the party members i always keep are: the ones who have some sort of special relationship with the main character. if you do not always take nanami or gremio even though they’re not the strongest……. what is wrong with you!!!! kind of on a similar note i personally gotta have tifa or aerith, especially tifa, in the party through the whole game, or i feel like certain story sequences don’t really make sense.
re: thieves…in JRPGs for sure they tend to be underpowered, and most enemies have boring items, but especially in final fantasy there tend to be a few who have something really awesome, but you don’t know which ones so the only solution is to just steal from everyone…which sucks. but at the same time i will still do that, i think because i feel bad for the character because they have nothing else to do. it’s weird, thinking about it it feels kind of of a piece with what i said above, about how i will use a character if it makes sense for the narrative even if they’re not good…i love RPGs
in western RPGs, the counterpart is a rogue or “scoundrel” class (this was mentioned on the show), who often has high dodge and is high damage because they’re meant to enter stealth, sneak around behind, and backstab for critical hits. the most fun i’ve had playing D&D was as this type of character. it would be cool to see this in more JRPGs. maybe it doesn’t because stabbing someone in the back actually is a piece of shit move. whereas every playable JRPG thief i can think of is basically a nice robin hood type person
i’ve owned multiple pairs of clarks desert boots. kind of off them at this point because they seem to be in the “10 articles of clothing every guy has to have in his closet” canon along with like selvedge denim and blue oxford shirts…no offense if you dress like this i can show you multiple pictures of when i did. i mainly just don’t like them because they present as a “heritage” brand even though their quality is really shit. they do go with a lot of stuff (not shorts) but are literally good for almost nothing. they let water in, have no traction on wet surfaces, aren’t warm, stain easily…… useless except for office work
