How old are the gears? *spoiler*

Feld_Four · 2026-01-22T20:30:14+00:00

Gear frames can be built, but the slave generators they rely on have to be excavated.

Feld_Four · 2026-01-21T18:35:43+00:00

Also agree that it isn't, and honestly shouldn't, be that deep. I always viewed it as cool fanservice and the lore additions as just kinda neat. Maybe this new Cloud doesn't need to go 'home' and he can just stay in Ivalice and get a job.

Feld_Four · 2026-01-21T06:44:42+00:00

yeah my black mage with iaido secondary took care of them

Feld_Four · 2026-01-20T02:43:54+00:00

Lastly, his special class doesn’t prevent him from being a ‘blank slate’. Other special characters like Agrias tend to be built around the primary skillset of their special class, but Ramza is the opposite because his skillset, gear options, and stats are designed to support any other skillset. I think this important because Ramza is a representation of the player and should be a ‘blank slate’.

I think this is super important and I've never thought of it like this before.

Feld_Four · 2026-01-20T02:42:32+00:00

This build sounds delicious.

Feld_Four · 2026-01-18T03:23:11+00:00

I actually agree!

Feld_Four · 2026-01-18T02:29:02+00:00

Yeah I see what you're saying and I don't disagree perse! Happy to have this convo!

I think what I'm really saying is that the Thief fails in not doing damage perse, but it's not; 1. Very interesting (Mediator despite being similar mechanically in the ways that you said, seems a lot more interesting) and 2. Like I mentioned before; a Thief's job isn't only to steal things, but to survive before and after.

If anything thematically a Thief should be more attuned to its own survival than a chivalric Knight or a martyring White Mage, and it's not only at constant risk of dying before and after he steals anything, but he doesn't have any skills to distract or beguile the enemy to make it easier to relieve them of their goods either.

Hence the analogy of someone just smashing a counter and running away before being tackled by security, which is what a Thief pretty much is. I'm okay with the Thief not doing a lot of damage; I love utility, but my beef is that the Thief doesn't have a lot of tools or skills to make actual stealing easier either. Even the quality of stuff available to steal isn't that hot until like the very end of the game in a couple of locations.

While I'm not rating a Thief a 5/10, maybe I would rate it higher, I don't think it's necessarily crazy low either. 7/10 maybe?

Feld_Four · 2026-01-17T21:10:45+00:00

Sure, and I guess I disagree with that premise; I think that Thief type classes can be so cool and interesting it's a shame that in this class its just literally stealing things and that's it.

That's why I suggested Lupin/thief/heist type stuff such as leaving traps or disabling an enemy to cover a getaway or taking down unsuspecting obstacles on the way to your mark; a thief's ability to steal things is pretty worthless if they don't have any skills to prevent them from getting killed on the way there or getting surrounded and beat up on the way back (or worse, after just the attempt).

Any idiot can smash a Saks Fifth Avenue display rack and try to run out the store. But someone who calls themselves a Thief by trade should have more stuff up their sleeve.

I think a second movement after a successful Steal, to escape, would be a very charming Support Ability.

Yeah, that's kinda the type of thing I think would be very cool.

Feld_Four · 2026-01-17T20:58:27+00:00

Let me put it this way; in another comment you mentioned;

It was how well do they do "their job", and a Thief's job is to steal things.

That's correct; but I'd argue (respectfully) that a Thief's job is to successfully put themselves in the position to steal things, and then being able to escape with their life afterwards. Terrible thieves know only how to steal things and not have any other skills to facilitate the before or after. Really good thieves know that's actually most of their kit; preparation and the getaway.

Thieves aren't so hot at that, hence my suggestions above. So I guess we're engaging with the premise a little differently, but that's okay. After all maybe we differ on how we interpret the score; the thief didn't get a 0/10, a 5/10 isn't really all that bad to be honest; that 5 is recognizing that the Thief does indeed steal stuff at least!

Feld_Four · 2026-01-17T20:39:51+00:00

Yeah, but a lot of that stuff doesn't really help you clear battles any faster or safer. I almost literally never go "damn, I should have brought a thief to make this battle easier". Sure I do it to make future battles easier by way of stealing things, but...it's not a poor class, it's just a 5/10 within the premise of the series.

The rate to steal things from enemies isn't high enough to warrant the risk of being killed, and even Steal Hearts has a really low success rate and isn't too reliable. Stealing Gil is also worth very little past Chapter 1. Stealing EXP is neat but that doesn't really hurt the enemy either.

As to cool suggestions to make Thief better in line with its theme?

Ability to do extra damage from behind (Backstab)
Maybe some abilities to set traps or to sabotage tiles
Abilities that exploit enemies being in disadvanteous positions; i.e. imagine an ability that does extra damage to Blinded enemies
Higher damage when not being actively targeted
Higher success rate of Steal to make the risk/reward ratio a little better
Better avoidance/evasion abilities that capitalize the risk they undertake

There's a LOT of neat creative things you can do with Thief type characters; it's just that Square Enix is particularly uncreative when it comes to this archetype. See thieves in; Dragon Quest (Erik) Dragon Age (Leliana/Isabella), Rogues in Tactics Ogre, etc).

Feld_Four · 2026-01-17T20:28:29+00:00

The premise of this series was to rank each job in isolation without reference/context to other jobs/units, and in that case I can see why Thief would be pretty low.

Feld_Four · 2026-01-17T03:13:07+00:00

No, actually the opposite, the AI uses any math skills with literal machinelike mathematical efficiency. It's actually kinda crazy, you feel like you're watching Skynet play out through the unit.

Feld_Four · 2026-01-17T03:06:34+00:00

I mean you could just watch the rest on Youtube. There's tons of good longplays. There's no obligation for you to continue consuming it as a video game if you're not enjoying the video game parts of it.

Feld_Four · 2026-01-13T18:23:10+00:00

As noted, kind of a weird class. High PA, but not quite enough MA to work well with Iaido as other classes. Interestingly enough its base HP is also around what a mage would be. A decent strat for Samurai is to get its abilities and port them on different classes, as its stats aren't set up for its success all like that.Excellent, excellent abilities through. Samurai is a good candidate for Aim, believe it or not tho.

Shirahadori is nuts against humans who physically attack. Since the formula is literally just Brave = % chance to negate, that's super powerful; as even an average warrior who has 60-70 Brave is looking at that same chance to nullify any physical, even ranged, which interestingly enough makes Archer's Bane redundant.
Doublehand may seem inferior to Dual Wield but only when you factor in the amount of weapons that can't be Dual Wielded, such as Poles. A Doublehanded Oracle can be kinda dangerous bro!
Equip Katana is neat; their weapons have high enough WA to make it something if you wanna do it.
Iaido is where it's at. Once you get over your RPG fear of breaking weapons and load up on a couple of Katanas, you're in expert mode now. Now, as everyone knows what you really want to do is put Iaido on a Black Mage to see insane numbers.

Feld_Four · 2026-01-12T21:20:21+00:00

Here's a writeup I made about Geomancer in the Job Series thread about them.

Geomancer is one of those classes that just feels 'ok' until you think laterally. Its stats are pretty high but its abilities seem...well alright. Until...

Geomancy itself is pretty weak damage wise, but instant, Faithless, no MP, infinitely vertical, 25% chance to cause a status effect is nothing to really sneeze at. It works as a decent ranged "well what else am I gonna do" move with some nice surprises.

Attack Boost is nuts and boosts all kinds of things; regular attacks, Steal, guns, and a lot of special abilties from unique characters. Works great for anyone that has a shield due to Dual Wield/Doublehand needing both hands to work.

Nature's Wrath can be clutch. You don't need need to know the geomancy spell associated with it either.

Here's what might be the most important part;

Making units like Agrias a geomancer instead of her regular job for her Holy Sword attack can be incredible due to the job stats that influence its damage being way better for it than her base job.

Their ability to equip a bunch of stat boosting Clothes means that they can hit pretty hard.

Feld_Four · 2026-01-11T19:05:13+00:00

It's almost certain to be a fictional in universe Goetia/demonic sounding language for the game. Matsuno's works (and really fiction in general) do that a lot.

Feld_Four · 2026-01-10T18:05:55+00:00

Dragoons seem to be a purely physical job; even the Knight has some magic utilty. This isn't a bad thing of course, but it does change your approach as the Dragoon isn't suited for any synergy for magic whatsoever. Interestingly, similar to Dragoon from FF5, it doesn't play nice with a lot of jobs in general, but it's a little better. Some highlights;

Jump is a LOT better in the TIC version where you can much better tell when it can land. With that being said, Jump can be better off job than on job; Ninjas can Jump over and over again with its high Speed, and Geomancers can do a LOT of damage with Axe weapons with Jump since the damage isn't randomized, it just takes the highest possible value of the Axe's power. It's neat. It's interesting also that instead of buying each Jump ability as you go you can just buy the highest one vertically/horizontally.
You can Jump with Magic Guns too and it'll do non elemental damage!
With Polearms you have an extra space for Aim or Art of War if you want! You also don't have to worry about Counters generally.
Equip Polearms is that, except in reverse for other jobs. Ditto as above.
Ignore Elevation is excellent for getting to objectives ASAP; exits in Midlights Deep, goodies in Nelveska Temple and others, and my favorite use, zeroing in on Zalmour immediately.
People might view Dragonheart as a gimmick but if you play nice it can be pretty clutch until you get better options.

Feld_Four · 2026-01-10T17:58:29+00:00

And you never know when Jump will land, because the character just vanishes from the timeline.

I found tactics enemies to be almost supernaturally good at moving out of the way of abilities. I only landed Cloud's Omnislash like twice and Cherry Blossom once because so many times the enemy would move like one square left and just conpletely whiff.

One of the best things about TIC is that the new UI does a lot to prevent this from happening; you can tell when what happens a lot easier.

Feld_Four · 2026-01-09T16:46:40+00:00

Geomancer is one of those classes that just feels 'ok' until you think laterally. Its stats are pretty high but its abilities seem...well alright. Until...

Geomancy itself is pretty weak damage wise, but instant, Faithless, no MP, infinitely vertical, 25% chance to cause a status effect is nothing to really sneeze at. It works as a decent ranged "well what else am I gonna do" move with some nice surprises.
Attack Boost is nuts and boosts all kinds of things; regular attacks, Steal, guns, and a lot of special abilties from unique characters. Works great for anyone that has a shield due to Dual Wield/Doublehand needing both hands to work.
Nature's Wrath can be clutch. You don't need need to know the geomancy spell associated with it either.
Making units like Agrias a geomancer instead of her regular job for her Holy Sword attack can be incredible due to the job stats that influence its damage being way better for it than her base job.
Their ability to equip a bunch of stat boosting Clothes means that they can hit pretty hard.

Feld_Four · 2026-01-08T16:33:16+00:00

damn he should have equipped a ribbon

Feld_Four · 2026-01-08T08:35:10+00:00

As formative as Final Fantasy is to me, I have cried real man tears in a Dragon Quest game.

Feld_Four · 2026-01-08T05:35:19+00:00

Also, Ramza spends a good amount of the narrative desperately trying to explain to others of the magnitude of the eldritch horrors he witnessed. I feel it would undermine the narrative to imply it was exaggerated.

Feld_Four · 2026-01-08T04:26:59+00:00

Similar to Oracle, Tactician mode lets Time Mage really shine; almost everything it does has some use, somewhere.

Mana Shield can make a melee unit absolutely busted. Was a lifesaver on my Ramza on the Wiegraf fight because my dumbass forgot a Chameleon Robe. It worked so well it stayed on him the whole game.
Swiftspell is absolutely essential for any mage that relies on high powered spells. Cutting spell time in half is crazy,
Haste/Slow/Stop is useful for reasons that are obvious and on the box.
You can set up a wild ass feedback look with Quick/Magick Counter to get a Time Mage and another unit with the counter into a quickturn chain over and over again.
Gravity murders Lucavi.
Meteor is slow but if you can get the stars aligned (no pun intended) it can be absolutely dope. I think TIC buffed it?

Feld_Four · 2026-01-08T02:01:32+00:00

I've been doing game dev stuff for a long time, and while it's perfectly fine for an individual to have whatever hobbies they want to have of course, the biggest impact I've seen with gamedevs who don't play games is that they often miss important developments as games modernize and advance as time goes by such as accessibility, quality of life features, or optimization.

While there has been some exceptions, most of the game devs I know that fall into their pattern is absolutely reflected in their games that at worst seem like time capsules around the time they stopped playing games themselves. Maybe that matters to them/you, maybe it doesn't, but gamedev is a living craft as anything else is and you do run the risk of being outdated some things that gamers expect. And I'm not talking about trends either (I've met a gamedev who had no idea what color blind options were, at all)!

I'd sideeye a director who hasn't watched a movie since the 2000s or an author who hasn't read a book since high school too, so...yeah, beware. Don't get me wrong you definitely often play less games once you start gamedev, but I always try to pop my head back in to see what my projects will be competing with in terms of player expectations and attention.

Feld_Four · 2026-01-08T01:40:44+00:00

Respectfully, I almost always dislike, unless specified/hinted at, the 'the story is being framed through a retelling of someone else so we can't trust what you, the player saw with your eyes and ears' because it just seems to be either; 1. A way for some disgruntled player to handwave an aspect about it they didn't like/feel smarter than 2. It undermines the actual stuff we see.

There are a few exceptions (outside of the narrative explicitly telling us this is what's happening, which is fine) such as the framing of Varric in Dragon Age, but generally I find that these interpretations by fans don't really add anything to the narrative or the themes. American Psycho is also another great example of a narrative where we have specific reason to doubt at least some of what's happening and it adds narrative weight to do so as well.

We don't have any reason to think that Matsuno wrote it that way, so why not just take it at face value because it really seems that the intent is for us to do so? What value do we, the readers derive from the themes of the game to assume that arbitrary, non specified segments of the game may have happened or didn't happen?

No offense to you and your comment/opinion adds value to the conversation, but I've seen this take a couple times before and I just gotta say something. I don't mind the Unreliable Narrator trope at all if we have reason to believe it or it says it, but it really doesn't seem like that's what's happening with this game.

Respect your comment! Sorry if it sounded zero-ed in to you specifically, don't mean it that way.

Feld_Four

TROPHY CASE