Victoria F. Stein, a recurring Arcanist in the series.
Arcanist (魔人, Majin?, lit. Magician) is a recurring job class in the Bravely series. It is a powerful magic-attacking specialist, with magical proficiency exceeding that of the Black Mage, and a focus on dark- and death-related magic.
Profile[]
The Arcanist is in many ways like an extreme version of a Black Mage, always featuring an S rank in both MP and the game's magical-attacking stat, and a somewhat better magical defense-related stat, while being extremely physically frail to a slightly greater extent than a Black Mage. Similarly, they excel with magic-boosting weapons like rods and staves, and generally should only equip light armor.
Appearances[]
Bravely Default[]
The Arcanist job is acquired in chapter 4, being obtained after defeating the Asterisk holder Victoria F. Stein at Eternian Central Command. It is one of the few jobs that is required rather than available in an optional side quest.
The job command of the Arcanist is Ritualism, consisting of a variety of dark-elemental magical abilities, including some the deal damage based on whether the targets are afflicted with a status condition, as well as the ability to inflict the Doom status. Its attacks generally inflict damage on all enemies or on all combatants meeting certain conditions, requiring care before use so as not to hurt allies.
The Arcanist is not considered by the game to be a proper magic job, with Ritualism not featuring magic levels and not being included in the magic menu, but it nonetheless possesses powerful magical abilities, many of which synergize well with the coverage and status-inflicting abilities of the Black Mage, with the Asterisk holder Victoria herself using the Black Magic Poison to facilitate use of the Ritualism ability Exterminate.
Bravely Default II[]
The Arcanist job is one of the last jobs available, obtained by defeating Vigintio in the Wrecked Institute during chapter 4.
While it features the same overall stats, dark magic focus, and indiscriminate attacking style, it is highly revamped from its previous appearance. It is now a more traditional magic-wielding job, featuring many powerful dark-elemental, non-elemental, draining, and elemental combination spells as well as Death as part of its Necromancy command, with many of those abilities having previously belonged to Black Magic and Time Magic. Its elemental combination spells and job specialties relate to having its spells damage all enemies on the field but also the user and their allies, making them dangerous to use without proper preparation, though extremely potent and rewarding when one’s own party is safe from them.
Bravely Default: Praying Brage[]
Bravely Archive[]
Bravely Default: Fairy's Effect[]
Gallery[]
Etymology[]
Arcane is a synonym for esoteric. It refers to various secret philosophical and religious doctrines and traditions.
The job's Japanese name of (魔人, Majin?) derives from the Witch/Demon (魔, Ma?) and Person (人, Jin?) kanjis. While Majin (魔人) has no direct single word English translation, the most common interpretations are that of magician, sorcerer, or conjurer. The job's Japanese name is not the same word of Majin (魔神, Majin?) commonly used for Demon Gods, which derives from the Witch/Demon (魔, Ma?) and God (神, Jin?) kanjis.
The Arcanist job originates from the Final Fantasy series of games, however it is known as Magus in all appearances in the series. Introduced in Final Fantasy III as an upgraded form of the traditional Black Mage job, it learned powerful magic spells not usable by its predecessor.
In the Bravely series, the job initially did not carry the elements of its Final Fantasy job origin when first introduced to the series in the original Bravely Default. However, later entries such as began to take more direct influences from the Final Fantasy original, with it becoming a proper upgraded form of the Black Mage job, either by featuring higher-level Black Magic as in Bravely Default: Praying Brage or by featuring strong abilities that have been Black Magic in other games as in Bravely Default II.