Why Square didn't give Ramza Swordskills?

[Dome]

I'd like to know your opinions about the matter

[Kaijyuu]

1) To emphasize he never gained knighthood.
2) To give him an actually unique skillset.
3) Said skillset is built around leadership skills (yell, scream, etc are all about encouraging self and troops) and ultima (for fun I guess).

[Taichii]

i think that square should at least give ramza a unique sword that only he can use.
but he should really be given a sword skill set..

why?

watch the opening mv of final fantasy tactics...

[RavenOfRazgriz]

Ramza doesn't have Swordskills or even a "powerful" skillset simply because he's not a powerful person.  His strengths are solely in his ability to do what's right against all odds, even if he obviously doesn't have the power to do anything, and his ability to rouse and sway others with his honesty - in comparison to Delita's ability to rouse others through subversion and lies.  Even his base class tells the tale - he might have Female MA and a wide gear selection to better facilitate roleplay aspects and the fact you can't change him out for a female, but his Ubersquire Growths are themselves shit.  If you keep him in his in-character class, he ends up being very mediocre stat-wise compared to every other Special Unit in the game without exception.  This is completely intentional and in-character.

Ramza isn't a powerful main character like Cloud is in-battle.  Ramza doesn't like battle and confrontation to begin with.  His class emphasizes this - his skills are suited to aiding his allies, and the only skills he can learn that inflicts damage outside of Ultima are... Dash and Throw Stone in his base class.  Yeah.  If his class weren't based on Squire, I doubt he'd even have Accumulate.  That's why he gets no unique weapons.  That's why he gets no Swordskills.  That's why he gets no anything else.  He has no in-character reason to have them at any point in Vanilla's plot.

[Pickle Girl Fanboy]

Every character with swordskills was, at one point, trained as a warrior.  Wiegraf probably got his training when he volunteered for the 50 year war.  Every other person who knows swordskills is either a member of a knightly order, or a member of the church.

And keep in mind, Ramza ran away when he was 15 or 16 years old.  If he started his training in sword-fighting at the age of 11 (or whenever he was old enough to lift a sword), that only gives him four or five years experience, whereas the next youngest swordskill people - Agrias or Meliadoul, don't remember which - are in their early to mid twenties.

One other thing - Ramza's lack of swordskills may have been lampshaded when Ramza meets Orlandu, where Orlandu talks about how Ramza resembes Balbanes, and where Orlandu shares a story about how Ramza cried when he tried to, but couldn't lift his father's sword, and his father chastised him for it.

[GeneralStrife]

this thread is awesome

[formerdeathcorps]

Every character with swordskills was, at one point, trained as a warrior.  Wiegraf probably got his training when he volunteered for the 50 year war.  Every other person who knows swordskills is either a member of a knightly order, or a member of the church.

And keep in mind, Ramza ran away when he was 15 or 16 years old.  If he started his training in sword-fighting at the age of 11 (or whenever he was old enough to lift a sword), that only gives him four or five years experience, whereas the next youngest swordskill people - Agrias or Meliadoul, don't remember which - are in their early to mid twenties.

One other thing - Ramza's lack of swordskills may have been lampshaded when Ramza meets Orlandu, where Orlandu talks about how Ramza resembes Balbanes, and where Orlandu shares a story about how Ramza cried when he tried to, but couldn't lift his father's sword, and his father chastised him for it.

No, Agrias and Meliadoul are only 3 years older than Ramza.  And your theory does not adequately explain how Delita learned swordskills in 6 months.
Raven's theory makes more sense, I think.  Ramza appeals to conscience, not force.

[Kalas]

Also, every character besides Orlandu and Agrias that uses swordskills all have a common theme of traits directly opposing Ramza's mindset. "Vengeful" and "duplicitous," really.

[Pickle Girl Fanboy]

No, Agrias and Meliadoul are only 3 years older than Ramza.  And your theory does not adequately explain how Delita learned swordskills in 6 months.
Raven's theory makes more sense, I think.  Ramza appeals to conscience, not force.

There's another thing I missed, which you grasped.  Everyone who knows swordskills is or was part of an authority.  Even Wiegraf, though to be fair his authority was derived from the purity of his struggle, as a sort of warrior-monk.  That he comes equipped with monk skills every time you face him highlights this.

[CONMAN]

Swordskills are such a love/hate relationship for me, and i think this community at large.  Honestly, they are fucking cool, but in vanilla are also very overpowered.  They kind of piss me off actually in this game because you see a bad-ass will be a sword skiller too often in this game.

Preferably I would have loved if more npc's weren't just uber-knights and you saw more "master" types who could originate from other jobs.  I would have been easy to have uber-monk/mage/archer(ranger)/geomancer/whatever types.

Also if these guys developed their skills from whatever knightly order they came from, I think there shouldn't have been soo many "common" holy knight types.  Maybe all the hokoten could have been "holy knight" type skills, nanten could have "divine", and the church could only have beowolf/heresy examiner "temple".  Gaf would kind of make sense having his own "evil" type. 

I gave my own ramza the same skills as Zalbag(2 in chap2 and 2 in chap4).  They are a nice add on that i don't feel are too broken in standard battles (one on ones are a different story).  I always liked how destroy sword was unique and almost felt like a stepping stone to new/better sword skills. 

[shoruke]

I feel that they should have given Ramza some sword skills during the transition from chapter 3 to 4. By this point, he's fought (and bested): Algus, Gafgarion (thrice), Izlude, two of the Zodiac monsters, Malak (twice), and Wiegraf (several times, one of which was a duel). And by this point, his reaction to "I have your sister" is "well then I guess I'm going to have to just show up there and, one way or another, take her back."

Yes, he thinks that fighting is something to be avoided when possible.
Yes, he is young and- comparatively- untrained compared to other special characters.
Yes, he makes a big masochistic point about maintaining his incorruptible pure pureness and naivete.
No, he is not too cowardly to utterly ruin people, most impressively Wiegraf. Single-handedly. Being able to learn Ultima at this point in the game is one thing, but where are the other skills? If nothing else, he's probably seen Lightning Stab performed enough times to think to himself "I wonder if I can do that, maybe Agrias can teach me..."