It’s hard not to feel sorry for Cyan in Final Fantasy 6. In the World of Balance he’ll perform reasonably well in battle, be able to contribute good damage in a few pivotal moments and bring some much needed grounding to an increasingly otherworldly story. Alas, keeping him relevant towards the Floating Continent and onwards is very, very difficult. Where other party members expand their skill set with bigger and better options, Cyan’s Bushido ability can feel a little underwhelming, leaving most players wondering whether he’s worthwhile or not. Said decision is yours of course, but we can perhaps lend a helping hand, by determining which of the Bushido, if any, are truly worth your while.
Sky
- Cyan adopts a counter stance, retaliating against physical attackers.
Alright, so we love the ‘counter attacking Samurai’ thing as much as the next video game player, but we have to ask: Has this ever worked in a turn based RPG game? Unless the counter stance is something ridiculous from an Etrian Odyssey title, it’s almost certainly not worth your time. Such is the case here with Cyan’s level 2 Bushido, Sky. Technically the counter will do reasonable damage, but you’re running the roulette of Cyan actually being attacked, and this alone makes his level 1 Bushido much, much better. You could argue that it might have some use in his story section near the start of the game, but it doesn’t even reduce the damage he takes, so you’re almost always better off simply attacking and removing an enemy, preferably with the instantly selected level 1 Bushido, Fang.
Dragon
- Drains both HP and MP from one target.
Another Bushido skill that just doesn’t quite cut the mustard is Dragon, which is Cyan’s level 5 Bushido. Still, surely having to wait all the way until level 5 will grant you something nice, right? Well once again things aren’t quite as powerful as they should be. Technically speaking, the MP amount stolen is pretty good, but this is offset by the HP stolen being laughably small, which results in Cyan waiting for an inordinate amount of time, during which he will no doubt take more damage. Plus, for Cyan to use a huge amount of MP, he’d actually have to be skilled with magic to the point where you’re using it all up. He isn’t, you won’t, and you should completely avoid this skill.
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Tempest
- 4 physical hits to random targets, ignoring defence.
Technically speaking, by the time the level 7 Tempest Bushido unlocks, which is level 44, Cyan will have access to some pretty good equipment, which will boost the damage of a 4-hit attack by quite a bit. Time is however, entirely against him in this regard. By the time that level 44 rolls around, massively powerful magic spells will be known by your other party members, and even those that don’t will likely have access to something much more powerful, like Phantom Rush, Soul of Thamasa or Throw. Unfortunately, whilst this is technically the most damaging of Cyan’s Bushido, it’s telling that even here he’s left behind. Oh, plus the small matter of having to let the damned thing charge to level 7. By that time you might as well just pop up to level 8 and remove all of the enemies at once, or stop at level 6 to damage every enemy without the RNG element.
Tiger
- Hits one target for 50% of their HP.
Finally a skill that has some usage. Well, by usage we mean it can come in handy in some very niche cases, but that’s better than anything we’ve listed above, so we’re getting somewhere at least. Tiger is the level 3 Bushido, which immediately means that you’re going to have to wait a good deal less time than some other skills, but savvy readers will no doubt already know that ‘% HP’ damaging skills are very unlikely to work on bosses. Happily, the world map of FF6 is filled with tougher than usual enemies that you can rarely encounter, for which this particular skill can be quite useful. So… That’s something, right? Surely things must get better soon…
Oblivion
- Kills all enemies not immune to instant death.
- Also prevents ‘final’ enemy skills.
Well, technically killing every enemy in battle is better, but you should know that Oblivion is Cyan’s level 8 Bushido, which means an achingly long charge time awaits you if you try to activate it. Thankfully, this is a skill that can, in some cases, be worth waiting for. Dungeons are plentiful in the World of Ruin, and each come replete with enemies that’ll soak up loads of damage before they go down, so if you do the math it’s often more worthwhile to simply defend with the rest of the party and charge up with Cyan. You’ll save MP spent attacking, and you’ll likely only need minimal healing following the battle, so it’s actually pretty useful. Yes, a useful Bushido skill, you read that correctly. Onwards!
Eclipse
- Hits every enemy for magical damage & chance to inflict Stop.
Much like our option above, Eclipse takes you deep into the Bushido charge to unlock – level 6, to be exact – so the wait is still significant. With Oblivion, we recommended using it whilst everybody else defends, to clear the encounter with minimal fuss. Here however, we’d recommend that you use Eclipse whilst everybody else attacks, particularly against difficult enemies. Cyan’s kit is unfortunately rather limited when it comes to group damage, outside of random attacks that is, so having something like Eclipse to follow up your other members is relatively useful. It’s not going to surpass something like Flash for usefulness, nor a level 2 or above elemental spell, but it does at least give Cyan a way to contribute. Well, after you’ve waited for nigh on an eternity for it to charge at least.
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Flurry
- 4 physical hits to random targets.
Now we’re talking. Flurry is Cyan’s level 3 Bushido, and in most single target battles it’s probably the best option for him to take. There is a caveat, which is that the strikes do not ignore defence like others might, but hitting four times and only having to charge to level three is pretty good, and the ol’ man will do some good damage with it. We rate it higher than Tempest, which is essentially the defence ignoring version of this, because the charge rate is just so much more manageable. Yes it does less damage, but you get the wait bar charging a lot quicker for the next turn, so the loss is somewhat offset. Should you decide that taking Cyan in your main team is a good idea, then this combined with our final choice will be your goto skills to deal damage.
Fang
- Attacks one enemy for physical damage, ignoring defence.
Yes that’s right, by far Cyan’s best Bushido skill is Fang, the level 1 ability. Now before you scoff and visit the comments section to ridicule us, consider the benefits: It hits harder than his regular attack, takes literally no time to charge at all and completely ignores the opponents’ defence. We’re not about to argue that this will scale into the late game with you, but if we’re all honest with each other here, Cyan himself doesn’t scale into the late game with you, so what we’re advocating for here is a powerful skill that should be used exactly when Cyan should be used: In the first third of the game, and no later. Here it will pop most regular enemies in one hit, and it’ll do some good damage to bosses, making him a valuable team member for a portion of the game in which magic users struggle, and there’s nothing wrong with that at all.
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Categories: Final Fantasy 6