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View Full Version : What's so great about Locke, Celes, Strago, Setzer, and Mog?



i90east
09-14-2003, 05:35 AM
Maybe this thread will also help others in this situation. I like assembling a very powerful and effective group, but after playing through the game 5 times I'm ready to try characters I haven't given much of a chance. I am having a hard time finding strong characters other than the ones I have used so much in the past. For those of you who use Locke, Celes, Strago, Setzer, and Mog, how can they possibly be effective party members? I need your help. I'll list all the good characters (in my opinion), and then talk about the lesser characters of the game (again, in my opinion). I challenge everyone to refute anything I say about these characters.

Gau (in my group): When you know how to use Gau, no one else is stronger. So no matter what happens, Gau will always be in my group. I've tried everyone, and Gau always proves to be the most powerful by far. He's the type of guy that makes bosses way too easy. Catscratch, Giga Volt, Flare Star, Shock, need I go on? He's the best in the evasion department, and his other stats are relatively high. Sure you can't control him when he's raged, but you have 3 other characters to control. That's plenty, and it provides the best battle flow. There may be situations where he has to rely on magic spells. There's nothing wrong with that.

Cyan (in my group): He accels at physical attacks with swdtech. Yes the charge up time can halt your entire party, but only if you don't provide a good battle flow. Have your other guys attack first, then charge up the techniques. Gau attacks automatically, so that helps. Cyan has low speed, magic power and evasion, but he makes up for it in raw defense and battle power.

Terra (in my group): Her magic power rivals Celes', and Morph puts her over the top. Only Relm has more magic power. Terra can use Atma Weapon, which is a fine weapon for any magic user. Her stats are around average, with a healthy amount of magic defense. She is quite effective in battle.

Edgar (in my group): While his stats arn't impressive, his tools are quite useful, and add a unique element to any group. He's a good utility man, who can confuse the enemy, focus attacks on one enemy or hit all enemies... at no charge. Any character with the ability to do this is at an advantage.

Sabin (used to be in group): Sabin accels at his elemental and non-elemental blitz attacks. His wide variety of moves come at no charge. The percentage at which his attacks are executed depends on the player. When you can pull off Aurabolt, Fire Dance, Air Blade and Bum Rush every time, Sabin is definately a very powerful force. His claw attacks are usually pretty good too.

Shadow (just started using): This guy's stats are very close to Locke's stats, and the throw command can be quite effective. His physical attacks are quite strong, and many thrown weapons do a lot of damage. Cheap ninja stars and skeans provide an affordable way to use the throw command. His evasion is better than average. His dog provides powerful attacks too.

Relm (the would be good character): It's a shame that Sketch is so buggy. Relm has the highest magic power, far exceeding Celes and Terra's. The Sketch command is fun to use, because you never know what you're going to get. Plus it provides many strong attacks. But bugs in the game kill this character. Sketch can cause the game to hang at any time, and for me it happens very often. It's not just on invisible monsters... it can happen anytime for what seems like no reason at all. You simply can't use a character that freezes the game.

---- The Lesser Characters ----

Locke: With his stats being comparable to Shadow's, he has high speed and decent attack power. He can use weapons that do the same damage from the back row. But why use him when the special abilities of other characters do a lot more damage than Locke's fight command? Steal is pretty much useless in most battles. Oh wow, he can steal Tonics and Antidotes, or the occasional weapon that's obsolete anyway. Meanwhile your party is taking hits while he tries to steal (and many times it doesn't even succeed). His magic power is low. Simply put, Locke has no means of performing a powerful attack.

Celes: She's basically a Terra clone with a worse ability. When you equip her with Atma Weapon, she can't even use her special ability. Runic is only good when you first get her, when any magic used by enemies can be devastating. Later in the game, the significance of enemy used magic dwindles. In most situations runic is useless. Her physical attack is nothing impressive. The only thing she has going for her is her magic power. Then again, any character can be raised to be a strong magic user, while keeping his/her powerful special ability. If you're worried about magic so much, use wall rings.

Strago: Here's an old man with pitiful stats. Maybe when he was 20 years old he was strong, but he has passed his years. His lore ability is a troublesome thing to deal with. Most of his Lore abilties Gau can do for free. Strago has the worst physical attack. His virtues? Hmm, that's a tough one. Does he have any?

Setzer: Here's another character with poor stats. His slot ability is weak or ineffective most of the time. His physical attack is nothing special. The only thing good about him is his occasional powerful slot attack. Mugu mugu?

Mog: Mog starts out with a nice amount of hit points, and his stats arn't bad. His dance ability is pretty good too, but if you're already using Gau in your party, having a second non-controllable character is not good at all. Since Gau is much more powerful than Mog, there's no place for the furry critter. The annoying thing about dance is that you waste many turns trying to get it to work. Mog stumbles too much. His magic ability is only average.

Gogo and Umaro come into play too late in the game to be considered, unless you plan on playing through most of the game with only 3 characters in your party. Gogo's stats are horrifying anyway. Umaro is a strong physical fighter, but as with Mog, having him with Gau is not good.

arcdragon9
09-14-2003, 05:42 AM
Ok I just started using Strago, but I have looked at his abilities. And his stats. Thgey can be inproved. And yes his Lores can be used by Gua for free, but u can never be sure what Gua will use. Strago has evry kind of elemental attack in his Lores, and with the proper relics and equipment he can do a lot of damge of healing with minimal m.p. use. Not to mention he can use air and earth attacks that only hit the enemy. And they look cool.

Strider
09-14-2003, 06:01 AM
Locke: Get a Thief Glove, turn Steal into Capture. Use Odin to up his already above-average speed to a ridiculous number, and put a Zephyr Cape on him.

Celes: Equip the Atma Weapon on Terra instead, and then you can use Runic. Give her. . .oh, I don't know, Ragnarok or Illumina or something. Take advantage of her above-average magic power and up it with an Esper.

Strago: Beat Hidon. Use Relm with a FakeMustache and go to the Veldt and Control different enemies to learn more Lores with a significantly less risk factor. Then again, Grand Train is the only Lore worth using while you have it, anyway. Yeah, just beat Hidon.

Setzer: Fixed Dice + Offering + Black Belt + Paladin Shield + anything else = Mwa ha ha.

Mog: The only worthwhile dances after a while are Wind Song, Snowman Jazz and Water Rondo. Don't bother with the other ones.

Gogo: Let him be able to use Blitzes, Tools and Magic, then turn him loose. He may not be as powerful as a Sabin or a Terra, but a Bum Rush is still a Bum Rush.

Umaro: Give him a Gauntlet and a Rage Ring. Let everything else come as it may.

If you know what to use, you can make Shadow's Evade rate go upwards of 80%. I know because I've done it, and it's beautiful. Use Espers to up Relm's already-ridiculously-high magic power and let her learn Ultima, and you don't need to worry about anything else.

i90east
09-14-2003, 08:29 AM
So in other words, these characters don't get good until late game. It's nice to have characters that are great from beginning to end. Sure anyone can be trained up to be strong late in the game, while slapping on a bunch of add-ons. It seems like whenever I use these characters, the game suddenly gets a lot harder. Oh well.

High evade is fun. In my old game Gau has 81% evade and 78% magic evade. Even when he does get hit, he only takes 1 HP damage most of the time. :laugh:

MagicKnight Locke
09-14-2003, 09:17 AM
Celes can runic all magic...including ultima i think,he is useful in most fights,if not all.
Locke is a cool fast strong character,whadow aint even close.
Setzer is a imp but not useless,give him a fixed dice :cool:
U were right about strago,he is pathetic
Mog:cool with his good atk power,hit points n' dances
Gogo is real cool.He can do it all!!!And he always has all of the magics ur party has
Umaro is good in coliseum...

Strider
09-14-2003, 05:04 PM
Get Mog a Snow Muffler and he'll be a tank. It really depends on how you use 'em. I don't use Dance all of the time, and I really only use Setzer's Slots until I pick up the Fixed Dice. Just make sure Relm ups her magic power every time she's close to leveling up, and she'll be a lot more useful earlier in the game. Strago. . . well, just don't use Strago until you get Grand Train. You can make Gogo do whatever you want as soon as you get him, just go to the Status screen and insert some stuff for him to do.

m4tt
09-14-2003, 07:05 PM
Originally posted by arcdragon9
Ok I just started using Strago, but I have looked at his abilities. And his stats. Thgey can be inproved. And yes his Lores can be used by Gua for free, but u can never be sure what Gua will use. Strago has evry kind of elemental attack in his Lores, and with the proper relics and equipment he can do a lot of damge of healing with minimal m.p. use. Not to mention he can use air and earth attacks that only hit the enemy. And they look cool.

GAU thankyouverymuch.

Strago has never been very impressive to me, I hardly ever use him. Locke has always been good for me, I like to steal things, so he works perfectly into my party. Celes is good to use. I don't use her as often as I use Terra, but I do use her a lot. Setzer with the Fixed Dice can be a lot of fun. Slot is also a neat ability. Mog is someone I don't use very often. His dances are good, but they fail a lot.

i90east
09-14-2003, 08:22 PM
There is something that I found impressive about Locke. In the burning house, I gave Locke a Genji Glove and 2 Hawk Eyes. It's VERY cool when he throws both of them, and it does a great deal of damage on one enemy unit. Now, are there other weapons in the game that have a super attack of which Locke can use? From my understanding, Locke throws the Hawk Eye on a percentage basis. It seems like he throws it more often at airborne creatures, but that could just be my imagination. I'm just wondering if Locke could have such a good fight command attack that would warrant his use just for that. He needs that to make up for his dismal steal command, along with his low magic power.

A very powerful fight command combined with a rediculous speed statistic would be a great thing.

m4tt
09-15-2003, 05:15 PM
Any of those "special" weapons that Locke can use from the back row can be thrown at random. Full Moon, Hawk Eye, Rising Sun, Sniper, and Wing Edge. I'm not sure if he can do that with the Boomerang, I've never seen it happen. But other than that, it's pretty neat. <3 Locke

MagicKnight Locke
09-16-2003, 01:18 PM
Originally posted by i90east
There is something that I found impressive about Locke. In the burning house, I gave Locke a Genji Glove and 2 Hawk Eyes. It's VERY cool when he throws both of them, and it does a great deal of damage on one enemy unit. Now, are there other weapons in the game that have a super attack of which Locke can use? From my understanding, Locke throws the Hawk Eye on a percentage basis. It seems like he throws it more often at airborne creatures, but that could just be my imagination. I'm just wondering if Locke could have such a good fight command attack that would warrant his use just for that. He needs that to make up for his dismal steal command, along with his low magic power.

A very powerful fight command combined with a rediculous speed statistic would be a great thing.

pump his hp up and give him an atma weapon and illumina,with genji glove and offering and laugh at the monsters while they die like sheep <_<

i90east
09-16-2003, 09:18 PM
pump his hp up and give him an atma weapon and illumina,with genji glove and offering and laugh at the monsters while they die like sheep

You can do that with almost any character.

Kenshin IV
09-16-2003, 10:24 PM
Except minus the "almost."

m4tt
09-16-2003, 10:48 PM
No, you can only do it with Terra, Locke, Celes or Edgar. They are the only four who can equip the Atma Weapon and/or the Illumina

i90east
09-16-2003, 11:57 PM
I stand corrected. Thanks :cool:

What I was thinking is, most can do the genji glove + offering combo.

MagicKnight Locke
09-17-2003, 04:33 PM
Originally posted by i90east
I stand corrected. Thanks :cool:

What I was thinking is, most can do the genji glove + offering combo.
yeah but locke loks cool :cool:

m4tt
09-17-2003, 04:49 PM
Originally posted by i90east
I stand corrected. Thanks :cool:

What I was thinking is, most can do the genji glove + offering combo.

Well yeah, everyone can do the genji glove + offering combo. Except Umaro. But only those four with the Atma Weapon and Illumina.

i90east
09-18-2003, 07:41 AM
yeah but locke loks cool :cool:

Yes I suppose so. It is more fun using the cool looking characters.


Well yeah, everyone can do the genji glove + offering combo. Except Umaro. But only those four with the Atma Weapon and Illumina.

I don't think Gau can benefit from the Offering+Genji Glove combo. If he can, that's news to me :)

m4tt
09-18-2003, 01:24 PM
D'oh, Gau too.. *crawls into a hole*

Emperor Grahf
09-19-2003, 02:06 PM
Thres actualy a relic that you can get at the colloseum which allows you to equip 'nything on 'nyone forgot how to get it and which monster you must fight though...and no i'm not lying its really true. Just chk out gamefaqs if you don't believe me. And i90east,thats an interesting project ya've got in your signature,your doing it on a rom I suppose ? any ideas when it will be completed to 100% ? i'm looking forward to test that mighty babe,not to mention the so famous ''Czar'' dragon,which theoricly din't exist in the original game.

The Man
09-19-2003, 07:13 PM
yeah, it's the Merit Award, but if you use that you can't use Genji+Offering 'cause only two relic slots.

I generally can't be arsed using the Merit Award on anyone except Gau, who becomes about twice as powerful because of it.

i90east
09-20-2003, 03:08 AM
And i90east,thats an interesting project ya've got in your signature,your doing it on a rom I suppose ? any ideas when it will be completed to 100% ? i'm looking forward to test that mighty babe,not to mention the so famous ''Czar'' dragon,which theoricly din't exist in the original game.

Yes I am editing the rom. I'm actually playing through the game so that I can fine tune the bosses. Despite the 20% HP and attack power boost done to all monsters, most bosses still too weak. So right now I just got Edgar in the WoR, and I'll be getting Setzer and the airship next. It may be 2 more weeks. I'll work on it as fast as I can so I won't keep you guys waiting too long. Interestingly, the Czar Dragon does exist in the rom, even though it wasn't put into the game.