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Howdy all! I'm starting a short forum mini-series called SYFFT, or "Share Your Final Fantasy Team"! Basically, you reply with how you personally prefer to handle your team in a particular Final Fantasy title!
This post is going to cover the most recent Final Fantasy game I've played, that being Final Fantasy IX! Initially, I hated FFIX, but after not having played it for a while and trying again, I find it a MUCH better game than I first thought! So, we're gonna start off with this!
Here's my team!
Zidane (back row)
Zidane pretty much just Steals most of the time, and then uses Thievery for damage. Since Thievery is set based on how many times Zidane has successfully stolen items, it's okay for him to be in the back row, and he doesn't need the Bright Eyes ability. Zidane's primarily geared for high Speed. With an Active ATB, all my other characters can input commands while Thievery is going off, making my team generally faster than the enemy.
Eiko (back row)
Eiko's a lot better than Garnet/Dagger if you ask me. Most of the time, she Defends and heals when necessary while Zidane Steals shit. When it's time to go on the offensive, I have her use Holy. It only costs 36 MP (almost twenty less than Madeen), and tends to do 7000-8000+ damage when I have her equipped with Magic Racket, Flash Hat, Jade Armlet, White Robe, and Maiden Prayer- all of which boosts Holy attack damage. Carbuncle is also extremely useful in a lot of cases, and Eiko gets Full-Life, too.
Vivi (back row)
Vivi will Focus-spam while Zidane Steals stuff until it's time to go on the offensive, in which case, I have him bounce Water spells off a character with Reflect. Gold Hairpin and Octagon Rod both boost Water damage, and Water only costs 22 MP, not to mention it can target multiple enemies, making it a lot better than Flare in most cases. He bounces Water off Reflect because he always has the Reflectx2 ability, which doubles the damage of any spells he casts that are Reflected.
Amarant (back row)
Amarant is easily one of the best characters you can have. Amarant I'll have cast Auras while Zidane Steals, which give a character Auto-Life and Regen. After that, he'll use Chakra on Vivi and Eiko to keep their MP high when they need it, and throw Rising Suns from the back row for 7000+ damage. Aside from that, he also has an Auto-Reflect up to give Vivi something to bounce his Water spells off of. He's harder to heal since any magic will get bounced off, but that's why he has Auto-Potion, too.
All of my characters always pack Auto-Haste, too. Zidane always has Bandit and Master Thief, Eiko always has Auto-Regen, Vivi always has Reflectx2 and Auto-Regen, and Amarant always has Auto-Reflect and Auto-Potion. After that, any other magic stones are usually dedicated to status immunity abilities depending on the area, and then after that, and spare are distributed based on whatever boss is coming up next. Eiko and Vivi like Auto-Regen because their low HP allows them to restore nearly to full HP during Zidane's Thievery animation, because it's so long. Madeen with the Boost ability is also useful for this reason.
As for the other characters...
This post is going to cover the most recent Final Fantasy game I've played, that being Final Fantasy IX! Initially, I hated FFIX, but after not having played it for a while and trying again, I find it a MUCH better game than I first thought! So, we're gonna start off with this!
Here's my team!
Zidane (back row)
Zidane pretty much just Steals most of the time, and then uses Thievery for damage. Since Thievery is set based on how many times Zidane has successfully stolen items, it's okay for him to be in the back row, and he doesn't need the Bright Eyes ability. Zidane's primarily geared for high Speed. With an Active ATB, all my other characters can input commands while Thievery is going off, making my team generally faster than the enemy.
Eiko (back row)
Eiko's a lot better than Garnet/Dagger if you ask me. Most of the time, she Defends and heals when necessary while Zidane Steals shit. When it's time to go on the offensive, I have her use Holy. It only costs 36 MP (almost twenty less than Madeen), and tends to do 7000-8000+ damage when I have her equipped with Magic Racket, Flash Hat, Jade Armlet, White Robe, and Maiden Prayer- all of which boosts Holy attack damage. Carbuncle is also extremely useful in a lot of cases, and Eiko gets Full-Life, too.
Vivi (back row)
Vivi will Focus-spam while Zidane Steals stuff until it's time to go on the offensive, in which case, I have him bounce Water spells off a character with Reflect. Gold Hairpin and Octagon Rod both boost Water damage, and Water only costs 22 MP, not to mention it can target multiple enemies, making it a lot better than Flare in most cases. He bounces Water off Reflect because he always has the Reflectx2 ability, which doubles the damage of any spells he casts that are Reflected.
Amarant (back row)
Amarant is easily one of the best characters you can have. Amarant I'll have cast Auras while Zidane Steals, which give a character Auto-Life and Regen. After that, he'll use Chakra on Vivi and Eiko to keep their MP high when they need it, and throw Rising Suns from the back row for 7000+ damage. Aside from that, he also has an Auto-Reflect up to give Vivi something to bounce his Water spells off of. He's harder to heal since any magic will get bounced off, but that's why he has Auto-Potion, too.
All of my characters always pack Auto-Haste, too. Zidane always has Bandit and Master Thief, Eiko always has Auto-Regen, Vivi always has Reflectx2 and Auto-Regen, and Amarant always has Auto-Reflect and Auto-Potion. After that, any other magic stones are usually dedicated to status immunity abilities depending on the area, and then after that, and spare are distributed based on whatever boss is coming up next. Eiko and Vivi like Auto-Regen because their low HP allows them to restore nearly to full HP during Zidane's Thievery animation, because it's so long. Madeen with the Boost ability is also useful for this reason.
As for the other characters...
- Spoiler:
I don't use Steiner because he's really only useful with Vivi, and I don't want to replace Eiko or Amarant for someone that is pretty much just a second Vivi with less MP. Not to mention, aside from Sword Magic, Steiner does badly in the back row. Plus I just plain don't like him, and it's a pain getting Excalibur II. When Steiner goes into Trance, his attack power goes up some. Whoopie.
I don't use Quina because... Well, I LOVE Quina, really, but there are too many problems I can't ignore. Her Blue Magic would be A+ if it weren't for a few bad little cliff notes... Mighty Guard costs a whopping 64 MP, and the buff itself only lasts two or three turns. Disappointing. Anything that you'd want to Bad Breath tends to be immune to it. White Wind heals the entire party for 1/3rd of Quina's max HP, whereas White Wind in other Final Fantasy games heals equal to the DIFFERENCE between the caster's max and current HP, which is much more useful. Quina's damaging spells, including things like Level 4 Holy, Twister, Earth Shake, and Aqua Breath tend to all do highly disappointing damage and don't really have useful secondary effects, if any. Quina's only truly useful Blue Magic spells are Level 5 Death (limited use), Frog Drop (takes a long time for damage to build up), Limit Glove (requires her to be at ONE HP), Auto-Life (ultimately obsolete compared to Amarant's Aura), and Night, which I honestly don't have any complaints about. If you equip your whole party with Insomniac, and use Night, you essentially put the entire enemy line to sleep while you whoop up on them. Did I mention her Trance is fairly useless? Quina's just disappointing.
Garnet/Dagger, as I've mentioned, is generally beneath Eiko. She doesn't learn Holy, she doesn't learn Full-Life, and her Eidolons, for the most part, all do the same thing for varying amounts of MP. Eiko also learns Curaga earlier than Garnet/Dagger unless you pick up the Whale Whisker early on through Chocobo Hot&Cold side questing. I personally believe that even Eiko's Trance is better than Garnet/Dagger's. When Eiko goes into Trance, she can Double Cast White Magic like Holy for ridiculous damage. When Garnet/Dagger goes into Trance, the last Eidolon she summoned will auto-cast itself, free of MP, after a certain amount of dead time. Eiko's Trance is more versatile and generally more useful.
Finally, Freya. Freya's actually a character I could happily replace Amarant for. She can easily work from the back row via Jump and still deal A+ damage, and her Dragon skills are fairly versatile. However, she has a few flaws. While Jump has the benefit of putting her in the air, safe and away from attacks, it also has the drawback that I can't target her. As such, Vivi cannot bounce Spells off her Auto-Reflect, so I'd have to give it to Eiko or Zidane, sacrificing other, more important skills. Aside from that, Amarant does a better job of restoring MP with Chakra, as opposed to Freya's White Draw, and I more appreciate the safety net in Aura's cheap auto-life than I do Freya's Jump ability.
