Mimic an ally's previous action.
Description
Mimic is a Mime command ability in Final Fantasy V. It causes the user to repeat the last action taken by a party member, without consuming any MP or other consumables, besides gil in case of Zeninage. This can be extremely potent in allowing the user to repeat powerful attacks used by another party member, for little cost.
Obtained[]
Mimic is innate to Mime, and will be granted to any character equipping the job. Upon reaching job level 1, for 999 AP, any job can equip the ability. It is very unlikely that any other job would equip the ability, however, as Mime already gains mastered jobs' stat boosts and support abilities, can use most armor, and can customize what abilities to use in battle.
Mechanics[]
Mimic is used on the same target when possible, but if the mimicked target is no longer available, the action is re-targeted. Mimicked abilities toward enemies are re-targeted to another enemy, while mimicked abilities to player's party are re-targeted to another party member. Mimic targets the user when the mimicked ability automatically targets self (Guard, Spellblade).
- Mimic does not consume MP.
- Mimicking an item use does not cause another of that item to be used up.
- Mimicking Mix, Throw, or Combine does not use up any further items.
- Mimicking Animals, Dance, Call, and Gaia will still result in a random action.
- Mimicking Odin will still choose randomly between Gungnir and Zantetsuken.
- Mimicking Zeninage still uses up money.
- The character will mimic Defend, Counter, or Magic Shell.
- The mimicked action depends the Mime's stats, not the character they are mimicking.
The Mimic and Meteor bug is found in the Finest Fantasy for Advance versions prior to the European release, where the Meteor spell is not correctly mimicked; it still costs MP to do.
Use[]
Mimic can be very effective in combination with some powerful attacks, such as Bahamut, Zeninage or Rapid Fire. The only difficulty with the ability is that it must be timed correctly to pull it off successfully. If the player takes care when doing so, it can be used to great effect.
For example, Dualcast takes a staggering 999 AP to learn and thus is not so viable for everyone in the party to master it; however, with Mimic, the other party members can still use it if the dualcaster uses it first. A character who masters Ninja and Ranger can combine Dual-Wield with Rapid Fire to attack eight times in succession, and this can also be used with Spellblade; with Mimic, a second party member can copy the setup without needing to grind out the requirements.
With abilities that consume goods, the player would only need to consume them once and then they could mimic the action for free; this is epecially useful with powerful throws or mixes.