I forgot to mention Ceodore's other strength which is the sheer versatility of his Bands. He may have more Bands than any other character in the game and he also gets one with everyone in the game except FuSoYa. This means he's a pretty welcome addition to any party and so far, most of his Bands are really good.Originally Posted by Evastio
My Beef with Edge is more of a survivability issue, and with Jump, Kain does 2x damage (not counting exploiting elemental weakness) so he makes up for being gone a round but this is mostly nit picky preference stuff and personal taste so to each their own.
The Tellah/FuSoYa reference is simply just acknowledging she can use both White and Black magic similar to both, statistically, she's a different beast all together, heavy in spirit and MP, low in INT. She is a white mage first and foremost and her Black magic is a bit sub-par and very slow to grow. Beyond that, she is fine to switch out with Porom and Rosa as a healer, but I would check on Bands at that point, cause I always felt Rosa had much better Bands than Leonora with more core characters. Yet, this is a preference thing. If you plan on using the Twins, Leonora is a perfect companion cause she gets several good Bands with both of them. Her usefulness will ultimately be based on who you plan to use for your final party.Anyways, I kind of went off on a bit of a tangent there. Though with Leonora, her White Magic is still to par (or close enough to it) with Rosa's and Porom's right? I mean, I get your point about not needing her if you already have Rosa or Porom on your team, but isn't Leonora able to replace Rosa and Porom without much difficulty, seeing how she learns every white magic spell except for Hold? Or is her Spirit too low to have her be a main healer? Also, when you said she was like Tellah or FuSoYa, in what way is she like them? Are her stat growths really bad or does her MP start and always remain low? How is her MP compared to other mages?
From what I've noticed, she doesn't hit as hard as he does, nor does she get as good of HP growth. Her speed might be better but that could also be my imagination. Choosing Yang over her will come down to how useful you feel their skills are and their Bands (unless you plan on using both, then have funny kicking ass... literallyRegarding Ursula and Luca, what are their disadvantages compared to Yang and Cid? You said Ursula was like a mini-Yang, so does that mean that her attack power is lower than Yang's? Also, what advantages does Cid have over Lu... wait. Never mind that question. You only get to use Cid for a long enough time in the final tale. I guess I'll save that question for later.). In honesty its a toss up for me. Kick has been powered down from the DS version but is still a mean ability if a bit slow. Chakra as a I mention is a fairly good healing skill that cost nothing and has a quick cast time and even heals a few status ailments, Tenketsu is a potentially powerful move and as I said, once its learned it should be her default move unless speed is a priority. Yang gets to keep focus which is pretty brutal when used right and get counter guard which is like Cecil's cover except Yang will counterattack if he guards his target, this move is pretty useful but Yang sadly doesn't seem to have the auto-form of it so don't expect him to protect near death allies like Cecil would. As I said, it comes down to preference. Yang has superior stats but I haven't really leveled Ursala completely so there is a chance she'll jump up to be equal with Yang.
The big difference between both is in Bands, Yang gets most of his with his daughter and the classic cast where as Ursala is the opposite, getting most with her father and the new characters and kid characters. So this will be based off party choices.
As for Luca... It is really hard to tell cause I only played her in Rydia's story and frankly, I feel like Rydia was played with kiddy gloves in terms of powerful enemies. In Kain's chapter where I'm using Cid, I'm up against some tough and powerful enemies who can quickly decimate my party. So Cid definetly feels weaker than Luca but I have no idea how she would have fared against the stuff I'm up against in Kain's chapter or the starting chapter where he's also playable. She could easily be just as flimsy. Skill wise, I like Luca better and so far I like her Bands better as well.
I wasn't impressed with them tbh, Gekkou is definetly the brute force of the team with his axes and his ability to throw stars and use fire ninjutsu, he's probably my second favorite. His big downfall is that despite being a good front line fighter in terms of attack power, he doesn't have terribly high HP and defense from what I played of him. He can take a hit better than the other members of the team, but that is really not saying much since breathing heavy would KO most of them. The defense deal is a big issue, I literally had to place all of them in the back row as soon as I could control them and when I had them all in a team with Edge, I was doing some heavy reviving. Maybe once they get some serious levels, they will improve but that might be an issue since they have issues getting through a fight alive.And do you think you could elaborate more on the Eblan Four in terms of who's the most and who's the least useful? I read quite a bit about them on the FF Wiki, but I'm kind of wanting some input based on personal experience. I know Gekkou has stats like Cid's/Luca's, Zangetsu has stats like Kain's, Izayoi has white mage like stats, and Tsukinowa is like a weaker but faster Edge. But in what order would you put the Eblan Four from most to least useful?
Izayoi is... quite frankly she's pretty awful, she's a sub-par healer, her ninjutsu is strong but she focuses on defense and healing and you have white mages better suited for it. She's also pretty weak even in the party, she's the weakest link. Her special ability Illusion is next to worthless
Zangetsu has the Kain deal going for him, but he doesn't have Kain's power and durability. As you mention, Kain can take a hit on the field, Zangetsu really can't. He needs his Flying Kite move to stay alive. His Lighting Ninjutsu is pretty good though.
Tsukinowa is probably the most frail of the lot in terms of defense but oddly enough he's my favorite. He's fast, he has pretty good attack power since he's the only member that can Duel Wield, Boomerangs allow him to attack from the backrow. His Wind Ninjutsu is okay but, his real strength comes from getting abilites like Image which help to keep him alive and not bleeding through MP and items to stay alive, and it allows him to fight in the front row since his high speed means he'll most likely attack first.
The other issue with the group is that their Bands are pretty small and selective. The bulk of them are with each other and with Edge; they each get maybe two Bands that coorelates with their personal story paths Gekkou (Yang and Ursala) Iyazoi (Leonora and Palom) Zangetsu (Luca) and Tsukinowa (Porom) but the are really limited if you intend on using old standbys like Cecil, Rosa, or Rydia. I kind of feel like the Eblan Four doesn't work well separate, their a packaged deal if you wan to get their full potential. If you can get them good gear and raise their levels high enough to actually start evading attacks, you've got a pretty decent team, especially with Edge. They are certainly fun characters and fun to play as but I don't necessarily see long term potential with them, but that's my opinion.
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