Recommendations for game start.

[Gwelenguchenkus]

After your first real battle, in the city at the beginning of the game, what do you do?

I usually banish everyone that is exceptionally low in brave or faith, unless they have a really high stat in one of the two. Then I go to the recruitment office and find people with the most brave or faith, or both I can find.


Is this not right? Is there really any point to finding someone with just 'average' brave/faith ratings? I honestly don't know what I should look for.

Also, how many characters do you recriut? Do you train a bunch of your own or do you train just a few but try to have a majority of your party special characters that join through the plot?

What do you recommend, as your favorite way of going through the beginning parts of the game? I can never decide what to do!

[BG-57]

There's no reason to keep the generic units you're given.

What I do is use the given generics in Gariland battle, then I shop for replacement units, one at a time. That means of course fighting several battles in Mandalia plains in order to raise the cash.

I keep cycling through potential recruits until I get a unit with both brave and faith of around 70.

You'll need four to fill up your party initially, but by the time you get to chapter 2, you'll only need three (for propositions). If you want to do more than one proposition at a time, it's handy to have six. But your party will rapidly fill up with unique characters and monsters.

Once I finished all the propositions I dismissed all my generic units and bred monsters. When I finished breeding I kept two Tiamats and recruited two new generics to fill up my party.

[BudSoda02]

I like to keep any original characters you're given. I hate buying new units, as any experience or job points that the previous generic units have had. A BIG waste of time, as it takes long enough to level up the main characters. I don't recruit new monsters. (Don't use Invite & accept them to join the party.) In my opinion, your units will do a better job if their more confident in you. By the way their ARE ways to increase their Brave & Faith... The Mediator can increase it, just have the effect still going at the end of the battle & the stat'll raise. As for the signs, I find the original units to be good. (By the way, Accept Rad, Alicia, & oh crud.... what's her name (Oveila's Knights & Ramza's squire) when you get to the Obornne Monastery where you had your first battle. I think this' at the beginning of Chapter 2... I don't really get you people. They all really have good stats... Also recruit Boco, and keep one or two of his/her offspring. I suggest keeping one Red & one Black Chocobo.
Thanks- BudSoda02 BudSoda02@yahoo.com

[BG-57]

It takes a lot of leveling to get to jobs that let you change Brave and Faith. By choosing your recruits, you can get units that you don't have to change their stats much right from the start.

It doesn't matter much to me that the generics don't get much experience (I need them mainly to fill ranks until I get characters like Agrias and Mustadio). In my game they're going to be dismissed in the end.

This doesn't affect gameplay, but I also like to name my units. If you recruit human generics, you can pick a name to call them by.

The nice thing about Tactics is the flexibility to customize your game to suit your style of play. There's no one right way to play Tactics.

[TurkSlayer]

I always keep generics, and maybe have one monster (usually chocobo). I'm not sure why, it just seems... right. I always make a bit of a side story with them for fanfics. Thats beside the point though. I sometimes even get rid of non-generic characters *coughMalakcough* just to get more generics. And I've always got a Mediator by the time you go to Dorter Trade City in chapter 1 just so I can get more characters.... I think I have some sort of mental issue. Of course, they're never in jmy final party, because by then you have so many other, better characters.

And BudSoda, the knoght your thinking of is Lavian.

[Nakor TheBlue Rider]

Well, since Brave and Faith can be Changed later, i dont care about that at all.

I first dump every Single Male Generic Unit. I prefer Female Generic Units because the can use perfume and ribbons that male Units cannot. Also I feel that the Game Gives you Mor ethan Enough Male Special Characters, so I like to have more Balance and Make all my Generic Units Female.

Also I decide what Zodiac Signs i want and Dump anyone who has the wrong ones.

Then go to the Recruit office and get Female Units with the Apropriate Zodiac Signs.

[Despotus]

This doesn't affect gameplay, but I also like to name my units. If you recruit human generics, you can pick a name to call them by.

That's probably the best reason to recruit soldiers from the soldier office. I love to give them my own original names, especially ones that sound rather kickass like Bane, Deathangel, Soulstealer, or Nemesis... etc. I do look for higher brave and faith as well as complementary Zodiac signs. But the brave and faith are pretty easy to modify, just work toward getting 1 or 2 mediators A.S.A.P. (Should only take 7 or 8 random battles, max.)

[Gwelenguchenkus]

I decided to go with three Generic units: One male, and two female.

I didn't actually intend it to turn out this way... but the male ended up going down the physical path towards archer and theif (and soon ninja/lancer and such)

then I had Ramza go down the Knight -> monk path.

The two females are currently a white and back mage, respectively, all of their brave/faith are around 70, and I think a couple have 73.

I named them: Beatrix Potter, Quistis Treppe, and Souma Yuki

[Nakor TheBlue Rider]

When im recruiting Brave and Faith are the last things i look for.

Gender is first, duh cuz it makes you choose.
The Zodiac Sign... cuz you cant change that later.
Brave/Faith, its changable so as long as its not too low i dont care.
Name... I think this and Zodiac Sign are tied for reasons to recruit.

Ive tried soo many diffrant name options, lol, once i played through the game naming everyone names from Lord Of the Rings.

Once I named Everyone Names from Anne Rice Vampire Novels.
Made up my own a few times...

Changeing names is a fun way to get more enjoyment out of any game.

[Del Murder]

I buy two characters with high faith and one with high brave and make them mages/fighter respectively. I dismiss all other non story characters.

[Gwelenguchenkus]

I buy two characters with high faith and one with high brave and make them mages/fighter respectively. I dismiss all other non story characters.

That's exactly what I did, and it works perfectly.

I get overwhelmed when I have to level too many different characters (my last playthrough, I had SIX recruits, it sucked).

Plus, that balances the game out for me since I always have Ramza go down the Physical path, and for battles on a map it always leaves you with one story character to use, and before this playthrough I'd mostly ignore them.

This feels like my most balanced game so I'm pretty happy with it. I've restarted this game MANY times due to overwhelming myself on several different levels.

[Ultima]

I did this:
got my people to the high 30's
mastered a few jobs i.e. Sq
and well do that and the first few chapters will easy

[Lich3636]

dissmis, recruit new ones then i have everyone learn auto potion before sweegy woods ( or what ever) auto potion makes the entire game a snap then i ussualy have at least one character master thief and one master wizard and time mage btw I can tell you why rafa and malaks ppl were wiped out its because while they were busy casting spells that hit everywhere but the target some real wizards walked in and flare and meteord the hell out of them

[Eternal Dark Night]

Normaly for me I keep all my soilders because later on in atleast a couple of chapters there brave and faith will go past 70 atleast I asure u it will happened. i started a new games over and over to get the perfect party and theres another tip witch ever there best job is at keep them like that till the end of which ever chapter your on well
Basicly i know what i want and other well some people want to everyone wants everything in the bigging right

[RedCydranth]

Well, FFT is such a unique game that you can start it out any way you want. How you start should reflect how you want to play FFT. If you want to go through and beat it quickly as possible, keep the starting units, the game isn't that difficult. If you want to take your time, customize getting units and go from there. Or if you are like me, and you want every secret character and as many non generic units, just keep the ones you get until you don't need them. Dismiss you weakest everytime a new story character Joins. Rad, Alicia and Lavian don't count in my book, considering by that time even my crappiest generic unit blows them out of the water. I don't take them.

It doesn't really matter how you start. its what you do between start and finish that does matter.