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« on: August 21, 2024, 04:04:55 PM »
Crystal Project
As Crystal Project takes very, very heavily from FF5, I decided it would be only fitting that it's the classes that get ranked in this case. And don't worry, as it is a FF5-like, there's a lot of classes.
Warrior: Warrior is a very comfortable class. Able to use a broad variety of weapons, Warrior also benefits from its skills simply being able to use any weapon, and able to alternate between tank, damage-dealer, and a bit of mezzer as necessary, it has something for everyone. Best of all, Warrior's stat spread makes it an incredibly versatile endpoint for weapon-based classes. Hard to say anything abd about it aside from that it doesn't take magic hits very well. 8/10.
Monk: Monk plays at being a magic tank with the high HP and SPI. The skillset, however, is one of the best in the game for sheer damage potential, and Brawler will get extremely high marks off of a high-STR character when compared to available weaponry. Chi Blast also exists and has its own unique gimmicks, being a nontyped skill that can't be shut down, running off of an absolutely monstrous SPI multiplier. It's deep in the skilltree, though, and runs the cost of requiring 30 AP. The availability of regen and a powercharge-style setup for the fist skills is impressive in and of itself, though, especially with how dominant Wind Fist can get. 7.5/10.
Rogue: Rogue...is better than most thief classes in RPGs. This is not a high bar. Rogue is the starter kit for DEX/AGI classes, as well as a physical attacker/support hybrid. Damage and status are both there, but all of it is with a twist. Rogue absolutely needs to be at the bottom of the aggro table for 90% of what it does. It has two options it can leverage for when it's above 90%. While one of them is reasonable, the other is a high-AP attack that is going to often be less practical. I like Rogue here, but it's probably the one of the starter classes that phases out the most in endgame. 6/10.
Wizard: Really, I can just sum up Wizard with it being your only real starting AoE option. Don't act like Monk's got anything going for it there, the one AoE attack it has needs a lot of setup from going into Warrior first if you want to make it be turn 1. But in lategame the big draw to Wizard is the top-ranked spells. Flare and Thunder both hit like trucks, full ITD in the former case and half ITD in the latter. It doesn't bring anything else and is bound pretty hard by MP, but it's solid at what it does. Helps that magic ignores counters and evasion. 7/10.
Warlock: Warlock is an incredibly bizarre class. It dresses itself in the trappings of a Red Mage, right down to having doublecast as an option. The devil is in the details, however, and it trades roles off with Cleric as one gets further into the game. By mid- to lategame, Warlock is almost entirely a support class, with never getting any offensive spell options past the starting three. Doublecasting, however, combines amazingly well with its suite of utility spells. Action economy is king in lategame, and Warlock's the only party member able to consistently revive multiple characters in a single turn. Or dispel. Dispels are huge in this game. 8/10.
Cleric: If Warlock was the all-rounder who turned into a support, then Cleric is the other way around. However, Cleric's support is ultimately one-dimensional outside of boosting or busting fire damage; the former is targeted while the latter is field-wide. That aside, it just...does healer things. What it has is two spells that are non-elemental and run off of SPI, making them unique in their ability to not only key off of a defensive stat but, well, be non-elemental. It's not great but it's not nothing. Cast times are a bastard on healing and revival, though. 6.5/10.
Fencer: Fencer is...weird. I've gone through it with a character twice and both times I have yet to feel anything about the class. It has AGI, it has rapiers, it has some crit shenanigans, it has status, it can work okay off of a Rogue start. It's...okay? I don't feel entirely comfortable ranking it but I'd say 6/10, with potential to go higher. Doesn't play nicely with Hunter but that's due to weapon exclusivity, it'd be a perfect fit otherwise.
Shaman: Shaman has an argument for being the single best class in the game, and I do not say this lightly. Having access to both offensive debuffs off the bat makes it invaluable support already, but then combining it with early access to Daze (you do not get Slow until much later, so Daze and its chargetime punishing is the next best thing) and attaching non-negligible damage to all of it just caps it off. The base chassis also has the single best Mind growth in the entire game and remarkable survivability via passive parasitic healing, you know, in case you needed even more convincing to give this class a spot in your lineup. 9/10.
Scholar: Blue Mage! In true Blue Mage fashion, Scholar's spellset is mostly built around edgecases, with a couple of "reliable" options - albeit notably less reliable than the actual damage-dealers. Scholar's never going to be a primary there. Even better, the game does let you know what spells a monster has are learnable fairly easily. This is good, because unfortunately, Scholar spells are learned by individual, you cannot master the class without learning them all, and Learning costs 25 whole-ass LP. for the record, that's as much as is needed to master some classes. In practice this is a very funky healer/support class, and that's honestly fine. 7/10.
Aegis: Aegis has one cool trick, and that's the ability to tank without needing to generate aggro. It's the only cover-based tank in the game and that...honestly that does count for something; generating aggro in some fights or party comps can be a pain, as can holding onto it, so this is a nice alternative. Aegis has a lot of nice tricks to give other clases, but isn't one you'd want to field yourself often. It's a class you will have to make time to level, though, as it's kind of agonizing to try and do so when you immediately get it. And...well, I would say don't expect it to do much more than tank but you can pull some dirty tricks with a Cleric or Monk secondary; that SPR can be put to work other than tanking, is what I'm getting at. 6/10.
Hunter: Hunter is the alpha strike specialist of the game. Quick Shot->Snipe will do severe damage, and bows are uniquely high-power in this game. Furthermore, this is one of the notable Agility-based classes, with perhaps the best Agility growth in the game. On the downside...well, this is where weapon-locking skills comes into play. Bows do not play well with other classes often, and then you have to consider skill bases. Being entirely cooldown-based, however, does allow for some fun cross-class combinations should you find skills that complement the statline and equipment. 7/10.
Chemist: I...don't like Chemist. That does not mean it's bad, though, and you have three general uses for Chemist. The first is simply if you want to run away from as many fights as you can, as Chemist has perhaps the best escape skill in the game. The second is if you desire to run dedicated support for Samurai. The third, however, is where I see its true value. Chemist is a fairly utility-based class, but the true utility is in bossfights where you now have an entire alternate set of resources to keep your party going. The MP restoration is not great, but it's the best you have this side of Warlock, the HP restoration is workable, and this is the only class that can actively fill others' AP, with near-perfect flexibility with other classes courtesy of its skillset's lack of stat-dependence. All while not using either of its own. Just don't look at the "all cooldowns are 1 turn" and think you can get insane damage out of Hunter skills. The agility on this class is precisely dick. 7/10
Reaper: Reaper is an absolute monster of a class, and probably one of the better ones out there. The lifedrain skills are scythe-locked, but the self-harming skills are universal. It also has a very high Mind, which means it can carry caster skillsets competently as well - and none of the skills cost AP or MP, again. It is a bit high-risk high-reward, but if you can keep their HP high, they become significantly tankier than their HP score indicates, as they gain Max HP with the damage they inflict. It's a class with a solid variety of applications and frankly one of the best damage-dealer options. 8/10.
Ninja: Ninja's own skillset barely exists. One attack on a cooldown repeated six times for different elements, and some dodgetank facilitation. And yet it has an incredibly strong role as a carrier for Rogue and Assassin skillsets in particular. The class' unique innate passive is Dual-Wield, and dual-wielding is still incredibly strong. And one could argue Chemist could transform Ninja's utility half into a bizarre dodgetanking setup. The uses alone justifies the class getting a 6/10, since the rest of the skillset frankly doesn't on its own.
Nomad: Nomad is a very, very weird class, and I'm not sure if it's supposed to be accessible as early as it is. But I figure it is as an easter egg for people who get creative in going off the beaten path. It's a fighter-mage hybrid class that uses AP, not MP, to cast spells, and is the main source of Water/Ice damage in the game. This means that it combos very interestingly, both ways, with other spellcasters, as well as physical classes who don't have much need for AP. There's even a passive attack stance, interestingly. The core class' passive may also have some interesting interplay with classes who do run AP-heavy skillsets like Monk, as it provides a damage bonus for the amount of AP spent. 6.5/10, honestly. It takes some setup to work with.
Dervish: Dervish is...fascinating. Its passives try to set up to be a tanky caster, especially with getting extra durability while casting. Which, while interesting, is usually counter to what you want to do and just set up so that your casters don't get hit while charging spells. The other big thing is that Dervish is the Earth/Wind caster, and is best described as an AoE counterpart to Wizard, focusing on wide-area purging as opposed to focused damage. This, however, is probably why I'd rate it a bit lower, since the biggest threats in maingame tend to be single bosses, and Wizard's AoE tends to be good enough for randoms. Nice in exploration though. Oh and Meteor is a fun way to wipe your own party. 6.5/10.
Beatsmith: The speed option for STR-based attackers. Beatsmith has an unorthodox habit of its moves locking it into repeating it three times...which is what it wants, considering it gets a cumulative 20% bonus for repeated actions. Beatsmith consistently is able to punch well above what its weight class would appear to be due to this, as long as you set it up it with a spear or one of the few ATK-focused staves. It has utility, but what you're likely to be using this for is a fast attacker who can hit one or all enemies. 6.5/10
Samurai: I really, really want to like Samurai. The skillset gimmick is incredibly satisfying to pull off, and the burst damage potential is absolutely there - in theory. In practice, it is an incredibly selfish class that refuses to play nice with anything else, except *maybe* Reaper if you squint. Samurai has sole claim to Katana as a weapon class, which means that only classes with "universal" or non-weapon skills are compatible. Its skillset cannot be exported to any reasonable effect. And to get the most out of it at all, you either need to wait between turns or dedicate a second character entirely to feeding them AP. Don't get me wrong, the damage is real. But other classes can set up comparable damage without either waiting for three to four turns or having a dedicated Chemist support. My pick for game-worst class. 4/10
Assassin: Assassin is the DEX option for people who are done with trying to maintain minimum aggro on Rogue and desire power. Power in this case being a whole bunch of physical status options, including both ATK Down and MND Down. In short, Assassin is mostly a physical Shaman, albeit a bit more awkward due to the fact that if you don't want to use knives, you're stuck only using one third of their skillset. Unlike Shaman, it doesn't just leverage its statuses. It can capitalize on them with Coup de Grace, what is essentially Soul Liberator. It's a specific class for a specific playstyle, but it is incredibly strong in that niche. 7/10, and a good part of that is just that it comes significantly later than Shaman.
Valkyrie: Valkyrie is often regarded as the "good" tank. I'm...not so sure anymore after having played with it. High HP, STR, and VIT, terrible SPI, and it moves like a slug. The gimmick to its skillset is that it's the one class that gets power out of both STR and VIT, really. That and some party support. Reraise as a passive feels fairly strong, but the way it works in-game is that you still suffer all the penalties of dying (AP to 0, lose all buffs) alongside having your time to next turn maxed out. Frankly, I find the best way to play a Valkyrie is to just master its skillset, and then shove the whole thing on Warrior, who can back it up with better speed. 5/10.
Summoner: Summoner is a project class, far more than any other in the game. This doesn't have to do with building Summoner up (which is necessary) so much as unlocking their skills - you need to locate and fight the respective gods you can command, spread out all across the world map. And they are not easy fights, each one a gimmick boss in their own right. They're cheap on LP, though, and have incredibly strong effects. Almost enough to forget the longest CTs in the game and the sheer amount of MP guzzled - enough to dissuade the option of putting the skillset on any other class except *maybe* Scholar. 7/10 once you start getting a skillset together for it, but you're going to be fighting uphill the entire time.
Weaver: If you told me that you'd give me Time Mage as one of the final jobs of the game and I'd like it, I wouldn't believe you. But Weaver has multiple aspects that gives them some in-game oomph from the word go. Of its primary tools, Slow is available off the bat, Haste is available in a single job level, and then you have one of the strongest passives in the game: All actions you take on your first turn are multi-target. This makes for some deceptively good strategies pending on what you have available. For secondaries, the class itself slots in perfectly as a support option on anyone who can leverage it. Secondaries for the class itself are reasonably common, ranging to Hunter or Assassin off of good agility, to Scholar or Warlock for a strong turn 1 buffing option. 7/10, pleasantly surprised.
Beastmaster: The last class you really get, unlocking around the same time as Summoner and Weaver, and to be quite frank, well, they can't all be winners. Beastmaster's got multiple gimmicks, while being Berserker by another name. The primary one is that its moves all have CT instead of AP, which allows for some effective ways to pocket AP for a class that wants something better than a basic physical while saving it for something bigger. Plays well with Monk, and the fact that axes are an option means that it can possibly have some interactions with ninja. And at the least, it has chunky HP for an attacker, even if the ATK growth is only mediocre. I'm not sure anyone would be shilling the higher damage variance that comes passive with the class. 5/10
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misses the turn 1 double just barely, which means that it's only getting one clone out. Compounding with the fact that MOMO has multitarget attached to her damage and