Few Questions

[Genome]

Just got this game about a week ago, for PSP.

I have never played the original PSX one.

I'm at the part where you are about to go into the Merchant City of Dorter, and since I keep getting defeated at the fight there, I'm leveling my characters on random battles.

One question is this: Ethers seem to be non-existent so far. This is bothersome, because I have a trusty Black Mage at my side at all times and he eventually runs out of MP and cannot cast anymore magic, rendering him pretty much useless. My only option then is to force him into melee which I haven't done yet, or wait for an enemy dead body to crystalise so I can get my stats restored. Is there something I'm missing that makes it easier to regain my MP?

Also, I'm training two units up:
Musashi: Melee Unit
Merlin: Mage, Black Mage soon.

Is there a special way to train up these characters so that they are really good when they're at high levels? I want Musashi to be a Samurai or Ninja, maybe a Dark Knight at one point. I want Merlin to stay as a very powerful Mage. Since you can equip your units with two types of abilities or magic, I want him to be an all-around mage that I masters in Black Magic and can do very well in almost any other magic as a secondary skill.

Thanks in advance.

[The Amazing Spiderman]

Don't worry that much. By the end of that battle, you can then get better equipment for the mages, the robes, which increase the unit's mp more than a normal armor.
Ethers will be accesible as time passes and you finish missions. Just keep looking at the shop. But sometimes it's better to recover Mp in battle by a crystal....


Also, for the dorter battle, keep you wizard pretty well protected, and try to aim for the archers on the roofs with his magic. leave the knights to your other units. Since the Black Mage has low Hp and PA, you shouldn't use him for melee combat.
Maybe around Lv. 5 the battle shouldn't be a problem, anyway. Just level up a bit.

And finally, the only special way that your units will became extraordinaire units, you have to master various classes as the advance on the game. Just learn a lot of skills, so you can customize them to become powerful warriors.
If we go for stats, since you're beginning, just make your units stick with one type of units. If s/he is a fighter, make him/her master various fighter classes for a better stat growth. If s/he is a mage, master many spellcaster classes, for a better growth in MA and Mp.

Overall, leveling up your units as Monks, Ninjas and Knights will make your units decent fighters at the end of the game.

Leveling up your units when they are summoners o Wizards will gain them more Mp and MA, making pretty good at casting spells at the end of the game.

But, before all of it, enjoy the game, it pretty fun at the first time you play it, and by the second time, you might want to acomplish many things, like stat growth, get rare items, master all the jobs, understand game mechanics, etc, there are many things to exploit in this game, that I'm sure that you'll play it for a long, long time.

[Gilthanes]

the millions of ways to play this game definately make it unique

Hes definately right about the replay value of this game, I've played through the psx version easily 20 times, over the last 7+ years. I'm actually right now playing through it again, with a small quirk: dancing ninjas. Ramza and his pimp squad of 4 dancing ninjas, equipped to max PA and all of them dancing Wiznaibus for 30 dmg to all units 2-3 times per turn

fear the dancing ninjas

to answer your question about ethers: you are right they are not easily obtained till chapter 2. You can easily fix your MP problem by training up a Monk to use Chakra, or later on you can have a Bard singing MP restoration song, OR you can train your mage up to Oracle and give him Move MP-Up, OR equip "Critical: restore MP" (from Summoner I think?) and let one of your fighters smack him once or twice into critical for a quick full mp restore.

As you can see, the solutions are near endless. Personally I never leave home without a monk or someone who has mastered Punch Art, Chakras ability becomes somewhat weaker by chapter 4, but until then it is THE easiest and cheapest way to restore both HP and MP

Sorry to rant here but I just want to emphasize that Punch Art is the most flexible skillset in the entire game imo, only challenged by Draw Out in its multiple uses. revive, heal, Mp-restoration, range attacks, large-range attacks, debuffs, aoe attacks, status cures. No other skillset has everything you could ever need crammed into 1 box of skills. Get a monk, and master it. You will never regret it

[Siegfried]

Making Delita an archer also improves this battle a lot, considering he goes straight for the archer on top but hey, listen to them, they are right on