Every time we pass other either the Mandelia Plain or the Siedge Weald, we have a chance to trigger an encounter with a group of monsters.
As I mentioned, this is one of the things that the LFT mod fixed; in the mod, if you click on a town spot (blue), you'll move there directly and have no encounters; if you click on a green dot, then you'll stop there and always have a random fight. It cuts down on wasted time, and lets you avoid random battles when you don't want to go through them.
By the way, did you notice the daily counter growing whenever you move on a dot on the map?
At last, our roster is complete. Now all we need is to pass through Eagrose and Gariland again to purchase enough gear to equip everyone, and we'll be off to the races.
And this is what I meant by "forced grinding": you needed three extra battle to get access to units with actual abilities you can have fun using. Of course, grinding in FFT isn't boring the way it was in FF2, despite using a similar mechanical approach - but I wanted to point out that, if you'd tried to just get through the fight without grinding, as you noticed, it would have been remarkably challenging for being so early in the game.
Zalbaag and Dycedarg are referred to as the "trueborn" sons of Barbanath, which suggests Ramza and Alma are bastards, ie born out of wedlock, though legitimized by their father, but if they have the same mother, it's possible that they might just be the children of a second wife? Alternatively Barbanath just had a long term mistress, or a concubine. It's very unclear.
It is my understanding, although I couldn't tell you were I picked it up so it's easily possible I'm wrong, that Barbaneth did marry Ramza and Alma's mother, so they aren't bastards - but, unlike Dycedarg's and Zalbag's mother, who was a noblewoman, Ramza's and Alma's mother was common born. So, they are still noble, but of a lesser breed, and thus need to prove themselves. Or, at least, that was my understanding of things - I'm sure if it's correct some rumor or biography will mention it at some point, and if not then I misremembered something. FFT has a lot of stuff to keep track of, so forgetting things is always a possibility.
labeled 'The Siedge Weald.'
The original translation has this named as Sweegy Woods. Also, "Argath" was named Algus, and "Eagrose" was "Igros."
Our lineup is comprised entirely of Squires, for JP Boost learning purposes
And that's the third issue about having Gained JP Up as an ability, in addition to the other two you correctly identified in the first post: the opportunity cost. It forces you to stay Squire instead of immediately shifting to something else, and it forces you to spend your first 250 JP on itself, instead of saving for Accumulate/Focus or unlocking other options from the rest of the Squire's abilities.
I want to build my own custom blorbos that I control in battle. At this point I'm sort of hoping either Delita or Argath leaves soon.
In the original PSX version, you can freely change the classes and equipment of guest; was that feature removed from WotL? I honestly can't remember, but I would be surprised if it was.
I… don't know which ones of these are good? It's genuinely hard to tell without prior game experience. I imagine the Rend [Gear] options are useless against monsters, but are they especially useful against human targets? I imagine they're likely to have a variable success rate, and if this ends up like typical 'status effects vs bosses' FF fashion that doesn't seem worth it, but on the other hand maybe Rend Weapon actually allows us to trivialize enemy melee class? I'd welcome some advice there.
It really depend on your playstyle; Break Speed, Break Weapon and Break Shield all have obvious usefulness, but if you build around them each of the other Breaks can be useful. The passives all have much more use if you don't want to stay into Knight - Swords are the best weapons in the game most of the time, plenty of classes can't use Shields innately and would benefit from extra defense, and any melee class can find a use for the extra HP Armor provides, whereas there's plenty of specific weapons that are excellent if you have Weapon Guard at hand when they pop up.
Oh, and also, Zamra can become a monk now. Not sure what I'll do with that yet.
As you have now unlocked the class, I believe that you can now check on the characters that haven't unlocked it, and this will tell you (by pressing the "online help" button, which is select on the PSX) how that class can be unlocked. This can be useful to figure out unlock requirements, since they are all pretty similar, except for a couple of very late-game exceptions.
Chemist is... probably meant to be similar
If it truly was,
wow was that a design failure. Honestly though, there should be no useless classes in a game like this one, so the fact that vanilla Squire is one such is extra annoying to me.
Squire is stupendously boring
Yes. As I mentioned, certain classes are very much useless in the base FFT game, and Squire is decidedly one of those.
For my own fun, and since it's not a spoiler, here is how the LFT mod fixed the Squire, turning it into a valid class choice, even if being a bit subpar in the early game (as most of the best aspects come online later):
Substantial increase in stats: HP 100 > 110, PA 90 > 110, MP 75 > 110, MA 80 >110 and Speed 100 >110. This makes the Squire the most well-rounded class in the game, while still being inferior to the specialist classes - the Knight's 120 HP and PA multipliers are still superior, and most mage classes have better MP and MA, whereas the difference in Speed isn't noticeable until a good few levels in. So you have a use for the Squire if you need a good generalist class - but if you
do need a generalist, it holds its own with the specialists relatively well.
This is added on by itemization changes - they still can't wear armor or shields, and so are inferior to Knights early on, but they can now wear robes, making them able to keep up with late-game mages, and have additional weapon options in Sticks/Poles, Crossbows and
Knight Swords, all of which help with the class' general versatility and the feeling of being a more "generalist" class by having different options for different setups (Crossbow for ranged, Pole for a magic build, and
Knight Swords for lategame).
And finally, of course, the skill set and abilities are revamped substantially. For the skillset itself, Focus/Accumulate had its JP cost reduced to 150, so it can be learned more quickly and gives early game Squire something to do in empty turns; Heal retained its 150 JP cost, but is modified to heal a ton more stats - it doesn't cover everything, and misses some things other abilities get, but it's still competitive, with the short range being the primary detriment. In addition, the skillset got three extra abilities - an ability that recovers MP, a parallel to Focus/Accumulate that increases Speed instead, and a revival option, which cost 250, 400 and 800 JP; this cements the skillset as a solid support option, while giving it things for which one might want to stay in the class, or at least come back to it later in the game when JP gains are easier.
As for the other abilities, with Gained JP up gone, the Squire got Gained EXP up instead; this one costs 200 JP, and unlike Gained JP up, it has a clear use case that doesn't force people to learn it - you only learn the skill if you want to grind level on a specific unit, set the ability in the battle you're grinding it with, and then remove it. Doesn't keep people from learning and/or using other support abilities, and is not an "instant purchase" like Gained JP Up, instead letting you pick it when you need it. And to match it, the Squire was also given Move-Gain EXP, also costing 200 JP to learn, while Move +1 was transferred to a class that didn't have any movement ability, and needed a bit of encouragement for people to stay into it; and having Move +1 further into the Job three also means that the lesser movement abilities (such as Move-Gain EXP and a few others) get a bit of time for people to try them out before everybody gets to have Move +1 equipped as default.
Overall, this doesn't make the Squire play too much different in the beginning, since most of the new equipment it can use aren't really available until later, same as the more pricey abilities and the increase in speed, but it can at least hold its own, and then, once the player progress into the game, the class slowly gains utility that keeps it a viable option - so, instead of never using it, people will sometimes use it, which make the gameplay more varied by its presence, but doesn't really change the nature of the gameplay itself. It's a set of subtle changes that completely modifies the nature of the class, but without making it overpowered or revolutionizing how battles play out, it just expands players' options.
LFT mod makes that battle even harder btw. The Bombs can self-destruct multiple times in the same battle. So they can blow up your team, come back to life at the start of their next turn, then immediately blow up again.
They can! Every monster is more interesting in LFT due to innate Monster Skill, modified reactions, and the occasional tweaks like the Bombs having the ability to resurrect, which makes them tougher to face, but also more fun for the sheer chaos they can cause in a fight.
Of course, LFT also gives you better tools to deal with them - the Wizard/Black Mage will generally already be available at this point (since you didn't need to stay in Squire for Gained JP Up) and likely have access to the buffed Poison, and Ramza & Delita's vanilla Chant having been changed to Wish, which is a revival ability. Having Delita able to resurrect makes him a lot more useful and can save you from mistakes, and of course Ramza having revival himself makes it easier to get into the mindset of not having him charge forwards, since he can revive while normal Squires cannot (until much later in the game). LFT also makes the Longbow available earlier, so you aren't stuck with Crossbow-using archers and their friendly-fire. They are small changes, but make the game's somewhat greater challenges still feel fair, in my opinion.
