Losing characters...

[Red Mage Coffman]

I hated it when characters were killed off in this game. I thought it was very sad...

I DO wish you could save these characters somehow. Like how the game gave the illusion of saving Palum and Porum... Bastards. Point it, if you did have the power to save them and you DID have the power to use them, how would your final party change? And this includes every character, even Tellah.

Mine would be... Cecil, Kain, Palum, Porum, and... Rydia. Okay, GO!

[VeloZer0]

I loved the way the game killed of it's characters. It really helped get away from the 'Saturday Morning Cartoon' mentality where you never actually think of anyone as being in any real danger.

Personally my only change would be an Edge<->Yang switch. Yang does more damage and has more HP.

[Flying Mullet]

You should play the GBA version if you haven't yet.

[Heath]

The only change I made, which everybody seemed to make, was Edge for Yang. When I did it initially I felt like I was committing some kind of cardinal sin, but it seems to have been quite a common thing.

Like VeloZer0, I also quite liked how the game killed it's characters off. It makes the game seem quite dark initially, but then everybody comes back again anyway, irrespective of how improbably (hi Cid!). Apart from Tellah, that is :(

[Red Mage Coffman]

I liked it, it darkened things and made me hate Golbez even more... And why GBA? I playing Complete Collection right now. I know on DS you get augments, but those are kinda lame.

[Flying Mullet]

In the GBA version you get the option to play with any of the playable characters at the end of the game.

[VeloZer0]

I thought the augments were a tremendous addition to the game. Unfortunately binding them permanently to the character and the BS way you acquire most of the good ones kind of wrecked it for anyone playing without an FAQ.

[Jowy]

In the GBA version you get the option to play with any of the playable characters at the end of the game.

Can do that in the PSP version as well! Kind of renders the GBA version pointless since it has all of the bonus features with a fresh coat of paint on it.

[VeloZer0]

Well, some of us hate the new can of paint they opened up for the PSP version. ;)

[Evastio]

My final team in the GBA version always consisted of Cecil, one duo consisting of Rosa and Rydia or Palom and Porom, and two of Cid, Yang, Edward, Kain, and Edge (depending on the trials I want to do in the Lunar Ruins and the lowest levelled characters).

Though my personal favourite team effectiveness-wise is definitely the original final team (even if I'm not fond of Kain and I find Rydia overrated), since it's very balanced.I find Rosa and Rydia more effective than Palom and Porom (Rosa has better attack than Porom and has free healing through Prayer/Miracle, Rydia has Black Magic and Summons, which are more effective against multiple enemies or enemies with reflect). Cecil and Kain have good HP, physical, and magical defense, and are some of the strongest physical fighters (though Edge's physical attack beats Kain's pre-Lunar Ruins, which plays a significant role in random encounters during that period). Yang and Cid have major problems with their magic defense (and Yang's physical defense is rather poor for a physical fighter) and Edward's HP is too low for him to tank hits. Edge, I find to be much better than you guys give him credit for. I use Edge's steal/plunder command for free items (with some of them being quite good, Like Artemis Arrows and X-Potions), and his Ninjutsu can deal with flans quite easily so Rydia/Palom can conserve her/his MP. Also, his high speed and his Smoke spell makes running away from annoying battles (Magic Dragons anyone?) easy and cheap, since running away with Smoke never makes you lose money.

The one character I like using the most besides the original five is actually Edward, since his Chant command comes in really useful for bosses or strong enemies (casting Protect and Shell on everyone) and his Harp does 9999 damage against dragons, which is insanely useful against Brachioraidos.

But if you want to know what team I'd use based on favourites (while still being functional yet unbalanced), it'd be Cecil, Cid, Edge, Edward, and Rosa.

I loved the way the game killed of it's characters. It really helped get away from the 'Saturday Morning Cartoon' mentality where you never actually think of anyone as being in any real danger.
Uh... I thought that you didn't like the FFIV deaths since you felt that them coming back at the end made them feel less meaningful.

Though personally, I found it epic, especially since they all came back (except Tellah, who's understandable since the story kept foreshadowing his death) at full strength to help Cecil and his allies fight off the Giant of Babil. That part really helped emphasize the theme of redemption that FFIV has (seeing how Cecil's fallen allies redeem themselves by stepping back in and joining the fight). It also shows just how many allies Cecil has made from different nations, and how the whole world (practically) has joined his cause to fight against Golbez, who he was formerly (yet unknowingly) serving in the past back when he fulfilled King Baron's dark wishes.

[VeloZer0]

I liked the deaths, I didn't like the fact that they came back. Until the giant cop out it was all good.

[Red Mage Coffman]

I get any party member..? YES. Good bye Edge, hello someone else I like better. Maybe Rosa to, but she is the closest thing to a White Mage you have, besides Cecil. Who I am not fond of. Stupid White magic -.- I would have preferred something that was good enough to replace Darkness. Cover is okay, I guess...

[Jowy]

Cover's pretty worthless. I never found myself voluntarily sacrificing a turn to use it.

[Red Mage Coffman]

I would only ever use it to cover Rosa. Thats it.

[Evastio]

I liked the deaths, I didn't like the fact that they came back. Until the giant cop out it was all good.
Ah, that clears things up.

I would have preferred something that was good enough to replace Darkness. Cover is okay, I guess...
I don't really think Darkness would be all that useful later on in the game. Even if Cecil could stay a dark knight and get better Dark Swords, enemies get much higher HP later on (this becomes evident in the Troia area, where it takes ~3 attacks from your fighters to take down one enemy) and deal rather heavy damage to the point that you're better off taking down one enemy at a time, rather than doing distributed damage to them all (not to mention Darkness costs HP). Yang's kick also isn't useful from Troia onward for the same reason.

Though I'll admit, Darkness' attack animation is pretty neat.

[Red Mage Coffman]

Yeah, I agree now. My first time playing it (DS version) Darkness and Kick seemed like the most epic abilities around. This time around (PSP) its really... weak. Which saddens me T.T