My final team in the GBA version always consisted of Cecil, one duo consisting of Rosa and Rydia or Palom and Porom, and two of Cid, Yang, Edward, Kain, and Edge (depending on the trials I want to do in the Lunar Ruins and the lowest levelled characters).

Though my personal favourite team effectiveness-wise is definitely the original final team (even if I'm not fond of Kain and I find Rydia overrated), since it's very balanced.I find Rosa and Rydia more effective than Palom and Porom (Rosa has better attack than Porom and has free healing through Prayer/Miracle, Rydia has Black Magic and Summons, which are more effective against multiple enemies or enemies with reflect). Cecil and Kain have good HP, physical, and magical defense, and are some of the strongest physical fighters (though Edge's physical attack beats Kain's pre-Lunar Ruins, which plays a significant role in random encounters during that period). Yang and Cid have major problems with their magic defense (and Yang's physical defense is rather poor for a physical fighter) and Edward's HP is too low for him to tank hits. Edge, I find to be much better than you guys give him credit for. I use Edge's steal/plunder command for free items (with some of them being quite good, Like Artemis Arrows and X-Potions), and his Ninjutsu can deal with flans quite easily so Rydia/Palom can conserve her/his MP. Also, his high speed and his Smoke spell makes running away from annoying battles (Magic Dragons anyone?) easy and cheap, since running away with Smoke never makes you lose money.

The one character I like using the most besides the original five is actually Edward, since his Chant command comes in really useful for bosses or strong enemies (casting Protect and Shell on everyone) and his Harp does 9999 damage against dragons, which is insanely useful against Brachioraidos.

But if you want to know what team I'd use based on favourites (while still being functional yet unbalanced), it'd be Cecil, Cid, Edge, Edward, and Rosa.
Quote Originally Posted by VeloZer0 View Post
I loved the way the game killed of it's characters. It really helped get away from the 'Saturday Morning Cartoon' mentality where you never actually think of anyone as being in any real danger.
Uh... I thought that you didn't like the FFIV deaths since you felt that them coming back at the end made them feel less meaningful.

Though personally, I found it epic, especially since they all came back (except Tellah, who's understandable since the story kept foreshadowing his death) at full strength to help Cecil and his allies fight off the Giant of Babil. That part really helped emphasize the theme of redemption that FFIV has (seeing how Cecil's fallen allies redeem themselves by stepping back in and joining the fight). It also shows just how many allies Cecil has made from different nations, and how the whole world (practically) has joined his cause to fight against Golbez, who he was formerly (yet unknowingly) serving in the past back when he fulfilled King Baron's dark wishes.