Few more oddities/headscratchers
Arc Knight can use Hell Wave. Intentional or is it supposed to be a Ghaleon-only move?
Shuma can use Prism Crown (earliest I've seen it is turn 2). What happens is the wall of ice from Ice 3 appears for about 10 seconds, then it takes another 15-20 seconds where no one can act before one target on the enemy party takes about 3000 damage. The battle proceeds normally after that.
Found some interesting things from equipping a weapon or shield with auto-Float and changing to a different equip in the middle of a battle. Want to test a little more before saying more.
Update: I beat final Kefka. Found a bug in the ending where no text displays for Ginny, Tir, and Ryu. For me the game stopped in Ginny's ending scene while the music kept going. Pushing A got the ending going again. (music desync as a side effect)
Subjective character impressions: These are based on my initial playthrough in which I miss or skip a bunch of stuff (like not uncursing the cursed shield).
Terra: Magical offense is what she does best. MF6 provides some opposition with high magic defense, high magic evasion, or both. WallChange using opponents also shut down her offense. Ultima would laugh in the face of these disadvantages, except I don't have it (this is partially intentional). She has healing and revival so she's never a bad character though there were those situations where I felt a different character would be more effective. Minerva is still awesome and even more so in a blind run when I don't know what's coming. Dark Sword seems to trivialize resource issues for the most part. I think I made the final dungeon harder by choosing to leave her on the airship.
Yuri: High damage output without consuming resources. I haven't learned any supportive/recovery Fusions (sitting at final save points with lv 37-38 characters), so he's all offense and parasitic healing for me. He has piercing damage that can't be dodged as well and competent MT that gets scary in the WoR. Held in check by For the Children being subject to magic defense so it no longer obseletes the rest of his skillset and low defenses, especially from magic.
Fayt: Interesting. He starts out slow with the only defining feature being superior defense. Jump leads to my weaker characters taking extra damage. Then he gains enhanced Jump though he still is hurting for means of fast damage which I value in early game randoms. His worth spikes in the WoR. Jump becomes more useful with more durable enemies and MT attacks being more common. His equipment options give him access to potent fast offense (Levatine), and defensive builds (can reach 255 defense or 128 MBlcok). He soloed the boss at the top of the cultist's tower in my game.
Rolf: Quirky. He runs out of MP really fast when using his attack techs often, just like in Phantasy Star 2. Early on, I found myself using his unimpressive physical often to conserve resources. Being the only male character to have a revival ability gives him niche utility. Res flies past Reflect and Runic which has situational utility. His armor options leave him somewhat lacking on the defense front. I tested a hunch and got Nazan in the WoB which is fun yet didn't find much application for it before retrieving the airship. Gires, Gigra, and Nathu are all rather elusive. Most of the game, he failed to impress though he did have some moments to shine. He doesn't like foes which null his elements and is deadweight in situations with enemies with high defenses (was total deadweight at Ena except as a target).
Lenneth: Her role starts with mowing down cannon fodder with her bows. In the WoR, more durable enemies and her unique equipment shift her towards a more defensive role. She makes a fantastic medic and also contributes non-elemental damage and buffs when free. While she had little damage output against late game bosses (didn't learn Nibelung Valesti 3), her defensive and supportive attributes put her in my top 4 and the harder challenges I faced were overcome with her presence on the team.
Tir: The instant death specialist. At first, all he has is a few casts of Deadly Fingertips which I'll throw at any enemy that does heavy damage. Then he gains access to Materia for actual damage options against ID immune and Heal with a tradeoff of more thought to spend his limited casts. Judgement is freakishly powerful but will also run Tir out of resources fast if he goes on full offense mode. Sitting around with Silent Lake active to regain MP from enemy spellcasters actually makes sense in some situations. On the defense, he has Dog Block. more situations where Silent Lake is useful (he was a key asset in getting Terra back into active duty in the WoR), and some perks from his unique equipment.
Ike: He's a Fire Emblem warrior. Therefore, he's very one dimensional: physical damage and counters. No MT whatsoever except for summons (and nothing else to spend MP on which is situationally useful). Very average on defenses and is rather vulnerable to magic. Having barrier and evade piercing targetable damage is valuable in some battles.
Laharl: Very average on defenses, damage output is bad. I like using him when there's something useful to be stealing (such as Union Plumes, Shelters, and early Chaos Egg). He's awful in the WoR when it comes to reducing enemies' HP to zero what with improved damage options out there and his haven't improved much. Being able to equip most weapons is a nifty niche. I parked him in the back row and stuck with Steal and Slots so it ends up going unused. Oh, he can equip materia for elemental defense, wooo...
Vyse: Interesting implementation of skillset here. At first, his lack of fast damage is a drawback to clearing randoms. Then the bosses and longer battles roll around. Repeatable Image? Yes please. Some battles probably felt easy because Skull Shield was there to snuff nasty physical counters. Timelord easily became his summon of choice though sometimes a damaging summon would work better (again for that fast damage and that he's not using his MP on anything else). Pirate's Wrath is powerful enough to wait for anytime I can avoid slowing down the rest of the team. I've actually given the skillset to Lina and made use of it, a clear improvement over SwordTech. Average defense and low magic defense lead to him getting killed fast. Takes lots of judgement to use but actually feels satisfying to use. He did a lot of the damage against Kefka in my game, the lucky bloke.
Shady: Is essentially Mog in function with a reduced magic skillset. Dance feels slightly worse due the higher proportion of monsters resistant to ID, much as it appeals to my playstyle as it doesn't consume resorurces. It's when I acquire his ultimate armor that his worth spikes. By adding a RegiSteel Guard to his equips, he reaches 255 defense while keeping a Relic slot free. This feature, along with the elemental immunities, allow me to win Colliseum battles I wouldn't win otherwise which allow me to obtain equipment to break the game even further. Sure, his offense is awful and Fight is garbage but when the opponent's entire skillset is negated, Shady comes out on top.
Ryu: His niche for me is slaughtering single enemies with sword skills. Burns through MP even faster than Rolf and Tir (unless factoring in his low speed). His equipment draw allows him to be a physical tank and the status immunity is a nice bonus. He's able to reach 255 Defense with a bit of work in acquiring the goods to do so. I pretend D Dive doesn't exist so prefer not to use him in the arena except for Legend Blade + Tyrant Fist shamanigans.
Ginny: Fragile as heck but evades a lot more than that dinky 13% would suggest (it's quite a bit later that I discover the evade bug is still in effect). Has access to revival and stealing, which I like. Being able to nullify elements with her unique equips but not all at once makes for interesting strategic choices. Didn't finish learning Mystic or Force Charge and probably missed an ability or two completely. She stayed on the airship in the end though out of randomness rather than other factors.
Jelze; Puny. Takes damage worse than Umaro and needs both relic slots to immune the big 3 elements. He's slightly more useful in a blind run with access to barrier piercing damage that doesn't have resource woes. Better than Eternal Crystals' Sabin. Still prime benchwarmer material.
Lina: Look at that evade, oh it doesn't work. Has better equip choices than Gogo which separates her from its defensive issues. Versatility is quite the boon here. It's an interesting design choice too, making her unable to use any offense boosting relics. Minerva is incredible for blind runs too. She's the fourth member of my Cultist's tower team because of her combination of strengths.
