Black Belt/Master Appreciation Thread

[Cyric]

I'm not sure it's possible to deal 2000 damage...

Level 70 Knight armed with Masume and the rest Diamond Armour, Then use the Giants Gloves as an Item, which cast Saber on him, then cast Haste and Temper on him. that should kick the damage up to around 2000.

That sounds like an awesome amount of effort and wasted time. Level 70? That doesn't exist in the original difficulty of the game. For those unaware, the difference between "Normal Mode" and "Easy Mode" in the Final Fantasy Origins PSX release is that Normal caps off at Level 50, where as Easy goes up to 99. Anyways, my point for necro'ing an almost 1-year old thread is to say this:

A Black Belt/Master can not only do 2000 damage, he can even go as far as to do 4000+ damage, at Level 50. Another thing that I haven't seen while browsing the category is somebody's understanding that for every level the BB/Master gains, his Damage stat goes up by 2. So a Level 50 BB/Master has 100 Damage. I [u]ALWAYS[u] include 1 or 2 BB's with every party I make. The best one so far, has been the Fighter, Black Belt, White Mage, Black Mage combo. The Fighter gives you some damage insurance at the beginning of the game while you wait for your BB to reach Level 10. Here's what my general regimen consists of from beginning to end: (For those too lazy to read it all, just click the link to my video at the bottom to see the results)

1] Choose party. (Fighter, BB, WM, BM)
2] Buy Weapons: Rapier => Fighter, Wooden Nunchucks => BB, Staff => WM, Small Knife => BM.
3] Buy Armor: Chain Armor => Fighter, Wooden Armor => BB, Cloth/Shirt => WM & BM
4] Fight to Level 3 then fight Garland. (Easy)
5] Travel to Pravoka, Levelling to 5 and upgrading magic, weapons and armor as needed before you face the Pirate hoard and head down to Elfland.
6] Fight Ogres east of Elfland to earn the $$$$ to buy (Silver) weapons, armor and magic, and Level to 10. (Fairly time efficient considering the Ogres' payout)
7] Once at Level 10, I remove all weapons from the BB for good because he can do more damage without, and then I head for the Marsh Cave. Slimes are still a pain-in-the-ass to kill but meh. The wizards put up a fight, but go down easy.
8] If I have a House handy, I travel straight to Astos' castle, save right outside, and proceed to hand him his dark-elven butt (RUB does cause problems, but that's why I save it right outside). If no House in inventory, I go back to the Elfland INN to save, and come back. I'm usually at Level 12 or 13 at this point.
9] I go do the other stuff necessary to get me to Melmond, and then to the Earth Cave where I traverse the Hall of Giants and/or fight the Earth(s) guarding the chest in the Northeast room of the first level, until I reach Level 20, and my memory is a bit fuzzy, but I seem to recall being able to afford that 45000G piece of armor for the Fighter as well. (Don't put too much faith in that piece of memory though)
10] Once at Level 20, feel free to do whatever the hell you want because the BB starts to get incredibly powerful very quickly. I personally like to go the Lich, Airship, Class Change, Tiamat, Kraken, Kary path because once you get past Tiamat and the levelling that occurs, everything becomes ridiculously easy.
11] Once you reach the Temple of Fiends (with EXIT and/or WARP in your magicks) stay on the first floor fighting Frost/White Dragons until Level 50. You get 1701EXP per party member for every 4 dragons you kill. You get to Level 50 surprisingly fast.

Lucky for you all, I kept a video of when I had my PlayStation hooked up to a TV-Tuner vid card I had a while ago. This is the Origins release, but it stands the same for the NES original as well. [edit] i just did my own test of the TMPR and SABR spells, and I will confirm that both are useless. FAST however, still does wonders...

Level 44 Master + Giant Gauntlets/Gloves (Sabre/SABR) + Haste (FAST)

[found_myether]

i had a friend who i liked to point out to him cuz i thought he was an obessive compulsive walking in circles for hours on the game killing green giants or whatever...well he later pointed out to me that in the beginning your just gonna have to suck it up until you get to about level 25 when they start doing multiple hits..then they are worth all the trouble...his team was nothing but black belts..i always thought it was
unimaginative to use only one type of character class but he has beaten the game numerous times while i now wanting more then anything to find a vintage copy of ff1 or even an emulator to beat the damn thing......

[Bolivar]

i had a friend who i liked to point out to him cuz i thought he was an obessive compulsive walking in circles for hours on the game killing green giants or whatever...well he later pointed out to me that in the beginning your just gonna have to suck it up until you get to about level 25 when they start doing multiple hits..then they are worth all the trouble...his team was nothing but black belts..i always thought it was
unimaginative to use only one type of character class but he has beaten the game numerous times while i now wanting more then anything to find a vintage copy of ff1 or even an emulator to beat the damn thing......

I use dreamcast to emulate it...same experience as NES except you can speed up the framerate to get the battles going faster...

And yes, the BB is one of my favorite classes.

[Chunk]

Well, recently started playing FF1 again, and my party consists of 2 BB's. Have not played in over 10 years or so, but remembered something about bb's and their fists. So I though what the hey, lets make 2 of them.

Just about to take on the fire fiend (Kary i think).

Cheers!

[Tabris]

I have just finished FF-I for the first time, and must say that my Warrior didn't come close the damage my Master was dealing until he got the Masamune. The Master did between 700-1000 worth of damage when he was at level 31-34, it was amazing.

[Obsidian]

I love using 'dem black belts.

I have (very often) come across people in FF communities who label them as "useless", a "waste of time", or "smelly". That's f'ing redonkulous! When I ask BB haters what makes them so useless, they go on an exaggerated (and mostly ficticious!) rant about various weaknesses that, for the most part, don't even come close to overruling the strengths of a black belt.

I have come to the conclusion that people only hate the BB/Master because they are simply not as intriguing an addition to your party as a Ninja or Knight. They don't cast spells and you can't give them any epic weaponry. Critics just see them as the vanilla amongst other more interesting flavors. But to say they are useless is an utter fabrication.

[Heath]

I don't think I've used a Black Belt in the original NES version which is the incarnation I've heard the most negative things about. I have, however, used one in the GBA version and found it to be really useful. Really consistent attacker, cheap to equip and solidly dependable. I prefer Knights, but none the less, a really great addition to any party that needs some more physical firepower.