Spoony Bard: Difference between revisions

** All this said, the famous line that named this trope doesn't appear in the original Japanese version. In its place is Tellah screaming [[What the Hell, Hero?|"You bastard! How dare you!"]]; one way or another, it's not nearly as memorable as the line that took its place.

*** Seems like poor Edward just can't seem to catch a break. While he's shown to be much less wimpier storywise and he still retains his Salve ability in After Years, his Bardsong is again randomized. At very least you can still choose whether you want to target your party or enemies with it, including being able to choose from a single/all party members/enemies and the negative statuses it can cause have potential to at least be useful this time around since the game follows the DS version trend of making [[Useless Useful Spell|Useless Useful Spells]] less useless. While he's not the [[Glass Cannon]] he was in the GBA version anymore, his damage output isn't that far behind from the other characters, he's still decently fast, the aforementioned Salve can be even more useful than the White Mages' healing spells both because of the buyable X-Potions and Elixirs and an item that doubles the effectiveness of items in battle and his ability to hide can still be useful against enemies who telegraph their [[Total Party Kill]] attacks.

* The Dancer and Bard classes in ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]''. Dancers can use their weakest dance to enormously powerful effect in a properly tweaked party (three Dancers and two Mimes with strength boosted as high as possible). This is generally the second most powerful party possible in the game. Without this strategy, however, the Dancer class was mostly useless (which theoretically makes it a [[Magikarp Power|Magikarp]]).

** The Dancer being mostly useless is wrong. The rate of status effects from the various dances varies. The damage both to HP and MP effects were guaranteed, but it also had the ability damage enemy speed, attack and magic attack, as well as inflict statuses, or even reduce it's position in the turn roster to last. Spooniness varied as more powerful effects were attempted.

*** The ''FFT'' remake for the PSP has been more forgiving for the siblings, as it made their spells more reliable, upping the number of times it can theoretically hit to nine, and raising the chance it can hit the center tile target, so that one can center the spell on an enemy and expect it to hit at least once.

** I'm sorry, I must have come in late in the discussion. Did you just say the second most powerful party in the game was composed of three dancers and two mimes?

** He does make up for it with two songs. Undead Requiem does massive damage to zombie type monsters at long range and can remove multiple tombstones at once (the tombstones revert back to the zombie monster after a set amount of turns have passed). Nameless Song gives multiple units random buffs (Ranging from Haste, Reflect, Reraise, Shell, Protect, and Regen) without costing any MP at all. This is an improved version of the same ability Nu Mou Scholars can do, which only affects one person and costs MP to use.

*** And the strategy of multiple mages in formation works relatively well with Illusionists who have the High Magic second ability for the Magic Frenzy attack and the Dual Wield support ability-- a strategy that allows a character two make one magic attack and two physical attacks against every enemy on the screen but consumes MP at a prodigious rate.

* Averted in [[Heroes of Might and Magic]] 4, more notably, the Gathering Storm expansion pack. The bard has maximum positive morale and top speed, that allows her to act before everyone else in battle, and possesses the mass fervor spell that provides maximum positive morale to every allied hero and creature. This becomes vital towards the end of the game when all the player has at their disposal are five heroes, each of a different alignment, meaning that they have maximum negative morale by default - a critical disadvantage.

* Averted in ''[[The Sims Medieval]]'', where the Hero Sims' professions are mostly equal in how awesome they can be (though different players might ''like'' different professions better.) The Bard is useful to the kingdom and has several good quests, including one territory conquest. No Bard who helps his king conquer territory (territory owned by ''pirates'' at that) is spoony.

** The Bard's College is also rather spoony compared to the other factions you can join, like the Companions, the College of Winterhold, or the Thieves Guild. They only have one trainer (for Speech) and three quests other than the initial quest to join up. In exchange, however, each quest gives you a substantial increase in skill points, so it's not entirely pointless to join up.

* Ricardo in ''[[Shadow Hearts From the New World]]'' is a bard but is ''far'' from spoony. Not only does he have ballistics inside his guitar, but he is one of the best mages in the game and plays a great support since he plays songs that buff allies. (Sadly, he is near-useless against the [[Final Boss]] due to its ability to instantly dispel any buffs ''and'' get a free turn when it does so.)