Why the Characters you HATE are Awesome!
Black Mage:
Often ridiculed for his low damage attacks, people neglect how unncessary it is to have anything other than a fighter in most fights.
A back row BM is almost never hit anyway, and when the moneymaking green ogres appear on the scene, it's virtually imposssible to beat them without Silver Swords (Which imply already having beaten them) without your blasts of Ice and Fire. Fire2 is extroardinary, and the spells burn up all the undead in the Marsh-Ice Caves.
What about fighting? Well, a lv. 11 BM with a Silver Knife (Dwarf Cave) averages higher damage than a WM, half of a Thief. If you play low damage Fighters, the BM becomes the assist that finishes off monsters in combat. Don't believe me? Try it. Thif or WM + BM = Termination.
And if the BM can be a solvent to prevent you from hetting hit with another green ogre's clob or Blizzard by that Frost Dragon one more time, then he's as good as any fighter who otherwise would have done 400 damage to a 36hp monster.
My experience, of course.
Plus, I LIKE NUKE.
Thief:
Aside from the fact that Thief can be a last resort runner in desperate situations (9 geists anybody? BM stunned! WM stunned! Fighter Can't run! Thief gets us away! Yay!)
Thief also has cool hair, and I enjoy his appearance otherwise. Of course, the charisma of the Thief was lost in modern versions, butit doesn't matter because his attack skyrocketed in DoS.
I'll admit that Thief isn't too much help in the early game when you're fighting really weak monsters- But neither is the BB or the WM or the BM or, really, because of low strength and hit rate, the RM- Let's be logical folks.
Just because the Thief isn't as powerful a fighter as a Fighter, doesn't mean he sucks. It means he isn't a fighter. He's a runner. He's a Ninja Spell Caster. He's a good looking dude who wields cool looking swords like the Katana and the Rune Sword. He's fitted to ememental armors to make a perfect assist character who doesn't much need a ribbon, providing dual heal helmet/heal staff healing speed in the end game.
Anybody who cries about a Thief is a crybaby in my opinion. And crybabies, basically, are unreliable from the start.
White Mage:
Oh, right. That the hammer hits as well as a rapier on a fighter in the beginning sucks.
That Cure and Harm, man. I mean, there are NO Undead Monsters ANYWHERE until you reach the ToF. I mean- HARM doesn't Harm Imps! What good is it? /Sarcasm
WM is probably the second best character in the game. I'll admit that her damage fails after the Pirates, sure, but Cure is invaluable. Harm2 when the black mage is down is often the difference between life, death, and/or loads of wasted time against Shadows, Geists, and ZombieBulls/Dragons etc.
A-Ice and Harm3 against Lich is nearly priceless. Pure when you need it. Cure, Cure2, ure3, and CUR4!
Thor's Hammer. Soft. INVS2. The list goes on. White Magic is far better than black magic, and it lasts until the late game. OMG Life2!
OMG FADE!!! Friggin' as powerful as Nuke!
You want to complain about the bane of the undead, the life of your soldiers when an enemy gets a crit or casts a spell, and the force of an electrified hammer? Play FFVI. This was made for game players, not 5 year olds who want to do 10 million damage.
Red Mage:
Fire, Cure, Silver.
Best of Fighter, BM, WM all wrapped up in one.
Who cares that the RM wanes in strength as the game goes on. As long as you have the cash to support a RM, he'll be your main support throughout the entire game.
It isn't an excuse to rule out major mages, but it is an excuse to kick off a slot where a black mage woulf be for F/F/WM/RM instead of F/T/WM/BM
We're fighting a battle of tastes, I guess.
But style all inclusive, this dude's feather "works."
Black Belt:
Black Belt does high damage when you get to levels higher than necessary.
He's a totally retarded character, redundant to the fighter.
Some say that the BB is good because he doesn't cost anything, but in the time it takes to get a BB to fighting potential, you'll naturally have acquired enough gold to support a Fighter that has the same or better offense with exponentially better defense.
Ultimately, a BB is a catch-22, but if you think that it's a pretty sprite (HAHAHA) or that it's worth it to level grind for fewer rewards, then this guy is pretty damn cool.
If you think you hate Fighter:
Fighter's do the most damage. Complaining about the Silver Sword is irrelevant because levelling up other characters would cause you to acquire over 4000G.
After that, the equipment is basically ALL free, unlike the 60k spells. BB is irrelevant before it's important.
Defense? Fighter has magic resistant armor before ribbons. Iron Armor to Steel to Opal keeps his Highest HP in the game dropping by 1 per hit.
Just in case some freakish event causes the Fighter to become a killable character, which is an event that leans toward impossibility, his White Magic gained through Knighthood enables him to HEAL himself after 600 battles.
A WM can do that, but he/she needs to after 6 battles.
100 times more durable, striking like a nuke for all those fights (instead of 9, tops, and usually 2-4), and healing himself when times get slightly tough: The Fighter does NOT suck.
