Rank Characters based on In Game Use: Reboot!

[hinode]

Freelancer: 3.5/10. Examine and the two dungeon skills are technically luxuries, but pretty damned nice ones for me. Game has enough superbosses for ubersetups that practically require grinding to be worth something, so Mimic's worth a bit of credit as well.

White Mage: 9.5/10. Class itself is only decent, but White Magic is the most valuable skillset for pretty much the entire game.

Monk: 5/10. Bastet Claws has a brief phase of dominance if you build up Norende, then they fall off hard until you get a Diamond Staff in C3. I also got a decent amont of mileage out of Hidden Dragon/Qigong Wave/Pressure Point as a secondary skillset vs bosses for a good long while, although they're not amazing enough to be irreplacable like some other skills. Completely obsolete when you unlock Vampire/Dark Knight, obviously.

Black Mage: Abstain; I didn't use attack magic seriously, so I don't feel qualified to rank any of the attack magic classes.

Knight: 8/10. Two-Handed is awesome and almost free, I ended up grabbing it on three people on Normal difficulty. Knight skills are indespensible for the best tank setups lategame when tanking can really matter.

Thief: 3/10. If you buy an Angel Bow from Norende, that'll carry their offense enough to build up JLvls for extra hits later on to salvage their offense. Otherwise... well, the speed-boosting passives are nice, and Life Drain is solid, but they don't have much else. Steal didn't impress me much aside from getting extra Dark Shields for Dark Nebula spam lategame.

Merchant: 1.5/10. I had a lot of money sinks throughout the game thanks to Norende, but never reached a point where I had to upgrade everything or die DQ-style, which is to say More Money never felt worth changing a PC over to an otherwise useless class.

Time Mage: Abstain.

Spell Fencer: 7.5/10. Sword Magic goes well with pretty much every physical setup, but it never felt outright essential for anything.

Ranger: 5/10. The class works but nothing about it really stood out enough to impress me.

Summoner: Abstain.

Valkyrie: 7/10. Crescent Moon is great up until Vampire/DK unlock, and... that's about it. Pretty awesome niche to have for about two and a half chapters, though!

Red Mage: 2.5/10. Really needed to be available earlier, by C3 specialization is starting to really matter for effectiveness. Mainly gets points for contributing Turn Tables to the Utsusemi death machine.

Performer: 8/10 sounds about right? It's clearly good, but I didn't fully take advantage of all its options until late first time around.

Pirate: 8.5/10. Axes are OP in general, but Fox Tail really makes things ridiculous for lategame if you can get it. This means that almost every physical attack wants Axe Lore eventually, and the skillset's pretty good as well.

Salve Maker: 6/10. Not inclined to give it serious offensive credit in-game for various reasons, but Healing Lore is great before you get Holy One, the MP healing options are good, revival options re good, elemental banes are great for boss fights. Feels like it's always going to offer useful support options at any point in the game.

Swordmaster: 2/10. Needs a Kairai-spamming ally to make good use of those counterattack skills, mediocre option vs randoms due to speed/hit count, doesn't handle MT boss fights all that well, less reliable than a 2 shields tank even when it does work out.


Ninja: 8/10. Utsusemi+Transcience+Turn Tables(+Comeback Kid if you have the space) is a pretty ridiculous package for boss fights, the vast majority of which rely on physicals in this game so you could autobattle them if you really wanted. Offense needs twinking to be effective vs randoms/group bosses, but high speed and lots of hits mean it has the tools to do so.

Arcanist: Abstain.

Spiritmaster: 8.5/10. Really neat upgrade on White Mage, tons of synergy and almost no redundancy. Held back somewhat by the need for an ally to provide BP support to make good use of some key skills. I also can't get it the same score as WM because a Spiritmaster-legal/no-WM run feels like it'd be way more painful than a WM-legal/no-Spiritmaster run.

Templar: 5.5/10. Feels like they're mainly useful if you insist on not using super-cheesy stuff like party-wide Utsusemi vs Dragons. They can get the job done, but low speed means they're never going to be amazing at it. Skills aren't as useful in or out of the class as Knight's, either. EDIT: Right, forgot Default Guard exists. That's pretty good.

Dark Knight: 9/10. I don't like the way Dark Nebula practically forces you to build your team around it, but it's degenerate enough to actually make sense. Black Bane+Drain Sword's pretty good even without, and DK is definately to go-to class for those C8 group boss fights.

Vampire: 6/10. I waffle constantly on how harshly to punish them for that Dragon-chain nonsense, this will do as a tentative score.

Conjurer: 2/10. It's not a 0 entirely because you really do need to grind to L99 and max a ton of classes to deal with some nemeses, so Obliterate isn't gratuitous like it would be in a game like FF5.

[SnowFire]

In rambling to myself, a few minor updates from getting halfway through C8.

Ninja: Kairai SEEMS like it should be bad unless paired with some cheesy Transience setup - turn inefficient, give up your turn for no change in enemy turns.  But dang, it's actually really helpful, albeit super boring.  My Tiz has snoozed through the Caldisla / Ancheim / Florem C8 team-up fights spamming Kairai->Edea nearly every turn - there's just too many targets to maintain constant Pirate debuffs, but you CAN redirect all that offense to the super-tank character who takes 1 from physicals and has a Ribbon on at the cost of only one turn.  Physicals that are the likes of "OHKO or nearly OHKO" to others, and nasty ST status like Charm, too!

Summoner: Almost forgot, but Rusalka is a legit boss fight that actually rewards an MT elemental focus, so there's that in its favor (as well as Valk/Vamp I suppose for their MT physicals).  For all that when you first fight her you won't have Deus Ex anyway....

Templar: Default Guard is really good, at least if you aren't blowing up the bosses with 3 Dark Knights.  (Knew this before, just forgot to mention it.)  I have it on 3/4 characters myself, and arguably should get it on all 4...

Conjurer: I can't believe I'm saying this, but...  I've actually used Conjuring a little.  In the aforementioned C8 boss fights, enemy speed is high enough to make healing a little chancy, and I don't particularly care about everyone else's speed, but I do want to have my healer guaranteed to go first.  So...  Hrelsveger isn't totally terrible for a Conjurer w/ White Magic setup, and possibly Giratblulu too (stop the likes of Barras's explosion from killing your healer).  The obscene MP cost means you need to have someone else with Medication, but still, "weird narrow usage if you already have a separate Spiritmaster" is better than "totally useless."  (Of course, if you start getting into narrow usages, then I'd have to bring up things like my Dark Knight being able to solo limit C7 Ominas who just spams really powerful magic that'd cleared the rest of my party out...)

[Cmdr_King]

Bravely Default:
Freelancer: 3/10.  Mime is cute and I do loves me some scanning.  The class itself just isn't viable though, you need an A/S rank in a weapon as a physical class, so basically spent most of the game juggling characters secondary slots based on who could afford to.
White Mage: 9/10.  Feel the power of healing.
Monk: 4/10.  Real strong early, basically the bulk of your offense until you get Ranger I found.
Black Mage: 5/10.  They're such a tremendous drain on MP that, despite being fairly consistently good offense through about mid-C4, you have to moderate their use constantly and they don't bring much to the table BESIDES 4x weakness hitting spell.  Pierce MDef is a great late-game pickup at least.  Useful enough but not really good either.
Knight:  7/10.  Stomp is good, two hands is good, just a very solid and usable package.
Thief: 4/10.  GSS has a window of godliness but that's 'bout all they bring to the table I felt.
Merchant: 2/10.  I don't like half scores, and they're definitely worse than Freelancers, so.
Time Mage: 6/10.  There comes a point in the game where Meteor is the only attack magic you care about I found, and it's sufficiently useful to prop TM up to decent.  Time Slip is definitely something I got occasional use out as well.  Mostly though you've only got the two attack mages most of the game so your magic user is proooobably going to alternate between the two anyway, TM has the somewhat better payoff.
Spell Fencer: 5/10.  Class itself is such a terrible carrier I'm inclined to rate most of the physical jobs above it, but spellblade definitely has its niche so eh.
Ranger: 6/10.  Ranger meanwhile loves it some Angel Bow, makes it top notch offense for a weirdly large time.  Never getting an anti-human move is a big downside though, and after a point the skillset is just not really doing much for you because you have other ways of pumping your offense that stack better.
Summoner: 2/10.  Basically pointless.  BM already has enough MP problems and Summoner is like double cost on -ara spells and less able to hit weaknesses for a stretch.
Valkyrie: 6/10.  Crescent Strike or whatever is damned good.  The game just stops increasing the attack power on spears after a while though so they'll steadily get more and more outclassed until you drop them.
Red Mage: 2/10.  Disappoint.
Performer: 8/10.  Yup.
Pirate: 7/10.  probably the go-to physical class for all of C3, and the skillset is useful on just about any physical build.
Salve Maker: 7/10.  Healing Lore for the win.  Also other useful stuff.
Swordmaster: 2/10.  So much better for enemies than for you.
Ninja: 5/10.  They've got tricks but overall take pretty specialized builds to be functional.
Arcanist: 3/10.  Convergence has some niche use, at least.
Spiritmaster: 8/10.  Those elemental wards are a hell of a thing.  A lot of great skills for your healer in general, depending on overall party build.
Templar: 4/10.  Usable but don't really add much unique overall.
Dark Knight: 8/10.  The really funny thing about Dark Nebula is that unlike almost any other good physical setup, you can get near the damage cap and still use a shield, which is a big boon.  Does however limit your ability to run another physical character that's not a Knight or another DK though.
Vampire: 6/10.  Genome is middling for the effort involved, but their last skill is just the best and overall they synergize amazingly well with Dark Knights, always a bonus.
Conjurer: 2/10.  Carrier class... with a rock bottom skillset for a primary slot.  They'd be so much better if their thing was they just had two open command skill slots or something.

[Dark Holy Elf]

For what it's worth I wouldn't say Dark Knight limits your other physical characters that badly, since you can swap shields on and off them as needed, so long as your DK and other physical attacker don't do their burst damage on the same turn. This is a pretty acceptable caveat since in randoms a DK alone more than suffices, and in bosses the brave/default system makes this not only possible, but desirable much of the time. (And of course there is Spiritmaster buffing for anyone who really doesn't want to use a shield.)

I completely understand if shield micromanaging is too annoying for many players, though.

[Grefter]

[23:44] * Reiska blinks
[23:44] <Reiska> When someone sees Meeple, if it's before I see him
[23:44] <Reiska> Could someone point out that the top 20 is out of order in the in-game-use thread
[23:44] <Reiska> Specifically
[23:44] <Reiska> 7. Yuri Volte Hyuga (SHC) 9.25
[23:44] <Reiska> 8. Blue (SaGa) 9.28

Heads up.

That/

[Meeplelard]

Updating Tomorrow Night.

[Meeplelard]

For the record, this session made me want to kill myself because OH GOD HINTS TOWARDS PLAYING A GAME I DIDN'T WANT HINTS ON GRAH!!! no, do not take that seriously

             Average   STDEVA
Freelancer       2.90     0.70
White Mage   9.00       0.47
Monk           3.65       0.67
Black Mage    4.94    1.01
Knight            7.75    0.63
Thief                 3.09     0.99
Merchant          2.05      0.60
Time Mage      5.81    1.46
Spell Fencer    6.75    1.11
Ranger           5.05     1.17
Summoner    2.89    0.74
Valkyrie           6.35    1.58
Red Mage          3.20     1.40
Performer          7.65     0.63
Pirate         7.65     0.53
Salve Maker    6.89   1.19
Swordmaster    3.70   1.23
Ninja            5.90   1.66
Arcanist           3.94   2.11
Spiritmaster    8.05   1.59
Templar            4.75   0.95
Dark Knight    9.10    0.57
Vampire            5.70     1.75
Conjurer        1.50    0.82

Full Cast Standard Deviation: 2.18

Congrats to both White Mage and Dark Knight for reaching the "Hall of Fame" or whatever I decide to call if 20 minutes from now.

Going with something a little...ah...cuter? this time around.  Mostly because I kind of wanted to do this a while back and the sequel comes out soonish and well, you know...

CHIBIS!

Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy:

Warrior of Light:
Firion:
Onion Knight:
Cecil Harvey:
Bartz Klauser:
Terra Branford:
Cloud Strife:
Squall Leonhart:
Zidane Tribal:
Tidus:
Shantotto:
Vaan:
Claire "Lightning" Farron:

Princess Sarah:
Minwu:
Cid Haze:
Rydia:
Kain Highwind:
Sarisa Scherwil Tycoon (aka Faris Scherwiz):
Locke Cole:
Aerith Gainsborough:
Sephiroth:
Seifer Almasy:
Vivi Ornitier:
Yuna:
Prishe:
Ashelia "Ashe" B'nargin Dalmasca:
Snow Villers:
Cosmos:


Given that many people haven't actually unlocked every character, I have divided up the starters and the unlockables for your convenience, in case you forgot who is what, should that matter.  Of course, rate based on whatever criteria you want for this game because...well...chibis.

[Clear Tranquil]

CHIBIS!

Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy:

Warrior of Light: 7/10
Firion: 7/10
Onion Knight: 8/10
Cecil Harvey: 6/10
Bartz Klauser: 9/10
Terra Branford: 9/10
Cloud Strife: 7/10
Squall Leonhart: 7/10
Zidane Tribal: 7.5/10
Tidus: 7.5/10
Shantotto: 10/10
Vaan: 7.5/10
Claire "Lightning" Farron: 8/10

Princess Sarah: 8/10
Minwu: 7/10
Cid Haze: 6.5/10
Rydia: 8/10
Kain Highwind: 7/10
Sarisa Scherwil Tycoon (aka Faris Scherwiz): 8/10
Locke Cole: 7/10
Aerith Gainsborough: 9/10
Sephiroth: 7/10
Seifer Almasy: 8/10
Vivi Ornitier: 9/10
Yuna: 9/10
Prishe: 9/10
Ashelia "Ashe" B'nargin Dalmasca: 7/10
Snow Villers: 8/10
Cosmos: 7.5/10

[Dark Holy Elf]

Clearly a very important rating~

Ratings are mostly based on farming Level 1-60(?) dark notes as efficiently as possible, which means having just enough speed to get through the FMS part (which is a pretty low bar) and then killing the boss who drops the shard you need as quickly as possible. No need to go to a higher level because IIRC 51 is the minimum you need to get shards for every character, so going notably past that is just making shard-hunting more difficult. Since "beating the game" is dead easy, "unlocking all characters" is probably the goal most players want to reach, hence rating based on this. The only other time character choice matters at all is surviving an extremely difficult song before you're very good at it, where tankstrats have a use.

Warrior of Light: 7/10. One of the top physical damage-dealers. EDIT: Actually less impressive than I thought.
Firion: 7/10. EDIT: Never mind he's the same as WoL.
Onion Knight: 2/10. Useless?
Cecil Harvey: 4/10. Weird and not very good.
Bartz Klauser: 3/10. FMS specialist.
Terra Branford: 8.5/10. Often the most damaging PC, adequate FMS performance.
Cloud Strife: 9/10. Seemed like he had pretty much everything: crazy damage AND a limit and can even twink for FMS if you care (you don't).
Squall Leonhart: 8/10. See Warrior of Light, a little less good at what WoL does but has a limit.
Zidane Tribal: 6/10. Has those stat buffs and such which are nice, along with a limit. (sadly)
Tidus: 4/10. Don't think there was much reason to use him. Limit but blah.
Shantotto: 8/10. Kaboom.
Vaan: 3/10. uh
Claire "Lightning" Farron: 7/10. High strength/magic means she outputs lots of damage.

All unlocked characters kinda suck since you need to level them to catch up. Need to think about how bad the penalty should be. Probably pretty bad. I may change these, quick kneejerk time.

Princess Sarah: 3/10. Has some defensive use.
Minwu: 1/10. Nope.
Cid Haze: 3/10. Scan can be kinda handy for those dark notes.
Rydia: 1/10. Nope. She looks like she should be a good mage if you catch her up but she isn't, really.
Kain Highwind: 1/10. Nope.
Sarisa Scherwil Tycoon (aka Faris Scherwiz): 2/10. Would be solid if you got her caught up I guess.
Locke Cole: 1/10. Nope.
Aerith Gainsborough: 1/10. Nope.
Sephiroth: 3/10. Excellent stats/damage once caught up.
Seifer Almasy: 1/10. Nope.
Vivi Ornitier: 1/10. Nope.
Yuna: 3/10. Has some defensive use.
Prishe: 1/10. Nope.
Ashelia "Ashe" B'nargin Dalmasca: 2/10. See Faris.
Snow Villers: 3/10. Has some defensive use.
Cosmos: 1/10. Nope.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy:

Warrior of Light: 6/10
Firion: 6/10
Onion Knight: 3/10
Cecil Harvey: 4/10
Bartz Klauser: 4/10
Terra Branford: 8/10
Cloud Strife: 9/10
Squall Leonhart: 8/10
Zidane Tribal: 7/10
Tidus: 7/10
Shantotto: 8/10
Vaan: 4/10?
Claire "Lightning" Farron: 7/10

Princess Sarah: 5/10
Minwu: 1/10
Cid Haze:  5/10
Rydia: 2/10
Kain Highwind: 1/10
Sarisa Scherwil Tycoon (aka Faris Scherwiz): 4/10
Locke Cole: 2/10
Aerith Gainsborough: 4/10
Sephiroth: 4/10
Seifer Almasy: 1/10
Vivi Ornitier: 3/10
Yuna: 5/10
Prishe: 5/10
Ashelia "Ashe" B'nargin Dalmasca: 2/10
Snow Villers: 3/10
Cosmos: ?

[Meeplelard]

Warrior of Light: 7/10.   Good damage BMS PC once he gets going; takes a little bit but nothing unreasonable.
Firion: 7.5/10.  WoL but gets the important stuff considerably earlier making him better.  Not as durable as WoL, but better at FMS', so eh, fair trade?
Onion Knight: 2/10.  Balance of FMS and BMS, but doesn't get anything to make him stand out.  High speed is kind of overkill and there are other PCs who do that, but much better at FMS.
Cecil Harvey: 3/10.  Very much the same problem as Onion KNight but not as anemic at BMS'; he's still a case of "really not worth it."
Bartz Klauser: 2/10.  FMS Specialists aren't very good, he's not exception, particularly because...
Terra Branford: 8/10. She's just fast enough for purposes of FMS' on top of being actually GOOD at BMS'; game best mage, pretty cleanly, thanks to Trance, Bluff and getting all the essentials.
Cloud Strife: 9/10. And then we have the game best BMS PC due to having what WoL and Firion have *AND* adds an extremely effective limit on top of that.  Can be twinked for FMS' if you really want, which could be argued a waste, but hey, at least the option is there and he's still probably better at damage than FMS specialists anyway.  I forgot to say, he also gets his good stuff early enough.
Squall Leonhart: 6.5/10.  Very much "Cloud-lite"; feels a little less effective than WoL and Firion, but still solid in his own right.
Zidane Tribal: 6/10.  Hey look, an FMS PC who doesn't suck at BMS!  Has a limit, and can buff the entire team, self included, to be better; his one downside is he does have a limit in his effectiveness due to stat caps, but that's a hell of a lot more than you can say about...
Tidus: 2/10.  ...this FMS specialist right here who has nothing going for him.  Yawn, moving on.
Shantotto: 6.5/10.  A service-able, though overall inferior, variant of Terra, Shantotto is fast enough for FMS', and has all the necessary resources to be an effective BMS Mage, between having all important attack spells, and both Bluff and Dualcast, not to mention a Limit.  She's overall worse, but definitely competent.
Vaan: 1/10.  An FMS PC who exists solely to horde items...THIS IS NOT A GOOD THING IN THE SLIGHTEST GO AWAY!
Claire "Lightning" Farron: 6/10.  A balanced Fighter/Mage, and starts the game with Sinewy Etude, and Omega Weapon is great before pesky Damage caps kick in. 

Princess Sarah: 3/10.  Workable for a healer character, but she really needs to be placed alongside tanks...
Minwu: 5/10.  Like this guy!  High HP + lots of defensive abilities and healing, definitely a strong character to have if you just want to SURVIVE the song.
Cid Haze: 2.5/10.  Half a point for getting Libra Lv 3, but otherwise *Flush*
Rydia: 2/10.  Rydia is some sort of cruel joke, I feel.  She gets all the necessary attack spells, but can only use two of them at a time, a distinction Terra, Shantotto and Vivi (the other pure mages) all lack, as well as misses both Bluff and Dualcast, making her overall worse as a mage than Lightning or Ashe.  Mana's Paean is nice, I guess, but doesn't make up for her other failings.
Kain Highwind: 2/10.  Also a cruel joke, Kain is one of the last PC's you're likely to get, and on paper he should have evrything but can only equip one Pro-active ability, making him significantly worse than many other Fighters.  Being as late as he is, he'll also be underleveled.
Sarisa Scherwil Tycoon (aka Faris Scherwiz): 2/10.  This character is just kind of a mess; they were trying for some ultra balanced build, and what we were left with is someone who is kind of mediocre at everything.
Locke Cole: 2/10.  FMS PC, Libra Lv 2 helps for Dark Notes I guess but that's about all he has going for him.
Aerith Gainsborough: 4/10.  Minwu with a few better skills but significantly lower HP, overall losing trade
Sephiroth: 2/10.  Very much the same issues as Kain; on paper he's got this really neat allowance for a physical or magic build, but in practice he's gotten too damned late to care.
Seifer Almasy: 1/10. They were clearly aiming for some oddball styled tank here...they failed miserably.
Vivi Ornitier: 5/10.  Is Shantotto who is gotten later and without the Limit, making him overall worse, but good if you wanted a 2nd Shantotto or something!
Yuna: 4/10.  Aerith variant, for the most part.
Prishe: 4/10.  Healer who can do damage in BMS'!  This isn't as good as it sounds, because you rarely want to survive if you want to win fights; that said, she's competent enough at the healer thing that she can be a Minwu variant.
Ashelia "Ashe" B'nargin Dalmasca: 3/10.  She can do the healing thing ok-ish, and the Mage thing ok-ish, but not good enough at either to bother.
Snow Villers: 5/10.  Great tank; lacks healing, but he compliments them well with the really high health and damage reduction.
Cosmos: 1/10.  Support character who is gotten as late as Sephiroth and Kain likely *flush*

[Clear Tranquil]

Clearly a very important rating~

CLearly, very important indeed and it's been established NEB, Ciatos and Meeple most awesome peoples and the only ones to get cookies here~

[VySaika]

Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy:

Warrior of Light: 7/10. Good tank for when you want to try battle themes on ultimate.
Firion: 6/10. Good at attacking, but not as good as the top end PCs.
Onion Knight: 2/10. Bad
Cecil Harvey: 4/10. Okay tank, but WoL is better.
Bartz Klauser: 2/10. Bad
Terra Branford: 8/10. Magical smash
Cloud Strife: 9/10. Physical smash.
Squall Leonhart: 8/10. Slightly worse physical smash
Zidane Tribal: 8/10. Awesome Dark Note grinder, good damage/agility and has a boss killing move.
Tidus: 3/10. Zidane-, if I'm remembering things right.
Shantotto: 5/10. Terra-
Vaan: 2/10. Bad.
Claire "Lightning" Farron: 6/10. Same as Firion feels about right. 

Princess Sarah: 1/10. No.
Minwu: 1/10. No.
Cid Haze: 2/10. Point for SCAN I guess.
Rydia: 3/10. Bleh, want her to be better but Shantotto-(who is already Terra-)
Kain Highwind: 0/10. Lolno.
Sarisa Scherwil Tycoon (aka Faris Scherwiz): 1/10. No.
Locke Cole: 2/10. Point for SCAN I guess.
Aerith Gainsborough: 1/10. No.
Sephiroth: 0/10. Lolno.
Seifer Almasy: 1/10. No.
Vivi Ornitier: 4/10. Better than Rydia I guess.
Yuna: 1/10. No.
Prishe: 1/10. No.
Ashelia "Ashe" B'nargin Dalmasca:
Snow Villers: 2/10. Point for supertanking, iirc.
Cosmos: 0/10. Lolno.

[Meeplelard]

Sorry for the long hiatus, but I promise there will be an update in the next 24 hours.

[Meeplelard]

   Average   STDEVA
Warrior of Light   6.08   0.45
Firion   6.70   0.67
Onion Knight   3.40   2.61
Cecil Harvey   4.20   1.1
Bartz Klauser   4.00   2.92
Terra Branford   8.30   0.45
Cloud Strife   8.60   0.89
Squall Leonhart   7.50   0.71
Zidane Tribal   6.92   0.91
Tidus   4.70   2.44
Shantotto   7.50   1.87
Vaan   3.50   2.5
Claire "Lightning" Farron   6.80   0.84

Princess Sarah   4.00   2.65
Minwu   3.00   2.83
Cid Haze:   3.80   1.89
Rydia   3.20   2.77
Kain Highwind   2.20   2.77
Sarisa Scherwil Tycoon (aka Faris Scherwiz)   3.40   2.79
Locke Cole   3.20   2.39
Aerith Gainsborough   3.40   3.36
Sephiroth   3.00   2.74
Seifer Almasy   2.40   3.13
Vivi Ornitier   4.40   2.97
Yuna    4.40   2.97
Prishe   4.00   3.32
Ashelia "Ashe" B'nargin Dalmasca   N/A (3.50)   N/A (2.38)
Snow Villers   4.20   2.39
Cosmos   N/A (2.38)   N/A (3.17)


Full Cast Standard Deviation   1.89

Cosmos and Ashe failed to get enough ratings hence they were not counted into the Standard Deviation.


I apologize for the messy format, you can blame the above entirely on the fact that Kain Highwind is in the cast.

And now that we've had a month between ratnigs...MORE JOB RELATED RATINGS TIME!!!!  AND THERE'S NOTHING THE NEXT PERSON POSTING CAN DO ABOUT IT! Except, you know, there's plenty they can do about it and I'm talking out of my ass.


Blue Dragon:

Sword Master:
Black Mage:
White Mage:
Support Mage:
Barrier Mage:
Guardian:
Monk:
Assassin:
Generalist:

[Dark Holy Elf]

Sword Master: 5/10. Standard fighter job, Mow Down is pretty solid, and it's a part of physical twinking if you go for that. Nothing outstanding though.
Black Mage: 8.5/10. Dominantly good on Normal Mode. A bit fragile but so much firepower, and Regenerate MP is a nice skill too.
White Mage: 7/10. Healing spells are solid, the item-enhancing skills (Double Item, Enhance Item Effect) are also extremely good, and Harm is nice for undead. Kinda fragile and bad at offence otherwise, though, the usual WM way. (And items are good enough that you certainly don't NEED white magic, though of course WM skills are your best vehicle for using said items.)
Support Mage: 5/10. Slow is awesome on any bosses who are vulnerable, and the status is okay but a bit disappointing for an FF (-inspired) game. Some buffs which are nice but not game-breaking. Their lategame skills are great but I never got 'em.
Barrier Mage: 4/10. Defensive buffs are cool, but I don't think quite matches up with Support Mage overall.
Guardian: 3.5/10. Mostly just useful for Max HP+25%, but at Level 9 that's a reasonable thing to pick up and it's pretty handy. Probably the least useful class but not bad considering that.
Monk: 5/10. One of the classes useful for physical twinking, with Charged Attack and Attack Amp and counter.
Assassin: 6/10. Ninja Swiftness is terrific, and their capstone skill is great for physical twinking. It's late enough that they get less credit for physicals than do Swordmaster and Monk, but man, that speed.
Generalist: Ugh they give me a headache. Obviously you get their skills, their skills are great, but you don't want to be them. And their skills are great in a boring way. Abstain.

[Pyro]

Sword Master: 5. Generic warrior class. Not BAD really but nothing spectacular. Hitting weakness is nice but the damage output even so isn't amazing. Admittedly it did do well in some battles.
Black Mage: 8. WTF.
White Mage: 7. I figured this was pretty valuable for certain battles.
Support Mage: 8. Very valuable in fights that matter! Hastening is important.
Barrier Mage: 5. Useful for some grinding strategies!
Guardian: 5. Nice for sme passives I think.
Monk: 5. Likewise, not very much of a carrier class.
Assassin: 7. Speed and a physical twink... But it's mostly all about that speed, which is just so freaking nice.
Generalist: N/A

[Meeplelard]

Sword Master: 6/10.  Decent physical job with elemental hits, but not particularly special.
Black Mage: 8/10.  Powerhouse class.
White Mage: 7/10.  Healing is good.
Support Mage: 5/10.  I guess it's a decent carrier class because better stats than other mages but yeah, skillset.
Barrier Mage: 5/10.  See above.
Guardian: 7/10.  Reliable tank.
Monk: 4/10.  Was less impressed by this than Sword Master.
Assassin: 6/10.  I remember them being iffy start, but a decent end.
Generalist: 5/10.  You totally want to invest time in one, but how good their abilities are really depends on everything else you get, so it's extremely hard to give rate them.  Still, don't feel right NOT rating them because legitimate job so average rating it gets!

[Luther Lansfeld]

Played Hard Mode!

Sword Master: 5/10
Black Mage: 7/10
White Mage: 8.5/10
Support Mage: 6/10
Barrier Mage: 7.5/10
Guardian: 6/10
Monk: 3/10
Assassin: 6/10
Generalist: 5/10

[Cmdr_King]

Blue Dragon:

Sword Master: 5/10.
Black Mage: 8/10
White Mage: 7/10
Support Mage: 3/10
Barrier Mage: 4/10
Guardian: 4/10
Monk: 5/10
Assassin: 6/10
Generalist: 3/10

[Meeplelard]

Blue Dragon:
   Average   STDEVA
Sword Master   5.20   0.45
Black Mage   7.90   0.55
White Mage   7.30   0.67
Support Mage   5.40   1.82
Barrier Mage   5.10   1.43
Guardian   5.10   1.43
Monk   4.40   0.89
Assassin   6.20   0.45
Generalist   N/A (4.33)   N/A (2.51)

Standard Deviation: 1.51

So I'm having problems thinking of the next game to do.  Looking back at doing Blue Dragon, one thing came to mind...

FEAR AND AWE! IN YOUR EYES!
SHOWING YOU WHAT YOU CAN'T SEE!
RAISE YOUR HAND! YOU ARE BLIND!
STARING DOWN ETERNITY!

Wait, Eternity!  Living for an Eternity = Immortality!  Immortality = Lost Odyssey!
This may not have actually happened.

...so yes, we're going from one Mistwalker game to another! 

Lost Odyssey:
Kaim Argonar:
Seth Balmor:
Jansen Friedh:
Cooke:
Mack:
Ming Numara:
Sarah Sisulart:
Tolten:
Sed:
Gongara's Pumps:

And that last one is an absolute requirement to be rated.  I will not accept your ratings if you skip it.

[Cmdr_King]

Can we give non-numeric ratings for the Pumps?

[Meeplelard]

No, you must give a numeric rating!  ]That said, the rating need not make any sort of remote logical sense, so do whatever.

[Dhyerwolf]

Lost Odyssey:
Kaim Argonar: 8
Seth Balmor: 8
Jansen Friedh: 4. Has uses, but man, eventually Immortals start getting access to spells before he does. (And getting Cooke's at the same time)
Cooke: 3.5. I think similar to Jansen, has uses, but needed to not be so badly outpaced by immortals.
Mack: 5.5. Has a few neat utility spells, and from my recollection, either Immortals don't gain his spells except from linking or the items to gain his spells come notably later.
Ming Numara: 7. Think mages didn't quite keep face with fighters overall, IIRC
Sarah Sisulart: 7. Ditto to the above.
Tolten: 3. Not much going on here. He's not horrible, but I can't recall a good reason to use him.
Sed: 8. Double Item is just a stupid thing. It's so stupid I'm tempted to go higher
Gongora's Pumps: 8. Because they are not...
Ming's Double Thong: 10. Because she's wearing TWO of them are they appear to be blue leather.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Kaim: 7.5. Really outpaces at the end and the early early parts but kinda lags in the middle when you don't really need a physical guy much outside of tanking?
Seth: 8. Durability on a fighter-mage and speed makes her more useful than Kaim generally during his lagging periods. No one else really copies her build. In a game where specialization sucks/doesn't exist, the generalist is actually pretty useful.
Jansen: 5.5. Damage in the early and Midgame. As soon as the iortals learn all his tricks, he's done. Notably double cast is a trick that at least takes a few battles to learn so he gets a brief resurgence of use towards the end. More than I can say for
Cooke: 3. Only use if you need four healers or are really lagging behind on learning white magic somehow.
Mack: 4. Has some unique stuff that takes a whole for te immortals to learn but none of it is useful. Only use if you really need the first turn as he's got the speed.
Ming: 7. Slings the magic, starts with good stuff. Learns anything else you need. A generalist but slow and frail.
Sarah: 7. Literally the same as Ming but slightly higher magic that is basically unnoticeable. But since they can do everything you may as well use them both.
Tolten: 4.5. has unique Equips and does physical stuff! This is a decent niche but comes kinda late and most fights aren't won by physicals. Has a unique elemental blocking passive worth learning on your immortals.
Sed: 5. Guns and double item. Items are broken good. Often used him as my non-immortal for gimmicky fights in the endgame. Comes too late to be better than Jansen overall though.
LO Fashion: I love it and will hear no bad words against it! Double things forever! 100/10