotional tranquility.

Basking in the Forest is unblockable and cures all allies (both sides) of 'blind', 'poison', 'petrified', 'silence', 'confusion', 'slip', 'sleep', 'slow', and 'stop' status.

Will-o'-the-Wisp, 鬼火 in kanji, literally means something is closer to "demon fire". Fiendfyre?

Will-o'-the-Wisp inflicts unblockable Flame magic damage to one enemy at 72 power, 20% stronger than Fira.

Wombat inflicts unblockable defense-ignoring magic damage to one enemy at 88 power, over 45% stronger than Flare, but always misses targets with 'levitate' status.

Sandstorm is 砂嵐 in kanji.

Sandstorm inflicts Wind magic damage on all enemies (both sides) with 45 power and 100 hit rate, like a weaker, blockable Wind Scythe.

Ant Lion, 蟻地獄 in kanji (literally "ant hell" or even more literally "ant ground prison"), refers to an actual creature that buries itself at the bottom of a pit it makes in the sand or dirt. Also called doodlebugs, real ant lions typically measure less than an inch long, unlike the monstrous beasts often found in Final Fantasy games.

Ant Lion attempts to cause instant death with 100 hit rate, more accurate than Death, and works normally even on undead targets. Stamina can block it.

Meerkats are mongoose-like carnivores found in southern Africa.

Meerkat is unblockable and gives all allies (both sides) 'haste' status.

Apparition is 亡霊 in kanji.

Apparition inflicts 'confusion' status on one enemy, more accurate at 120 hit rate than Confuse.

Pitfall is 落とし穴 in kanji.

Pitfall attempts to cause instant death with 100 hit rate, more accurate than Death, and works normally even on undead targets. Delays dying counterattacks when it succeeds, which usually means canceling them outright. Stamina can block this.

The tapir, a rare creature distantly related to the horse and the rhinoceros, looks more or less like the in-game representation.

The Tapir ability is fairly complicated. It is unblockable and cures all allies of 'darkness', 'zombie', 'poison', 'kappa', 'petrified', 'death sentence', 'silence', 'berserk', 'confusion', 'slip', 'sleep', 'slow', and 'stop' status, but displays a "miss" except on targets afflicted with 'sleep'. Tapir will additionally restore full HP and MP to any character in 'sleep' status, even if the target is undead.

Kahran042 adds that tapirs eat (usually bad) dreams in Japanese mythology. This explains the extra effect on a sleeping target, and also why one shows up automatically if someone stays asleep for too long, though that version only removes 'sleep' status.

Rockfall is 崖崩れ in kanji.

Rockfall inflicts defense-ignoring unblockable magic damage to one enemy, a bit stronger at 65 power than Flare.

Sonic Boom removes 5/8 of the target's current HP, inflicts 'slip' status, and always hits unless the target is immune to instant death, in which case it always fails.

うりんこ (urinko) is a nickname for wild boar piglets. They have striped fur for camoflage that resembles certain striped types of melon (うり), leading to the nickname, which basically translates to "melon kid".

Wild Piglets inflict unblockable defense-ignoring magic damage to one enemy, a bit weaker at 53 power than Flare, but always miss targets with 'levitate' status. Though not as amusing, the much more common Rockfall is plainly a better skill.

El Niño is an unusually warm current that occurs off the west coast of South America every few years and leads to abnormal weather problems, and the ocean life doesn't generally deal with it very well either.

El Niño inflicts unblockable Water magic damage to all enemies (both sides) at 61 power, about the same strength as a -ra attack spell, but maintains full damage regardless of the number of targets, putting it on par with a -ga spell against a group.

"Wild Bear" almost makes sense, as あらい (arai, violent or rough) + くま (kuma, bear), but it's not right. One dictionary defines あらいぐま (araiguma) as the Eurasian badger (meles meles), but others say it means a raccoon, and the sprite itself looks more like a raccoon than anything else. Wikipedia also agrees that the term refers to procyon lotor, the racoon. In any case, the kanji, 洗熊, literally translate to "washing bear".

Raccoon is most likely the best recovery skill in the game. At 100 power, it recovers as much HP as one and a half Curega spells for all allies (both sides), and additionally cures 'darkness', 'zombie', 'poison', 'petrified', 'death sentence', 'silence', 'berserk', 'confusion', 'slip', 'sleep', 'slow', 'stop', and 'frozen' status. Like most healing abilities, it ignores defense, is unblockable, and damages the undead.

Cave-In is 落磐 in kanji.

Cave-In removes 3/4 of the target's HP, inflicts 'slip' status, and always hits unless the target is immune to instant death, in which case it always fails.

Poison Frog is 毒蛙 in kanji.

Poison Frog inflicts unblockable Poison magic damage and 'poison' status on one enemy, a bit stronger at 56 power than Bio cast to a single target, making it, perhaps sadly, the game's strongest Poison magic.

Snowball removes 1/2 of the target's HP, inflicts 'slip' status, and always hits unless the target is immune to instant death, in which case it always fails.

Avalanche is 雪崩 in kanji.

Avalanche inflicts unblockable Ice magic damage to all enemies (both sides), a bit weaker at 55 power than Blizzara, but it keeps full damage even against multiple targets, putting it close to Blizzaga's damage against a group.

Mountain Hare is 雪兎 in kanji (literally "snow hare"). Scientifically, at least, it refers to the species lepus timidus, and not to the arctic hare, which is lepus arcticus, though common use may vary.

Mountain Hare heals all allies at 60 power, nearly as strong as Curega, and is unblockable, ignores defense, and damages the undead.

Unlike most characters, Gau does not have a Battle command. This also means he has no secret deathblow skill.

Rage lets the user imitate a monster, which the player chooses from the list of those Gau has learned. He will continue to act automatically for the rest of the battle or until incapacitated, randomly selecting each turn between a normal attack or an ability determined by the chosen monster. In addition to the ability, the user will inherit many of the other strengths and weaknesses of the monster (for one thing, never use healing magic with an undead Rage!). These effects apply starting with his first action under the Rage.

Protections and weaknesses generally add to whatever he already has from equipment in the same way as multiple pieces of equipment do, but there are two meaningful exceptions that I'm aware of. If Gau is using a Relic Ring and Rages a monster that is not undead, the monster's lack of undeadness overrides the ring, causing him to react normally to healing effects and so forth. However, the one that is more likely to matter is that Raging a monster that lacks instant death protection will negate the effect of a Safety Bit, causing Gau to become vulnerable to these attacks even though his equipment ought to make him immune. Both accessories work normally until the Rage activates, though.

Rage also confers certain special traits, including dying when MP runs out, being humanoid for purposes of determining Maneater damage, and, as already noted, being undead. Additionally, Gau inherits the weapon graphic used by the monster selected, but this is purely cosmetic and has no functional effect. The monster flag that causes attacks in 'kappa' status to inflict full damage and always be critical hits ought to apply as well, but Raging in 'kappa' status is somewhat glitched, and one consequence of that is that the flag won't help you.

See the Rage summary page for skill information, or the (incomplete) monster page for more details on the characteristics of Gau's more than 250 rages.

Though trickier to use than most other abilities, Rage is incredibly versatile. It provides many spells and skills that are otherwise not available until later in the game, if at all. Careful selection can also give Gau a considerable defensive advantage, since many monsters have useful immunities.

An unfortunately inconsistent translation, but most players are unlikely to try that anyway.

Gogo's Mimicry command repeats the last action any party member performed, but using Gogo's stats, and without needing any special setup or consuming any MP or items (except that Coin Toss still uses gil). It's also the only way to reliably summon a Genjuu repeatedly in the same battle.

By default, Gogo has only the Mimicry command, but Gogo's status menu lets the player fill the remaining three command slots from the commands of the other characters, with some exceptions (the list most typically includes Battle, Magic, Item, Steal, Deathblow Sword, Throw, Machines, Deathblow Techniques, Magicseal Sword, Memorized Techniques, Sketch, Slots, Dance, and Rage). The Magic command works by granting Gogo each spell that at least one other member of the active party has learned. Character-specific commands work exactly as they do for the original users except that they use Gogo's stats, and (where applicable) Gogo can use any skill under these commands that the original user has learned. Where a character has an alternate command available by wearing an accessory, Gogo can also use the alternate command by equipping that character's standard command and wearing the same accessory.

Character-specific skills for characters that were never recruited or are permanently unavailable will not appear on Gogo's custom list. This normally means Dance if Mog was skipped earlier and has not yet joined the party, and Throw if you didn't wait for Shadow on the Mystic Continent. However, skills for any characters skipped by glitching, such as Magicseal Sword if you bypassed getting Celes, will also be absent. Skills for characters that were in the party before the Major Plot Spoiler will appear as long as these characters have not been permanently lost, even if they have not yet rejoined the party. Additionally, if characters are hacked into the party, or commands hacked onto characters, that would not normally be available, Gogo can select them, too. For example, hacking Bannan into the party would add Pray to the list, as would hacking the command onto a character already in the party.

Presumably, this works internally by scanning the command lists of the first twelve character slots. Characters that were never recruited remain uninitialized, so their commands wouldn't be there, while I'd guess Shadow's data is cleared out if he doesn't survive, though there could also be a hardcoded check for that.

Gogo cannot learn skills for other characters, regardless of active commands. For example, setting Dance will not allow Gogo to acquire new Dance sets.

Gogo also cannot, either through equipping commands or using Mimicry, Transform like Tina (though the bug in Stragus's Ripple does make it possible, if impractical, to get 'transform' status through swaps). Nor can Gogo mimic Umaro's attacks, the Control command, defending, or changing rows, though he can do most of those in other ways. On the other hand, some things Gogo can mimic might come as a surprise, including Interceptor's counterattacks.

There is no "can't mimic" message; Gogo will just imitate the last mimickable action, or use a normal attack if there weren't any.

Umaro is odd in that, except for accessories, his equipment is fixed (a Bone Club and a Snow Muffler), and he does what he feels like in combat.

If not equipped with anything special, Umaro will attack each round using either a simple normal attack or by flinging himself at an opponent. This bodyslam attack is less common (about a 38% chance), but is unblockable and ignores defense.

When equipped with a Fury Ring, Umaro will fling an ally at an enemy at least as often as he attacks normally. This does no damage to the ally. The attack is unblockable and ignores defense, and adds the attack power of each weapon the ally has equipped to his own attack power of 198, capped (unfortunately) at 255 total. He also prefers to throw allies who are in 'confusion' or 'sleep' status, which has the useful side effect of removing those status effects. Frequencies with just the Fury Ring are about 37% attack, 25% bodyslam, 38% throw.

吹雪 in kanji.

With the Snowstorm Orb equipped, Umaro will use Snowstorm at least as often as he attacks normally. It hits all enemies (both sides) with unblockable Ice magic damage at 100 power, between Blizzara and Blizzaga in strength. Frequencies with just the Snowstorm Orb are about 37% attack, 25% bodyslam, and 38% Snowstorm.

With both accessories equipped, Umaro will use all four attacks with approximately equal frequency.

When equipped with a Black Belt, Umaro's counterattack may be any of the abilities available to him, not just a normal attack as for other characters.

A ghost can possess an enemy. This is an unblockable attack (though it may fail) that eliminates the target, regardless of immunities and even if undead, but completely removes the user from the party.

Biggs and Wedge, two Imperial soldiers, accompany Tina at the beginning of the game. Each has a Mithril Sword, Buckler, Leather Hat, and Leather Armor permanently equipped. Neither has any special abilities, but they hardly need them considering what they're riding.

There's been a ridiculous amount of argument over whether the one name is "Vicks" or "Biggs". The US version uses "Vicks", but Biggs and Wedge make for a Star Wars reference, and the US version of the Playstation remake also uses "Biggs". While the Japanese looks like "Vicks" or "Bix" (ビ fits with both 'bi' and 'vi', while the クス is either a 'ks' or an 'x'), a Japanese Wikipedia entry supports the use of "Biggs", and it seems that every Square game *except* FF6 with these characters has his name as ビッグス (and I've confirmed that it's at least true for Chrono Trigger), which does phonetically correspond to "Biggs". The most likely explanation is a typo in FF6.

The moogles, with Mog leading them, help Lock protect Tina near the beginning of the game. None besides Mog have any special abilities. Each has a Buckler and a weapon permanently equipped. Their weapons are, in the same order as the character names are listed above, a Mithril Spear, a Morning Star, a Mithril Claw, a Chain Flail, a Mithril Sword, a Full Moon, a Chocobo Brush, a Mithril Spear, a Mithril Sword, and a Boomerang.

The ten generic moogles temporarily occupy the character slots later used for Cayenne, Shadow, Edgar, Mash, Celes, Stragus, Relm, Setzer, Gau, and Gogo, with that order corresponding with the order the moogles are listed above. Lock and Mog are in the party at that point and so keep their own slots, Tina is skipped since she's already been initialized by then, and Umaro's slot is spared since he's the 14th character and those three plus ten moogles only make 13 total.

Normally, this temporary reuse wouldn't have any lingering effects, but there are two ways that it can show itself. The trickier, but more conspicuous, way involves skipping a character's initialization by any means necessary (most easily done by glitching through a soldier in Lock's scenario to finish it without finding Celes), then reaching a point where the game forces that character into the party (such as the mass battle at Narshe, for the eight characters involved). Since the character was never initialized, the moogle will still be in that slot (Mogtan if you skipped Celes). The foolproof, but easily overlooked, way is to pass the Major Plot Spoiler, at which time the party is disbanded, so equipment is removed from inactive characters and placed in the inventory. At this point, data ought to have been initialized and put into use for every character whose slot was used... except for Gogo. He hasn't appeared yet, but the game still regards his slot as belonging to a main character, and so removes its equipment. Since Zumomog's data remains there, this adds his Boomerang and Buckler to your inventory.

Bannan's Pray recovers HP for all party members. It has the same strength at 28 as Cura, but costs nothing. As is typical of healing spells, this always hits, ignores defense, and damages the undead.

Though normally you can't have both skills available at once, Magicseal Sword will seal Pray and treat it as having Cura's 25 MP casting cost. Which makes a certain sense, since it essentially is that spell, just executed through a command.

Leo's Shock inflicts unblockable magic damage to all enemies (both sides) at 128 power, slightly stronger than the -ga attack spells.

Controllable only during an extended interactive flashback, Madin can't do any fighting. Thankfully, the designers had the sense to give him the Dash Shoes accessory permanently equipped (though you have to look at the game data to confirm this since the menu is inaccessible), because there's quite a bit of running around involved.

Summons the equipped Genjuu, at its normal casting cost. Unlike summoning through the magic menu, this works repeatedly in the same battle as long as the user has enough MP for it. However, a bug in the command causes it to always target the party, even for offensive effects. Since all offensive summons except Jihad have a flag set to abort when targeting player characters, this makes the command useless for summoning them.

Perhaps this would have belonged to one character or another but was replaced with a different skill during development, or maybe an accessory would have enabled it. It's also possible that the game uses it internally, with a targeting override, to implement summoning.