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Not since FFIV have the characters in a Final Fantasy game been so distinct. I personally loved it since it defined them in such a unique way.
Defining a character only by their job class/abilities, which did you find most useful in this game? Vote for up to 4, the top four will face off in a mini-tournament later.
If you keep Amarant updated with the latest weapons and such, I find him to be remarkably useful. Granted, the same could be said for most characters depending on how you use them, but I've always found Amarant to be a great addition to any party.
I play this game as a damage dealer. My party usually consistes of Zidane, Steiner, Freya and Amarant. All deal 9999 on every attack. Two can heal the party. I never need anything more than what a monk and Dragoon can supply because my party never takes that much damage. :smug:
oh man I voted before i submitted my post. Well it was too long for me to redo it so I'll just sum up and say I found Quina, Garnet, Freya, and Vivi most distinguishable by their job class and abilities with Zidane, Steiner, and Amarant taking the rear.
I'm going with Vivi, Steiner, Freya, and Amarant.
Dagger has to be the worst summoner in the series and she's a terrible White Mage. Eiko is a better white mage and her summons are more useful but she quickly gets made obsolete due to the customization system and Quina.
Zidane bugs me... He sufferes from Locke syndrome where he's obviously a specific class but the Gaming gods have decided he needs to have main character status which throws the conventions of his class out the window. Now how is my thief capable of out damaging my Knight and Dragoon with a knife again? Ignoring that minor gripe, I actually don't really use Zidane as a damage dealer cause he's too busy stealing for me. Even with a maxed out Thievery and one of the most broken Trances, they get in the way more than help cause I need those precious items for my collection dammit! :mad2:
Quina is awesome and she's one of my fave classes but she's still not as overwhelmingly overpowered or useful as my Blue Mages from FFV-VII. Not to mention they nerfed White Wind and Mighty Guard in this game. She's awesome but my four choices are just a tad bit more useful for me. Though it was a tough choice between her and Amarant.
Zidane, Vivi, Steiner, Freya.
Can I ask why? I don't remember much about her, other than the fact that she doesn't get Holy and one other white magic spell that's escaping my memory at the moment.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno
For the record I voted: Zidane, Quina, Eiko, Aramant.
Zidane for Steal (essential for an item collector like myself) and with his best weapon his attack is up there. I never really bothered powering up Thievery. His Trance is also pretty good.
Quina is versatile and has the easiest to power up 9999 attack (Frog Drop). He/she also comes with a variety of other useful spells like Auto-Life and Angel Snack which makes him/her easily the most useful character in the game.
Eiko is by far the better summoner/white mage combo. She is more white mage than summoner, but her limited amount of summons just as good if not better than Garnet's.
Aramant has a nice variety of abilities in his Flair set, including buffs, cures, and damage. I never use throw but that's not what makes him great.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KhalinZidane, Vivi, Steiner, Freya.
Can I ask why? I don't remember much about her, other than the fact that she doesn't get Holy and one other white magic spell that's escaping my memory at the moment.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno
Eiko gets a better selection of White Magic (the majority of Dagger's are single target single status heals) such as Holy, Esuna, Might, and Full Life. She also has better spirit stat so she heals better.
Garnet has the big FF summons but she doesn't get access to all but one of them until the start of the third disc which is when she gets inflicted with her story based ordeal that makes her completely useless. So in essense you won't actually see Ifrit or Shiva until halfway through the third disc where they are useless on arrival. You could always power level her in the beginning but that's tedious.
Eiko at least has useful summons cause they can cast useful buff spells on your party and their effectiveness isn't really affected by the annoying "full animation" nonsense.
The game is completely built against Garnet. On the other hand though, Dagger is better to look at than Eiko...
Oh man I be forgetting things so easily and IX wasthe last FF I beat yeah I used more abilities with Amarant. I forgot about No Mercy and Chakra. I would notice Eiko's pluses more if the game was more difficult. You can do fine without ever using Might, Esuna, or Full-Life.
The only summon that Eiko has that gives buff is Carbuncle and that's still affected by long animation. Ruby Light on long gives protect and reflect on full and I believe reflect lasts longer as well.
I think yo'ure exaggerating on the part where Garnet loses her voice. She fails inputs on occassion it's not like it's every turn or every other. The third disc starts after Brahne's death right? In that case the first time you're actually going into battles is when you depart to the black mage village and you get the stones then so it's not halfway through the disc when you get them.
The only summon that Eiko has that casts buffs is Carbuncle.
Ah, Esuna. That was the one I was thinking of. I remember after seeing Eiko's selection of spells, there was something that made her more preferable to Garnet, but couldn't remember why aside from Garnet's lack of Holy [for whatever reason I really like Holy, it's always been one of my favourite spells JUST because]. But it's strange that Garnet also lacked Might and Full Life, which I certainly don't remember. I suppose this was done to make Eiko appealing somehow as a character? But I never really cared for her that much, and I wish that she didn't join your party so that Garnet could have all of the abilities that were stolen from her by Eiko. I don't understand the notion of forcing two characters into a party that are both basically the exact same class/same concept/etc. Usually when this is done, the designers attempt to balance them out to give them equality in their pros and cons to balance each other out, which always fails and 80% of the audience ends up preferring one over the other.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wolf KannoQuote:
Originally Posted by KhalinZidane, Vivi, Steiner, Freya.
Can I ask why? I don't remember much about her, other than the fact that she doesn't get Holy and one other white magic spell that's escaping my memory at the moment.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno
Eiko gets a better selection of White Magic (the majority of Dagger's are single target single status heals) such as Holy, Esuna, Might, and Full Life. She also has better spirit stat so she heals better.
I really hate little girls, unless it's the Red Queen.
Doctor Tot give her most of the stones before her coronation at the start of the disc. The voice thing varies but in my recent playthrough she screws up more than I am willing to forgive, almost every other action in my playthrough.
This still doesn't change the fact that Ifrit and Shiva don't become regular summons until Disc three and you are almost a dungeon away from the Octogon Rod that makes Vivi get -aga spells that put these summons to shame especially since her summons need Boost in order to work fairly often. You are also getting much better equipment for Amarant, Freya, and Steiner who all can consistently out damage Dagger.
Eiko's Carbuncle is the only one that does (which create four major affects like all party haste or protect) it but seeing as how she also gets Phoenix and it occasionally activates when the enemy kills your whole party, whereas Dagger gets some powerful summons that seriously need special abilites to keep them in league with the rest of your team. Vivi is just a way better alternative to causing consistent elemental/non-elemental damage. Eiko also has a better tTrance that is immediately useful while Dagger's basically makes her do what you wish she could do normally and its special feature is lost since most battles don't last very long by the time she gains variety in her summons.
Zidane, Eiko, Vivi, and Steiner for me.
I love the thief class, especially in IX. You can keep stealing after you grab an item, so you don't have to reset if you grab the common item.
Eiko, has been pretty much covered. Better spells and her Trance is mean. Dual Cast Holy is just well mean. And I have no idea what people mean when they say Garnet is better to look at. Well I do, but I find Garnet ugly and with a big head.
Vivi, adorable little bad ass. Pewpewpewkapew!
Steiner by him self is pretty decent. But combo'd with Vivi and Doomsday Sword he's the best.
I thought that only activates if you have guardian mog on. Not entriely sure though. Phoenix was a good saver.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno
Vivi. It almost goes without saying from me. http://www.thegamersalliance.net/for...ilies/pimp.gif
It's been a while, and I actually voted for just Vivi before I noticed the "vote for four" part of the OP, but the others I would've voted for would be Zidane, Steiner, and Freya.
Its based on how many Phoenix Pinions you have in your inventory from what I've heard. At 99 PP, the formula is suppose to give you like a 40% chance of Phoenix resurrecting your party when Eiko dies.Quote:
Originally Posted by Depression Moon
The odd thing is, I checked up on Gamefaqs to see what the ability Guardian Mog does and no one seems to know, most of the faqs that list it basically list what the game says which is very vague. One faq theorized that it might lower the encounter rate but wasn't sure. How interesting...
I always assumed it would give Eiko a one time revive, like Auto-Life. But I never use her so I've never found out.
EDIT: Wait, got it. It removes all status ailments except KO after battle.
I voted for Zidane, Eiko, Freya, and Aramant.
Zidane yes steal is cool and I have to steal every item. Even when I'm playing 2 players I request Zidane so I can make sure to steal. He is also a good attack.
Eiko is the better white mage to me. She has the better white magic but I think Dagger has the better summons. The only thing is I don't like her as a character. I only like her as a battle figure. Also I have been a great fan of Phoenix in all the games.
Freya, jump saves me a lot when the boss is more powerful then me. I jump the boss wastes his/her turn and I damage and jump again. Plus her Abilities arn't bad, not the best, but not bad.
Aramant for his no mercy and chakra skills. He has a good attack. The only thing I didn't like was his second to best weapon (the one with a death strike) was to me more useful. Still in trance using Chakra to heal HP and MP to all is uber powerful.
Now for the ones I don't like.
Vivi. Great damage to all foes but like all black mages when out of MP is useless. So I don't like to use him in less I have to. Ethers are too important to me in these games and I would like to spend them on healers weather then a black mage when my warrior will do just fine.
Stiener, the best attacker? Yes, and he does make my final four when I have stuff like auto regen, auto haste, auto life. He is great with Vivi but that is why I don't like him. I'm an Anti-Vivi.
Quina, Eat fails with me. If I'm too powerful I either kill the enemy or she/he fails to eat. Whatever happened to the idea of getting hit by a blue magic to learn it? It was lost in FF8, 9, and 10. I know a lot of people use to request that it was dumb waiting for an enemy to use it, but to have to eat or lancet every enemy if you play without a guide made it hader.
Garnet. The better summoner. She is very close to Eiko in skills but like a lot have done said not as good. I wouldn't have minded either of the two but if they gave eiko her own classes not many would complain.
I don't think he needs Vivi at all. He easily hits 9999 using Shock after not-too-long if I recall correctly. As for Ethers, you can easily make an endless supply of them once you fight that, one guy [forgot his name], and even before then I never ran out of Ethers despite the fact that I constantly spammed magic/etc.Quote:
Originally Posted by sora_lion_heart
Someone break the tie between the White Mage Eiko and the Ninja Aramant!
I...so sad about my loss. :( If I cannot win I want my good friend Eiko to win this. She cooks lots of good stuff for me.
Quina once again saves the day, though I don't know what you guys have against Blue Mages. Quina does it all in this game. :(
Anyway, results:
Thief (Zidane) - 8
Black Mage (Vivi) - 10
Summoner/White Mage (Garnet) - 4
Knight/Sword Mage (Steiner) - 8
Dragoon (Freya) - 6
Blue Mage (Quina) - 4
White Mage/Summoner (Eiko) - 7
Ninja/Monk (Aramant) - 7
Not what I expected! I wonder if people voted for Vivi because he is cute rather than because he is useful. Anyway, on to the final four:
1. Black Mage (Vivi) vs. 4. White Mage/Summoner (Eiko)
2. Thief (Zidane) vs. 3. Knight/Sword Mage (Steiner)
Let's do this.
It was kind of hard to choose between Vivi and Eiko. They both have Dual Cast, but went with Eiko in the end cause she saved me more and Holy was the first thing to hit Max Damage.
Vivi needs the win.
Here are the results from the final four:
1. Black Mage (Vivi) - 6
4. White Mage / Summoner (Eiko) - 4
In the battle of the pint sized, Eiko summoned Carbuncle for reflect effect. Unfortunately she forgot she had a Diamond equipped and it did vanish instead. Not the best status to have when Vivi is powering up a death spell...
2. Thief (Zidane) - 8
3. Knight / Sword Mage (Steiner) - 2
Zidane tried to steal Steiner's armor but missed. Steiner then hit him with a powerful shock attack, sending Zidane into trance mode. Unfortunately for Steiner he didn't have any more mp to use Shock again, so he went for a regular attack. Trance Zidane laughed at this puny attempt and took him out with a few Dyne moves.
Final match:
1. Black Mage (Vivi) vs. 2. Thief (Zidane)
I hate you Del Murder! It's way too hard.
Not for me, Vivi kick that show stealers ass! :D
:vivi:
even though I didnt like Zidane I voted for him b/c thievery was just too good and steal was incredibly useful in this game saving tons of time and money getting gear to teach stuff you couldnt learn till much later sometimes otherwise
Quote:
Originally Posted by qwertysaur
:zidane:
yay :vivi: wins!
Final result! (a little late sorry)
1. Black Mage (Vivi) - 6
2. Thief (Zidane) - 4
Zidane prepared to steal from Vivi, but what could he possibly steal from the black mage? They don't need powerful weapons and armor, as their power comes from within. So all Zidane could do was attack, meanwhile Vivi just kept casting Doomsday over and over, healing himself in the process (he was wearing that accessory that absorbs it, too bad Zidane forgot his). Zidane could not match this power.
Congrats to the Black Mage Vivi for winning this tournament! Vivi will be rewarded with a high seed in the FF Character Tournament.
Hell yes, go black mage! http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2...kmagedance.gif