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« on: 2021-04-30 19:26:14 »
It's been a while since I was last here. Unfortunately I'm very busy these days so I ended up not playing much more of the mod. I was surprised to see so many updates!
Anyway, since it seems like I might not finish the game any time soon, I decided to do the write up I mentioned way back on my experience with the characters. Keep in mind I'm only at the Lunar Base so there are abilities and limits I haven't unlocked yet. Also keep in mind, this is all pre-1.3, so some of these may not be relevant.
Squall: Squall's good the way he is. He is very tanky and can deal very good physical damage, especially with Darkside. He might seems a bit weak early on, but once he gets towards LV 20, and gets abilities like Darkside, he really starts to pick up the slack. Only thing I might suggest as a change would be to give him Cura and maybe Life as additional spells. Cura would definitely give his white magic a bit more longevity and Paladins tend to have it in FF.
Zell: Probably one of, if not the best party member. His high HP offsets his relatively weak defenses, his damage is really high and doesn't cost HP or spells. If I had trouble with a boss, swapping in Zell usually helped turned things around. He's really good, almost a bit too good when compared to the rest of the characters in terms of damage and survivability.
Selphie: Like Zell, she is really good. She is squishy but her damage output makes up for it. Selphie's straightforward like Zell, so there isn't much to say about her. She's easy to use, her spell selection is great, I really don't have any complaints. This is true even before unlocking her Double ability, and after she gets even better.
Rinoa: Rinoa functions perfectly well as a white mage and offensively Dia and Water get her by for the most part. Angelo's limits are strong too so that also helps. Nothing much to say about her stat-wise or anything, she is the necessary white mage and fulfills that role just fine.
Now on to the two characters who I think need some changes.
Quistis: Until she gets Aura, Quistis is pretty limited. It doesn't help that her physical damage isn't very good and Draw-casting is unreliable. Once she gets Aura and a few limits, she gets better but honestly, she still isn't very good. Even though her stats are balanced, she just doesn't do enough damage or have much in the way of utility. Apart from stealing, she's really only good for dealing damage with limits. While her limit selection is technically versatile, acquiring her limits takes more effort than those of any other character, and even then her damage with them isn't up to snuff. Sure she has various elemental attacks, but not only do you have to find them first, but once you do, characters like Selphie and Rinoa still outdamage her with their magic very noticeably. I had Selphie deal twice as much damage as Quistis constantly, if not more.
Plus given that you have to seek her limits out, the few defensive spells Quistis has that could give her some versatility aren't obtainable until much later. I'm at the Lunar Base and she still doesn't have Mighty Guard or White Wind for example, both of which would have been very useful in any boss battle up until now. I think she should get these particular limits much earlier to give her some much needed defensive capabilities that would make her uniquely useful. Additionally, the damage of her limits could use a boost.
Honestly, if not for her ability to steal, Quistis would have been a permanent bench-warmer for me because she was always a liability for bosses. She couldn't deal much damage, she couldn't take damage for long, she just isn't very good. I was struggling against Seifer in Galbadia Garden with Rinoa and Quistis in my party, once I switched her out for Zell, I won the fight on my first try.
Irvine: Irvine's too gimmicky for his own good. His damage early on is really low and he isn't particularly good for anything until he gets Aura like Quistis. Later on he starts catching up, his damage gets better and his speed and critical rate start showing more potential. However I found him to be dead weight up until that point, mostly had him using healing items. I understand the idea behind the different guns but I'm honestly not a fan of that mechanic all, I'd prefer if he just had normal weapons like everyone. Overall, Irvine has the same problem that gimmicky characters like Gau from FF6 do: he can be useful if you put in the effort but when most other characters are easy to use, it makes him look worse.
I have a big suggestion for Irvine: turn him into a Red Mage. Give him Magic (and Draw?) and a spell list containing most of the basic and second level spells, plus some support ones. I was thinking Scan, Cure, Cura, Esuna, Haste, Slow, Fire, Fira, Thunder, Thundara, Blizzard, Blizzara, Water, Aero as must have spells for him, plus anything else you think is appropriate, like status-effect spells. Maybe Life?
Irvine has a pretty good magic stat and I decided to use him as a Red Mage, and it made him so much more useful. He isn't as good as the pure mages, but he's good enough at both offense and healing that he can be useful up until high-level spells start rolling in. Having both black and white magic as well makes him uniquely versatile early on, and is a great choice for elemental magic if you can't use Selphie or as a second healer if you don't want to use Rinoa. This is really good in particular during the prison and missile base sections where the party gets split up, having a second healer is super useful.
This would also help his late-bloomer stats. Early on he's not that fast or strong physically, but he has good magic, so he'd mostly be sticking to using spells to offset this. Toward the later parts of the game, as his magic starts lagging behind, his physical damage starts catching up and he gets more types of ammo, you'd start using his physical attacks and limit more. His spells would no longer be as useful later, since Thundaras can't keep up with Thundagas or high-end spells, but by then, he'd grow into the physical attacker he is. Sinceh he'd have Cura, he'd still be a decent secondary healer as well in a pinch.
Basically he'd be the classic Red Mage, a class that is really useful early on but not so good later, and by the endgame, he'd grow into a fast, high-critical rate Gunner, while still retaining his spells for emergencies if wanted. I think this would be better than he is now, plus Irvine always struck me as a hybrid character, who'd have a class that combines attacks and magic, not really sure why. Also, his GF should learn Call Shop to make buying ammo easier. I think Cerberus only has Junk Shop, which is less useful in my opinion.
Well, that's all. I hope it will be useful. I'll still be keeping an eye on the mod in the future, although I'm not sure when I'll actually have the time to continue playing properly. :C
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I'm hoping to finish disc 1 soon.
