What it really boils down to for me is the fact that, despite what you may think, NUKE/Flare really doesn't do all that great of damage. Not as much as I feel it should do, at any rate. Then we factor in that a BM doesn't do more damage with his spells than a RM (since stats in FF1 do nothing; everything is based on your current Level). THEN, we factor in all the useful White spells a RM can get that a BM cannot: AFIR, AICE, ALIT, any CURE spell, LIFE, EXIT... I'll trade CURE and LIFE and EXIT for a bunch of instant-kill spells that don't work and NUKE any day.

I want to love the Black Mage, I really do. I love the concept of the faceless, Catclaw-weilding magical badass, I do. But in my experience, the Red Mage adds more to the party overall: better battle skill, better HP, better Defense, better spell selection (sans NUKE).

Which is why the best party in the game remains 3 Fighters and either a Red Mage or White Mage. GG Chaos, we're Level 19.