Final Fantasy Tactics - Jobs Evaluation

Every now and then I come back to this 20+ year old game. Here's my list of essential or notable job stuff in this game. Thanks to the changes made in the War of the Lions version, some stuff is just too effortful to get IMO.

Physical Jobs

Squire
Yell / Tailwind (for Ramza, I use it for most of the game. Did you know Knives and Ninja Swords use ((PA + Speed) /2) * Weapon Stat for their damage calculations?), Move +1, JP Boost, Focus / Accumulate (very useful for grinding. In any real fight, wait for the enemy to come to you while boosting your PA). Ramza's other Ramza-only skills are good, except note that Ultima is only as powerful as a Fire 3 / Bolt 3 / Ice 3, which are half as powerful as Flare or Holy.
Unlocked: At the start

Archer
Speed Save / Adrenaline Rush (take a hit, gain +1 speed; Knives and Ninja Swords use PA + speed for their damage calculations), Concentrate (improves success % of some stuff, and makes your attacks hit at 100% if every you find someone particularly dodgy)
Unlock: Squire 2

Knight
Speed Break (speed break the last enemy while grinding so you don't have to put up with them, or just any enemy in general. Synergizes very well with Dual Wielding / Two Swords from ninja, works with ranged weapons like longbows and guns), Power Break (reduce your own characters PA to 1 and have them attack each other to grind exp and jp)
Unlock: Squire 2

Monk
Chakra (restores HP and MP for free! amazing for grinding), Stigma Magic (cure conditions), Revive. other stuff is fine shrug. Brawler from the Monk and Two Swords / Dual-Wielding from the Ninja is supposedly the highest damage dealing combo in the game, but I don't use it.
Unlock: Squire 2, Knight 3

Thief
Move +2, Steal GP (not bad for grinding, amount of GP stolen affected by speed stat! triggers an enemy counter)
Unlock: Squire 2, Archer 3

Geomancer
Attack Up (it's been a while, but I remember this boosts the damage of Holy Sword for Agrias and Orlandu)
Unlock: Squire 2, Archer 3, Monk 4

Lancer / Dragoon
Auto-raise / dragon spirit, Ignore Height (ignore height is amazing for one fight in particular in CH4, at Zeltenia Castle against Zalmour the Heresy Exclaimer)
Unlock: Squire 2, Archer 3, Thief 4

Samurai
Blade Grasp / Shirahadori (get this on someone cursewording ASAP). I don't use anything else from this class but Draw Out / Iaido skills are affected by the Magic Attack (MA) stat, so this skill set might suit a female magic character or synergize with a male character using the Bard's MA Save. 
Unlock: Squire 2, Archer 3, Knight 4, Thief 4, Monk 5, Dragoon 2

Ninja
Two Swords / Dual Wield (too bad the duplicate weapon glitch was patched out), Shuriken and Bombs are fine
Unlock: Squire 2, Archer 4, Knight 3, Monk 4, Thief 5, Geomancer 2

Dancer
Too much effort for me. PA Save / Attack Save for possible niche strategies with female physical attack characters
Unlock: Squire 2, Knight 3, Archer 3, Monk 4, Thief 4, Dragoon 5, Geomancer 5

Magic Jobs

Chemist
Potion, Phoenix Down (all outdated by Monk IMO, except that Phoenix Down has a 100% success and Revive doesn't); Note that general use of auto-potion is just a good way to waste potions; specific-use only. There are better reactions for general use. 
Unlocked: At the start

Black Mage / Wizard
Frog (get this asap! Frog doesn't wear off on its own. It makes a character do damage in the single digits and stops characters from casting spells. When grinding, kill off all but one enemy, then turn them into a frog so that they are basically useless)
Unlock: Chemist 2

White Mage / Priest
Cure 3, Raise 2, Esuna, Holy, Wall (all excellent for Math Skills. Get anything else and I think it clutters up the Math Skill list. Holy is cheaper and more powerful than Flare from the Black Mage / Wizard spell list).
Unlock: Chemist 2

Oracle / Mystic
Repose / Sleep is notable as a poor-man's Frog. I don't really use anything from this class, but its spells look cool.
Unlock: White Mage 3

Time Mage
Haste, Teleport (ignores height and obstacles, can increase the number of squares you can move with a chance to fail of 10% per square beyond you Move stat, so Move +1 90%, Move +2 80%, etc.)
Unlock: Black Mage 3

Calculator / Arithmetician
I think you need a dedicated magic character in your roster to learn all these action abilities. All the action abilities are essential for this classes' skillset. 
Unlock: Chest 2, White Mage 5, Black Mage 5, Mystic 4, Time Mage 4

Mediator / Orator
Entice / Invitation (want to steal an NPC's gear? Just add them to your party roster instead), Preach, Enlighten / Solution, Praise, Intimidate / Threaten, Equip Gun (this is actually one of my favorite support classes although the stat growth is poor)
Unlock: Chemist 2, White Mage 3, Mystic 3

Summoner
I don't use this class or anything from it. Best MP growth (chakra and Math Skills roll eyes)
Unlock: Chemist 2, Black Mage 3, Time Mage 3

Bard
Too much effort for me. MA Save / Magic Save for possible niche strategies with male magic characters, Move +3
Unlock: Chemist 2, White Mage 3, Black Mage 3, Mystic 3, Time Mage 3, Orator 5, Summoner 5

Others

Mime
Too much effort for me / I don't use this class.
Unlock: Squire 8, Chemist 8, Knight 3, Archer 3, Monk 4, Thief 4, Dragoon 5, Geomancer 5, Chemist 2, White Mage 3, Black Mage 3, Mystic 3, Time Mage 3, Orator 5, Summoner 5

Dark Knight
I unlocked this class once. Once.
Squire 2, Knight 4 (Master), Monk 4, Archer 4, Thief 4, Geomancer 8, Dragoon 8, Samurai 8, Ninja 8, Chemist 2, Black Mage (Master), also supposedly you must kill / crystalize 20 enemies.

Onion Knight
Too much effort for me. Apparently, this class starts off poor and gets better after MASTERING all the other jobs. The exact mechanic, I've read, is the Onion Knight's job level goes up by 1 for every 2 jobs you master, and when the Onion Knight reaches job level 8, it gets some big boosts to its stats.
Unlock: Squire 6, Chemist 6

Final Fantasy Tactics Advances is Awesome, Guys!

One of my favorite RPGs is Final Fantasy Tactics. I love this game, but there's a problem: I've already played it. What I would really like is a proper sequel to this game with the original gameplay, graphics, and tones left intact. What we got is a lazy, boring, dysfunctional POS for kids called Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced. What a stupid title. It reeks.

The original Final Fantasy Tactics did some really good things for RPGs and videogames. It told a great story and provided a lot of fun and challenge. You play as a young noble, Ramza. He's a squire training to become a knight like his father so he can carry on the family legacy of leading the Hokuten, an army of knights, and uphold justice. Ramza never becomes a knight because he becomes disillusioned with society during some of his early experiences of the battlefield and leaves his life behind to become a mercenary. That's when he discovers the dark inner workings of leaders and authorities when he has to protect a princess from being assassinated by some of her enemies while protecting her from others who would exploit her rank and title. He also has to rescue his sister who is abducted by a warlord and expose the church and governments for the corrupt entities that they are. The overall war that takes place during the story is motivated by greed, and both sides are take advantage of the people while being manipulated by someone even higher up.

The game is rated T and it tells a serious story any adult can appreciate. This story has some dark themes to it. At some point, Ramza even becomes a Heretic. There's also a framing device where a narrator, a scholar named Arazlam, begins by telling you about a period in the history of Ivalice, called the Lion War. It's widely believed that a single hero rose from a commoner to a king and ended the war, but that's a lie. Arazlam discovered the real story which was suppressed by the church and shares it with the world to finally give due credit to those who have gone without proper recognition for hundreds of years and put an end to the churches lie.

To me, FFT is a realistic period piece with fantasy elements to it, rather than a fantasy story. It's as if Christopher Nolan directed it. The only complaints I have with this game are minor: Some localization issues and some characters whose roles in the story disappear as soon as they join your party.

The next tactics game we got from Square was bologna. Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced for the gameboy advanced (gba) is garbage. First let's address that it's a gba game and as such it is technically inferior to it's predecessor which was on the PS1. Also unlike it's predecessor, this game has an E rating. This leads us to the biggest problem - the story. FFT had a story worth your time, but FFTA has a story I would hesitate to call OK. There are almost no serious or significant themes. One of the main character's major conflict is her goddamn hair color. True to typical children stories, FFTA aims low. The art complements it's kid-friendly approach. The colors are bright and happy, the character designs are particularly cutesie, the music is light-hearted, and the sound effects almost have a silly or fun quality to them. Also, the fights in this game are presented more like a sport than actual combat.

The story is lame. The plot is our hero and his new friends from school read a final fantasy related book, which comes across as a crude break of the 4th wall. After reading it, one of them wishes the real world was like a final fantasy game and that night it comes true. The next moring, our main character Marche is confused when he wakes up in the middle of an unfamiliar street dressed like video game character, then he accidently calls someone a bad word and gets into a fight. After that, a Moogle (an iconic animal species of FF series) asks Marche to join his new team of adventurers called a "clan." Marche wants to learn more about how he got here and how to go home while occasionally meeting familiar faces.

The game's story is delivered in a strange way. Instead of a linear plot unraveling as you consistently progress, you visit Pubs and look at Job Postings and accept various Jobs for your clan that range from finding herbs to catching a thief and returning his overdue library books. You don't know which job postings will move the story forward and which ones will just give you busywork.

In case you don't care about the bad story, gameplay sucks too. The gameplay has been changed significantly so it hardly resembles the original. In FFT, you could unlock up to 21 classes. This was easy, fun, and rewarding. In FFTA, there are as many classes, but they're not as easily accessible, available, or interesting. For a Final Fantasy first, there are different races: Humans, Moogles, LizardMen(not the sexy kind), BunnyGirls(also not the sexy kind), and the Heffalumps from Winnie the Pooh, except they're dopey looking. Each race has access to certain classes, so if you want to have access to all the classes in the game, you need to have at least one character for every race. You need access to all the classes in order to meet certan requirements for certain job postings. Some classes are nothing special, just a slightly different versions of the same class that belongs to another race. At the end of the day, all this really amounts to a ton of busy work. Better get cracking, asshole!

The busywork in this game is overwhelming and distracts from the main plot so much so, that at the end of the day, the story feels like a poor excuse just to create a game about achieving random accomplishments and busywork. My fury is compounded by how slow paced the battles are in FFTA compared to FFT. The features of each class have also been changed, limited, or nerfed.

Another aspect of this gameplay I hate is the Laws and Judges. Laws are ridiculous rules about what you can and cannot do in a fight, such as "no hitting." There's really a law that says you can't use your attack command! Judges are assholes who enforce these stupid rules. This doesn't make the game any more interesting or challenging to me, it just makes it even more painful. At some point you meet some magical asshole who develops anti-laws and sells them for your left butt cheek. Get this, you use an anti-law to nullify a law you don't like. How the hell do I nullify a law?  This is a vaguely defined, abstract idea. The anti-laws come in the form of playing cards. All you do is wave it and it disappears and changes the law. I can just see myself waving a Playing Card so I can shoplift at Wal-Mart. Even if you're brawling with a group of wild monsters, a judge magically appears to enforce the "no hitting" law. It's bullshit and I hate it.

Something else that bothers me about this Final Fantasy Failure is another failed attempt at character customization. In various FF games they attempt to build in a way for the player to customize their characters to build a dream party to suit their play style. Well it doesn't work because no matter how much emphasis you put on attack power or speed in this game, you won't notice it till late game and by the end, having a powerful fighter doesn't let you KO enemies in one hit and having a very fast character doesn't let you get in extra turns. What you end up with is typical strong yet slow character and a weak but fast character. If I had known that, I would have put more work into creating more well rounded characters so they wouldn't be crippled by having only one strength and many weaknesses.

I didn't finish the game because at some point it really sunk in how worthless this game is. By the middle of the game you discover the real enemy is one of your friends from school. He's the one who made the wish that started the whole mess. When his wish was granted, he became a prince, his father became king and head-judge, and his mom came back to life. The little asshole is so happy to be with his mom again that he's actually forgotten what life was like before he made the wish. Actually, I imagine there's some plot cliche about how he's actually a victim somehow, and the really real villain is manipulating him so he can feed off his joy or take over the world or some shit.

What I really want from Square for the Tactics spinoff franchise is for it to be taken seriously. I want a sequel that is true to the spirit of the original and I don't trust modern day Square Enix to have the ability. FFT falls under the genre StrategyRPG or TacticsRPG. There aren't very many TacticsRPGs out there. FFT wasn't the first TacticsRPG, but it was the best, and the only one I can actually play.