The Blue Mage and the Beastmaster jobs were both introduced in Final Fantasy 5. That was a 1992 release for the SNES in Japan. North American players would not get a taste of it until 1999 with a PS1 port. Both jobs operate differently but have common themes revolving around monsters.
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Blue Mages learn monster abilities and collect them as spells. Beastmasters use monsters as secondary weapons, like a more robust Pokemon Trainer. There are only about six main characters that have mastered these jobs in the Final Fantasy series. Gau from Final Fantasy 6 was a close seventh but he has more in common with a Mimic.
Kimahri
Kimahri is from Final Fantasy 10 and is one of Yuna’s guardians. He is actually a split class between a Blue Mage and a Dragoon as his weapon of choice is a spear. He also has the typical Dragoon ability, Jump, which can do some devastating damage on opponents. Kimahri learns spells from monsters by using a skill called Lancet.
Normally this will just restore HP and MP by dealing damage to an enemy. For monsters that have a skill he can learn, this will be taken as well. These skills are tied to his Limit Break, or as it is referred to in this game, Overdrives. He’s one of the weaker characters in the game overall and doesn’t have much personality to make up for this downfall.
Strago
Strago is from Final Fantasy 6. He’s unique in that he is one of the very few characters in this series that is elderly and also a party member. After the SNES era, this idea was dropped with Strago being one of the last real ones. He learned his skills in the typical Blue Mage fashion by getting hit with enemy abilities. He could then paint these creatures, literally paint, to then use these skills back at them.
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Strago is pretty much the only core party member that is a painter in the series. The only one that comes close is Prompto from Final Fantasy 15 who was a photographer. It should also be mentioned that Strago had a granddaughter, Relm, with almost the same exact powers. Both characters weren’t that important in the story after their debut, which had an enormous cast overall. So much so that most of the cast is kind of unremarkable.
Quistis
Quistis comes from Final Fantasy 8. She begins as the main character‘s, Squall’s, instructor before eventually becoming a party member. Despite being Squall's instructor, Quistis is only a year older than him.
As for her Blue Mage abilities, Quistis shares part of her powers with Kimahri. She can only use her monster skills through her Limit Break, which was referred to as Auras in this game. She learned skills not from enemies but from items players could find or extract from monster cards. Her sternness made her an interesting pair to Squall but is lower on the tier of personalities from this game.
Serah
Serah began as a typical damsel in distress in Final Fantasy 13. She then got to star in the sequel, which turned into part Final Fantasy, part Pokemon. She was joined by a mysterious new warrior, Noel, and together they traveled through time in order to fix the timeline and to search for her sister Lightning.
The two of them could also be joined by a monster they could recruit. It is actually more similar to Dragon Quest 5‘s battle system rather than Pokemon since humans don’t fight. In a way that makes Serah a Beastmaster. It’s not quite the same thing as other Beastmaster classes in the series, but it should still count since that is the game’s core mechanic. It’s also a better game than its predecessor or successor.
Lann & Reynn
Lann and Reynn are twin siblings from World of Final Fantasy. Like Serah, they are Beastmasters in that they can recruit monsters to join their party. It’s much more like Pokemon in its cutesy nature. What sets it apart is that these monsters can be stacked on their heads.
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It’s weird, but adorable at the same time. The game also has a lot in common with Kingdom Hearts as their designs look a lot like they came from Sora’s island. The game itself is also a big crossover universe that combines elements from all major Final Fantasy games together. Cloud, from Final Fantasy 7, for example, makes an adorable chibi appearance. It's a really underappreciated spinoff in the series.
Quina
Quina hails from Final Fantasy 9 and is without a doubt the weirdest character on this list, though entirely lovable all the same. What isn’t as lovable is the fact that Quina has a monstrous appetite. If the players weaken an enemy enough, they can have Quina eat it in battle.
If that monster has an ability Quina can learn, it will be theirs. Quina’s magic can be used like any spell in the game, making it a very valuable asset especially early on. Because these spells can be quite powerful and because Quina is literally impossible to forget for reasons other than its appearance, it has to be number one. The fork as its weapon is also a major plus.
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