Currently in the middle of a Xenogears file, I'm roughly 40 hours into it and (hopefully) should be edging my way towards the second disc shortly. For whatever reason I felt I needed a break. I love the game, but there's just something redundant about the dialogue/cut-scenes that makes me want to continue playing it in a week or two with a fresh mindset;

So I started up a Final Fantasy Tactics (PSX) file. I think I might've made it to Sweegy Woods when I was younger, and then never played it again. Wanted all the Tactics heads like BlondeWolf and Lublar to know I'm already addicted to this game. At work procrastinating so I can keep leveling and shit. All my characters are still Squires/Chemists, but I can already tell I'm going to fall in love.

Wicked indeed! I always found grinding in the game boring myself, but the story battles were awesome because of all the different terrains and settings. Also, in terms of difficulty, I think it's probably one of the hardest in the series, which is a huge plus for me. But best of all is the story, so much different than any other FF game, which is what really sets it apart imo.

I'm still rinsing out Mandalia Plains over and over trying to max out everybody's Squire role for Walk+1 and Plus Jp Gain. Every cut-scene is worthwhile, this game doesn't feel like a standard recycled RPG, it's all fresh and I love it.

Didn't realize how fucking powerful Monks were early in the game! Read that Archers aren't too great later in the game, so I learned Charge +4 and Concentrate then decided to test the Monk. Hits harder than Ramza does with an Iron Sword and 3-4 levels difference. God this game is incredible.

Yeah monk is one of the best classes imo. Even if you don't use it as a primary ability, punch art is sick. Archer is kinda useless as far as damage output compared to other classes. But, I always liked having an Archer/Bard type in my party, just as my buff class.

I haven't really messed with Punch Art too much, aside from Chakra which I'm in love with at the moment. Matter of fact I haven't really played around with too many jobs yet, I have two Chemists that have been Chemists since I started the game, just trying to master all of their abilities before I move on. Have a Squire turned Wizard, which has been a Wizard the whole game. Then Ramza and another mercenary are Monks. Something in my brain is telling me to master jobs before moving on to other ones and mixing abilities. So many possibilities with this game, can't believe it's taken me this long to avenge my childhood playthrough attempt.

Well, mastering a job doesn't really get you anything extra.. except maybe satisfaction I guess? Basically, getting them to a certain level does unlock other jobs, and a combination of certain job levels unlocks more "advanced" jobs. There are a lot of abilities that aren't very good, or become obsolete. So imo it's not really worth mastering before moving on, unless you have some interest in using the job either as a primary or subjob long term. I always played a job just to get the best abilities, then i'd move on lol.

Oh, and Ramza is the best squire. He gets some amazing abilities a little further in the game under the squire tree that noone else does. Just an fyi if you didn't know.

Must just be a peeve of mine. I enjoyed seeing the "Mastered!" appear after completing Ramza's Squire job haha. Although after reading what you just said, I guess it's not really mastered quite yet. I don't mind leveling at all, prefer to have more than enough gil at any given time, and like playing around with attack strategies, so for the most part mastering most of these will come easily even if it is obsolete. I suppose another perk with my odd leveling scheme is when I'm in story-driven battles, all my characters are level ~20 while the enemies are level 10.

Just got done with the first battle in Ch. 2. I'm guessing I only understand 1% of the game's mechanics at this point, will probably scroll through BlondeWolf's discussion thread and hopefully dodge any spoilers mentioned in there

^ Yeah the story battles can be somewhat easy if you level a lot. Though, there are some that are ridiculously hard even if you are somewhat overleveled.

I think I'm starting to get to a point where the battles will be a little difficult even if I am level 36. About to head with Mustadio down into the Goug or whatever. Really love the Lancer/Monk classes right now. Never been much of a caster in any game I've ever played but I'm working on Priest/Summoner classes as well. Funny that both of my casters have low Faith, I never even thought about Bravery/Faith when I started the game. Later on I'll be able to alter those stats won't I? Similar to how Ramza can Cheer right now, I'll eventually be able to increase or decrease either one of those yeah?