FFIX Quinna argument, and more.

[Coloring]

Alright I'll first start off by saying, yes I'm one of the few people that has played FFIX well over a hands worth of fingers, and have yet to beat it.
Not due to difficulty, more likely because I lent out my first copy of the game and never got it back. Ever after I've played it and get bored and give up right around Memoria. I've just decided to play it all the way through now, currently on disc two with the lifa tree, so i'm determined to beat it especially since I've beaten most others. Now my point, sorry.
I've been reading a lot of topics, and talked to all my friends that have played it through and it seems a lot of people share the same hatred for Quinna and how completely useless she is. Now being that I'm trying to keep my short attention span from getting the best of me completing this game, I've made it my interest to party with the players I never found useful.
Argument. Scene one, take one:
Why does most everyone think lowly of Quinna? Yes it's a ridiculously hideous player that talks like a retard. And yes it's a sad attempt as a healer or physical fighter. But in the past time I've leveled it, and have eaten every encounter edible, I've realized how good she is to have around. One of the larger arguments I read were mainly about how you can't unleash waves of damage like everyone else, and her only heals are white wind, as far as I know. But here's my defense.
We've all played mmorpgs in our prime, and still do. So we all know what a buffbot is. In just the short time I've been paying attention to it's abilities it seems to far out-weigh additional damage like putting amarant in your party. Which in my opinion, as cool as his auto attack is, was only good for throwing edges and expensive gear.
I haven't even gotten far enough with Quinna to see what else it can get as beneficial spells but from the ones I have seen Quinna is the perfect candidate for 4th party member.
Even the lower level blue magic abilties are that of what you wouldn't expect until much further in the game.
BM-Night: always procs, rarely misses. Regardless if it puts everyone to sleep, your party always wakes up first so if you're close to the pretty game over screen, you've got a fresh start.
BM-Mighty Guard: Nuff said. Massive mana consumption at lowby levels, but teach MP+10 and it balances out. Plus it's the saving grace in boss battles when you skip a heal turn and realized you needed it too late. Plus casting shell/protect by solo casts from eiko and garnett is beyond a bad dry hump.
BM- Angels Snack: Yes, rarely do you need a remedy cast on all players at the same time, but isn't it neato knowing you can? Especially in one turn as opposed to four.
BM- Vanish: This spell is well known. But it's nice to know you can shroud your healers and squishies and whoever you please from melee and autos. And it's especially useful for your healer when your hardest hitting party member gets put under confusion. It's a great way to keep your squishies from being put to bed by your own team.
Most every damaging spell I've seen are all multiple target spells, so it benefits Vivi when he does a cast on all targets and they all survive with minimal hp, instead of dealing another auto attack for every barely alive mob. You have your fatty boombaddy buffbot with a decent mana pool to play with. Plus all of Quinnas magic abilities look way more detailed and sexier than the rest.
Quinnas trance: Completely and utterly brilliant because I've been lucky enough to have it proc when I really did need to indulge on random encounters. Plus, I don't know the gauge on how much health needs to already be removed from the mob, but I do know it's not a lot. So it's almost an instant death spell, just not for boss battles. But it's cool because all of her other beneficials make up for it, and with her/it/whatever in your party, you can last in a battle for close to forever if you've got enough MP regen through Freya or ethers. What's also dandy about Quinna is that when you're dragging through that ever so delightful time of 'Steal'ing and getting that stupid response that pretty much says 'you suck, keep trying for another 20min' you have Quinna to spend close to no mana and keep your thieves buffed up. And Quinna has some decent defense and HP as well so it's not even a bad idea to front line her as a flesh shield.

I know this thread must be terribly long and a drag to read, but I'm doing everything I can to keep entertained with this amazing addiction for ff9.
I'll be spending a portion of my free time playing through this game again.
I would like to ask that if someone does read this and has an opinion, be it negative or not, please make it known on this thread.
I haven't played Quinna that deeply into the game yet, and I've never used her in any of my prior run-throughs so if anyone has knowledge about what beneficial spells and blue magic she gets later in the game. And which ones are really good that I haven't posted, and her final blue magic abilities.
Thank you for your time everyone! Your opinions will help me a lot, especially since I have a 30$ ongoing bet with my roommate that not only will I get bored and quit the game, I'll also choose not to use Quinna end game because he swears Quinna gets worse well over twicefold.
Uhm, that's it! Flamers welcome too.
Thanks again,
~Coloring.

[smattle]

Hmmmm to be honest, in matters of Quina all I can say is that his BM somewhat does not make up for his lack of phtsical strenght and healing abilities. And that's really the only 2 things you need in FFIX, unlike in others like X where I have to say the battle system was quite good, not good enough to cope with the game itself being crappy but good.

Playing IX the only two moves you really need is attack and Magic (White/Black) everything else seems like a nice but not really usefull nor nessecary add-on. Which in my opinion makes the usage of characters like Quina quite pointless....Vivi, 1healer, 2 attackers = perfect team for (nearly) any boss fights. So in the end I never did spend much time on him, unless to get the Items in the swamps or learn his Magic just for to know you have it....
Also his MP usage is HUGE....

BTW sry if I keep calling him a he for mistake, but that's what I've always done and will do....Quina is NOT female. lol

[immyownmonster]

Blue Mages work great for MANY good reasons. To name a few:
Quina can learn Magic Hammer, which reduces MP of magic using enemies.
Blue Mages can CRIPPLE a battlefield. They are as random as causing multiple status affects, to taking a SERIOUS amount of HP away. They go great with any class of characters. Put him with magic users and cast physical spells. OR... put him with some hand-to-hand fighters and cause MAJOR status affects that help you get a quick win.
The only blue mage i never really used was Kimhari from X. He was to weak starting off, so i ignored him.
Bring Quina with you to the "Gourmands" forests... Mm-mmmmm! FROGS

[Garland]

I haven't "Played" Final Fantasy IX yet (Though sometime in the future I want to), but I can say that Blue Mages are complete wildcards in the series. Sometimes, I find they are useful other times, the selection of other abilities are so large that the addition of a blue mage in your party seems trivial.

For example, Final Fantasy Tactics A2 had a great Blue Mage job, it had some useful spells and allowed for customisability to make them deadly and flexible to varying players.
I found that Final Fantasy V's Blue mage job was a little excessive comparred to your choice of 4 character jobs (plus another 4 sub abilities), no doubt it was useful in some areas, but A white magic or summon ability slot could be better substitutes and less tedius to gather all the spells.

"Character" Blue Mages are also wildcards if you ask me. While I found Strago to be a capable mage, with Blue magic on the side as an added bonus, and to be very enjoyable. I found Kimahri on the other hand to be frustratingly underpowered.

Unlike immyownmonster, I tried to train Kimahri, really really hard. Giving him the most attention out of the entire party, and yet, Auron or Tidus or even wakka were still superior physically, whilst LuLu could still epically pwn more with magic.

This may not of been the character's fault but X's broken Sphere Grid system in juxtoposition to VI's simpler Esper level system.

And of course, Since i'm not too familiar with IX's system, Quina could be a sinker or a floater.

Though it goes without saying, if they tried to make her too much of a jack of all trades, she will go down with the redmage as being overshadowed by other classes.

[fullwall]

Having played IX to the second disc, I can say that Quina wasn't used in my party at all, except when I had to. It wasn't that s/he was terrible, but I find Blue Mages in general to be pretty pointless. I mean, why would you want to go to every single bad guy you find, reduce his health to a miniscule amount, and then learn an ability when they aren't even that good until the end game?

That basically means that a pretty much useless character has to be leveled in preparation for this. Quina suffered for much the same problem. I don't want to go and fight endless amounts of random battles for an ability, and I don't want Quina in my party.

That's why I consider Quina to be flawed, and as such, useless

[Garland]

If Rob the Bluemage heard you say that Fullwall, you would be quite dead. xD

Is that how Quina gains Blue Magic in IX? Because it's a different story in a lot of different games.
Strago just has to see a particular ability being cast in the party, but other BM's have to have the specific attack directed precicely at them, and they have to survive it! That's what make the task so arduous.
If all Quinna has to do is "Eat" them after they've been weakened enough (Like a pokeball) I'd say that's a much easier task than waiting for the enemy to kill you.

Quinna might be a good character, atleast as far as blue mages go, and as we all know:
White Wind> Curaga.

[fullwall]

That is how Quina learns abilities, but I find it quite annoying as I usually accidentally kill the enemy before learning its ability, and have to fight the enemy another four or five times before I finally manage it. This is obviously not much fun, so I find Quina hard to use effectively.

[Garland]

Well i'd say it's more frustrating to have a monster use an attack on your Bluemage, and instead of learning the spell, he simply dies from it's ferocity and you have to start over again. Or worse, when you're trying to get a beneficial monsters spell targeted at you.
Quinnas system seems to be a lot faster, especially if you have a guide or walkthrough at your ready.

[immyownmonster]

Well, he is a great help fighting Ozma( Optional boss by participating in the Chocobo Sidequests)