There are four main kinds of magic - offensive, restorative, auxiliary and affinity-related. Offensive magic is actually the least useful out of all of them due to its high MP cost. Affinity-related magic, on the other hand, is extremely useful since many of the powerful enemies you will face have clearly defined elemental affinities (almost every one in the Cathedral, for example). Some of the offensive spells have levels; if you use a Grimoire for one of those spells when you already know that spell, it will increase that spell's level. Such spells can go up to level 4; you can select which level you wish to cast it at as you are casting it. Higher-level spells have a greater potency and area of effect, but also cost more. The variable costs for such spells are usually 36 / 44 / 52 / 60, for each respective level, except for Radial Surge and Meteor, whose costs are 38 / 46 / 54 / 62.

A fifth class of magic is called Teleportation; you'll learn it after killing your first Lich. You can use it to teleport from a Save Point to any other Save Point in the game. The catch is that the cost of teleportation increases with the distance of the destination from your current location. The price is 15 MP, plus 4 MP times the number of Save Points that lie between the destination and your current location.