Banishes enemies to another dimension.
Description
Banish, also known as X-Zone, is an Attack spell in Final Fantasy VI. It attempts to instantly remove a target from battle, having the same effect as killing them. The ability will also delay any final attack of the enemy. It is learned from magicite or the Cursed Ring.
Banish is also an enemy ability used by Level 20 Magic and Necromancer. When cast by these enemies, the spell has a high chance of ending the game instantly.
Kefka, when fighting an esper that challenges him in Thamasa, uses a similar spell to Banish to crystallize it into magicite before promptly collecting it.
Obtained[]
Banish is learned from the Fenrir magicite or Cursed Ring at a rate of x5.
Mechanics[]
Banish works on the undead, and stalls the enemy from executing their final attack. Programmatically, this effectively pauses the enemy's AI script when used. This can be used for instance to permanently kill Wrexsoul's additional enemies, provided it works on both of them at once and Wrexsoul is not present.
Sometimes regen, sap, or poison will interfere with the spell's effect, and the monster will counterattack (if possible) from the beyond.
In the early versions of Final Fantasy VI, Banish will always work on an opponent with the Invisible status due to a bug that ignores Death protection. The bug has been fixed from the Advance version onwards. Banish is affected by Runic in the SNES/PS versions, but ignores it in the post-GBA games.
A notable case is using Vanish (Invisible) and Banish combo in the SNES version to kill Deathgaze, preventing the game from recognizing him as beaten. This does not cause the player to permanently miss the Bahamut magicite; while they will not get it for that battle, Deathgaze's death script never running also means Deathgaze is not flagged as defeated, and continues to appear at random, so he will still yield the magicite whenever he is beaten "properly".
Use[]
Banish will attempt to remove a target from battle, effectively killing them. If an enemy has a final attack, the attack will be delayed, allowing the player to cure themselves in anticipation. Banish's low hit rate and high MP cost make it risky to use as opposed to simply killing the enemy with damaging spells, but can be a quick way to end fights if MP is no object (such as if the user has a Celestriad). Banish has the same purpose as Death and Break, which both have lower MP costs and higher hit rates, but more enemies have resistance to both (as enemies immune to death resist both spells).
Although Banish is an Attack spell, it is unaffected by the Magic stat of the caster. As such, it can be taught to any party member and will have the same impact. Because the player will not use Death frequently, it is a luxury spell on all party members, who should prioritize learning other spells first.
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