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jdotmiThis post is going to be all Final Fantasy.
It will be chock full of spoilery goodness.
And it will be a work in progress.
Commence Braindump.
I'm not doing a review. Right now, I'm just going to babble on about Dresspheres. I'm not done with the game yet, and this is, again, a major work in progress.
The Basics:
Gunner -
At first I wasn't that fond of the Gunner. Trigger Happy causes me to lose focus on what is going on and takes forever to recharge. I wasn't seeing any significant damage and some abilities seemed silly.
Yuna has mastered this dressphere. I use it frequently now. I don't have any wild accessories to let me do a billion damage with Trigger Happy yet, but I have grown to love the no-delay Gunplay skills. Tableturner is a godsend. On The Level is nice for just tearing things up. It's not my favorite, and it isn't always available on my grids, but it isn't my least favorite.
Warrior -
I like this. Big damage. Big defense. Pathetic magic skills, though. They just take entirely too long and are, at best, entirely situational. I will rarely fight something that just requires me to use one of the Swordplay techniques. If it did, I'd probably spherechange into something with a little more readily available oomph.
Paine has mastered this, however. She can really tear things up when she's in it, but, again, I have better uses for her. I do like to keep the Swordplay abilities available via Accessories or Garment Grids just in case.
Thief -
I felt like such a cheating bastard during chapters 1 and 2. This dressphere is one reason why. All three girls in this dressphere can rake in an obscene amount of gil and levels really fucking quickly. I could have completely paid off O'aka's debts without even getting the 90k gil out of Guadosalam. Seriously. It was sick and wrong.
Rikku obviously has this mastered. I think Yuna does as well, and Paine is 1.5 abilities away from it. Yeah. I mastered it first. It is always on at least one grid just so I can steal things like mad.
Songstress -
Um. Well, to be honest, I'm not that much of a fan... Some of her stuff is great, and it's easy enough to master all the singing skills, but the inability to cause any damage really hampers my playstyle. I can kill almost any group of monsters faster than she can finish one dance. That being said, she is very good in certain situations.
I tried to have Yuna sit on this for a while, but kept switching her out to other things. So, Rikku has most of her abillities done, but I don't have the Key Items to unlock her last two dances yet.
The Early Arrivals:
Black Mage -
Oooh toasty! Well, ok, correction. Oooh lukewarm! Seriously. Another situational Dressphere. MP Drain is great for refueling, and certain things just beg for a Black Mage to kill (amorphous gels), but her utility is greatly diminished by the fact that Elements and Flans are not immune, or even severely resistant, to physical attacks.
Paine has mastered this Dressphere. It was a very painful process (no pun intended). Seriously. If I hear her say "Ice ice baby" one more time I'll scream.
White Mage -
An early god, in all seriousness. Pray is absurd. It's so fast, and yes it is a crappy amount of healing, but you often don't need to worry as it's just enough to keep you maxed at almost all times. The only exceptions are the occaisional bosses and "big" monsters. Later in the game, she's pretty much replaced. I do keep her around in case I want Shell and Protect or even Reflect.
Another Dressphere that is nearly maxed on all three girls. She is maxed on Rikku. She got lots of practice while fighting Amorphous Gels. She doesn't come out much, though, unless I'm on my way to a Special Dressphere transofrmation.
Gun Mage -
This one is very nice if you get it early. She does respectable damage, and gets better with her gun techniques. The only problem is that her completion percentage includes Blue Bullet abilities. And getting those guys is hard, m'kay? Her damage capacity goes down later on, when other Dresspheres outperform her in pretty much every way.
Other than Blue Bullets, Yuna has this dressphere mastered. It's almost always a quick switch away in case of a potential Blue Bullet ability or the need to use a Fiend Hunter skill on something. Although, at my current level she really isn't even needed for that.
The Middle Women:
Alchemist -
If White Mage is an early level god, Alchemist is creation itself. There is no getting around this being one of the best Dresspheres ever. Between Mix and Stash, you will never need or want a White Mage again. Add to that the fact that her damage doesn't totally suck and you have overkill.
Rikku is slogging through the last two abilities on her list for this Dressphere. One is 400 AP and the other is not known yet to me (and I left my guide at home) because it isn't unlocked yet. It's quite disconcerting to see she hasn't broken 70% yet...
Dark Knight -
I hated this dressphere when I got it. Her Attack damage, to be nice, sucks. I can never figure out when or where I'm going to use Arcana, and I didn't want to sacrifice HP for Darkness. Until I figured out the combo of Dark Knight x 2 + Alchemist = Unkillable.
Yuna is most of the way through this. Darkness hits for a stupidly high amount of damage, but due to low agility it isn't used often. Of course, one or two swipes takes out practically anything other than bosses.
Samurai -
When I first started using this, I was amazed at how much damage she does with a simple atttack. And she's fast! I love this gal! Her abilities are great, albeit situational since the damage they do is rarely more than her normal attack (excepting the Zanmato skills and Spare Change), but the special effect is your friend.
Yuna is on the second (single target) Zanmato skill. It's the last she needs. She does a really absurd amount of damage per attack. It's goooood.
Berserker -
Big hit points, big strength, NO DEFENSE. x_x Not that she needs it, since everything is dead before it gets a chance to attack her. That and her special skills are great for adding that special touch to her attacks.
Paine is almost done with this Dressphere. I usually forget she's there because she's always rolling around and counter attacking everything on the screen. It's great.
The Tricky Group:
Lady Luck -
I had no trouble getting her out of the first tournament, so I don't know what everyone else is bitching about. Anyrate, I'm sort of on the fence with this gal. Her damage potential with her skills is great, but running in Active mode means you can't really work on getting her reels in order.
Rikku is well on her way with this gal. I usually just use 2 dice or 4 dice non-stop. Her physical attack sucks, otherwise. Once you get Double XP, you pretty much are just going to zoom to the finish.
Trainer -
Well, you can't really generalize the Trainer. After all, each one is different! The Dressphere is, for the most part, okay. The damage isn't all there, and the special abilities are lacking the extra punch that the "normal" classes to get them have. The special skills that are unique to the class are really what makes it worthwhile.
None of my girls is particularly proficient in this Dressphere yet. They've each gained a few new abilities, and I like what she can do in general, she just isn't high on my priority list yet.
Mascot -
Like the Trainer, you can't generalize her because there are three versions. I do not yet have this dressphere. I will say, up front, that the "lore" type auto-abilities given to each one are pretty much opposite of what would seem to be a natural progression for the girls. Oh well. To each his own.
The Three and Only:
Floral Fallal - coming soon
Machina Maw - coming soon
Full Throttle - coming soon
It will be chock full of spoilery goodness.
And it will be a work in progress.
Commence Braindump.
I'm not doing a review. Right now, I'm just going to babble on about Dresspheres. I'm not done with the game yet, and this is, again, a major work in progress.
The Basics:
Gunner -
At first I wasn't that fond of the Gunner. Trigger Happy causes me to lose focus on what is going on and takes forever to recharge. I wasn't seeing any significant damage and some abilities seemed silly.
Yuna has mastered this dressphere. I use it frequently now. I don't have any wild accessories to let me do a billion damage with Trigger Happy yet, but I have grown to love the no-delay Gunplay skills. Tableturner is a godsend. On The Level is nice for just tearing things up. It's not my favorite, and it isn't always available on my grids, but it isn't my least favorite.
Warrior -
I like this. Big damage. Big defense. Pathetic magic skills, though. They just take entirely too long and are, at best, entirely situational. I will rarely fight something that just requires me to use one of the Swordplay techniques. If it did, I'd probably spherechange into something with a little more readily available oomph.
Paine has mastered this, however. She can really tear things up when she's in it, but, again, I have better uses for her. I do like to keep the Swordplay abilities available via Accessories or Garment Grids just in case.
Thief -
I felt like such a cheating bastard during chapters 1 and 2. This dressphere is one reason why. All three girls in this dressphere can rake in an obscene amount of gil and levels really fucking quickly. I could have completely paid off O'aka's debts without even getting the 90k gil out of Guadosalam. Seriously. It was sick and wrong.
Rikku obviously has this mastered. I think Yuna does as well, and Paine is 1.5 abilities away from it. Yeah. I mastered it first. It is always on at least one grid just so I can steal things like mad.
Songstress -
Um. Well, to be honest, I'm not that much of a fan... Some of her stuff is great, and it's easy enough to master all the singing skills, but the inability to cause any damage really hampers my playstyle. I can kill almost any group of monsters faster than she can finish one dance. That being said, she is very good in certain situations.
I tried to have Yuna sit on this for a while, but kept switching her out to other things. So, Rikku has most of her abillities done, but I don't have the Key Items to unlock her last two dances yet.
The Early Arrivals:
Black Mage -
Oooh toasty! Well, ok, correction. Oooh lukewarm! Seriously. Another situational Dressphere. MP Drain is great for refueling, and certain things just beg for a Black Mage to kill (amorphous gels), but her utility is greatly diminished by the fact that Elements and Flans are not immune, or even severely resistant, to physical attacks.
Paine has mastered this Dressphere. It was a very painful process (no pun intended). Seriously. If I hear her say "Ice ice baby" one more time I'll scream.
White Mage -
An early god, in all seriousness. Pray is absurd. It's so fast, and yes it is a crappy amount of healing, but you often don't need to worry as it's just enough to keep you maxed at almost all times. The only exceptions are the occaisional bosses and "big" monsters. Later in the game, she's pretty much replaced. I do keep her around in case I want Shell and Protect or even Reflect.
Another Dressphere that is nearly maxed on all three girls. She is maxed on Rikku. She got lots of practice while fighting Amorphous Gels. She doesn't come out much, though, unless I'm on my way to a Special Dressphere transofrmation.
Gun Mage -
This one is very nice if you get it early. She does respectable damage, and gets better with her gun techniques. The only problem is that her completion percentage includes Blue Bullet abilities. And getting those guys is hard, m'kay? Her damage capacity goes down later on, when other Dresspheres outperform her in pretty much every way.
Other than Blue Bullets, Yuna has this dressphere mastered. It's almost always a quick switch away in case of a potential Blue Bullet ability or the need to use a Fiend Hunter skill on something. Although, at my current level she really isn't even needed for that.
The Middle Women:
Alchemist -
If White Mage is an early level god, Alchemist is creation itself. There is no getting around this being one of the best Dresspheres ever. Between Mix and Stash, you will never need or want a White Mage again. Add to that the fact that her damage doesn't totally suck and you have overkill.
Rikku is slogging through the last two abilities on her list for this Dressphere. One is 400 AP and the other is not known yet to me (and I left my guide at home) because it isn't unlocked yet. It's quite disconcerting to see she hasn't broken 70% yet...
Dark Knight -
I hated this dressphere when I got it. Her Attack damage, to be nice, sucks. I can never figure out when or where I'm going to use Arcana, and I didn't want to sacrifice HP for Darkness. Until I figured out the combo of Dark Knight x 2 + Alchemist = Unkillable.
Yuna is most of the way through this. Darkness hits for a stupidly high amount of damage, but due to low agility it isn't used often. Of course, one or two swipes takes out practically anything other than bosses.
Samurai -
When I first started using this, I was amazed at how much damage she does with a simple atttack. And she's fast! I love this gal! Her abilities are great, albeit situational since the damage they do is rarely more than her normal attack (excepting the Zanmato skills and Spare Change), but the special effect is your friend.
Yuna is on the second (single target) Zanmato skill. It's the last she needs. She does a really absurd amount of damage per attack. It's goooood.
Berserker -
Big hit points, big strength, NO DEFENSE. x_x Not that she needs it, since everything is dead before it gets a chance to attack her. That and her special skills are great for adding that special touch to her attacks.
Paine is almost done with this Dressphere. I usually forget she's there because she's always rolling around and counter attacking everything on the screen. It's great.
The Tricky Group:
Lady Luck -
I had no trouble getting her out of the first tournament, so I don't know what everyone else is bitching about. Anyrate, I'm sort of on the fence with this gal. Her damage potential with her skills is great, but running in Active mode means you can't really work on getting her reels in order.
Rikku is well on her way with this gal. I usually just use 2 dice or 4 dice non-stop. Her physical attack sucks, otherwise. Once you get Double XP, you pretty much are just going to zoom to the finish.
Trainer -
Well, you can't really generalize the Trainer. After all, each one is different! The Dressphere is, for the most part, okay. The damage isn't all there, and the special abilities are lacking the extra punch that the "normal" classes to get them have. The special skills that are unique to the class are really what makes it worthwhile.
None of my girls is particularly proficient in this Dressphere yet. They've each gained a few new abilities, and I like what she can do in general, she just isn't high on my priority list yet.
Mascot -
Like the Trainer, you can't generalize her because there are three versions. I do not yet have this dressphere. I will say, up front, that the "lore" type auto-abilities given to each one are pretty much opposite of what would seem to be a natural progression for the girls. Oh well. To each his own.
The Three and Only:
Floral Fallal - coming soon
Machina Maw - coming soon
Full Throttle - coming soon