Naturally, you can't hurt the enemies either from off-screen, and have to Return to issue any other commands. The Bard's only other ability is the 'Hide' command, which works the same way as Edward's 'Hide' command from FF 2/4: the Bard runs off screen, where he can't be damaged by anything. And you tend to get hit a lot when you're a solo character! Song magic is therefore a bit of a mixed bag for the solo playthrough handy at times, but not good enough to rely on overmuch. It's not so useful to have a solo Bard trying the same thing, since every time he takes a hit his song will be interrupted and have to start over again. It's quite useful in a normal, mixed party to have a Bard singing a Song that increases everyone's Strength or Level, for example. The main role of the Bard in this game is to use Song magic, some of which mimics other spells (like Stop and Charm) while others buff the stats of the party. 'But wait!' I hear you say, 'Bards aren't as useless in Final Fantasy 5!' True enough, but 'not as useless' doesn't exactly make them good either. The one saving grace is that the poor English translation of FF 2/4 gave us one of the more amusing lines ever in video game history, lovingly reproduced above. umm, weak and irritating? I'm not sure why Square seemed to think that anyone would want to play as characters who whined constantly and had the sole redeeming quality of being able to play the harp.

FF2 (the original Japanese version) served up Gordon, a weak and irritating bard, FF4 gave us Edward, who was also weak and irritating, and the Barb job in FF3 was. Is there any other character class more deserving of scorn in the Final Fantasy universe? For the uninformed, Square has a long tradition of sucky bard characters dotted throughout their previous games. So with that in mind, let me introduce you to the Bard class!ДЄhh, Bards. These are the characters that were emphatically not meant to be played without accompanying teammates, and are generally lacking all of the things that you would typically associate with a conquering hero. The Marvellous Misadventures of Spoony the BardДЇor my seventh solo challenge in Final Fantasy 5, I decided to attempt the first of what I've chosen to label on my website as the 'Insanity Challenges'.

Final fantasy tactics bard