Sorry I haven't updated in awhile. Haven't had the chance to do much. I also apparently forgot to save after finishing Oaka's quest, and then proceeded to spent the loot I had for it to buy a bunch of accessories. So I'll have to do that all over again next chapter. I finished Clasko's mission, got my first game overs, and finally unlocked the Alchemist class. I've also learned I should have been doing more for the PR campaign so I'm hoping I didn't screw myself for that one. While I can agree 100% shouldn't be easy, I just wish it wasn't so damn tedious in this game.

I did promise some more Dressphere observations:

Black Mage - Not a bad class if a bit bare bones for my taste. They have the same issue as Warrior and just lack any "oomph" to their magic, but unlike Warrior, they have some built in ways to get round that besides accessories. It's nice the class has Focus and MP Absorb as easy to gain skills. It's a shame that Focus is almost a requirement to make their spells viable before you get Soul of Thamasa. The class is a bit of a glass cannon though. I'm a little disappointed by the magic selection as well. Black Mage has always been a bit more for me than just the trio elemental spells. Overall, not a bad class but a little disappointing.

White Mage - A useful class for sure, but largely because most classes so far are on the flimsy, low-HP side of things. It's nice to have a class that can keep topped off. Cure is useless though due to Pray. The higher spells are a bit more useful but like Black Mage, the class has oomph issue that needs some heavy customization to boost. I do appreciate that Protect, Shell, and Reflect are team cast spells. So this class is great in a pinch. I think my biggest issue is that the class is strangely more fragile than usual for healers in the series. My only other issue is the classes total lack of offensive capabilities without an accessory or Garment Grid hooplah. They are a pure support class which is only annoying due to having a party of three.

Gun Mage - As usual for the Blue Mage class, this one is stronger than it looks. Scan is useless and it's upgrades are worse but the FFV veteran in me is used to this. Fiend Hunter bullets do what I wishes Warriors elemental swords would do in terms of damage. The only the real issue is that the Fiend Bullets only cover about maybe 2/3rds of the monster classes and the most obnoxious fall into that last third. I'm still early with Blue Bullets, but the spells election is already looking stronger than Kimarhi's efforts even if there is some overlap. The only issue is that the spells tend to have a higher cost than I feel they deserve. The other issue is that the game has no effective means to get an enemy to use their ability. I'm annoyed White Wind has been available since Chapter 1, but I can't get an enemy to use it on my Blue Mage because I don't have access to Confusion (which is why Black Mage should have had a better spell selection) and there is no Control ability in this game. Throw in the fact this game has a few more "once and they're gone" spells and this becomes a bit of a nightmare for completionist. Even more annoying, each character has to be hit with a spell to learn it which makes this a mixed bag for me. I appreciate the real offense with the class, but it has some annoying issues with its main function.

Alchemist - Just got this but I can already see where this is going. This biggest issue with the class it it's ridiculous AP cost, but that's balanced by how broken this class can be in practice. Mix is as powerful as it was in FFX so no complaints there. The real brokenness comes from Stash, which allows the Alchemist to use any of it's per-designated item skills for free which included Phoenix Downs and Elixirs. Granted the take more time to use than a normal item but a free item is still a good use and FFX has some overpowered items. Even the free Potion one is useful at this point in time and that's even before we talk about how the support skills increase item potency and boost the speed of using regular items. The guns they use also make them decent fighters as well and the class is surprisingly more solid defensively than is usual for the Chemist class. Overall, a better class than people give it credit for.