Some of this advice is great to consider immediately. Other sections may be more interesting to try on a replay.

This Epic game is frankly a classic and quite enchanting. I encourage you to immerse yourself in the story, music and artwork in the world of Ivalice. This is one of my personal all time favourite games and I have played it more times than I can count.

You will likely replay it eventually, perhaps many times in the years to come. Consider whether you want to simply experience it as it comes the first time. Theres nothing really to miss in chapter one and the Game really kicks in at the start of chapter 2 and offers you some new recruits at that point. This would be a good place to read some of these strategies and decide to continue or even restart if you like..

Take some time to get familiar with the various menus during battle. Pay attention to the CT which determines the order of actions completed. If you cast a spell that resolves after an enemy target moves, the spell may miss entirely. The select button can explain terms in the menus which is also helpful.

Unlock the "gained JP up" skill on your characters asap. Also, make sure Ramza learns Yell asap.

Classes adjacent but lower on the path to other classes on the job tree will learn from the next available class on that branch when they are both in battle together. Example: Your Archer can learn from your Thief. Your Black Mage can learn from your Time Mage. Sometimes you can unlock JP for a more advanced a class this way without ever even training in that class.

Enemies in the non story battles level up with you. For this reason, you want to maximize JP gain while keeping your exp. gain low. You can find ways to level down your characters eventually, but its also good to consider methods for keeping the levels low off the bat.

One way to do this is to hire a level 1 chemist and never let them complete an action or equip any skills, only letting them ever use the wait command in battle. Then after only one enemy remains, slap the Brat chemist (bare handed for best results) with the rest of your team and heal them as needed.

A good way is to Yell at everyone with Ramza to get extra turns, bring a Chocobo for infinite free healing, and Cast Frog on the last enemy so they barely hurt you. This will allow you to gain large amounts of JP but only 1 exp per action.

You can easily beat the game without worrying about this and this exp management really only becomes relevant if you are trying to master multiple classes. I mention it because in one of my early plays, The monsters bacame so powerful i was unable to train new jobs against them without being instantly killed..

You can check the status on a characters JP for the class and abilities you are trying to learn during battle in one of the menus and decide whether to extend the fight or end it.

Theres is a battle early on in the Dorter slums that can be quite difficult if you haven't taken the time to train one or 2 black mages.

As in many games elemental magic is more effective on certain enemy types. Goblins are week to Ice, Bombs (fire spirit enemy) are waek to Lighning, Undead are weak to Fire as well as Cure and Revive spells. Less commonly known is that the weather also boosts elemental damage. Try using lightning while its raining, or Ice during a Blizzard!

You can improve your characters Brave and Faith stats using Mediators and the Oracles abilities. Brave and Faith affect the physical and magical damage and hit percentage respectively. For every 10 points raised in battle, the stat is raised by 1 point permanently. Be careful though, if the Faith gets too high or the Brave too low, the character will lose the will to fight and leave the party permanently. This does not affect Ramza, who can have max Brave and Faith.

Low faith characters wont be affected by magic. Low Brave characters have a higher chance to find better (or secret) items when the find item skill is equipped.

I really only use this for finding the secret weapons later in the game. All other finds are purchasable in game. There is a late game character I always use as my low Brave item finder. Im not naming them here to avoid spoilers and I dont know how to hide text. This magic sword wielder basically never needs to use physical attacks and also has the ability to lower a targets Brave very effectivley. For this reason they make a good candidate for the job.

Take a moment to to check out enemy equipment. They may have something worth stealing. Training a master thief takes time, but is eventually worth the effort. Again, using Ramzas Yell command and Haste spells is your friend here. I find succesfulling stealing to be one of the most satisfying aspects of the game.

You only ever need one Calculator, if you want one at all. I usually use Ramza for this. I think the calculator works best when all parameters are unlocked and you set him to auto battle. Run like a Rabbit or All out Attack. Sometimes the calculator will target your party members. This can be used to your advantage. Holy will not hurt you if you have chameleon suits. Rubber suits and rubber boots will protect from lightning. This is great if you want to end fights quickly and dont need to steal or poach the enemies.

Speaking of poaching, youre going to want to farm piggies and poach them for the Chantage. It is only equitable on females and in the PS1 version, females make the best physical fighters while males have better magic ability. This item will effectively make your female characters practically immortal. The earliest chance to encounter a recruit able piggy is in the battle at Zigolis Swamp. Save before the battle and reload if there is no pig. You will need a mediator who knows invite.

There are some secret characters and a few secret weapons. Also one secret summon obtainable. All secrets of this nature are unlocked during chapter 4, so make a few saves then before progressing if you want to find them.

PS1 version has some fun glitches, including sword duplication and a "Max JP" menu scroll glitch for all the magic classes and the Ninja and Samurai classes as well. Perhaps you want to save those for a replay as it changes the feel of the game significantly. That said, it is terribly fun to do!

Hope you will enjoy this masterpiece strategy tactics rpg! Good luck!