Dual wield with Blood Spear as one of the weapons to Lancer for sure, no need for shield when he is in air most of the time and you can even beat CoD in the NES version with that deadly combo, just need a bit luck.
For other classes choose what fits you better, I went with dual wielding myself. I did not need a shield because monsters did not do that much damage to me and I had a White Wizard backing me up.

Above was for the NES version, never played the DS.



Oh yeah... Sage/Ninja is for pussies!