Magic (Grandia)

In Grandia, magic appears in the form of the four basic elements of fire, wind, water and earth. They are obtained by buying them in Shops in exchange for Mana Eggs. In order to develop magic skills and gain more magic spells, characters must repeatedly use their respective spells in combat to level up their primarily magic levels. In addition, with each level grown the party member will receive a stat bonus as follows:
 * Fire: +1 Wit
 * Wind: +1 Agility
 * Water: +1 HP
 * Earth: +1 Strength

From all these individual elements, two can be combined to create spells of a mixed element, which contain even more powerful magic in stock. These are Lightning (Fire and Wind), Blizzard (Wind and Water), Forest (Water and Earth) and Explosion (Earth and Fire).

Most characters can use magic, however, all characters are limited in that they cannot access each and every spell; some spells are exclusive to certain characters while other spells are shared only by a small number of characters.

Justin, Sue, Feena, Rapp and Liete are the only characters who have full access to every element of magic. Sue, while not a non-permanent member of the party, most likely has access to all magic elements because of her presence in the party for a large portion of the game.

Fire
Fire magic is solely focused on dealing fire-elemental damage. When leveled up, Fire magic increases a character's Wit by +1.

Wind
Wind magic is a balanced set of spells; on the offensive side, it focuses on dealing Wind damage to large groups of enemies. On the defensive side, spells like Runner and Shhh! provide buffing and debuffing support. Upon leveling up, Wind magic increases a character's Agility by +1.

Water
Water magic is primarily centered on healing and support, though Snooze serves as the sole debuffing spell. Upon leveling up, Water magic increases a character's maximum HP by +1.

Earth
Earth magic focuses mainly on defensive support, with a small array of damage-dealing spells. Upon leveling up, Earth magic increases a character's Strength by +1.

Lightning
Lightning magic focuses almost exclusively on high-range offensive spells, with Enclose being the sole exception. Lightning magic is gained through Fire and Wind magic.

Blizzard
Blizzard magic focuses primarily on support spells, with a limited amount of offensive spells in comparison. Blizzard magic is gained through Wind and Water magic.

Forest
Forest magic focuses exclusively on support spells, with a wide array of curative, buffing and debuffing spells. Forest magic is gained through Water and Earth magic.

Explosion
Explosion magic is primarily focused on offensive spells, with WOW! being the sole exception. Explosion magic is gained through Earth and Fire magic.

Trivia

 * In the game's internal files, the actual requirements for Time Gate were originally set to be Wind 33 and Water 35, which is more consistent with the required numbers for Feena's other Icarian spells. Due to a programming error however, the hex value transitions it into an indeterminable value and instead bumps the required element levels to 99 once Feena learns of her Icarian powers in the story (this is when the question marks for the mystery spells are changed into numbers). Because the magic levels cannot exceed 99, the speed for casting Time Gate is the slowest in the game since no more level ups can be applied. It can only be sped up with accessories that accelerate chanting in this case. Grandia HD Collection fixes this error and allows the spell to be learned at its original intended values.
 * Examining the game code reveals elemental strengths and weaknesses for each enemy as well as how such weaknesses are determined: Every enemy has a value each for Fire, Wind, Water and Earth between 0-14 representing their immunity to each element. 7 represents neutrality or 100% baseline damage, 14 represents total immunity (0 damage inflicted. For all intents and purposes, this applies to 13 as well), whilst 0 represents extreme weakness. Thus, 0-6 show varying degrees of weakness and 8-14 show varying degrees of resistance.