Phantoma



Phantoma is a system in Final Fantasy Type-0 in which the characters absorb energy from their fallen foes, triggering MP recovery among other boosts. There are different types of phantoma, indicated by their colors. Different types of these are needed for customizing and upgrading magic. Phantoma can be seen as akin to the concept of "heart" and "soul" in the Fabula Nova Crystallis: Final Fantasy series. It can be spent in the Altocrystarium system. White and pearl phantoma are described as energy of the void; void being a common theme associated with Etro.

Story
Phantoma appears in various colors, but always as a smoke-like substance that flows out of dying bodies. Phantoma can be given willingly for a cause, as seen when the Vermilion Bird Crystal Secundus l'Cie Caetuna uses the voluntarily-surrendered phantoma of hundreds of cadets to summon the Verboten Eidolon Alexander.

Only a handful of elite researchers from the Sorcery Division are privy to information about phantoma. Class Zero receive special privileges, but as Machina Kunagiri and Rem Tokimiya join the class, Arecia Al-Rashia asks Ace to keep the new recruits in the dark about phantoma. Arecia instructs him that Machina and Rem need only to know phantoma is the class's source of magic, explaining why they are immune to the empire's crystal jammer. Later, Arecia shows the class the Altocrystarium where the cadets can enhance their magic in exchange for the phantoma they have collected in battle. Researchers in the Sorcery Division also task the class with collecting specific colors of phantoma for examination. In fact, Class Zero cadets are not the only ones with a clandestine task of this nature, as several phantomists in different towns of Orience are looking to trade in phantoma under instruction from Arecia.

Quon Yobatz later defines phantoma as the "essence of life," comparing them to the soul.

In the last chapter of the game, a group of strong enemies called Rursan Reavers have an ability to destroy phantoma inside human bodies, making it impossible to heal those who get injured from fighting them. At the Pandæmonium, Cid Aulstyne as The Rursan Arbiter destroys phantoma of Class Zero cadets, leaving them die in pain in the ending scene.

Magic System
The statistics system "Altocrystarium" depends on phantoma to power up the characters' magic. Depending on the type of magic, it can power up the magic in different areas. For example, Fire RF magic can be powered up in strength, MP usage, call time, projectile distance and speed. Increasing the Fire RF magic's strength parameter requires six red phantoma.

Harvesting
Defeated enemies leave phantoma in their wake, which is said to be their source of life and magic. When the characters absorb this, the HP or MP recovers a bit. Harvesting phantoma with different characters earns special bounties.

The amount of recovery depends on the type of phantoma, as indicated by the color.

Each enemy is assigned a type, which determines its drop rates of certain phantoma. They are determined either by the element of the attack, whether the attack is normal, or whether Killsight was the killing blow.

Etymology
In the Spanish version of the game, phantoma is called "Pneuma".

In the French version of the game, phantoma is called "Anima".

In the Japanese release many of the color names found in the phantoma system derive from rare and expensive colors used in classical Japanese art.

Shinsha ("Cinnabar" in the English release) is the Japanese name for the mineral Cinnabar, which was often crushed and used in ceramics as a natural vivid red.

Seiji ("Jade" in the English release) is the Japanese name for the mute jade green and Chinese ceramic crafts of celadon.

Kikujin ("Celadon" in the English release) is a green that was considered high class in Japanese feudal castes due to its exclusivity to the emperor, and extensive process to make it an iridescent hue by silk fabric, reminiscent of the shining of a fish's gills when under the light of the sun.

Lithospermum is the Latin scientific name for the Wisteria, a popular kind of flower known in Japan called the Murakami, known to be one of the few flowers to be of the color purple in the nation. Shikon, meaning "blue-purple", is also the color derived from extracting a dye of the uncommon and wild Murakami root to gain the color. Like Kikujin, Shikon was limited off to the nobility of Japan.

Enpaku ("Argent" in the English release) is a white lead made paint under the products of ganryou in classical Japanese painting, being powdered paints that were nearly invulnerable to fading, and durable to mishandling when dried, as they were highly insoluble in other common known liquid mediums and its pigment's chemical makeup contributed to its properties. Like its named phantoma being highly desired in game, Enpaku originally was used as a primer for works, as its traits allowed paper and other surfaces to flatten out and bring out other colors of ganryou, before it was replaced with gofun shell crushed white due to its hazardous and impractical creation process during the late Muromachi Period.

Yuou ("Jasmine" in the English release) is the name for a yellow made ganryou paint from the arsenic mineral orpiment.

Hakuji ("Ivory" in the English release) is the name for a clean white porcelain made from a high grade of clay from Japan, having been discovered by Korean artisans.

Geppaku ("Pearl" in the English release) means "moon white" in Japanese, and is a highly desired color in ceramics and pottery, due to how its hue under light is like that of the moon's reflection.

Trivia

 * How phantoma comes in a variety of colors helping manifest phenomena through magical means, and being described as the essence of life, makes it a parallel to artistic mediums; how White Phantoma is considered elements of the Void reinforces this allusion.
 * Unlike in the demo, the full version improved the phantoma system to make the character absorb more than one at a time.