Quote Originally Posted by Lavarn View Post
Quote Originally Posted by ValiantKnight
Fi, BB, WM, BM
It seems like a good party in theory, but in practice, the BB can't hold the second position. That is my experience anyway. I've also experimented with Fi, TH, WM, BM which does a little better, and will definitely shine late game. But early on, the Fi, RM, *, * parties seem to be better.
Fi/Bb/Wm/Bm is actually one of the basic parties used for beating the game, and just like Fi/Th/Wm/Bm, it's a perfectly acceptable party. I never enjoyed it myself, but what I enjoy doesn't equal to what works well.

Quote Originally Posted by ljkkjlcm9
fastest group possible

Fighter, Fighter, Red Mage, Red Mage

by far the fastest clear time
Sort of a brute force party but it's certainly good - I need to experiment more with this one and see if it performs better than Fi, Fi, WM, BM. I'm most concerned about late game with this party once the red mages start to fall behind. Fwiw, I think other brute force parties (such as Fi, Fi, Fi, Fi....or Fi, Fi, RM, TH) would be weaker. Do you mean fastest as in minimum number of battles, minimum steps taken, or something like that?
I know The Collector has beaten FF1 NES in 7-8 hours with Fi/Fi/Rm/Rm on a pretty low level. If you're not a fan of magic, like having characters with a good defence and everyone with some attack power, Fi/Fi/Rm/Rm definitely works well. So does Fi/Fi/Rm/Wm, which I've used for beating the game once. A problem with Fi/Fi/Rm/Wm was that it was very bad with running away from battles. 4 Fighters shouldn't be too hard, except you won't get Haste/Fast and Exit. Fi/Fi/Fi/Rm or Fi/Fi/Fi/Wm should make the game very easy too.

Quote Originally Posted by Sephiroth1999AD
My favorite combination is still Fighter, Red Mage, Thief and White Mage, though. That one is also good for running away in battles, and since Red Mage shines at the beginning of the game and Ninja at the end of the game, those classes support each other pretty well.
I have to agree - it seems that Fi, RM, TH, * is sort of the natural progression. Either a WM or BM belongs in slot 4, but which is better? I've always thought the BM is a better choice here, so the RM can focus on white magic (a lot of which is used outside of battle so the RM isn't torn between attacking and casting magic as much).

I should have asked this in my above post - how would you rank the following parties?

FI, RM, TH, WM
FI, RM, TH, BM
FI, RM, BB, WM
FI, RM, BB, BM
Well, I play defensively myself, and I don't really care about black magic, so I just like the added bonus of having "1.5" healers (White Mage and Red Mage) early in the game. White Mage usually heals, casts defensive spells or Dia/Harm while Red Mage uses physical attacks, sometimes uses spells like Fire2/3 and Haste, and sometimes helps the White Mage with healing. By the time I get items like Zeus Gauntlet, Mage Staff and Black Shirt, I almost never use black magic except for Haste and Temper.

As for how I'd rank the said parties (note that these are just my opinions, not facts by any means), Fi/Rm/Th/Wm is my favorite, so of course I'm going to rank it the highest. Fi/Rm/Bb/Wm is probably the next because of my preference (WM > BM), and you have both Rm and Wm helping the Black Belt stay alive. It's a bit hard to decide between Fi/Rm/Th/Bm and Fi/Rm/Bb/Bm. The latter has more firepower, but the former is better with escaping from battles. I've only played the game with the latter party, and I think it did pretty well.