Party of Four

[RedCydranth]

Destai's Party topic made me think to myself, Best party... Hmm, If I could combine all the characters into one pool, and choose a party of 4, who would it be? Here's the limitations:

All characters are in a base format. Just because FFX allows Auron to Hit 99,999 and Cecil only 999 doen't mean Auron and Tidus are 99x better. In the field all max hits are equal.

Just because Auron and FF6 characters can master all white and black magic (and other skills for FFX) doesn't mean characters with set moves and skills are less useful. In this pool, ALL Auron can use are those in his section of the grid, as well as all other FFX characters. FF6 characters have no esper assistance. Sabin is good because of Blitz, Shadow for Throw and Terra and Celes because they have their magic. (Runic and Morph too)

I know it is difficult to lump all of these games into one category, but try. Remember, do not play favorites. You may think Yuna is the hottest FF girl, but if she's in your party explain why. In fact, you should probably explain why all members are in there in the first place.

Remember:
FF2 characters aren't infinitely powered up (over abusive system)
FF5 characters must be ONE CLASS
FF6 characters have no esper assistance
FF7 characters have minimal Materia assistance (please limit abuse on these guys)
FF8 characters are bare bones, no major GF powering
FF9 characters are cool the way they are
FFX characters only have thier grid section learned. Lulu can not cast Life or steal.
FFT Characters must be in their "squire" class. Beowulf must be only a Temple Knight.
FFX-2 can only have one dressphere mastered, like FF5 and Tactics

Sephiroth, Beatrix and other "barely playable" characters are excluded. This includes Josef, Mindu and the other FF2 4th characters (except Lionheart)

Oh, Final Fantasy XI doesn't count.

[rubah]

The first one that springs to mind is Rinoa-- her magic is already naturally high, and her limit breaks are a lot more varied than the other ff8 kids.

Bartz can play too, I think his is probably the highest strength and agility of the ff5 kids, which is useful for the Dancer job class. (stealing mp and hp and using powerful attacks, and not to mention the ability to be immune to statuses)

Hmm, that's one powerful magic hitter (thinking angelwing for rinoa, although if I recall she has pretty good strength too) one powerful normal attacker/mp demolisher. . .

Let's have a healer: Yuna in the Moogle!Mascot dressphere from x-2. Not being able to use but one dressphere makes Swordplay and Arcana a bit useless, but the Moogle Beam should be useful. (moogle regen would also help rinoa and angel wing be a lot more effective)

magic, demi-physical attacker[s], healer, we need a. . . ninjathief person. That brings Locke, Shadow, Lenna as a Ninja (the middle between strength and agility), Yuffie(because of the don't really screw with materia, she gets the mention because she comes with the ninjay materia:P), Zidane, Amarant, and Rikku.
Locke is annoying until he gets capture, and even then he still misses a lot. Shadow is much more useful with being able to throw stuff (but for some reason I don't remember ff6 having a lot of inherently throwable items, but I might be wrong), Lenna would have the ability to have the image status, but that wears off after one hit, which is'nt cool. Yuffie would own with morph materia, but that's beside the point I guess-_- Her limit is awfully useful though, as a mutlistrike. Zidane would be useful to steal with, for Thievery, but Amarant has immensely useful chakra and aura (or better yet, chakra-all and aura-all with trance) Chakra would be a nice suppliment to Moogle Jolt, since Yuna's abilities all take mp I think. Rikku also has her mix overdrive, which is just about spiffy. So then it's Shadow, Yuffie, Zidane, Amarant, and Rikku. Like rinoa, shadow also has a random possibility for interceptor to appear, which is a boost in his direction. It seems to me that whatever zidane and amarant can do, rikku can do better. Shadow has a good deal of physical strength, and a moderate amount of hp. rikku does not, and I'm tempted to just forget about yuffie now.

So yeah, shadow as number four.

Rinoa, Yuna, Bartz, and Shadow. I predict the battles would take forever, but at least you probably wouldn't die too quickly.

[Cybele]

Kid Rydia: No, not Adult Rydia, Kid Rydia. Why? Her white magic. While she doesn't learn any white magic spells stronger than cure2, using cure2 on one character can do enough to save a party member. She's basically everything her adult self is, except with white magic. Her calls would do some good damage/healing (Slyph and Asura) and her black magic is pretty strong. A good choice to have in your party and it's easier to have a mostly caller/black mage than a summoner/white mage.

Aeris: Healing. She would be the main healer. Give her all of the healing and life materia and no other materia and she'll do just fine. Rydia's there for calls, so summon magic wouldn't be nessecary and neither would offensive magic. She's got the best limit breaks for healing as well.

Freya: I would've said Kain, but Freya also has extra abilities that are useful. Get her up in the air with her trance and she can be a life saver.

Terra: She's got magic power to boot as well as being able to use all of the best equipment. Her morph ability would be good to have and with atma weapon, she'd be able to handle any enemy with ease.

My party would be pretty strong, mostly because everyone can heal except for Freya, but Reis' Wind would help and her jump ability makes her a good choice. Even if the enemy is immune to magic, Terra and Freya could take care of it and Rydia could be used for extra healing with cure2 and Asura.

[Azure Chrysanthemum]

Since it's just the basic class and such, Orlandu is definitely my front-line fighter, he's just too strong.

Healer-wise, I'd go with Yuna, the fact that she can use summons as well gives her additional use and Aeons are a valuable asset to the group because of how they are handled in the general game play.

Vivi is a pretty good black mage, so he gets the vote on this party. His physical attack leaves much to be desired, but he's a caster so it's not so big a deal.

Finally, Paladin Cecil. He has good offensive power, and he still has some healing ability. Since I believe healing is one of the more important abilities in the game, I like having two people who can do it. While Yuna can be a straight healer/summoner, Cecil can attack and heal when necessary.

[Martyr]

Hmmm...

Cyan: Let's face it, Cyan is great. He is an excellent front man. With his spectacular sword techs, he doesn't need the assistance of magic. He's got great strength and stamina. He powers through opponents, and has excellenbt defense to do it for a long time without needing healing.
Basically, the only significance of his slowness is that his Multi-Attack Techs will be the final kill-all attacks after everybody else has done their damage. In my opinion, cleaning up the mess isn't a defect.

Gau: He has fantastic stats for attacking and magic. He can equip that Snow Muffler, or whatever, and some other super powerful armors, which make him one of the most difficult characters to kill in the entire game. He has the capacity to use all kinds of spells of every class through his rage ability. Despite being somewhat rigid in what he can do during an individual battle, his all around versatility and mastery of everything makes him a must.

Sage: The sage from FF3j is the most powerful magic user ever created. It can use any summon, cast any black magic spell, cast any white magic spell, and it can do it a LOT. Sages can, at perfectly respectable levels, cast a Cure 4 that will heal every parties hp to the max or cast a cure or life spell that will heal or bring life to anything.
Outside of being the best healer possible, the sage can summon something like Bahamut or Odin at a moments notice and just be a generally infinitely annoying character for the foes. Not to mention, it can cast all the Haste and other time magic spells that we can desire.
Outside of that, the Sage can carry dual Golem staffs, which, in the hands of a Sage, a remarkable able fighter for a caster, can turn almost enemy enemy to stone, just in case the enemy has no weak points and is hard to damage otherwise.

Rydia: I guess, when it comes to the fourth character, the question arises: Which is more important, White Magic, Black Magic, Thief Abilities, or simple Fighting Power. Edgar, Locke, Edge, FF1 Thief, Sabin, Terra (Who almost took place of the sage, but didn't), and Cecil were all valid and powerful options.
But I decided to go for the ammased power of Rydia instead. She'll work in viciously with the Sage, capable of causing dual Bahamut summons or Black magic/Summon combinations which can decimate foes on all the horriffying levels that dual black magic casters can. The posession of two black casters/summoners (And one who can use white magic just as skillfully) should make my party both unique and extremely dangerous.

Strong Points:
Fantastic ability to destroy every kind of enemy with relative easy and extreme speed (Or extreme prejudice, if you will).
Hard to kill.

Weak Points: Weak points need more detail than strong points since everything preceeding this was a list of strong points.
1. Despite the toughness, the Sage is weak as the only White Magic caster - Other than the slightly unpredictable Gau who we don't want in the form of a Life2 caster, even though he can do it. The Sage is a target and a weak point since the party will lose a lot of control and nearly all white magic prowess if it is taken out.
2. Rydia is very killable. Rydia also is a terrible fighter. Despite that she can do massive damages with her spells, she is most likely to be the character who wears out MP-wise, and then become a strain. In a long battle, Rydia may become defective where a fighter or a character like Terra (Or even Sabin or Edgar) may prove to be far, far more valuable.
3. All my characters take hits. We have no Thiefs or ninjas or the like. We don't really need them, but it must be mentioned that although our resistance to attack is quite formidable, we will always be trying to resist the attack. There is not a lot of danger of overworking the Sage, but there is some. Nobody is going to be dodging any attacks and nobody is going to be absorbing or reflecting magical damage without, again, overworking the Sage and limiting it to it's weakest element: White magic.

[udsuna]

Ok... here goes...

1. Terra- she's a surprisingly effective fighter, and comes with a few considerable white magics.
2. Rikku- high agility thief, and a decent fighter. Her mixing ability is quite useful, too. My compensation for lack of a black mage.
3. Vincent- his transformation limit is my "tank", and he's not too shabby on his own. He also can play some role as an extra black mage.
4. I'm not sure... I kinda wanted Yuna, but if we're leveling the playing field, then the FFX summons would have to be set back to the standard one-shots, which cuts her offence to shreds. But, I do need another white caster, so I'll take Palladin Cecil instead. He's tough enough to be a good fighter, and his limited white magics shouldn't be too necessary for the party.

It's a strong party, no matter the scenario. It takes a little preping to hold up well against bosses, but can decimate lesser enemies so quickly that we wouldn't need to use up our precious resources on anything but the bosses. Rikku would always end up first, happily stealing before the three attackers slice and dice the enemy.

And, in a boss situation, Terra and Cecil become white mage/fighter backup, while Vincent and Rikku unleash a whole lotta hurt.

[Ultima Shadow]

1: Shadow. Very good balanced stats + the Throw command is more powerfull than most people may think.
2: Rydia. The most awesome Black Mage AND Summoner/Caller ever.
3) Sabin. Good tank and phsycical force. His Blitzes are pretty usefull aswell.
4) Vincent. MONSTER!!!

Ok... this party is mostly based on characters that I love... and not on their power in battle... but whatever! It's still a very powerfull party though.

[Masamune·1600]

All characters are in a base format. Just because FFX allows Auron to Hit 99,999 and Cecil only 999 doen't mean Auron and Tidus are 99x better. In the field all max hits are equal.

Cecil (or any other FFIV character) can hit for up to 9999 damage. FFT characters were restricted to three digit damage. Just wanted to point that out, even if it doesn't influence the present scenario.

And here's my party....

Orlandu (FFT). He's inherently overpowered.

Sage (FFIII). That pretty much covers all my magical concerns.

Locke (FFVI). I need a Thief. Might as well take one who can abuse the 9999 x 8 trick (which doesn't break our rules here, since it is multiple max hits, rather than one over-hit, so to speak. Also, it can be done without Illumina, leaving it free for Terra).

Terra (FFVI) Fun fact: She learns Ultima automatically at Level 99. Morph can make her ridiculously overpowered, and its benefits stack. Can equip Illumina, Paladin Shield, etc., and can reach 128 M. Block if properly equipped.

(Please note that either Locke or Terra would also have Shadow's Interceptor, since the "status" can be permanently transferred through creative use of Rippler).



Or, my unfair alternative party.

Four characters from FFVII. One with Morph, Final Attack, and Phoenix, and the others with no materia at all. Without reading further, I think few people would claim that this is an unfair materia set-up.

(SPOILER)Would crush the above party, unless a certain loophole is closed. Observe: Although status beyond 255 cannot be displayed, the increased effect continues. By Morphing an excessive number of Sources, all characters' stats would be beyond incredible. And by boosting Dexterity inordinately, nothing other than this party would get to act.

[SnoopyG]

oh how fun. let's see

Vincent - long range, powerful limit, with a restore, fire-all, and life-all materia. He can kick butt and heal his own at the same time.

Rikku in theif mode - all teams need a theif, it's more fun that way IMO.

Rinoa - Carbuncle and Shiva with healing magic. Primary white mage. Also Shiva and her limits make her powerful.

Lulu - Black Magic Mang *boom boom* *fire* *ultima* BWAHAHA *cough cough* Sorry

That would be my team.

[Masamune·1600]

Lulu doesn't have access to Ultima. Ultima can only be reached by using several Level 4 Key Spheres, which clearly exceeds the limitations imposed by the original post.

[RedCydranth]

Lulu doesn't have access to Ultima. Ultima can only be reached by using several Level 4 Key Spheres, which clearly exceeds the limitations imposed by the original post.

As the author of the original post, I shall clarify this. If Ultima is located in Lulu's section of the grid (cant remember ATM) then she can have it in this scenario.

Some of you seem to be missing my point of this thread. In a level playing field which I'm trying so hard to create, equipmental benefits and equipping certain weapons is NOT what I wanted. The party of 4 I'm asking for are bare bones no equipment. Only in FF7s case am I allowing minimal materia usage. Even that is being abused. Its really hard to level the field so that everyone in FF is virtually equal, But I'm trying.

Locke (FFVI). I need a Thief. Might as well take one who can abuse the 9999 x 8 trick (which doesn't break our rules here, since it is multiple max hits, rather than one over-hit, so to speak. Also, it can be done without Illumina, leaving it free for Terra).

This is the paragraph Im questioning most, along with Terras and the second party. I'm trying to place all the FF characters in one "arena" soto speak. Thus equipment isn't really game specific. I'd prefer if Equipment wasn't mentioned.

I feel that overly abusive items/materia should be disallowed. The materia abuse shown in that prior post is what im trying to avoid.

[rubah]

But it's in the middle. That would mean only kimarhi gets it:P

I say lulu could have double cast though-- being that it's easier for her to get it than anyone else. Not that it does much good without ultima.

[RedCydranth]

To be fair to Kimahri, yeah. If you look at the grid, The smallest ronso kinda gets the shaft in our scenario.

[Harvest Moon]

My four-man super team..

Vivi:
Clearly the "nuke" of the party, his spells do uncanny damage and I can only assume his spells that would normaly help what's his face would apply to anyone..

Ramza:
Even in squire form Ramza still has a "mini-Ultima". Which is good enough for me and he makes a decent brawny guy.

Vincett:
The fact of the matter is Vincett is cool, he can transform into several bosses and is just plain bad-ass. You'd be a fool NOT to have him in your party group..

And Mog:
Name me one of the Mog's dances that AINT useful yo..

This party seriously lacks in one major thing: a healer. But considering the mad amount of damage you'll be dealing per round i don't think that'll be a problem..

[RedCydranth]

This post I'd basically what I was looking for. He addresses each characters ability without reading deeply into EQ. He mentions Vincent because hes useful, not because he has W-Summon with KOTR materias.

Thank you.