One of the greatest ideas to come out of a Final Fantasy game was the amazing theory of the job system. Ever since the first Final Fantasy, it's all come down to whether you had a white mage and black belt or a red wizard and fighter. Of course, as everyone will find out sooner or later, not all jobs are created equal. Nobody values Edward as much as Cecil. And why not? Because his job sucks. Here we put on trail the various classes we've faced throughout the the series.

Final Fantasy Job Classes

Knight
The most basic of all classes, the knight has one thing going for him: Swords. Knights have always had the ability to weild the somehow deemed special "Knight" swords. This usually serves as an annoyance, but if you actually use knights, then they end up kicking unusual amounts of ass. Their big shortcomming is that they usually have very useless special abilities. Other than choosing "fight" every round, you're not going to see much action with your knight. But in FF5 they taught you BothHands, which made them all worth it, because "fight" could eventually do more than Bolt3.
Verdict:   Four stoves
White Mage
Boy oh boy where would you be without a white mage? My guess would be probably in chapter one staring at the "Game Over" screen, unless you're really into gimmick parties. When it comes down to defensive playing, these guys are the key figure, since items get to be too expensive for regular use. And the fact that buying a tent can restore your MP almost totally, you usually don't have to resort to anything past Cure2. Oh yeah, they can use Holy, but compared to your armor-clad friend popping off for 1000 damage each hit, keeping them in the back row and making their second job time mage would probably be more effective.
Verdict:   Four and 1/2 stoves
Time Mages
Speaking of time mages, these are guys you don't want to leave at home. If you don't believe me, then the next time you go up against a group of doped-up ninjas with Haste on them, then I'll be laughing. You probably won't be able to hear me by then, but I'll feel much better for it. That and in the upper levels, the time magic kicks what ever proverbial pants black magic thinks it wears. However, in the lower levels, well- everything good is worth working for, right?
Verdict:   Four stoves
Dragoon
Now let's take a break from these flaky mages to talk about something I really feel strongly about. To put it bluntly, Dragoons suck, in every possible comprehension of the word "suck." Okay I'm sure since they're video game sprites there are a few comprehensions you can eliminate, but still. Kain was cool in FF4 but since the introduction of the class system, there have been very few redeeming qualities introduced. The jump skill is limited, and especially in FFT, rather useless. They don't even really teach you anything worth learning. Well, in FFT you can hit people two spaces away with spears, and they teach you Dragon Spirit, but don't even bother with them in FF5.
Verdict:   One and 1/2 stoves
Trainer
These people brilliantly display a flawlessly executed combination of uselessness and bad fashion. I suppose someone thinks that there could be some usefulness to capturing monsters, but the fact that they have to be bordering death makes it not only impractical, but annoying. If it were just as simple as Relm's sketch and control, it'd be a lot cooler, but no, tough luck. Unless you want to get all the blue mage skills, where you have to deliberately controll some enemies, you shouldn't even bother. But if you want to get all the blue mage spells, then you have time and effort issues that you need to resolve anyways.
Verdict:   One stove
Blue Mage
While I'm on the issue of blue mages- they didn't have these in FFT, and I'm kinda glad. The principle behind blue magic is pretty cool, and it's something that we wanted to do all along. The enemies have a really kick ass ability, and we want to use it! But the stipulations involved of only being able to cast spells you not only get HIT by, but SURVIVE, make learning such useful spells as Level 5 Doom quite the pain in the ass. Not only that but some enemies require you to controll them to even get them to use their abilities on your mage in a super-hero costume. And that would require a trainer. And you know what my feelings toward them are.
Verdict:   Two stoves

Back to the index

Written by WrexSoul and posted on 12-09-99.
This article is ©2000 Zach Francks.
WrexSoul@salamando.net