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To those who have played the International Zodiac Job System version of this game, what jobs did you choose for your characters? Which do you personally recommend?
I'm playing for the first time and so far I'm still in the very beginning, so the only two characters I have so far are Vaan and Penelo. I made Vaan a Monk and Penelo a Uhlan.
Oh this is gonna be fun. First time around I went with Archer, Uhlan, Black Mage, Knight, Breaker, White Mage for Vaan,...,Penelo respectively. During my Weak Mode run I used five of the other remaining six plus a White Mage, and during my Strong Mode run I just wildly mixed and matches those 11 I'd already tried, leaving the Time Mage as the only job I never used.
I'll just preface this by mentioning that your job choice is really not something you need to overthink. However the jobs may look on paper, actually using them for yourself is a different story. Just try whatever you feel like, and maybe if you do another playthrough sometime switch it up. There's no real way to screw yourself over as long as you cover the three bases of physical damage, magical damage and healing.
With that being said, I do have opinions to give regarding the usefulness of each particular job.
I really like the Knight if mainly for the greatswords, but he can also cast Curaja and Faith which is useful sometimes. Plus in lategame the Excalibur is a stupidly good weapon against enemies weak against holy, which is pretty much everything in the toughest optional dungeons. Aaand I just love the Tournesol :love:
The main argument against it is that the Uhlan does basically the same thing, being a great damage dealer with a holy weapon, but the Knight has support abilities and can equip shields while the Uhlan is faster (I think), ever so slightly stronger and can also attack flying enemies. Doesn't mean you can't just pick both, though :D
The White Mage is the one job I would never go without. It's just such a basic job that's always incredibly useful to have. Like come on, what more needs to be said. If you REALLY want to go without one, consider using Monk/Red Mage/Time Mage to fill the void.
The Black Mage is all sorts of awesome. Unlike the Red Mage he gets the elemental staves which power up your elemental spells by 50%, and he doesn't need an esper to get access to the ga spells either. He's just amazing at nuking groups of enemies like it's nothing, and since you can get the "weak to [element]" gambits right off the bat in this version, he never misses an opportunity to hit for massive damage. The Red Mage may be more versatile, but I prefer the Black Mage for his sheer power. Plus, Scathe one-shots the Abysteel farming spot in the Henne Mines if you set yourself up properly which is a nice bonus.
I've grown less appreciative of the Breaker over time. The defensive breaks are good, but the offensive breaks (especially Wither) completely ruin the game's challenge so I never ended up using them anyways. He's still a pretty good tank and you can get his ultimate weapon the Scorpion Tail really early on giving him an amazing power spike, but he falls off eventually due to his unreliable damage.
The Archer is quite fun. Using hit & run with a party leader Archer you can kill a lot of enemies without taking a single point of damage. He also has a wonderful power spike with the Burning Bow + Fire Arrows against any and all enemies vulnerable to Oil. God that was hilarious. He also gets a lot of item licenses which make him a good backup if your healers run out of MP, or if you want to use the good old Nihopalaoa + Remedy trick. Did you know that 3 Phoenix Lores + Pheasant Netsuke accessory = 100% HP recovery with Phoenix Downs? Similarly to the Breaker though, he eventually just doesn't keep up with the good damage dealers anymore.
Speaking of which, the Samurai is the third basic physical damage dealer next to Knight and Uhlan. He has the highest effective damage thanks to his katanas' combo rate. Also since he gets a lot of Magic, I recommend making one of the female characters your Samurai since they have the Cure spell innately which turns out to be quite potent since it's now AoE. I prefer the Knight and Uhlan but I can't deny the Samurai is a force to be reckoned with.
The Machinist is fun if you like using guns. I sure do. While he's not gonna be one of your strongest attackers unless you're playing Weak Mode he's never too far off either, and he's good against flying opponents too. He actually gets a pretty decent endgame weapon, the Aldebaran Y, if you can be bothered to gather the materials. Plus I believe it's Famfrit who unlocks some of the best Time Magic spells (including Hastega) for him, more or less relieving the need for a Time Mage in the endgame. Pretty nifty.
Not sure what to think of the Hunter since he probably shines in a regular game more than anything. Daggers are neat and if you want to use Ninja Blades, especially the Yagyu Darkblade, he's your man. Main Gauche is as great as always for tanking purposes. He also gets the Protectga/Shellga spells with an esper unlock. Oh and if you're insane enough to go for the Danjuro, it's been replaced with the Hunter's Blade F in this version which has a 70% chance to instantly kill enemies upon attacking. Supposedly great, but I never farmed it.
As for the Red Mage, he's a jack-of-all-trades, master of none. Gets some decent Black Magic, White Magic, a few greatswords, etc. Not my kind of job, but that's just my preference. He's the only job that actually gets Dark magicks, so that's worth considering I guess. Keep in mind that you need an esper to unlock the elemental ga spells for him, which if you want him to function as a Black Mage replacement is something you probably want.
And you already picked him, but the Monk is ridiculously good. With all the HP+ licenses and Light Armor he ends up at about 9000 HP even without Bubble, he gets access to Wither and Expose and all sorts of White Magicks with Espers INCLUDING smurfING RENEW if you give him Zodiark, which is always a full heal even with his low Magic stat. His poles go against Magic Defense instead of Defense making him a great asset against flans and elementals and the like.
As for the Time Mage, he's probably fun to use in a regular run with Haste and Berserk and status-inflicting regular attacks to use at your leisure, but I never felt the need to involve him and I haven't done a regular game since my first playthrough (had to test out Strong and Weak Mode ^^). Keep in mind he uses Heavy Gear, NOT Mage Gear, so his Magic stat won't end up being all that high. But I can't speak from experience how good he'd actually be.
I started playing this before my computer went into the shop. I had made Vaan a Hunter, as he's fast & tanks well.
I was thinking of making Penelo a Monk, as Monks can get good white magic.Also considering Black or White Mage for her, if I make Vaan a Monk.
Ashe would be my Samurai, Balthier my Mechanic & Fran a Red Mage.
I heard Basch is the best Archer, but I usually like using him as a tank.
I just started playing this like yesterday, so good timing on the thread!
I've only got Vaan so far, he's a Hunter, though I considered Samurai as well. Fran and Penelo are going to be an Uhlan and Monk, though I don't know which is which yet. :p Ashe will probably be a Mechanic, Basch a Knight maybe? And Balthier is gonna be my mage but which KIND of mage remains up in the air, and Basch might also become one if I find I need more magic.
Balthier actually might make a good Monk. In the standard version, I tend to give him Poles (the weapon, not Fynn) as his melee weapon.
In that case, I might make Fran my Hunter, as I like to give her Ninja Swords.
What's up with people suddenly picking this up? :onoes: Now I wanna play it too!
And I go by Polack, CA ;)
I am so indecisive in most things, so choosing a permanent job class for my six characters is going to really annoy me. I'll just be staring at the job selection screen for ages pondering over the merits between making Vaan a Uhlan or a Hunter, or maybe a Red Mage? Gah, choices!
So wait, maybe this will help quench my thirst for this game.
So I'd make Ashe a Knight.
Penelo would be my White Mage.
Hmm...
Basch as... Samurai, I wanna say? Thinking of Breaker as well, but the unreliable damage of the axe just doesn't seem to fit. And then there's the Uhlan, which I need to fit somewhere, since it's based on a Polish military unit, so obvs. Yeah, let's go with Uhlan.
Fran's a hard one. I'm thinking either Black Mage, Hunter, Archer, or Uhlan. I don't think Balthier or Vaan would fit the mage role, though, so I'd pick Black Mage.
Vaan... Monk or Hunter? Let's go with Hunter, because knives, but I'm probably the most hesitant about this.
Balthier would be a Machinist, I think. Can't really see him with anything other than guns.
Dang, now I just want to play this even more :(
Let's see...
Vaan - Hunter
Penelo - White Mage
Balthier - Machinist
Fran - This is a hard one between Black Mage and Archer. I guess Black Mage
Basch - Uhlan
Ashe - Red Mage
Thought this was a Japanese release. Did someone actually patch a PS2 game?