We already saw the scene entering the Rift when I ran into it accidentally way back when. Which is good, because it doesn't play again.
With three Master Mimes, I'm free to explore the new jobs in a bit more detail than I have before -- I've played this version through plenty of times (mostly thanks to the Let's All Play Four Job Fiesta they did at Talking Time), and tend to ignore the new jobs, because they don't really add anything to the game.
The Gladiator is a new ultra-physical job. Mastering it gives the same boost to a Freelancer's or Mime's Strength as mastering Monk. They have decent Vitality and Agility, but not as good as the Monk or Thief, so that's not much of a draw.
The Gladiator's active skill is !Finisher, which hits an enemy hard with their equipped weapon. Finisher either does 9999 damage, lands a critical hit, or misses entirely. The more job levels a character has in Gladiator, the less likely they are to miss. The 9999-damage move is elemental in nature, reflecting which of the four crystals chose which of the four party members: Bartz is wind-elemental, Lenna is water-elemental, Krile (standing in for Galuf) is earth-elemental, and Faris is fire-elemental. Being earth-elemental, Krile will miss flying creatures with her elemental strike, so her !Finisher is near-useless against them.
The Gladiator's job levels teach Lure (increases encounter rate), !Finisher, Long Range (allowing hits from the back row), and !Bladeblitz (attacks all enemies with 75% power of a normal attack). As useful as Long Range might be for a Freelancer, it's not an innate that gets transferred over without equipping it.
Cannoneers aren't particularly strong, fast, or magically apt. They do carry really big guns, though.
The Cannoneer's active skill is !Open Fire, which shoots an enemy. It's a long-range attack with damage based on level, but not Strength or Magic (since Cannoneers get neither). Sometimes Open Fire will inflict Blind, Poison, Confuse, or Instant Death on the target. Those status ailments ignore the target's innate immunity, and the instakill effect even works against undead, so it's a nice proc once in a while.
Cannoneer job levels teach !Open Fire, as above; EXP Up, which does what you'd expect; and !Combine.
Like the Chemist's !Mix, !Combine lets you choose two items and fire them out of a cannon at foes. One of the two items is always Buckshot, Blitzshot, or Blastshot, which become available for sale by the wandering merchant in a couple of towns after you get this job. Blastshot is generally stronger than Blitzshot is generally stronger than Buckshot.
For instance, combining a Flame Scroll with Buckshot gives Flame Shot, a fire-elemental attack. The same Scroll with Blitzshot gives Flame Burst, which hits all enemies with the same fire-elemental attack. The same scroll with Blastshot gives Flame Cannon, which does a lot more damage.
Oracles are the new magic job. They foresee cataclysms and direct them at foes with their !Predict and !Condemn commands. Oracles have a better Magic stat than Summoners, making them worthwhile to master despite their ultra-crappy job skills.
!Condemn brings up the pictured command list. Pick a spell and point it at an enemy (or in the case of Rejuvenation or Recuperation, an ally) and let fly to... put a counter on the target. The spell only takes effect once the counter hits 0. So you've got an HP restore; an Esuna effect; attacks of the fire, ice, and thunder elements; and the ability to cast frog, stop, or instant death statuses. If there's a reason to use them instead of Curaga, Esuna, Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga, Toad, Stop, or Death, I can't think of what it might be.
!Condemn is taught by the Oracle's first job level. The second level teaches !Predict... which is even worse.
When you choose !Predict, you get a menu to make either a First-Rank, Second-Rank, or Third-Rank prediction. Higher ranks cost more but happen more quickly. Which prediction takes place depends on the last digit of the caster's MP when the prediction resolves. How strong it is depends on the last digit of their HP.
Predictions include things like Divine Judgment, which hits all enemies for Holy damage and heals the party; Cleansing, which hits enemies with non-elemental powers; Blessing, which heals the party and grants Regen... and Pestilence, which poisons the party; or any of five elemental attacks that hit both the enemies and the party with damage and status problems.
Why anyone thought that adding abilities like those to a game that already has skills like Dual-Wield and Doublecast, and reliable spells like
any other spell in the game is anybody's guess. !Open Fire and !Bladeblitz are okay I guess, but every other active in the new job set is shit-tier.
Anyway, the last two levels of Oracle teach ABP Up and Read Ahead, the latter of which reduces the encounter rate.
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Topic: Enough expository banter! Now Let's Play Final Fantasy V Advance! (Read 23666 times)