Is there any reason to expand my roster since you can only deploy

>>3637156
You can do it that way. There are a few maps where having your party changed up a bit can be optimal, however, it is far from necessary. If you want to use special units you'll have to swap someone out from your generic squad anyway, so it could happen regardless. If you're heartless you can let them absorb the skills from that generic though if you let them get their crystal (and they have the jobs open of course).

I usually end up focusing on a small group of units and set them up how I'd want them for the whole game and try to play like that. One of the best things, or worst things if you're that type of guy, is that you can do almost anything to beat FFT. So have fun with it.

>>3637174
Hmm.

I think I'll go that route. I got my ass kicked at Rat's Cellar fight because I kinda distributed the xp/fights over a lot of characters. Guess it was a habit I got from playing XCOM.

Man, I just wish I can rename my starting generic squires.

>>3637183
There are mods that allow you to do that if it really bothers you that much. There is also a unit editor that will let you rename characters called FFTastic.

That's fine, we all have trouble somewhere towards the start. If you don't already, you should have item on a few of your units since it'll help cushion the blow of making mistakes early on till you have a better idea of what you wanna do with your characters. It's a useful skill throughout the whole game as well so having someone invested into the item command is a very solid strategy even in late game.

>>3637183
You can just get rid of all your starting units and recruit some new guys from the soldier office with whatever names and zodiacs you prefer.

I think the actual point is that you can use extra slots for breeding monsters if you wanted to, and if you felt like it you could keep using your team of generic soldiers while picking up the story related characters just to have.

This is kind of strange because the game gives you 3 special generics with fixed names, and if you include them with all the other special and optional units it perfectly fills every slot of your roster with no room for any of the guys you start with.

>>3637156
FFT kind of sucks in that regard, because it's "optimum" to have 5 people taking all the EXP and everyone else gets sidelined.

It sucks because in the beginning, it's really only 4. Ramza and 3 generics since you always have a guest for the first chapter, and about 50% of the second chapter.

This means you've got someone who's underleveled once you really don't have guests anymore. Thankfully the game gives you Mustadio and Agrias around this time which softens the blow a bit.

But yeah, Focus on 3 generics. Your generics can also be "culled" once you get the better special characters and their abilities harvested via crystalization.

But for the most part, if a character crystalizes during a fight, just reset.

>>3637214
Actually I started out with 6 generics + main character + guests.

I'm playing the Playstation version.

>>3637156
For the first playthrough ever? No. Late playthroughs I just cycle people in and out of my party to have more fun doing silly stuff with the mimes I make in the first chapter.

I used to bum rush calculator and math the rest of the game away but that's lost it's charm to me, so now I play musical seats with the only constant being my mime.

>>3637156
Later on you'll be firing people to make space for special characters or monsters, but it really is helpful to keep everyone around at first. You'll need some fallback in case someone dies, and there are a lot of niches to fill in the beginning.

>>3637214
>Your generics can also be "culled" once you get the better special characters and their abilities harvested via crystalization.
Honestly, half of the specials suck and there's no reason to train up the other half because your generics is going to be far more developed by the time they come in.

>>3639581
>Honestly, half of the specials suck
Almost all of them are broken.

>>3639581
>>3639868
The only one who really falls into this category is Meliadoul. Being female hurts her PA, and her Mighty Sword is worthless against any non-humanoid which is a good part of what you fight in Murond.

Agrias you get early enough where you can realiably train her up and Stasis Sword and later Lightning Stab are instant AoE and reliable damage. Again, she suffers from being female and being unable toequip clothing like Thief hats.

Rafa/Malak have teh highest potential single turn damage with their magic. But they're very unreliable and often appear weak, which is why theyc ommonly get sidelined.

Beowulf is an oracle on steroids but you get him late. Reis is surprisingly strong as well, again, get her late.

Orlandu is used mostly because he's so fundamentally broken. You could never change his job and he would still be worth using.

No, there's no point in expanding once you have Ramza and 4 red chocobos.

I disagree with most of what you're all saying because the main story battles are extremely easy either way, and the random battles scale to your party. There's plenty of potential and replayability for all kinds of parties.