Ah yes dagger. The more summon focused character who literally can't summon for like 1/3 of the game.

You DARE disrespect Dagger??!!! I'm telling Steiner!!! The Knights Of Pluto will have your head, peasant!!!!!

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.

Correction. Steiner’s MP is what gets used for Magic Sword

Been going through your video catalogue and really enjoying it. The KZfaq algorithm is really doing you wrong man.

Dagger has one redeeming quality: Auto-regen + Ark = damage enemy and heal party. That’s a lifesaver in some end-game battles.

"Never again will we see charm like this." In a _single player_ Final Fantasy, yes, I agree.

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

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.

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.

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.

I always wanna hear him saying "THE SH*T TIER""

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.

Steiner has the amazing ability charge. One of very few ways of dealing more than 9999 damage in a single turn.

Quina for the win!!! My favorite character ever in this game.

So what about steiners charge ability which is the most broken thing in the entire game ?

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

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.

What about Steiner's "Charge" ability? It's stupid OP.

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?

The 9999 limit in FF9 is very stifling.

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

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.

Just subbed you man but Vivi low tier?!?!?! Him with Half Mp >>>>>

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

Best characters: ALL Best warrior: Amarant Favs characters: Vivi, Zidane, Freya, Kuja

This list seems to be more about "Why i love blue mages" than anything else

Thanks a lot. This might help get me back into serious gaming again, which I have sadly been out of for about a year.

Eiko is definitely high tier :0 her white magic and support summons + holy make her a great option

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.

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.

liking your content man, just found you there at random. subbed after a few minutes, easy decision ;) (best ff btw)

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 know I'm late but Steiner Charge! is 40k damage from 1 move, that's god tier!

I'm starting back FF9 today so will be following this guide to be god tier :D

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 :/

Nice to see a Amarant get some love

Hah I’ve been rockin zidane, freya, amarant and quina. I just got the airship, been grinding in tetra master. Great video, thanks.

good video, i love you. my childhood game

You forgot to add Beatrix to the god tier.

Vivi and Eiko should be higher simply due to them being able to do 19998 damage in one round while in trance.

It was my first FF and I love it so much till this day.

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!

Steiner, auto regen and darksied great combo

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.

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.........

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 recall dagger being so bad, but I played this game like 20 years ago too so...

Actually, if you focus enough times, Vivi can deal 9999 damage even with lower power magic, and focus buff is permanent for the battle

Hahaha, my brother gets a mid tier and my favorite character gets a top tier See Zidane, Amarant is totally superior to you.

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

Oh my... I've been sleeping on Amarant just because he doesn't have a fixed damage attack like Quina/Zidane/Freya. I'll definitely include him in my next playthrough!

I love quina! Always name him/her Chef!!!

Correction on Dagger! She can Do Crazy Damage so Long as Garnet Is stocked with ITEMS LIKE Garnet & Peridot! The Game has a Hidden Mechanic that focus around Having Multiples of Certain Items! Stuff like Dead Peppers, And Dark Matter need up to 99 of itself to cause damage or Add to Damage! It’s also the Same case for Eiko and her Phoenix! There’s also Different Items that Can change Carbuncle and even Fenrir’s attacks!

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.

Honestly it made happy that Freya was high tier considering she’s my favorite character!

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

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).

Vivi is great when you learn the half mp skill

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.

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.

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)

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.

Am at the end of my first playthrough, just beating the first Kuja fight and seizing the Invincible. My go-to team is Zidane, Steiner, Vivi, and Eiko as they all can hit *very* hard and their utility spells can be clutch sometimes. I'm just learning the remainder of Steiner's attacks / abilities before finishing the game, *maybe* fighting Ozma after doing all friendly monsters, and I'll probably do a 100% run afterwards!

The i in Zidane is pronounced like itch not Aye.

I think dagger should be bumped to low because of her summoning echo that can occur when she's tranced.

I didn't expect that xD

I really liked Salamander (Amarant? In English version) a lot because of his diverse abilities that focused not just damage but some heal and buff and some other things I wish we didn't get him so late in the game TT

So much misinformation in this video...

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

Wait, Dagger can use her magic while mute or am I insane?

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.

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. 😅

Without Zidane My favorite party is Eiko Vivi Freya Quina

Zidane, Garnet, Amarant, Quina

1:59 summon animation in this game is a hack HP as the auto regen still work during this

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!

"There's an entire section where she's permanently mute and can't use magic." ...no, there's an entire section where she's got this slight chance of failing to execute a command in combat. I recently replayed the game, and as long as you put the Tiger Racket on her and use her as an attacker she does more damage than anybody else during that section because of how overtuned that item is relative to when you can get it. It was really weird.

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.

Beatrix is obviously the God tier character (okay I may be biased because i had a crush on her back then xD).

My favourite game ever

Amarant is my absolute go-to, and my uttermost love. Thank you for educating the filthy masses who hate him FOR NOTHING about how amazing he is. 💕

So my team of steiner, vivi, zidane and dagger/garnet wasn't optimal min/maxing? bahaha

Dude with viví you can cast doomsday and absorb dark you’ll heal the whole party and deal damage.

Zidane, eiko, vivi, steiner. Late game strategy was. All party member absorb shadow damage. Doomsday 9999. Damage all enemys and heal party entirely. Everytime. And then doomsday sword with steiner. Cheaper to use than his own skills like climhazzard. Eiko holy and healing if there is need of that. I newer stole that much with zidane so i mention only trance anttacks with him and supporting. But i just started this game again so il try your combination. You should try this my strategy also if you havent yet. Low tier char but works enought. Against ozma quina is vital. I agree with that mighty guardian without that its very hard match. My opinion,

The sheer amount of EMOTIONAL DAMAGE this video does to me having vivi…. The best ff character of all time so low hurts….

Is it bad that I use the low tier & sh*t tier characters a lot?

Doesn't Quina's Blue Magic do random damage? I always found it unreliable.

Yes my G Quina, finally someone realising your worth

I don't know if this is related to PC moguri or memoria mod where you have 100% rate success but I found myself with lotsa ethers, so MP-limited characters soon become not a problem at all. I mean I found myself far more limited with low mp problems in FF X where ether is damn difficult to find :/

Vivi is literally the best. Always in my party and strongest. I mean flare and reflect x2

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. :)

Thank you master Quale! I train more! 😛

Low tier Vivi? You need to specify why best boy is low tier. I am literally shaking.

I really hope the remake/remaster makes Beatrix a permanent party member

Finally! Somebody else thinks Garnet's trash!

Oh wow, i beat this game multiple times using the same exact low tier party member (zidane, garnet, eiko, vivi). I guess I need to play again with different setup 😅

actually Quina's ability needs much more than 100 frogs. The calculation of the attack is: the number of frogs multiplied by Quina's level, even being level 99 (the limit) does not reach 9999, and honestly I think you can spend the game with a level around 50, so you would need about than 200 frogs for the attack to make 9999. Quina is indeed the best, considering his ability as an attacker, support and healer.

I try to stick with the classic party as much as possible, Zidane, Steiner, Garnet, and Vivi, just like the Thief, Fighter, White Mage, and Black Mage in 8-Bit Theater. It can be a real struggle sometimes.