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That's kind of the problem with trying to fit a game to a story rather then the other way around. It might indeed be better to make this a story instead of a game, or maybe make the character in question an important NPC and not a PC. That being said, that reminds me of another 'OP magic user' in a story... Gandalf from Lord of the Rings. Only here is the thing about Gandalf: Even if he is one of the most magically powerful beings in that setting, he really can't actually do that much. Make things catch fire and some other things and that's about it. But even being able to do that much is actually a big deal. That's just kinda how magic in middle earth works, it's ridiculously rare and mostly indirect and situational. A Final Fantasy black mage throwing their spells of destruction around like candy? That would be thought of as impossibly powerful even though in other settings it's completely normal. But the thing about black mage magic is, it's almost completely focused on combat. Magic in Lord of the Rings is much much more subtle and can effect a huge number of things in little ways. Black mage magic is very very direct and probobly dosn't have that much practical use outside fighting things. In a normal situation which isn't a save the world type crisis, which would you rather have, black mage magic or white mage magic? I don't know about you but I would pick white mage magic. It's just so much more useful to more people. Okay, really I would pick becoming a red mage because red mages are cool, but that's besides the point. There is also probobly a huge amount of studding someone has to do before they can learn magic at all, even simple spells. What's my point? That I don't think you need to make a character 'OP' in game terms for them to be a seriously well respected magic user. Same doubly goes for martial arts. I mean, do you see boxers throwing chi blasts at each other that much? Being able to disarm and counter foe at all still takes training, and I imagine some people specialize in martial arts while others do in magic anyway. Remember that most party members in rpgs are exceptional people in on way or another. Your average peasant ain't got nothing on even a level 1 black mage. You don't have to make him do everything and carry the party, just make sure he does what he does well.

I have my own theories as well. I think a lot of it ties into the industry standard created by Japan. It's just what's familiar and expected of RPGs, even anime. Ethnic characters are a rarity. It's really frustrating for me because the characters are the most important part of any RPG in my opinion. I would love to be able to create characters from all walks of life, all ethnic and cultural themes. But available resources make this very difficult. I don't feel good about having 17 out of 22 Caucasian characters in my project, but unless I use generated faces, I have no other choice. I'm just surprised Enterbrain hasn't done anything about this yet. The titles actually seem to be more whitewashed since 2k3.

I'd say it is likely that the artists are creating what they know, or are expanding on the rtp. It can be hard to make ethnic characters that are not offensive or just look like a ethnic colored white person. I've personally added in some more ethnic characters into my personal sprite sets, but it is a lot harder than using the 'standard' color that the game comes with.