She can’t summon until Pinnacle Rocks and then is silenced for a big chunk of her availability, plus the fact that she has to learn them over time- I’d say she can’t summon for at least 1/2 of the game if not more.
Quina really is the god character, can literally do everything: Attack damage is respectable with good Add Status options Cook insta-kills enemies below 50% hp which just gets better as the game goes on The Millionaire ability is absolutely incredible, you definitely can struggle with Gil in this game because of how expensive buying/synthing a lot of items can be. You also can have this as soon as you get Quina. More HP than the other casters Level 5 Death for Grand Dragon farming and for killing everything in the Desert Palace Level 4 Holy kills certain mobs in Outer Continent Level 3 Def Less works on some bosses, can do it while Zidane is stealing, works multiple times Aqua Breath does 25% of the enemy's max HP to all targets. Gets strong in the late game and also can help you work out the enemy HP without using Scan Mighty Guard does what would take Garnet 8 turns doing in 1 turn. Even more with Half HP ability. Boss Winning move Matra Magic can be used on yourself to set up for Limit Glove Bad Breath cripples some enemies into being powerless, even works on a lot of bosses Limit Glove is a dominant strategy in speed runs and other exploitative ways of playing the game 1000 Needles is a reliable attack in the Outer Continent Night will always work if the enemy is vulnerable to Sleep. Works on many bosses, only needs Insomniac on every party member which is not hard or much of a sacrifice Twister generally just wipes out trash mobs and does amazing damage to flying enemies (many enemies) Earth Shake is basically an alternative for Twister Angel's Snack is your insurance policy. Extremely good for Ozma and Necron Frop Drop is the best 9999 in the game. The animation is mercifully short as well (Thievery...) White Wind makes it viable to not have a White Mage in the party Vanish can be cast on an ally who is using Cover to make them block attacks and take no damage as well Magic Hammer can cripple some bosses while Zidane is stealing Auto-Life is great insurance and sets up for Limit Glove The more you understand Quina's moves the more powerful Quina becomes. The potential of the character is way beyond the rest of the cast.
In my honest opinion I never found any ff9 characters to be useless at all they are all strong in their own unique way but some characters are stronger than others at certain points in the game It’s all about having the correct party members you don’t want all fighters or all mages you want a balance
Lol I obviously agreed he put Garnet at the bottom of the list and she can make the final boss easily broken because of how useful she is she can handle the boss by herself if you know what you're doing.
Yes like Vivi very powerful caster early in game but becomes less useful near disc 4. Garnet is practically useless early,but became much better later with her powerful summons
@@Rigter9029It's been years since since I played FFIX. But I kinda agree that Vivi was lower tier fighter near my end game. It became problem because I like him/her the most as character, but using Vivi made the game harder to me.
Ark to me was more an eye candy/reward since when you get it you should be so strong no battle should become a real problem . Covering status ailments is pretty much underrated i guess .
Her Eidolon trance skill is also pretty good, just summon Bahamut or Ark (if you don't mind the long animation) and leave her on standby so her trance bar doesn't deplete and she can destroy bosses with the continuous summoning with no mp cost. Too bad that it's only for her trance and trances are pretty unreliable
She's also the best character to grind levels in the end game. Just have her summon odin against yans for easy exp. The success rate for odin goes up as she levels and gains spirit.
Vivi actually powerful if combined with Eiko. Eiko summon carbuncle (all party member have reflect spells) Vivi use level 3 magic such as Firaga, Thundaga, or Blizzaga to all party members and reflect the magic attack towards the enemy, it easily reach 9999 damages to most enemies.
This is a tough game to rank. The characters are well balanced. I will say that I personally like to focus on spirit and str bonus so that I can max HP and spirit. Based on that, steiner ranks much higher because his knight swords damage is based on str and spr.
You probably don't know how to use Garnet/Dagger right. Max out Garnet(gems), max out magic, spirit stat and try to get as much speed stat as possible(to hasten the regen intervals), equip Boost, auto-haste and auto-regen abilities(and auto-life if you're generous), fill up her trance guage to almost full, and enter the fight with Kuja or other endgame/side bosses. Summon Bahamut after trance, and drop that controller. She's easily better than Eiko during trance, while Eiko is better normally. And Steiner ranked that low? You probably have not abused Steiner's Charge! ability. It's literally what speedrunners utilise for a ton of extra damage with a single turn. And if everyone hits for max damage, you're looking at an extra 9999 to 39,996 dmg in a turn. In which, even Ozma and Quale wouldn't live through if everyone is in critical health, like just died and got revived with a phoenix down(including Steiner). Steiner use Charge! and the other 3 use Attack. Straight up 69,993 damage with very little set up.
Nah Garnet's trance is OP. She is primarily a damage character and healer second. At max level and high tide the casters trounce the warrior classes with an honorable mention to the Steiner charge tactic.
I'm sorry, but Reflect + Black Magic with Vivi is a lot of work, but maxing out Zidane's Thievery, Freya's Dragon's Crest or Quina's Frog Drop for it to do 9999 damage is not?
2:49 Steiner's Sword Magic *DOES NOT* in fact use Vivi's MP. It uses Steiner's MP. In either case, Vivi is your best way to take advantage of elemental weakness, and you can even use Doomsday to heal the party provided they are equipped with Shadow-absorbing equipment. Maybe consider putting him up one tier at least, the only two problems he has are MP usage (which can be solved with either Amarant or ethers/elixirs), and reflect requiring setup (not that bad). Eiko should also DEFINITELY be higher due to the Marcus Stat Glitch, she's the only character who can max out her Strength or Magic stat this way. Not only that, but she has Haste, which is great until you can get your hands on Auto-Haste. I don't see how you can, in good conscience, put Zidane higher than either of them, they are equal at best, albeit for different reasons. Especially when his main gimmick, stealing from enemies to make Thievery stronger, is a chore in comparison to the reflect strategy. "Couldn't steal anything." "Couldn't steal anything." "Couldn't steal anything." That's playing Zidane in a nutshell for most of the game. His Dyne abilities are strong, and yes, Soul Blade and Thievery are amazing (especially Thievery), but he's more niche than both Vivi and Eiko.
Not really, for a long section of the game she has a temporary mute effect for a while, which means she can't cast any Summons/spells for a while She can only use the normal Attack command, which she has a chance to fail focusing, which makes the command cancelled
@@apriljoiordono942 I am pretty sure she can, the mute effect is only a medium chance for any spell or summon, but still she can cast them. Not only for playing the game multiple times, but also from the coding inside of it.
@@apriljoiordono942 she can use it but sometimes it’ll say she can’t concentrate lol 😂 that’s why I bring her to the place where you can’t use magic because you can use it on the menu on the way to that place where you can’t use magic
It can be very powerful, but is niche by the purpose of it. All characters in critical health. (Yellow marked HP) Immediately attack. In a party of high damage dealers, this is very powerful. But in most situations; you're playing a risky gambit for high damage output. You have to also count in long reach abilities for enemies who cannot be harmed by normal physical attacks.
This is if you're power leveling late game but Steiner can do 9999 without going out of your way to grind crest or steal or catch frogs by the time you have access to Ozma. The set up I used to beat Ozma below lvl 50 without the stupid animal quest was Quina Steiner Eiko and Zidane because I can't take him out of the party for some reason. If you are grinding it's Zidane, Quina and Freya because they have access to consistent fixed damage and if you really want to heal you're better off running Vivi with Doomsday and dark absorb items, there should be enough for at least 4 members.
My final 4 were Zidane, Dagger, Vivi and Steiner which, according to this video, would be a terrible choice. However i managed very well with these 4. It's also nice to have to OGs all together
Zidane, Dagger, Vivi and Steiner are the quintessential FF party. Fighter, thief, white mage, black mage. And this video is ... off, to say the least. It's really more about his personal preference than an objective ranking. About the only thing I do agree with is that Quina is god-tier. In reality, all characters have the chance to shine if you use them properly. It just depends on how much time and effort you're willing to put into them.
Those are the ones I used the first time I beat the game. On my second run (where I got 100%), I ended up using Steiner, Vivi, Freya and Eiko. Eiko is god tier alone because of her Carbuncle, Full Life and Phoenix abilities. I got deleted by Ozma but Phoenix activated and saved my ass by reviving everyone so that I could first try it.
@@mr.battle20 Same, Quina is definitely the most OP and diverse but getting all blue magic and frogs? Zzz who has the time for that shit. Just kill a bunch of dragons with Freya and guaranteed 9999 damage. Vivi is amazing with a white mage in the party thanks to Reflect. Also Doomsday+party with Shadow resistance/absorption=easy game. Steiner has the highest HP so he can tank whenever everyone else dies, as well as do massive physical AND magical damage. And Eiko well I already mentioned above. EDIT: Oh and also with Holy attack up equipment, she can deal tons of damage by herself using Holy.
My team was always Zidane + Quina + Freya + Eiko once every team member was available. Never deviated from that setup once. Maybe I would have gone with Amarant over Freya if I didn't grind at the dragon so much that I ended up maxing out Freya's damage with her Dragon Crest, as both Amarant and Freya's support skills are very similar. Eiko is my preferred white mage due to having Holy and Full Life, and Carbuncle support (especially paired with specific jewels). Quina is OP even without maxing out their damage by catching frogs, and that's enough justification to add them to the team.
Basically this. If you dedicate to grinding Quina to learn all spells and get all frogs and learn the abilities, sure it's the most flexible and powerful party member. But if you don't? Eiko and Freya are better.
Don’t forget carbuncle can cast way more than just reflect. If you hold the right accessory carbuncle can cast 5 other really useful support spells on whole party too.
I am very suspicious of your list. Catching 99 frogs takes a lot of work but it is very easy to make 99 Garnets to turn Dagger into a strong summoner. And she has Curaga! I think you were just trying hard to put Quina at number 1.
Good take quina is really underrated. I knew about amarant from the get go and just like every ff I've never cared for the throw ability but with amarant ion the beginning pinwheel is pretty useful
amarant has the potential to do up to 29,997 with his attack and both counters. likely even more if a gang of enemies only use physical and magical attacks only on him.
There's one big problem with this list. Every character in ff9 can be made good. They fill different roles in the party in such a way that you can clear the game with basically any combination of characters present at any given time. Honestly... the only other time Square had ever pulled that off before with all characters being unique in their rpg archetypes was back in Chrono Trigger (the best Final Fantasy game). I'll give FF9 the close second though, it's a damn good story.
Great video! Bonus Question if Beatrix was a permanent playable character wjere would she rank on this list? I'm using a GS to have ber in my party and she is one of my favorites!
final fantasy IX for me is the best of them all! if u talk about fantasy and unique characters both protagonist and villains even the flow of the story romance adventure and battle sequence are all blend in balance, the game is very exciting thus memorable, up until now I still play the game! I love final fantasy IX
The worst thing about this video is how you pronounce Zidane But apart from that I agree with a lot of your comments, but I would also mention that for the superboss Ozma, a team of Vivi and Amarant can be great if they both have return magic, getting triple Doomsday and therefore triple 9999 can help massively. I would also add Eiko for the Phoenix ability which can be a literal lifesaver in that battle And yes, Quina is god
I've been enjoying the bluntness in choosing the best in your opinion. Any chance of you doing one for Octopath Travler? Unless you've already done that one and I haven't found it.
PLEASE do one of these for Final Fantasy VIII! It's long been my favorite of the FF franchise and it gets so little love within the gaming zeitgeist, being forever overshadowed in the minds of many by its predecessor FFVII. I'd be overjoyed just to to hear someone like you talk about it...assuming you even liked that entry of course. And don't feel bad about your maybe maybe not feelings about Garnet. We gaming nerds all know the feeling. Rinoa from VIII may or may not have been an imaginary girlfriend of mine who I may or may not have wrote fanfiction about in high school.........
in short, who has the best limit break in ff8, cause they are pretty much the same person, except the limit break. just like FF7 and 10... and maybe 12 (original).
My party ended up being Zidane, Garnet, Freya and Quina. I honestly dont agree about Garnet being bad given that she was extremely useful with Bahamut and Ark. People say Arks not that great because of its long animation but I would argue that its because of its long animation that its so good. Even without max damage if your utilizing Regen (You either need to beat Ozma or beat Hades and use his shop to get Ark) The end game section becomes a breeze with Ark. If your party can Regen to near full health without interruption you dont need to really worry about reviving.
Lmao I loved Dagger she saved my ass with her long summon animations while the party was in regen trying to not get killed during bosses😂🤣 I would throw Freya in the sh*t tier personally
Actually, if you focus enough times, Vivi can deal 9999 damage even with lower power magic, and focus buff is permanent for the battle edit: coming back to my comment a year later, I realized that from FFV to FFX, Blue Magic (or Lore or Enemy Skill) tend to be more useful in the odd number in the series and not particularly useful in the even number in the series: Odd numbers: FFV: Incredibly broken with Death Claw, Mighty Guard, and a lot of strategies that makes bosses incredibly easy. L3 Flare is also surprisingly useful against many significant battles like the Gargoyles. FFVII: Big Guard again, plus their mid-tier attack spells like Trine, Aqualung and Beta are all great, with Trine being MP efficient and not affected by reflect. FFIX: Mighty Guard, Frog Drop, Auto-Life, Night, and for low level runs, Limit Glove. Enough said. Even numbers: FFVI: Useful in a natural magic run, but in a game where everyone can use magic, Lore is just kind of ok. It has some niche like Mighty Guard, and is a consistent way to deal Wind and (in versions without the GBA content) Water damage. However, it is pretty easy to just Ultima everything in this game, and there are a lot of good physical builds too despite this game favouring magic heavily. FFVIII and FFX: Both locked behind Limit Breaks, so...meh.
Honestly impressed with this list. 90% of people out there seem to think Zidane Vivi Dagger Steiner is the best party hands down. Like nah fam, Freya Amarant and Quina are way better and don’t require a specific other party member to be present. They’re unconventional and less straight forward. But goddamn are they way more powerful
A lot of people think the team of Zidane, Garnet, Vivi, and Steiner is the best but I disagree. My team through many playthroughs is Zidane, Freya, Garnet (Eiko during the mute time), and Vivi. 😊 I know this is off a little bit but even if the guides for any FF Game recommends a party I don't go by it. XIII is a prime example as the guide recommends Lightning, Hope, and Fang. Nope! Lightning, Sazh, and Vanille the entire way. 😅
Vivi is late game low tier I agree, but as soon as you can steal the ice staff and magus hat from Gizamaluke, he'll be your main source of damage for the rest of disc 1 and all of disc 2 (barring limit glove shenanigans)
Just finished my first playthrough and Garnet was my MVP. My party had Auto-Regen and Garnet had also that ability that guarrantees full lenght summons so every time i summoned ark my whole party was practically fully healed
I don't have a favourite party for the story but for fighting Ozma I like using Zidain (Because you have to use him), Quina (Blue Magic for the win), Freia (Probably spelled that wrong but I use her for Regen and Dragons Crest) and Eiko (Best Healer in the game).
Quina is the only good one. Period. He/she is an excellent character, not only gameplay wise being a powerful and useful Blue Mage, but also for being the only (if not interesting) charismatic character in the game among a sea of the most generic and boring characters in the franchise that are not called Vivi (except for his design, that one is bland and boring, look at how they ruined the female black Mages in FFT with that generic design😑, but at least Vivi's interesting unlike most of the cast in FF9).
Zidane Dagger Steiner Vivi This is my team. Which they were rated basically at the bottom 😅😅 I don’t use them because they’re good to be honest. I just like these characters.
Loved final fantasy 9 so much, I believe actually lived in that world long ago. Played this game at least 20 times until mid 2000s. My most favorite character is definitely Vivi, but since disc 3 he's not very useful anymore. The strongest party for me consist of Zidane ... Steal, thievery, strong trance, good speed and strength Freya.. Jump, excellent defense early on, dragon's crest Quina... Versatile mage,frog drop, magic hammer, mighty guard, millionaire ability Amarant... Chakra, good strength and magic, throw skill, very good trance
Half of my team has reflect and absorbs dark-element. The other half absorbs water and neutralize darkness. Vivi casts either water on team, attacks with reflect while healing half of my team, or he casts dark tribunal and heals the other half team and attacks. I have Eiko for holy, phönix and revive magic, freya (or zidane, but in the realm of memories, he isn't as useful. freya also heals mp and does cheap 9999 dmg) and quina. - What I like about this is, that everyone is a tank, healer and dps at the same time.
You did my girl Garnet wrong lol, endgame, get a couple garnets, maximize magic + spirit and summon Bahamut during her limit break. She'll be dealing 5000 damage nonstop without spending MP or a turn!
Honestly my team always ends up being Zidane, Freya with the last two either being Vivi/Eiko and Amarant. I did just learn from this video what Amarant's trance actually changes. I somehow never realized that Flair made his skills target all. Neat. If only Beatrix was a permanent party member I would definitely use her in place of the mages.
Each character is good in their own sense. But the most well rounded character is Amarant. If given the healer ability his melee attacks will heal about 3000hp for zero MP cost and he can still dps using thrown weapons/chi blast for huge damage, equipping him with high tide will give plenty of group regens and chakras.I often use Amarant as a healer, but with his skills and abilities his damage output is just that much better then eiko or dagger. :)
Trying to get all the steals with zedane while vivi keeps stacking focus, then like 1 or 2 shoting the boss after getting all the steals is pretty great.
In that section when she's mute, she actually can still use magic, it's just that there's a chance she'll "lose focus" and not do anything for her turn.
I feel like everyone is good in their own way. My optimal team is actually Zidane, Dagger, Freya and Quina (I'm gonna use this team against Ozma). With the use of support abilities and some items, you're actually gonna be fine with everyone.
Dagger is far from bottom tier! You just need a good set up, like any character late game. Her long summon animations are perfect for auto-regen to basically completely heal your entire party and cause damage to boot (especially Ark). And all her other summons cause more damage based on the number of their stones you have in your inventory, so even her cheaper summons can still do good damage.
You made a mistake. Steiner Magic Swd use his own MP and not the MP of Vivi. I found it strange also that you would rate Steiner in the Low Tier but praise him for being very strong. In the end you label him as a simple DPS just like Zidane but you rate Zidane higher.
Zidane can dish out as much damage as Steiner, and more consistently as well. Not to mention that he has more utility. I do agree that Steiner's ranked too low on this list, however. In fact I think he got most of it wrong, except for Quina (who is admittedly God-tier).
1.- Quina needs several frogs and LEVEL to deal 9999 dmg, with lvl 60 and 100 frog u deal like 6000 dmg while others doenst need that lvl. Angelical gift its one of the most usefull abilities. 2.- advantages of Zidane over Freija: he is way faster, and has a better protection + counter combo since his artema weapon has 100 attack. 3.- Steiner its bulky af. If u put him on rearguard with auto-regen its very hard to kill being able to use phoenix items to revive other members. Very usefull vs yang. He can deal lots of dmg anyway with shock and/or trance and Eiko's protea. Charge! Isnt easy to use but its very good. 4.- Eiko's Madine its very good. 5.-Garnet doesnt need Ark to deal 9999 u can deal that with Bahamut and keep the 3 floating stone. With his maximum spirit his trance its op since she can cast 2 summons in each turn. 6.-Vivi's Doomsday its the best ability in the game. He deals 9999 and HEALS the same amount to ur party since they can absorb shadow with floating stone, diablos armor, and spy coat. I beated ozma with that + auto mirror. Not to mention his trance its the best I loved your video btw, good job.
Now see, this is way better. All this list "GOD TOP TIER CHARACTERS" need a shit ton of work to make them the best. Vivi on the other hand? Pff jack shit auto reflects and just go to town or put ReflectX2. is risky? yes but for me it works just fine even agains Ozma and nothing in FF 9 is harder than ozma.
Ah yes dagger. The more summon focused character who literally can't summon for like 1/3 of the game.
I just played through this game the other day and the fact her and Steiner are gone for so much of the game blew my mind
Other than 10 and 8 it takes about 1/3 of most final fantasy games.
Correction here, if you can level her enough to have the mp, she can use her summons.
She can’t summon until Pinnacle Rocks and then is silenced for a big chunk of her availability, plus the fact that she has to learn them over time- I’d say she can’t summon for at least 1/2 of the game if not more.
@@zanes_productions she can summon before hand, you just have to grind up the levels to have the MP available.
You DARE disrespect Dagger??!!! I'm telling Steiner!!! The Knights Of Pluto will have your head, peasant!!!!!
Tad Hunter I’m sorrrrrrrrrryyyyyy
tell Steiner? tell Beatrix that she will end this scoundrel who is defaming the queen
ok relax
@@alexandrert948 nah Beatrix will just reduce their hp to 1 and make a biting remark like she always does
Quina really is the god character, can literally do everything:
Attack damage is respectable with good Add Status options
Cook insta-kills enemies below 50% hp which just gets better as the game goes on
The Millionaire ability is absolutely incredible, you definitely can struggle with Gil in this game because of how expensive buying/synthing a lot of items can be. You also can have this as soon as you get Quina.
More HP than the other casters
Level 5 Death for Grand Dragon farming and for killing everything in the Desert Palace
Level 4 Holy kills certain mobs in Outer Continent
Level 3 Def Less works on some bosses, can do it while Zidane is stealing, works multiple times
Aqua Breath does 25% of the enemy's max HP to all targets. Gets strong in the late game and also can help you work out the enemy HP without using Scan
Mighty Guard does what would take Garnet 8 turns doing in 1 turn. Even more with Half HP ability. Boss Winning move
Matra Magic can be used on yourself to set up for Limit Glove
Bad Breath cripples some enemies into being powerless, even works on a lot of bosses
Limit Glove is a dominant strategy in speed runs and other exploitative ways of playing the game
1000 Needles is a reliable attack in the Outer Continent
Night will always work if the enemy is vulnerable to Sleep. Works on many bosses, only needs Insomniac on every party member which is not hard or much of a sacrifice
Twister generally just wipes out trash mobs and does amazing damage to flying enemies (many enemies)
Earth Shake is basically an alternative for Twister
Angel's Snack is your insurance policy. Extremely good for Ozma and Necron
Frop Drop is the best 9999 in the game. The animation is mercifully short as well (Thievery...)
White Wind makes it viable to not have a White Mage in the party
Vanish can be cast on an ally who is using Cover to make them block attacks and take no damage as well
Magic Hammer can cripple some bosses while Zidane is stealing
Auto-Life is great insurance and sets up for Limit Glove
The more you understand Quina's moves the more powerful Quina becomes. The potential of the character is way beyond the rest of the cast.
Couldn't have said it better.
Plus, in the Italian version she speaks (because it's a she for italians) with Rome's accent and she's soooo funny
Sooooooo agree
LV4 Holy pretty much guarantees a win
You have to grind Quina tho, that shit's boring
Been going through your video catalogue and really enjoying it. The TH-cam algorithm is really doing you wrong man.
Well I'm not Nikki Manaj so of course it doesn't haha. One step at a time here at LOCLOUDANE.
In my honest opinion I never found any ff9 characters to be useless at all they are all strong in their own unique way but some characters are stronger than others at certain points in the game
It’s all about having the correct party members you don’t want all fighters or all mages you want a balance
Lol I obviously agreed he put Garnet at the bottom of the list and she can make the final boss easily broken because of how useful she is she can handle the boss by herself if you know what you're doing.
Yes like Vivi very powerful caster early in game but becomes less useful near disc 4. Garnet is practically useless early,but became much better later with her powerful summons
@@taroupriapus9760 talk for yourself, cause by the endgame Vivi can be both a heavy hitter and healer in the same command
@@Rigter9029It's been years since since I played FFIX. But I kinda agree that Vivi was lower tier fighter near my end game. It became problem because I like him/her the most as character, but using Vivi made the game harder to me.
@@TeguhNugrahaPratamaReflect x2 skill + auto reflect = 9,999 damage every spell late game.
Dagger has one redeeming quality:
Auto-regen + Ark = damage enemy and heal party. That’s a lifesaver in some end-game battles.
Ark to me was more an eye candy/reward since when you get it you should be so strong no battle should become a real problem . Covering status ailments is pretty much underrated i guess .
Her Eidolon trance skill is also pretty good, just summon Bahamut or Ark (if you don't mind the long animation) and leave her on standby so her trance bar doesn't deplete and she can destroy bosses with the continuous summoning with no mp cost. Too bad that it's only for her trance and trances are pretty unreliable
She's also the best character to grind levels in the end game. Just have her summon odin against yans for easy exp. The success rate for odin goes up as she levels and gains spirit.
@@ooberpuch I hear yans are Guarded against Odin's Attack.
@@Seth-ng5oy Odins attack does work. Success is based on Daggers spirit stat, level and if you're using the summon booster ability iirc.
Vivi actually powerful if combined with Eiko.
Eiko summon carbuncle (all party member have reflect spells)
Vivi use level 3 magic such as Firaga, Thundaga, or Blizzaga to all party members and reflect the magic attack towards the enemy, it easily reach 9999 damages to most enemies.
This is a tough game to rank. The characters are well balanced. I will say that I personally like to focus on spirit and str bonus so that I can max HP and spirit. Based on that, steiner ranks much higher because his knight swords damage is based on str and spr.
You probably don't know how to use Garnet/Dagger right. Max out Garnet(gems), max out magic, spirit stat and try to get as much speed stat as possible(to hasten the regen intervals), equip Boost, auto-haste and auto-regen abilities(and auto-life if you're generous), fill up her trance guage to almost full, and enter the fight with Kuja or other endgame/side bosses. Summon Bahamut after trance, and drop that controller. She's easily better than Eiko during trance, while Eiko is better normally.
And Steiner ranked that low? You probably have not abused Steiner's Charge! ability. It's literally what speedrunners utilise for a ton of extra damage with a single turn. And if everyone hits for max damage, you're looking at an extra 9999 to 39,996 dmg in a turn. In which, even Ozma and Quale wouldn't live through if everyone is in critical health, like just died and got revived with a phoenix down(including Steiner). Steiner use Charge! and the other 3 use Attack. Straight up 69,993 damage with very little set up.
Eiko is still the better option
Nah Garnet's trance is OP. She is primarily a damage character and healer second. At max level and high tide the casters trounce the warrior classes with an honorable mention to the Steiner charge tactic.
Spoiler: It is only useful late game 😂
Correction. Steiner’s MP is what gets used for Magic Sword
I'm sorry, but Reflect + Black Magic with Vivi is a lot of work, but maxing out Zidane's Thievery, Freya's Dragon's Crest or Quina's Frog Drop for it to do 9999 damage is not?
Freya's Dragon's Crest isn't that hard, it is only 100 dragons, Zidane's and Quina's are a bit harder because of the Speed/Level in the damage formula
So what about steiners charge ability which is the most broken thing in the entire game ?
2:49 Steiner's Sword Magic *DOES NOT* in fact use Vivi's MP. It uses Steiner's MP. In either case, Vivi is your best way to take advantage of elemental weakness, and you can even use Doomsday to heal the party provided they are equipped with Shadow-absorbing equipment. Maybe consider putting him up one tier at least, the only two problems he has are MP usage (which can be solved with either Amarant or ethers/elixirs), and reflect requiring setup (not that bad). Eiko should also DEFINITELY be higher due to the Marcus Stat Glitch, she's the only character who can max out her Strength or Magic stat this way. Not only that, but she has Haste, which is great until you can get your hands on Auto-Haste. I don't see how you can, in good conscience, put Zidane higher than either of them, they are equal at best, albeit for different reasons. Especially when his main gimmick, stealing from enemies to make Thievery stronger, is a chore in comparison to the reflect strategy.
"Couldn't steal anything."
"Couldn't steal anything."
"Couldn't steal anything."
That's playing Zidane in a nutshell for most of the game. His Dyne abilities are strong, and yes, Soul Blade and Thievery are amazing (especially Thievery), but he's more niche than both Vivi and Eiko.
I am sure garnet can use her magics on depression, there is only a medium low rate that it will fail due to her status.
Not really, for a long section of the game she has a temporary mute effect for a while, which means she can't cast any Summons/spells for a while
She can only use the normal Attack command, which she has a chance to fail focusing, which makes the command cancelled
@@apriljoiordono942 I am pretty sure she can, the mute effect is only a medium chance for any spell or summon, but still she can cast them. Not only for playing the game multiple times, but also from the coding inside of it.
@@apriljoiordono942 she can use it but sometimes it’ll say she can’t concentrate lol 😂 that’s why I bring her to the place where you can’t use magic because you can use it on the menu on the way to that place where you can’t use magic
I think the mute gives her a chance not to do ANY command. It would make sense for it to be like a permanent silence status though
These answers are correct. Any command has a chance for fail during her mute period. The only sequence she cannot cast anything is in oeilvert
"Never again will we see charm like this." In a _single player_ Final Fantasy, yes, I agree.
Great video! I've been watching a lot of these over the last week or so and this one stands out.
Thanks! Welcome to the fam.
You forgot to add Beatrix to the god tier.
Sadly, Beatrix isn't a constant playable character. Only for a couple fights, like Franck, Marcus, Cina.
Quina for the win!!! My favorite character ever in this game.
What about Steiner's "Charge" ability? It's stupid OP.
It can be very powerful, but is niche by the purpose of it.
All characters in critical health. (Yellow marked HP) Immediately attack. In a party of high damage dealers, this is very powerful. But in most situations; you're playing a risky gambit for high damage output. You have to also count in long reach abilities for enemies who cannot be harmed by normal physical attacks.
This is if you're power leveling late game but Steiner can do 9999 without going out of your way to grind crest or steal or catch frogs by the time you have access to Ozma. The set up I used to beat Ozma below lvl 50 without the stupid animal quest was Quina Steiner Eiko and Zidane because I can't take him out of the party for some reason. If you are grinding it's Zidane, Quina and Freya because they have access to consistent fixed damage and if you really want to heal you're better off running Vivi with Doomsday and dark absorb items, there should be enough for at least 4 members.
This is the most accurate comment
My final 4 were Zidane, Dagger, Vivi and Steiner which, according to this video, would be a terrible choice. However i managed very well with these 4. It's also nice to have to OGs all together
Zidane, Dagger, Vivi and Steiner are the quintessential FF party. Fighter, thief, white mage, black mage.
And this video is ... off, to say the least. It's really more about his personal preference than an objective ranking. About the only thing I do agree with is that Quina is god-tier.
In reality, all characters have the chance to shine if you use them properly. It just depends on how much time and effort you're willing to put into them.
Those are the ones I used the first time I beat the game. On my second run (where I got 100%), I ended up using Steiner, Vivi, Freya and Eiko. Eiko is god tier alone because of her Carbuncle, Full Life and Phoenix abilities. I got deleted by Ozma but Phoenix activated and saved my ass by reviving everyone so that I could first try it.
@@mr.battle20 Same, Quina is definitely the most OP and diverse but getting all blue magic and frogs? Zzz who has the time for that shit. Just kill a bunch of dragons with Freya and guaranteed 9999 damage. Vivi is amazing with a white mage in the party thanks to Reflect. Also Doomsday+party with Shadow resistance/absorption=easy game. Steiner has the highest HP so he can tank whenever everyone else dies, as well as do massive physical AND magical damage. And Eiko well I already mentioned above.
EDIT: Oh and also with Holy attack up equipment, she can deal tons of damage by herself using Holy.
Yeah it’s a solid team I’ve beaten them game multiple times with the OGs
My team was always Zidane + Quina + Freya + Eiko once every team member was available. Never deviated from that setup once. Maybe I would have gone with Amarant over Freya if I didn't grind at the dragon so much that I ended up maxing out Freya's damage with her Dragon Crest, as both Amarant and Freya's support skills are very similar. Eiko is my preferred white mage due to having Holy and Full Life, and Carbuncle support (especially paired with specific jewels). Quina is OP even without maxing out their damage by catching frogs, and that's enough justification to add them to the team.
Almost same..
Mine are zidane, quina, Freya and Amarant. Loved amarant chakra and aura spells, no need white mage as quinas white wind can do that
Eiko is definitely high tier :0 her white magic and support summons + holy make her a great option
Eiko is the best character imo, especially if you can't bother to grind Quina to max potential
I always wanna hear him saying
"THE SH*T TIER""
Steiner has the amazing ability charge. One of very few ways of dealing more than 9999 damage in a single turn.
I know I'm late but Steiner Charge! is 40k damage from 1 move, that's god tier!
quina requires more work to do the same thing the other 3 do way easier, and most those abilities are fluff that aren't that useful :/
Basically this. If you dedicate to grinding Quina to learn all spells and get all frogs and learn the abilities, sure it's the most flexible and powerful party member. But if you don't? Eiko and Freya are better.
Just subbed you man but Vivi low tier?!?!?! Him with Half Mp >>>>>
Thanks for the sub! Not my opinion I promise! When at end game he just fell short. Still a great party member though.
@@locloudanerpg Doomsday deletes everything tho
This list seems to be more about "Why i love blue mages" than anything else
I replay this every year around late November and my fav party is brute forcing my way thru with Zidane, Amarant, Freya and Steiner
The 9999 limit in FF9 is very stifling.
Best characters: ALL
Best warrior: Amarant
Favs characters: Vivi, Zidane, Freya, Kuja
Amarant is easily the easiest to ignore lol
@@Walamonga1313 Only for those who have bad taste
@@Walamonga1313 amarant is a 7 foot juggernaut
Don’t forget carbuncle can cast way more than just reflect. If you hold the right accessory carbuncle can cast 5 other really useful support spells on whole party too.
Oh yeah ? Never tried
I am very suspicious of your list. Catching 99 frogs takes a lot of work but it is very easy to make 99 Garnets to turn Dagger into a strong summoner. And she has Curaga! I think you were just trying hard to put Quina at number 1.
good video, i love you.
my childhood game
Hahaha, my brother gets a mid tier and my favorite character gets a top tier
See Zidane, Amarant is totally superior to you.
So much misinformation in this video...
Yeah. That was really bad.
Opinions are like a$$e$, etc.
Good take quina is really underrated. I knew about amarant from the get go and just like every ff I've never cared for the throw ability but with amarant ion the beginning pinwheel is pretty useful
Vivi is literally the best. Always in my party and strongest. I mean flare and reflect x2
Vivi and Eiko should be higher simply due to them being able to do 19998 damage in one round while in trance.
But it is not at all monsters.
Buy trance can be wasted
amarant has the potential to do up to 29,997 with his attack and both counters. likely even more if a gang of enemies only use physical and magical attacks only on him.
There's one big problem with this list. Every character in ff9 can be made good. They fill different roles in the party in such a way that you can clear the game with basically any combination of characters present at any given time. Honestly... the only other time Square had ever pulled that off before with all characters being unique in their rpg archetypes was back in Chrono Trigger (the best Final Fantasy game). I'll give FF9 the close second though, it's a damn good story.
I think 6 can also be considered. There are obviously better/worse characters but any combination can work. The story is pretty good too
Garnet has an easy 9999 damage, Atmos, getting all of the Amethysts for max damage is easy too
Great video! Bonus Question if Beatrix was a permanent playable character wjere would she rank on this list? I'm using a GS to have ber in my party and she is one of my favorites!
Probably above Steiner for early game damage.
It was my first FF and I love it so much till this day.
Nice to see a
Amarant get some love
final fantasy IX for me is the best of them all! if u talk about fantasy and unique characters both protagonist and villains even the flow of the story romance adventure and battle sequence are all blend in balance, the game is very exciting thus memorable, up until now I still play the game! I love final fantasy IX
The worst thing about this video is how you pronounce Zidane
But apart from that I agree with a lot of your comments, but I would also mention that for the superboss Ozma, a team of Vivi and Amarant can be great if they both have return magic, getting triple Doomsday and therefore triple 9999 can help massively. I would also add Eiko for the Phoenix ability which can be a literal lifesaver in that battle
And yes, Quina is god
I'm starting back FF9 today so will be following this guide to be god tier :D
What the hell is a "Zigh Dane"...
Steiner, auto regen and darksied great combo
liking your content man, just found you there at random. subbed after a few minutes, easy decision ;) (best ff btw)
I love you. Welcome to the family!
Thanks a lot. This might help get me back into serious gaming again, which I have sadly been out of for about a year.
Vivi is my healer, I give everyone absorb darkness and spam doomsday 👉🏻👈🏻
Dude with viví you can cast doomsday and absorb dark you’ll heal the whole party and deal damage.
Too long animation. Vivi is very useful up to disc 2 but pales out later in game
I've been enjoying the bluntness in choosing the best in your opinion. Any chance of you doing one for Octopath Travler? Unless you've already done that one and I haven't found it.
Is it bad that I use the low tier & sh*t tier characters a lot?
Finally! Somebody else thinks Garnet's trash!
PLEASE do one of these for Final Fantasy VIII! It's long been my favorite of the FF franchise and it gets so little love within the gaming zeitgeist, being forever overshadowed in the minds of many by its predecessor FFVII. I'd be overjoyed just to to hear someone like you talk about it...assuming you even liked that entry of course.
And don't feel bad about your maybe maybe not feelings about Garnet. We gaming nerds all know the feeling. Rinoa from VIII may or may not have been an imaginary girlfriend of mine who I may or may not have wrote fanfiction about in high school.........
Haha it's in the works my freind. I plan on doing all the Final Fantasy games. Thanks for the support!
in short, who has the best limit break in ff8, cause they are pretty much the same person, except the limit break. just like FF7 and 10... and maybe 12 (original).
My party ended up being Zidane, Garnet, Freya and Quina. I honestly dont agree about Garnet being bad given that she was extremely useful with Bahamut and Ark. People say Arks not that great because of its long animation but I would argue that its because of its long animation that its so good. Even without max damage if your utilizing Regen (You either need to beat Ozma or beat Hades and use his shop to get Ark) The end game section becomes a breeze with Ark. If your party can Regen to near full health without interruption you dont need to really worry about reviving.
Lmao I loved Dagger she saved my ass with her long summon animations while the party was in regen trying to not get killed during bosses😂🤣 I would throw Freya in the sh*t tier personally
1:59 summon animation in this game is a hack HP as the auto regen still work during this
Wait, Dagger can use her magic while mute or am I insane?
Doesn't Quina's Blue Magic do random damage?
I always found it unreliable.
Some do fixed damage
Some are healing magic
Magick hammer devastates enemies
All blue magic cannot be reflected
I just used Zidane Steiner Vivi and garnet... Because they are the first you get ha
I'm confused. You have Amarant ranked above Freya, but then you sub him out for Eiko as your alternate party? Why?
I love quina! Always name him/her Chef!!!
I named it Molly in my first game in 2001🤣 thought its a fat woman 🤣 may
Actually, if you focus enough times, Vivi can deal 9999 damage even with lower power magic, and focus buff is permanent for the battle
edit: coming back to my comment a year later, I realized that from FFV to FFX, Blue Magic (or Lore or Enemy Skill) tend to be more useful in the odd number in the series and not particularly useful in the even number in the series:
Odd numbers:
FFV: Incredibly broken with Death Claw, Mighty Guard, and a lot of strategies that makes bosses incredibly easy. L3 Flare is also surprisingly useful against many significant battles like the Gargoyles.
FFVII: Big Guard again, plus their mid-tier attack spells like Trine, Aqualung and Beta are all great, with Trine being MP efficient and not affected by reflect.
FFIX: Mighty Guard, Frog Drop, Auto-Life, Night, and for low level runs, Limit Glove. Enough said.
Even numbers:
FFVI: Useful in a natural magic run, but in a game where everyone can use magic, Lore is just kind of ok. It has some niche like Mighty Guard, and is a consistent way to deal Wind and (in versions without the GBA content) Water damage. However, it is pretty easy to just Ultima everything in this game, and there are a lot of good physical builds too despite this game favouring magic heavily.
FFVIII and FFX: Both locked behind Limit Breaks, so...meh.
Honestly impressed with this list. 90% of people out there seem to think Zidane Vivi Dagger Steiner is the best party hands down. Like nah fam, Freya Amarant and Quina are way better and don’t require a specific other party member to be present. They’re unconventional and less straight forward. But goddamn are they way more powerful
A lot of people think the team of Zidane, Garnet, Vivi, and Steiner is the best but I disagree. My team through many playthroughs is Zidane, Freya, Garnet (Eiko during the mute time), and Vivi. 😊
I know this is off a little bit but even if the guides for any FF Game recommends a party I don't go by it. XIII is a prime example as the guide recommends Lightning, Hope, and Fang. Nope! Lightning, Sazh, and Vanille the entire way. 😅
Vivi is late game low tier I agree, but as soon as you can steal the ice staff and magus hat from Gizamaluke, he'll be your main source of damage for the rest of disc 1 and all of disc 2 (barring limit glove shenanigans)
Just finished my first playthrough and Garnet was my MVP. My party had Auto-Regen and Garnet had also that ability that guarrantees full lenght summons so every time i summoned ark my whole party was practically fully healed
I don't have a favourite party for the story but for fighting Ozma I like using Zidain (Because you have to use him), Quina (Blue Magic for the win), Freia (Probably spelled that wrong but I use her for Regen and Dragons Crest) and Eiko (Best Healer in the game).
Honestly it made happy that Freya was high tier considering she’s my favorite character!
Quina is the only good one. Period.
He/she is an excellent character, not only gameplay wise being a powerful and useful Blue Mage, but also for being the only (if not interesting) charismatic character in the game among a sea of the most generic and boring characters in the franchise that are not called Vivi (except for his design, that one is bland and boring, look at how they ruined the female black Mages in FFT with that generic design😑, but at least Vivi's interesting unlike most of the cast in FF9).
The sheer amount of EMOTIONAL DAMAGE this video does to me having vivi…. The best ff character of all time so low hurts….
I don’t recall dagger being so bad, but I played this game like 20 years ago too so...
The moment you put Garnet as the last one (like shes useless) i wonder how much you understand of the game lol,but oh well...
Zidane
Dagger
Steiner
Vivi
This is my team. Which they were rated basically at the bottom 😅😅 I don’t use them because they’re good to be honest. I just like these characters.
Freya Quina Eiko Zidane That’s my party. Pretty high on the list (no offense!)
@@-FLETCH- well at least we have Zidane in common. 😅 I’m playing through the game again and I’m actually using that team. They’re really fun to use!
@@davidcollins7950 yeah! Thay are pretty fun to use!
Beatrix is obviously the God tier character (okay I may be biased because i had a crush on her back then xD).
Without Zidane
My favorite party is
Eiko
Vivi
Freya
Quina
The i in Zidane is pronounced like itch not Aye.
Auto haste plus auto regen plus long summon is broken. The best party late game is Zidane quina dagger then whoever else you want.
My favorite final fantasy game ❤
Loved final fantasy 9 so much, I believe actually lived in that world long ago. Played this game at least 20 times until mid 2000s. My most favorite character is definitely Vivi, but since disc 3 he's not very useful anymore.
The strongest party for me consist of
Zidane ... Steal, thievery, strong trance, good speed and strength
Freya.. Jump, excellent defense early on, dragon's crest
Quina... Versatile mage,frog drop, magic hammer, mighty guard, millionaire ability
Amarant... Chakra, good strength and magic, throw skill, very good trance
Half of my team has reflect and absorbs dark-element. The other half absorbs water and neutralize darkness. Vivi casts either water on team, attacks with reflect while healing half of my team, or he casts dark tribunal and heals the other half team and attacks. I have Eiko for holy, phönix and revive magic, freya (or zidane, but in the realm of memories, he isn't as useful. freya also heals mp and does cheap 9999 dmg) and quina. - What I like about this is, that everyone is a tank, healer and dps at the same time.
You did my girl Garnet wrong lol, endgame, get a couple garnets, maximize magic + spirit and summon Bahamut during her limit break. She'll be dealing 5000 damage nonstop without spending MP or a turn!
Get 99 garnets by synthesising and Bahamut will deal 9999
Hah I’ve been rockin zidane, freya, amarant and quina. I just got the airship, been grinding in tetra master. Great video, thanks.
Honestly my team always ends up being Zidane, Freya with the last two either being Vivi/Eiko and Amarant.
I did just learn from this video what Amarant's trance actually changes. I somehow never realized that Flair made his skills target all. Neat.
If only Beatrix was a permanent party member I would definitely use her in place of the mages.
Each character is good in their own sense. But the most well rounded character is Amarant. If given the healer ability his melee attacks will heal about 3000hp for zero MP cost and he can still dps using thrown weapons/chi blast for huge damage, equipping him with high tide will give plenty of group regens and chakras.I often use Amarant as a healer, but with his skills and abilities his damage output is just that much better then eiko or dagger. :)
So my team of steiner, vivi, zidane and dagger/garnet wasn't optimal min/maxing? bahaha
Trying to get all the steals with zedane while vivi keeps stacking focus, then like 1 or 2 shoting the boss after getting all the steals is pretty great.
Low tier Vivi? You need to specify why best boy is low tier. I am literally shaking.
Forgive me for I have sinned.
In that section when she's mute, she actually can still use magic, it's just that there's a chance she'll "lose focus" and not do anything for her turn.
I feel like everyone is good in their own way. My optimal team is actually Zidane, Dagger, Freya and Quina (I'm gonna use this team against Ozma). With the use of support abilities and some items, you're actually gonna be fine with everyone.
My favourite game ever
Pro how you pronounced Zidane
Dagger is far from bottom tier! You just need a good set up, like any character late game. Her long summon animations are perfect for auto-regen to basically completely heal your entire party and cause damage to boot (especially Ark). And all her other summons cause more damage based on the number of their stones you have in your inventory, so even her cheaper summons can still do good damage.
You made a mistake. Steiner Magic Swd use his own MP and not the MP of Vivi. I found it strange also that you would rate Steiner in the Low Tier but praise him for being very strong. In the end you label him as a simple DPS just like Zidane but you rate Zidane higher.
Zidane can dish out as much damage as Steiner, and more consistently as well. Not to mention that he has more utility.
I do agree that Steiner's ranked too low on this list, however. In fact I think he got most of it wrong, except for Quina (who is admittedly God-tier).
How dare your mouth, Vivi is best boy.
1.- Quina needs several frogs and LEVEL to deal 9999 dmg, with lvl 60 and 100 frog u deal like 6000 dmg while others doenst need that lvl. Angelical gift its one of the most usefull abilities.
2.- advantages of Zidane over Freija: he is way faster, and has a better protection + counter combo since his artema weapon has 100 attack.
3.- Steiner its bulky af. If u put him on rearguard with auto-regen its very hard to kill being able to use phoenix items to revive other members. Very usefull vs yang. He can deal lots of dmg anyway with shock and/or trance and Eiko's protea. Charge! Isnt easy to use but its very good.
4.- Eiko's Madine its very good.
5.-Garnet doesnt need Ark to deal 9999 u can deal that with Bahamut and keep the 3 floating stone. With his maximum spirit his trance its op since she can cast 2 summons in each turn.
6.-Vivi's Doomsday its the best ability in the game. He deals 9999 and HEALS the same amount to ur party since they can absorb shadow with floating stone, diablos armor, and spy coat. I beated ozma with that + auto mirror. Not to mention his trance its the best
I loved your video btw, good job.
Now see, this is way better. All this list "GOD TOP TIER CHARACTERS" need a shit ton of work to make them the best. Vivi on the other hand? Pff jack shit auto reflects and just go to town or put ReflectX2. is risky? yes but for me it works just fine even agains Ozma and nothing in FF 9 is harder than ozma.
The disrespect to the bestest boy would be unforgivable, however you do pay respects to the best poptart.