Final Fantasy Tactics Rant

[Despotus]

Not unless he could have a baby in the time it took me to go from the mission where I got Boko to the very next area. I moved only a single space, there was no time, and the new one was level 18, while Boko was only 10. Doesn't sound like a baby to me.

Wierd... don't know what happened if you're sure you didn't go back to Dorter Trade City or fight a random battle or two between Araguay Woods and Zirekile Falls. F.Y.I. the level of a bred monster is often higher than the level of the 'parent'. Their level is determined by an average of party members' levels, I believe. Monsters will not only breed higher level offspring but also more powerful species of the same monster type. For example, Boco could spawn Black Chocobos too.

[Gilthanes]

I honestly dont like Orlandu anymore. My first few times, he was fun to have and amazing to just gawk at his ability to kill anyone and anything by himself and stay at full life while he does it.

But all these other times I've played, I just dont use him. Takes any challenge out of a battle away. I use Agrias the whole game now. Because shes powerful and unique, but not "Kill everything in 1 shot while draining 400 hp back to you" powerful. Personally, I think a nice balanced "Non overpowered" team to play with is Ramza, Mustadio, Agrias, a summoner with maybe white magic and short charge, and a ninja who can either use Elemental or Steal depending on the battle you need. Ramza with Draw out feels like a powerful special character due to his stats and ability to do great area dmg with Muramasa and such. However, Mustadio becomes very weak once you get Beowulf, who can do everything Mustadio can do, and 10x More... Plus the ability to run up and whack a monster for 300+ dmg.

Note: Though once you get Magic Guns for Mustadio, his dmg increases dramatically (from 48-64 a shot, to 80-160 a shot.. and consider the range thats good. Mustadio also makes an amazing chemist with Item command and Throw Item support skill.

[BG-57]

Second: How exactly does stat growth work in this game? What is the stat growth of the various jobs? I can't find a good FAQ on the subject. >.<

There are five stats in the game that are modified by things like class, level, gender, Brave, and Faith: HP, MP, Speed, PA (physical attack), and MA (magic attack).

The best bet is aerostar's autoritative (and very technical) Battle Mechanics Guide on gamefaqs.com. The section entitled Class Compendium lists all the class modifiers and level up bonus of every (and I mean every) class.

Ultimately, in order to maximize all stats you have to level up normally, then use a method to reduce your levels, using Degenerator traps and Mindflare's Level Blast (with Monster Skill). The key is to be in a occupation that has lousy stat level up bonus so you lose less when losing levels. Then go into a job that has stat bonuses you want and level up again.

TBH, I've never actually done this. It sounds like a tedious waste of time to me, since my party is devastatingly powerful as it is by the game's end.

[Octorok]

I honestly dont like Orlandu anymore. My first few times, he was fun to have and amazing to just gawk at his ability to kill anyone and anything by himself and stay at full life while he does it.

But all these other times I've played, I just dont use him. Takes any challenge out of a battle away.

I use Orlandu solely as a Dark Knight (i.e. just completely ignoring all of his All Sword skills except for Night Sword and Dark Sword). This way, I have all of my special Knights, without Orlandu having absolute advantage over Meliadoul and Agrias.

Granted, he's still exceptionally strong and still practically unstoppable (Night Sword doing the least amount of damage, yet pretty much completely refills his health), it's a start, right?

[BG-57]

He's an example of the KOtR rule, which is something that makes the game pathetically easy to beat once you get it. Personally, I can't resist using him.

Fortunately, there's no shortage of nongeneric characters to work with and build a party that suits any taste. Ultimately one of the best things about Tactics is the flexibility it gives you.

[Octorok]

KOtR rule?

[Skyblade]

KOtR rule?

Knights of the Round, FFVII's one-hit-kills-all summon. FFVII was one of the first really well known RPGs to have something which made the game so pathetically easy that overusing it ruined the fun. Hence, the phenomenon became known as the KotR rule.

[Gunboat Diplomat]

Third: About the charge times. While your advice about the AT list was nice (although I actually bothered to play through the tutorial, so I already knew about it), I have noticed that when I get to the higher level charge times, they never execute before the opponent moves. What is the point of having, say, the Archer's Charge +20 if the opponent will always move before it executes?

While Despotus gave some good advice on this issue, I'd also like to add that if you play a Time Mage long enough, you can get enough ability points to learn Quick Charge, which will alleviate your charging problems...

[BG-57]

EDIT: I found a better explaination in Notti's Deep Dungeon guide on gamefaq.com

Want high stats? Want REALLY high stats? Well keep on reading.... There is a
method of doing this but it takes awhile, this is only for the type of people
who in FF7 got all their characters up to really high stats with Sources. The
basic theory is to level DOWN as a BAD job and then level UP as a GOOD job.
Think of it as two steps forwards, and one step back. Keep on doing that and
you're getting somewhere. De-Leveling down can be done in 2 ways. Degenerator
traps(if you try to Teleport while on a trap and Teleport fails you will
REACTIVATE the trap, use it. A Degenerator can be found in the DD... look at
my DD maps above for the exact location) or the Monster Skill of a Mind Flare
monster called Level Blast. Leveling up can be done in anyway you see fit
however I have a tip or two Give your character Gained Exp UP and the
Thief's Steal Exp Ability(and lots of Speed upping items and bonuses if
possible). With this you can now steal EXP from your teammates/enemies and
you SHOULD be going up 1 level every turn till you are at a moderate level.
Another okay level up trick is to use Bard or Dancer skills plus Gained EXP
Up(but this will take 2 castings, depending on how low your speed is this CAN
come out more often, but for me it's usually less often BUT you don't have to
worry about your teammates having enough EXP to steal). Another tip is once
you have decimated the enemy, turn the last one into a Frog, Chicken, and put
him to Sleep and then Petrify all members of the team that are not needed(so
you don't have to "Wait" them). Another little trick to getting the last bit
of EXP in one AT is to use Move-Gain EXP. And a final tip, who says you need
to go all the way up to level 99 then back down to level 1? That's unwise...
use my Steal EXP + Gained EXP Up trick and you should be able to get up to
around level 65 by doing 65 Steal EXPs, re-enter the battle then use the
degenerator/Level Blast, leave, then use Steal EXP again, repeat till you've
got a god =D

Well thanks to Aerostar's diligent work on his "Final Fantasy Tactics Battle
Mechanics Handbooks" (available at any respectable game file download
station) I finally have the information needed to make the following list
accurate. To use this list you look for the LOWEST numbers to level UP as,
and HIGHEST to level DOWN as. You don't need to understand why that is (seems
backwards, eh?), but if you want to know more check out Aerostar's guide for
the exact technical reasons. So, now, what you do with these numbers is to
try and raise levels as the ++! and lower as the -?.

Alterable | Non-Alterable
HP MP SP PA MA | MV JU CEV
SQ 11 15 100 60 50 | SQ 4 3 5%
CH 12 16 100 -75? 50 | CH 3 3 5%
KN 10 15 100 ++40! 50 | KN 3 3 10%
AR 11 16 100 45 50 | AR 3 3 10%
MO +++9! 13 100 48 50 | MO 3 4 20%
PR 10 10 100 50 50 | PR 3 3 5%
WI 12 +++9! 100 60 50 | WI 3 3 5%
TI 12 10 100 65 50 | TI 3 3 5%
SU 13 +++8! 100 70 50 | SU 3 3 5%
TH 11 16 ++90! 50 50 | TH 4 4 25%
ME 11 18 100 55 50 | ME 3 3 5%
OR 12 10 100 60 50 | OR 3 3 5%
GE 10 11 100 45 50 | GE 4 3 10%
LA 10 15 100 ++40! 50 | LA 3 4 15%
SA 12 14 100 45 50 | SA 3 3 20%
NI 12 13 ++80! 43 50 | NI 4 4 30%
CA -14? 10 100 70 50 | CA 3 3 5%
BA -20? -20? 100 -80? 50 | BA 3 3 5%
DA -20? -20? 100 50 50 | DA 3 3 5%
MI +++6! -30? 100 ++35!++40! | MI 4 4 5%

According to those numbers the most amazing job class to level UP as seems to
be Mime, except it stinks in MP and is plain ol' average in Speed. And the
BEST to go DOWN as is Bard or Dancer/Chemist, except those do have better
than Mime MP growth and equal Speed growth. So basically if you DEGENERATE as
a Dancer/Bard/Chemist and then level back up as a Mime you will get a very
good increase in all stats EXCEPT MP, which will plummet, and Speed will stay
the same (though technically, when growth numbers are equal, when level
up/downing, at the end of the day you will have lost a teeny tiny bit of
stat. Very small bits in the decimals. Level up/down enough and it will
become noticable). Other great jobs to increase as would be the swift of foot
Ninja. His Speed and PA is truly great. Speed being one of the harder & rarer
and mor important stats to raise (5p33D rUL3zzz D00Dzz!!!!). Another
important class is the Summoner. The reason for that is simply that neither
Ninja nor Mime are good MP growers, not only is Mime not good, it is actively
bad, being the absolute worst MP growth you can possibly get. If you don't
want your godly character to have nil psychic stamina you'll need some
buffing in the MP area with la Summoniers.

Summed Up (doesn't include special characters):
To Raise HP: UP Mime UP Monk DOWN Bard/Dancer DOWN Calculator
To Raise MP: UP Summoner UP Wizard DOWN Mime DOWN Bard/Dancer
To Raise SP: UP Ninja UP Thief DOWN NOT Ninja DOWN NOT Thief
To Raise PA: UP Mime UP Knight/Lancer DOWN Bard DOWN Chemist
To Raise MA: UP Mime DOWN NOT Mime