Final Fantasy 8:
Squall Leonhart: 7/10. Not much to say, Squall's the best choice most of the time thanks to auto-crits. Limits aren't bad either.
Quistis Treppe: 4/10. I like Quistis, but objectively, eh. Guess she kills some high-level randoms easily if you want to grind against them or something!
Zell Dincht: 5/10. Best limit damage is something. A point over the bland people.
Seifer Almasy: DNR
Selphie Tilmitt: 4/10. Another meh choice, yay Full-Cure?
Laguna Loire: DNR
Kiros Seagill: DNR
Ward Zabac: DNR
Irvine Kinneas: 2/10. lulz. Item farming just to use limits? hahaha. Awful damage with the storebought stuff. No notable stats otherwise.
Edea Kramer: DNR
Rinoa: 7/10. Best stats by quite a ways is worth something.
Final Fantasy Tactics Generics:
Squire: 3/10. Gained JP Up and Move+1.
Chemist: 8/10. Phoenix Down and Auto-Potion are both top-tier abilities.
Knight: 2/10. Needed innate defences up.
Archer: 2/10. Needed the best ST damage skillset.
Wizard: 8/10. Yeah, early black magic is great, and it's an excellent carrier forever.
Priest: 6/10. Okay. Holy is nice, some GT healing (although Summon's probably better for that), and the only revival that lets you take a hit, although slow revival has problems. EDIT: Raised the score a touch, Holy = best human boss-killing offence and the Math Skill capstone, after all.
Monk: 5/10. Decent, but only decent.
Thief: 2/10. ****ing thieves.
Time Mage: 7.5/10. Teleport rules. SC and the skillset are good too.
Oracle: 7/10. Status is great. Not bad otherwise. Life Drain = best zodiac boss-killing offence.
Geomancer: 5.5/10. I want to like them more, but no. Good carrier at least.
Lancer: 3/10. Heavy armour is kinda lame.
Summoner: 8.5/10. Kills shit dead. Best offence for randoms which is the most important. By far. Math Skill surpasses it but Summon takes no effort to make godly, and effort only makes it better.
Mediator: 3/10. Not much to say. Guns or something.
Ninja: 6.5/10. Mm, think they're a little overrated around here, but still an excellent vehicle for ST smash. That's about it, though (durability is lame for a melee character).
Samurai: 4/10. Nice skills, but we know the problem here.
Calculator: EDIT: 7.5/10. I am so damn mood swingy on calculators. On reflection, though... the most efficient way to tear through the game involves 5 classes (Chemist, Wizard, TM, Summoner, Calculator... maybe with a side of Priest in there for Holy but whatevs, it's less important). Though being in Calc itself is still quite painful, it's not quite as self-contained as Summoner or even Chemist. Not that I rate things for self-containment alone, but it is a point; the best classes both are good standalone AND contribute a lot to a cross-class setup. But anyway, Calc gets to hang out towards the lower end of the big five.
Bard: 1/10. Haha. Game fails to make me care about Move+3.
Dancer: 2/10. Nameless Dance is good early at least.
Mime: 0/10. The one, the only.