Originally Posted by
http://ff1.classicgaming.gamespy.com/faq.php#bb
OK. First of all, let's compare the BB to a Fighter. The BB has horrible HP advancement. It's not as bad as a Mage of course, but also not as good as a Fighter. In my game with a Knight and Master, both level 28, my Knight has 602 HP, the Master has 522. Now maybe by some miracle the BB will pass my Fighter up at level 50 or something, but at that point it doesn't even matter, since the game is easily beatable at level 28.
How about defense. Obviously the Fighter wins in this category. The Fighter gets the best armor in the game. The BB gets bracelets, which are the worst armor in the game. The BB is little better than a Mage. His stats help him a little, but he's still pretty weak. In my game, the BB, in the second row, takes a consistent beating from every encounter, while my Fighter, in the FRONT row (meaning he takes more hits), happily stands and takes it with a smile. Maybe if you put the BB in the back row, he'd do OK. And he does get a little better as the game goes on and his stats build. But the Fighter gets even MORE better, what with the Dragon Armor his vast array of helmets and shields.
Now the real question. The BB is known for his physical attack power. If his attack was very much better than a Fighter's that might make up for his other huge weaknesses. But his attack power is NOT better than a Fighter's until very late in the game. So late that it's irrelevant. The Fighter with a Silver Sword does far better than a BB with his fists, at Elfland. The BB starts catching up after that, but if you get the Ice Sword from the CoO or Volcano as soon as possible, the Fighter leaps way ahead again. After that, with the Defense, Sun Sword and Excalbur, the Fighter stays way ahead for the rest of the game, until sometime after level 30 where the BB catches up again. At that point, the Fighter can kill anything in the game in one hit, except bosses, and that's all you need. Admittedly, if you level up to 50, the BB will finally end up the Fighter. I've heard many times, "A Black Belt can kill Chaos in one hit!!" Well a Fighter with Masmune at level 30 or so can kill him in three or four. That's more than enough power. In any case, if you beat the game at level 30 or so, the BB will be barely equal to the Fighter in terms of attack power. Certainly not ahead, by any means.
Conclusion: BB sucks in every way compared to a Fighter. A BB is a crippled Fighter, plain and simple. Now let's compare him to Mages. Mages serve a few very specific purposes. First of all, they hurt multiple enemies at once. Even the strongest level 50 BB or Fighter will take 9 rounds to kill 9 monsters just by attacking physically. Black and Red Mages lend support by wiping out multiple monsters at once. It saves time, and HP, since the longer you stand there swinging your fists, the more damage you take. Once you get the magic-casting items, Mages become a little less valuable, but not by much. Magic-casting items only cast FIR2, LIT2, etc; not the more powerful spells needed for the more powerful monsters late in the game. And why would you want to waste a bunch of turns having your fighting characters use those items in battle? Mages are around so that fighters don't have to. Secondly, Mages lend support to fighters. FAST effectively doubles the damage a fighter does. Protective magics help fighters (and everyone) last long enough to do enough damage to kill stuff. Support magic isn't essential to doing well, but it certainly helps. Finally, Mages heal. Healing is something you need from the first time you battle an Imp till the trek through the ToF. Heal Potions just don't cut it later in the game, and they're expensive anyways. The Heal Staff / Helmets are OK, but you need to use them a ton of times to equal one CUR3 or CUR4. The cost of heal potions is almost crippling in the beginning of the game, if that's all you have, and late in the game only being able to carry 99 of them at once means very limited healing ability.
The point: comparing Black Belts and Mages is like comparing apples and schnauzers. It doesn't make sense. They serve different purposes. The only differene is, a Mage serves its purpose very well in the game; a BB tries to serve a purpose, and fails miserably at it.
All that's left is the Thief. I will start with an admission. Thieves suck too, compared with the other classes (besides BB). They're basically crippled Fighters just like Black Belts. However, they serve a tiny secondary purpose that makes them worth it, in my eyes. They run well. In my games, I use RUN a whole lot. In the beginning you need to run often from annoying low-level enemies like Wolves. It's just a time saver; why stand there wasting time with Wolves when you could be killing Ogres? Also, enemies that poison you are very annoying. Running before they can is a good way to save PUREs and time. Same goes with large groups of undead that can paralyze you. Sometimes running as quickly as possible from those battles is all that stands between life and a slow death. Then there are Sorcerers. Don't think I need to say much there; you NEED to run from them. Thieves are the best runners in the game, in my experience. I've almost never had a Thief fail to run on his first attempt to do so, from enemies that allow you to run.
Secondly, Thieves get Black Magic after class change. By the time you get it, it's not all that great, but it's still useful. FAST is always good. If you have two characters to FAST, and only one mage, you can waste two turns casting it, or you can cast it in one turn by using a Mage and a Ninja. That's helpful versus strong bosses, and versus Warmech for example, where every single round matters. FIR2, LIT2, and ICE2 are also useful until the very end of the game. Not as good as FIR3, LIT3 or ICE3 of course, but once your mage runs out of higher-level magic, it's good to have some backup.
Now those advantages aren't very good. All characters can RUN. A Mage is almost as good at running as the Thief. And the magic the Ninja gets doesn't mean as much once you get the magic-casting Mage Staff, Black Shirt, etc. But I like the Thief anyways. I find the balance good when a Thief is paired with a Fighter. If the Thief were purely a fighting character, he'd be totally worthless, but getting magic and running well give him a little bit of use. It's understandable if someone didn't like them though; the advantages of using a Thief wouldn't be as good as the advantages of using another Fighter. Sometimes it's good for some variety though. A BB on the other hand IS purely a fighting character, and not a good one at that. So BB's, in a way, ARE worse than Thieves; Thieves serve a tiny purpose, whereas BB's serve none. If you won't swallow that argument, put the Thief and BB on equal level at the very bottom of the bucket. It's probably valid to do so.
The conclusion: Black Belts are worse than Fighters and Mages, and at best tied with Thieves for WORST CHARACTER EVER.
As if all of that wasn't bad enough, let's look at some of the other ways the BB sucks. The Fighter gets White Magic. Not that great, really, since CURE and CUR2 are pretty weak by the time the Fighter gets them. But they do help in places like the ToF where you need to squeeze every little drop of healing out of your characters to make it to Chaos with full HP. In fact the Black Belt is the ONLY character who never gets to use any magic. Secondly, and this is purely my opinion, but finding armor and weapons in dungeons is exciting. This is a fantasy game, after all. Finding a legendary sword or a one-of-a-kind piece of armor that protects you from magic is part of what makes fantasy fantasy. The BB gets no good armor, ever. After a little while, a Black Belt has to start using his fists, and keep using them the entire rest of the game. Incredibly boring, if you ask me. Using a BB in battle in itself is incredibly boring. "Hold down the A button" is your only strategy. That, and resurrect him when he gets stomped by weak parties of monsters, which will happen frequently. The Black Belt is also the only character who gets absolutely nothing from the class change. His sprite changes, and that's it, period. No magic, no new equipment able to be equipped... nothing. That's pathetic.
Now the BB does have two advantages that other classes don't. First of all, in the NES version, not having to equip much weapons or armor frees up his equipment slots to hold magic-casting items like the Heal Staff. That's nice, if you plan to use the BB as nothing but an item-using Mage-wannabe. It's hardly reason enough to take a character that sucks so badly otherwise. Secondly, not having to buy weapons or armor makes him very cheap. However, I contend that even a party of four Fighters or four Mages is EASILY affordable, even if you equip them with the best weapons and armor in the game at all times. Most of the time, with my favorite party of F/Th/WM/BM, I end up with millions of extra G by the end of the game. There are two parts where money is a factor in any way: Elfland, and Melmond. That's it. The stuff in Elfland is affordable after you're done leveling up, which you almost certainly need to to brave the Marsh Cave. Or you can just wait until after the Marsh Cave; you get tens of thousands of G worth of treasure from all the locked chests. In Melmond, the Steel Armor is very expensive, yes. But it's not all that necessary to get it anyways. Even without it, the Fighter has better defense than a BB of comparable level. The Iron Armor is good enough if you don't feel like saving up the G for Steel. And the Fighter gets Ice /Flame Armor shortly after Melmond in any case, which is even better than Steel Armor, and free. After that, every single weapon or piece of armor worth using is found in treasure chests, except the ProRing (which a BB needs too) and the Gold Bracelet, which is VERY expensive (and still not that good), and is something a Fighter for example doesn't even need.
My final argument is again a matter of opinion: Black Belts are ugly. Before class change, dressed in powder-blue sweat pants, or whatever those things are, they look like toddlers. After class change, they don't even get to wear a belt! I guess they forget their martial arts training or have their Black Belt license revoked or something. Wouldn't surprise me.
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