Fireball Psynergy series

Fireball, Fire Orb, and Inferno, originally named Fire, Fireball, and Inferno in The Lost Age, are a series of Mars attack Psynergy featured in all three games. It is available to the Guard Class series (Guard onwards). Hence, in the GBA series, only Garet can use this series of Psynergy. The series was confirmed to return for Dark Dawn in one of the battle scenes showcased in E3 2010 trailers, which showed Tyrell using a Psynergy spell from this series in full 3D. In Dark Dawn, it is available to the Brute class series. Hence, Matthew, Tyrell, and Eoleo can all use this series of Psynergy. In addition, Tyrell and Eoleo will have access to Fireball, the first Psynergy in the series, no matter what class they is currently in.



Basic Description
Fire: “Attack with a scorching fireball.”: This costs 6 Psynergy Points, has a base power of 35, and has a range of three targets. A bunch of balls of fire spread out from the user’s hand and gather into the enemies. It is available at level 4.

Fireball: “Attack with a scorching fireball.”: This costs 12 Psynergy Points, has a base power of 65, and has a range of five targets. A larger bunch of balls of fire spread out from the user’s hand and gather into the enemies. It is available at level 14.

Inferno: “Attack with a scorching fireball.”: This costs 23 Psynergy Points, has a base power of 140, and has a range of five targets. A mass of balls of fire spread out from the user’s hand and gather into the enemies. It is available at level 36.

The mechanics of the series underwent several changes for Dark Dawn. The Psynergy lineups of the Brute and Guard class series were altered, so that the full series can only be used by the Brute class series. Fire was renamed to Fireball, and was altered to be a  single target psynergy. Meanwhile, the original Fireball was renamed Fire Orb, but remained unchanged otherwise.

Analysis
Being available early in the game, and being both slightly more expensive and more powerful than the Flare Psynergy series, the Fire series may be seen as an upgrade to the Flare series. Similarly, the Volcano Psynergy series can be seen as an upgrade to Fire series (although Volcano targets less enemies). While it is largely up to player preference as to which of these three would be used, due to Pyroclasm being obtained 12 levels after Inferno, it is quite likely that this will see some use in the meantime if the player intends to use Garet as a multi-target attacker.

In Dark Dawn, the series is the only Mars-based multi-target offensive Psynergy available to the Brute class. While less powerful than the series it replaces, it is cheaper, which is useful when considering the Brute's low PP multiplier. Since the player will most likely be performing physical attacks with the class, the Fireball series will generally be used to soften up multiple targets.

Fireball as a Utility Psynergy
In Dark Dawn, Fireball is an important utility Psynergy that is used throughout the game. In the introductory dungeon, Fireball is used to set large flowers on fire, to destroy roots blocking the player's path. Afterwards, Fireball is used mainly as a method to set various objects on fire. In addition, Fireball can trigger certain switches to cause a variety of effects. Fireball can also be used to melt pillars of ice that were previously frozen using Cold Snap. In the Belinsk Ruins, Fireball is used in certain puzzles as the representation of the element of Mars.

Like Douse and Whirlwind, Fireball can be aimed in any direction. Once aimed, it will travel in a straight line for a defined distance. Thus the player does not need to stand immediately next to a target in order to affect it. For convenience, both Tyrell and Eoleo will know Fireball regardless of class, meaning that the player does not have to worry about shuffling classes to retain access to the Psynergy.