Who is your main party in FFIX?

[Dat Matt]

You have a selection of 8 characters, but can only use 4 at a time. Which ones are in the thick of battle, and which ones are on the bench.

I usually use Vivi, Steiner, Eiko and Freya.

[Shiva95]

Zidane, Vivi, Garnet and Steiner.

[Pumpkin]

Zidane, Vivi, Garnet, and Quina

[Night Fury]

I always try and have Steiner in there because I appreciate his clinky clonking.

[Fynn]

I honestly can't remember! I do hope to switch them around a lot in my upcomign playthrough. There's actually more incentive to do that in here than in VI-VIII because ech character has a completely unique skillset. Even the two white mage/summoners have vastly different movesets.

[Jinx]

Zidane, Vivi, Steiner, Eiko!

I've played around with having Freya, Garnet, and Quina in my party...

but never Amarant.

[Lyndis Highwind]

I had Zidane, Garnet, Vivi and Steiner as my main party for awhile, but I replaced Vivi with Quina so I could have a secondary healer.

[Wolf Kanno]

Since Zidane is usually required, he's in most of my party builds but if left to my own discretion, my party would be:
Vivi, Steiner, Freya, and Quina.

[Aerith's Knight]

Zidane, Steiner (my melee group), Eiko, and Vivi. I sometimes switch one of them out for Freya, because she's pretty badass. But it's a pretty basic DPS, Tank, Summon, Magic.

[Depression Moon]

Zidane, Vivi, Garnet and Steiner.

I switch it up throughout each campaign, but these four are my favorites.

[NeoCracker]

Vivi, Amarant, and Garnet, though last time I went a bit different.

Amarant, Freya, and Quina. Pretty solid group without having a full healer on hand with the likes of either Eiko or Garnet, Freya and Amarant do a solid job keeping up health and MP on while dishing out some good damage, and Quina able to throw out shit for any situation.

Probably the most useful blue mage in the whole series.

[Vermachtnis]

Zidane, Garnet, Quina, and Eiko.

[Jarvio]

On my last playthrough I used them all as much as I could.

However, for quick grinding, I needed Quina in there for his/her blue magic level 5 death spell, because it works on grand dragons and makes for some brilliant grinding. Obviously I had Zidane in there. I always had a healer in there, so either Dagger or Eiko, alternating between the two. And then for everyone else, I just tried to share it out, to build their levels. Although I neglected Amarant.

On the final boss however, I had Zidane, Dagger (or Eiko, can't remember), Steiner, and Freya. I didn't use Freya much throughout the game as I didn't find much use for her, however, she became amazing once I acquired the Dragon Crest ability which took off 9999 each time.

[Peter1986]

I typically just use Zidane/Vivi/Garnet/Steiner, since I feel like that's a very balanced party, and it also feels like the most "classic" one.
It also matches my typical party of choice in FF1 for the NES (Fighter/Thief/White Mage/Black Mage).

My typical random encounter strategy looks like this most of the time:

Zidane - Steal, Dyne
Vivi - Blk Mag
Garnet - Wht Mag, but only when necessary
Steiner - Attack, Swd Art

I feel like Vivi and Steiner can deal more than enough damage on their own, so Zidane might as well steal stuff until he enters Trance, and Garnet stand ready for healing.
Of course, Zidane will also start dealing physical attacks if there is nothing for him to steal from anyone.

[Fox]

I typically just use Zidane/Vivi/Garnet/Steiner, since I feel like that's a very balanced party, and it also feels like the most "classic" one.


Same. Also Zidane/Dagger/Vivi are the most plot interesting characters, so I like keeping them around. There's an argument to have more Eiko but... eh, Eiko annoys me. Even when Dagger's lost her voice I tend to keep her in my party in place of Eiko.

[Peter1986]

I typically just use Zidane/Vivi/Garnet/Steiner, since I feel like that's a very balanced party, and it also feels like the most "classic" one.


Same. Also Zidane/Dagger/Vivi are the most plot interesting characters, so I like keeping them around. There's an argument to have more Eiko but... eh, Eiko annoys me. Even when Dagger's lost her voice I tend to keep her in my party in place of Eiko.
Most arguments for Eiko seem to have something to do with her being the better White Mage, and while this is true, I typically prefer Garnet, since she seems to have better Summons.
Eiko does have a few interesting Summons herself though, which are more focused on defense.

I have always found the part when Dagger loses her voice to be incredibly cool, I have never seen a character in a game become so traumatised that it affects their battle skills like that.
Sure, I have seen several characters get injured and handicapped in various ways, but I have never seen anyone else than Dagger become psychologically affected to the degree that they lose their ability to talk and to think clearly.

[Wolf Kanno]

Eiko is better for not just having the better White Magic selection, but also having Dbl. White as her Trance mode which makes her pretty versatile and gives you dualcast Holy, which will trump anything Dagger can pull damage wise. None of this is helped by the fact that while Dagger certainly has the better summon selection in terms of raw damage, she doesn't really get access to it until Disc 3, which she spends half of in her traumatized state, meaning she really doesn't get super useful until Disc 4.

Course I use Quina as my healer/support character, so it really just comes down to playstyle.

[Peter1986]

Eiko is better for not just having the better White Magic selection, but also having Dbl. White as her Trance mode which makes her pretty versatile and gives you dualcast Holy, which will trump anything Dagger can pull damage wise. None of this is helped by the fact that while Dagger certainly has the better summon selection in terms of raw damage, she doesn't really get access to it until Disc 3, which she spends half of in her traumatized state, meaning she really doesn't get super useful until Disc 4.

Course I use Quina as my healer/support character, so it really just comes down to playstyle.
I have kinda wanted to try out the party Zidane / Freya / Quina / Steiner at some point, just because those guys could easily deal consistent 9,999 DMG once they are sufficiently powered up.

Imagine spamming Thievery, Dragon's Crest, Frog Drop, Shock and Climhazzard, along with the occasional White Wind and Mighty Guard, that seems pretty awesome.
It may take a long time to watch all the sequences for some of those attacks, but this would be an advantage if you have Auto-Regen activated on everyone.

[Wolf Kanno]

It's a pretty devastating party combination and the one I used to make short work of Ozma. The only real kicker here is that it takes a long time to grind the parameters for Frog Drop and Dragon's Crest since you need to be vigilant with Frog catching and the easiest way to farm dragon's is using Lv.5 Death to take out Grand Dragons, which itself becomes available rather late in the game.

[Peter1986]

It's a pretty devastating party combination and the one I used to make short work of Ozma. The only real kicker here is that it takes a long time to grind the parameters for Frog Drop and Dragon's Crest since you need to be vigilant with Frog catching and the easiest way to farm dragon's is using Lv.5 Death to take out Grand Dragons, which itself becomes available rather late in the game.
Steiner's moves "Climhazzard" and "Shock" might be enough for most situations.
In fact, I would say that "Climhazzard" is probably my favourite move in the entire game, it's basically a very powerful MT attack that you always have available after you have learned it;
I always use it whenever Steiner has enough MP for it if there is more than one enemy on the screen.

[Forsaken Lover]

Surprised to see so much affection for Vivi. I dump him first chance I get because his playstyle is the most uninspired. Just Focus a lot and cast a spell.

[Wolf Kanno]

Surprised to see so much affection for Vivi. I dump him first chance I get because his playstyle is the most uninspired. Just Focus a lot and cast a spell.

Dual cast and being cute as a button really helps, not to mention his magic damage is more consistent than the summoner's damage due to the dumb way summons were handled in this game.

[Peter1986]

Surprised to see so much affection for Vivi. I dump him first chance I get because his playstyle is the most uninspired. Just Focus a lot and cast a spell.
Vivi is popular largely because he is an awesome character.
I don't think anyone can resist those curious innocent eyes.

Of course, one of the best ways to use him is to have him cast Doomsday over and over while your party is wearing Shadow-resistant equipment (preferably equipment that absorbs Shadow magic, obviously), that's kinda like wearing Fire- or Earth-absorbing equipment in FF6 while spamming Merton or Quake.

[Snap Jumper]

Oeilvert: Zidane, Dagger, Freya, Quina. I won't separate Zidane and Dagger, and Dagger is still having concentration issues, so she won't be too useful in the Desert Palace. Some playthroughs I switch Amarant and Quina.
Desert Palace: Eiko, Vivi, Steiner, Amarant. Eiko heals; Vivi can enable Steiner's magic swords. Amarant brings some offense and can restore MP with his Chakra ability.

Memoria: Zidane, Dagger, Freya, Amarant. Plenty of offense and Dagger keeps everyone healthy. Plus it keeps her with Zidane. Dagger has weapons with no back row penalty, so she can do some damage. It's those reasons I choose her over Eiko.

[Cell]

I generally go with Zidane, Freya, Garnet and Vivi.

I don't even like three of them, but find they suit how I play best. IX always had a stronger supporting cast than main.

[Darth Ganon]

Zidane, Vivi, Steiner, Eiko!

I've played around with having Freya, Garnet, and Quina in my party...

but never Amarant.

Exactly this for me as well. I prefer the better white magic over summons, so that's why I choose Eiko over Garnet. Quina was never a main, but I use him enough collecting blue magic that he never feels neglected. Poor Freya, though. She's great, but I can't not have Steiner in my party and it feels weird not having the main character in the party.

Nothing ever sold me on Amarant, though.

[daggertrepe]

Zidane, Steiner, Freya and Amarant. Zidane with stealing and thievery, Steiner with his brute physical attacks, Freya's dragon attack that deals 9999 with 16 mp, and Amarant can cure by attacking or deal some atrocious damage with some of his skills. White mages are for noobs :)

[chain acolyte]

On my last playthrough I placed my characters on different rotations, so I would not tire using just one lineup.

Nevertheless, I always employ the team of Zidane, Vivi, Dagger, Eiko.

[Christmas]

I killed everyone in the party and only use Quina. :quina: