you need a job that uses magical abilities (Time Mage, Black Mage, White Mage, etc...) and you need to buy the spells from a vendor in the cities. i didn't play the demo so idk what it all gives you, but that's how you get magical abilities (and use them) in the game.

i have a white mage

and a healing spell

yet it refuses to let me use it.

are you going under abilities, white magic, selecting the spell and selecting a character to use it on?

what is your white mage's job level and what spell is it specifically? (I'm guessing just Cure? Which should be able to be used with the White Mage Job at level 1)

if that's not it, then i'm not sure what the issue would be unless your mage is suffering from a status ailment like sleep, or silence, or is just lacking the MP to cast it. or if it's just some weird demo bug.

derp.

i as using a level 3 spell like an absolute moron. i got cure now, so i'm good.

and it's quite fun now, too, now that i can actually heal in-battle.

It does get better when you can survive a bit longer, plus most jobs have a self-sustain skill (well, most I've been using -- Freelancer, Monk, Thief), which can help if your White Mage ends up running low on MP and you have no ethers to use.

How're my classes in the demo?

Tiz is a Swordsmaster, Agnés is a Ninja, Ringabel is a Valkyrie, and Edea is a Red Mage. I don't know if this is a good or bad setup, but I am proud that I at least tried the job system.

Also, the music is godly. Woo!

Heh, Ringabel and Edea share the same class in my game.

Though I have Tiz as a Ninja and Agnes as a White Mage...

What do you have Ringabel and Edea as?

I have spent over four hours on the demo so far. Never though I'd say that before. =P

no i mean

they're the same as your choices.

Oh. Huh.

Wait, you have a White and Red Mage? Wouldn't it make more sense to divide them into a White and Black Mage? Red is pretty much middle ground.

I have 0 experience with these games, so I dunno.

And it's mainly so if one runs out of mana the other can still heal.

plus the skills of the red mage are quite nice, probably going to switch to black mage soon, because now she has the chance of gaining BP.

which is nice.

I have zero experience too. I'm just running off of common sense.

I actually managed to master each of the jobs. Now to think of what to switch...

And if I get the game and transfer my data, the early game will probably be easy as heck. =P