Red or Black: a nerdy question

[Elok]

Most of us are old enough (or geeky enough) to remember the original 8-bit Final Fantasy. It had six character classes to choose from: the Warrior/Fighter (tank), Black Belt/Monk (awkward pseudo-tank with glitchy defense), Thief (POS who upgraded to something decent), White Mage (healer) and lastly the black and red mages.

The black mage had a cool hat, more MP, some useful spells (mostly end-game) the RM couldn't use, and wound up with better stats at the end. The red mage had a different kind of cool hat, access to most white magic, and the ability to equip good weapons and (at the beginning of the game) armor. I always found the red more useful for the bulk of the game, even if he dropped off at the end and couldn't use Nuke/Flare.

Which did you prefer?

[molly bloom]

I've never played it, but thought I'd reply to your post 'cos you're nice guy and I didn't want to see your post all on its lonesome.

Just for you from Tahull :

[Elok]

Had to Wiki that name. Spain? That explains the iconography. Looks almost Ethiopian.

Anyway, think of the OP as a sort of fashion question. Brown pointy wizard hat or red Robin Hood-style hat with a white feather?

[Jon Miller]

I favor something like this:

Fighter (Strong)
BB (Stronger late game, cheap)
RM (Stronger early game, expensive)
WM (Strong)

JM

[Jon Miller]

If you repeat, then

Fighter (Strong)
Fighter (Strong)
RM (Stronger early game, expensive)
WM or RM (Strong)

Note defense wise the BB should be behind both the RM and the Thief. He isn't a tank at all, he is a physical nuke.
AM = attack magic
HM = heal magic
DP = physical defense
AP = physical attack
HP = health points

fighter = 0/1/5/4/5
thief = 3/0/4/4/3
monk = 0/0/3/5/5
red m = 4/4/4/4/4 (but at end game use the red w stats)
red w = 4/4/3/3/3
white = 0/5/2/2/2
black = 5/0/1/1/1

something like that at least

I think that red m + monk is a good combo to stay strong early/late and give you high damage/heals/fast/early defense

JM

[Hauldren Collider]

I just go with 8 bit theater's lineup.

Full disclosure: I've never actually played FF1

[DaShi]

I can't even remember. Once I finished the game, I never touched it again.

[Felch]

I preferred red to black because his armor and chopping made him more practical for level grinding early on (which is like 90% of the game) and his low level healing spells were a good supplement to the maximum of 99 heal potions you could bring into the Temple of Fiends. The GBA remake dropped pseudo-Vancian magic for the more modern magic points and generally made the game a lot easier (getting rid of the "ineffective" nonsense really changes the game). I used the classic Fi, BB, WM, BM lineup that Nintendo Power suggested when I first played, but when I replayed it a few years ago I had much better luck with Fi, RM, RM, WM.

I eventually played all the Final Fantasies up to 9, but the first Final Fantasy is still the one that I have the fondest memories of playing. Maybe if I had a SNES FF3(VI) would have been better, but by the time I'd played it it wasn't as mind blowing. The closest game I had to FF on the NES was Dragon Warrior 2, and that was both hard as balls, and almost completely lacking in customization.

[regexcellent]

The only Final Fantasy game I've played through is FFX on my roommate's PS2.

Spoiler:

HA HA HA HA HA. HA HA HA HA HA.

Yeah, not doing that again.

[MrFun]

Thanks for reminding me how old I am, Elok.

[Elok]

Note defense wise the BB should be behind both the RM and the Thief. He isn't a tank at all, he is a physical nuke.

It depends. His equipment selection is terrible, and if you give him a ribbon, a bracelet or whatever, and the rest of his "optimal" gear, he winds up pretty fragile. But his defense works the same way as his offense; if he's equipped with nothing, it goes up based on level. At higher levels he winds up pretty damn tough when he's naked, IIRC. But then he loses the awesome powers of the ribbon and protect ring. So, in theory, you have to choose between great defense and status/elemental protection. Only there's a glitch such that when you level up with equipment on him, his defense is recalculated (as though unarmed) at his current level without dropping the equipment special bonuses, and doesn't correct itself unless and until you return to the equip screen. So, it's weird. The glitch still worked in the WonderSwan (and PS1) remake, I think. I imagine they fixed it for later remakes.

Oh, and I liked Fighter, Red Mage, White Mage and either Monk or Thief. Would've worked better to have a second Fighter, but I didn't like having identical characters.

[molly bloom]

Had to Wiki that name. Spain? That explains the iconography. Looks almost Ethiopian.

Anyway, think of the OP as a sort of fashion question. Brown pointy wizard hat or red Robin Hood-style hat with a white feather?

Yeah, Tahull in Spain. Thought you'd appreciate the weirdly Byzantine/Coptic/Celtic image of Christ Pantocrator from such a staunchly R.C. country...

Anyway. Depends on the colour brown.

If it's a rich, textured brown like my leather waistcoat or Massimo Dutti trousers, then yes. If it's a flat greigey-beigey blah brown, no.

Feathers I've never knowingly sported on hats, underwear or sleeves. Red makes my pale skin resemble that of someone with scarlatina, so vermilion, crimson, scarlet or fuchsia are all colours I eschew for t-shirts, shirts, waistcoats, jackets, overcoats and most definitely hats.

Neither pointy wizard hats nor the jauntier Errol Flynn style Robin Hood hats suit my gorgeously roundy head. It's either cricket style caps* to protect my shaven bonce (*what you Americans quaintly but incorrectly refer to as baseball caps- a game the Brits invented, incidentally) or woolly
stevedore ones when the bite of north winds proves too strong in Winter.

Feathered garments in modern times:

[Colon™]

It's a good thing the OP informed us it was a nerdy question. I would hated it if I'd wandered into this thread thinking it was a badass question or a raunchy question.

[molly bloom]

It's a good thing the OP informed us it was a nerdy question. I would hated it if I'd wandered into this thread thinking it was a badass question or a raunchy question.

Asking if you preferred red or black could have interesting consequences for gay males...

[rah]

I figured it was some odds question for roulette. Which would have been equally nerdy but at least it might some day have some relevance.