Ramza Beoulve

Specialist

Ramza can employ his EX Skills to enhance his own abilities and support his allies. As he can also fill his EX Skill gauge at will, you can constantly maintain the two skill effects as long as you use them strategically.

Original Appearance: FINAL FANTASY Tactics

Year: 1998

Role: Ramza’s long-untold story is one of many rich tales of the War of the Lions, among the many memorable periods in the history of the kingdom of Ivalice. His name was mostly stricken from the telling for centuries; those few scholars who had heard of him said the name with venom, for he was considered a heretic of the church. But it wasn’t true. Ramza was a hero instrumental to calming a tumultuous period, one that saw his best friend, Delita, hailed as a virtuous mercenary who would become king, while Ramza went unsung.

Arsenal

Bravery Attacks: Normal

Bravery Attacks: Shout

HP Attacks

EX Skill

Bravery Attack Breakdown

Graceful Swings

Ramza swipes upward in a short-range crescent with his rapier. If this connects, he can twist into a spinning backhand slice that knocks the victim away to mid-range.

The range on the first swipe is short, though at least the rapier’s tip ends up well above Ramza’s head, so it can potentially snipe enemies dashing around in that airspace. It’s not good against agile enemies sidestepping around Ramza, though. With Ramza in normal squire form, exploratory sword slashes shouldn’t be a big part of your plan anyway. Unbuffed, Graceful Swings should be restricted to opportunistic openings, like sidestepping around an opposing duelist’s straight thrust, or smacking a flattened enemy, that a teammate comboed or wall-rushed in front of you.

During Shout, the first swipe travels twice as far as unbuffed. Not only that, but you can go ahead and perform the follow-up swipe on whiff, making the attack’s fishing range and attack period even longer. The second stage also acts like a small area-of-effect explosion in front of Ramza, rather than simply a spinning sword slash. The damage and knockback are also increased.

Rush / Airborne Rush

This +  attack is the same whether on the ground or in the air. Ramza rushes forward with his head down and arm tucked in, right shoulder extended. If this multi-hit tackle catches the target, he spins around and checks them away with the other shoulder.

This tackle attack closes distance quickly but is easily evaded. It’s best utilized when charging in on opposing marksmen, preferably after flying around one of their ranged salvos. It’s also great if you expect the enemy to sidestep prematurely, before you’ve attacked—hold off, confirm they’ve sidestepped, then drill their recovery with Rush. But unbuffed Ramza’s strength is not close-range melee brawling, so don’t go too crazy applying shoulder-checks to enemies.

During Shout, the initial shoulder-check travels a bit farther while doing more damage. The follow-up attack changes into a sword thrust that projects energy far ahead of the blade, ultimately reaching twice as far as the first poking shoulder of unbuffed Rush.

Everything’s better—damage, range, knockback, cancel ability. Like with unbuffed Reaper becoming buffed Blade Flash and gaining range through a projectile wave, the energy extension of the buffed second stage here can be used with careful spacing as an invincible mid-range poke, since Ramza projects energy far forward when the shoulder rush ends. To use the projectile on its own, perform +  short of Rush’s range, then force the combo with another  press.

Cast Stones / Astral Munition

It wouldn’t be a FINAL FANTASY Tactics character without a rock toss, would it? Ramza hefts a stone before tossing it straight at the target. Thankfully, Ramza doesn’t need to toss hundreds of these to build up job points in this game.

Cast Stones can be charged up to two levels before release, making it better in every way. It doesn’t have homing, though—it’s a thrown rock, after all. This oddly makes it less useful charged at the edge of its range, because it’s unlikely anyone will stand still that long. Any projectile is great when someone is brazenly dashing straight in for you, but with its small size and lack of tracking, there’s no mistaking this for a general-use projectile. If you want a consistent ranged threat, Ultima is better most of the time.

During Shout, this becomes Astral Munition, a different attack altogether. Ramza charges and launches a magic arrow from his sword. It can still be charged up to two levels to enhance all aspects. Suddenly, in buffed form, this IS a general-use projectile, with great damage, tracking, speed, and range. And it doesn’t break apart when it hits someone, like Cast Stones does—Astral Munition can potentially barrel through multiple foes, making it terrific to launch into groups.

Golden Cross

Ramza lunges in mid-air with a descending rapier swipe just in front of him. It covers above and below, but the reach is small. On hit, Ramza can spin into a wheeling hit that blasts the victim away.

The poor range and average poise make Golden Cross ill-suited for fighting it out unbuffed unless you’re forced to.

During Shout, the first gliding slash gains twice as much range as usual, making it vastly better for mid-air dogfights and retaliation attempts. The follow-up slash, as with Graceful Swings, gains an area-of-effect explosion where Ramza strikes, much improving the overall range and hit potential.

Ultima

Ramza holds both hands aloft, coaxing a light meteor into existence above his opponent’s head. As he brings his hands down, it plummets, falling to earth to explode.

The Ultima projectile itself can hit enemies, as can the spreading explosion it creates on impact with the ground. Ramza can continue moving around, which leaves him less of a sitting duck during casting. As soon as the light bolide is falling, an evasion or guard cancel is possible, cutting short the casting recovery.

Doing an evasion cancel forward after performing Ultima at close to mid-range, preferably from above on a preoccupied enemy, can create a situation where Ramza is able to self-combo, catching the victim’s body as it’s popped up. Score a wall rush off this catch, and you can string yet another stage into the combo, quite a feat for Squire Ramza!

Ultima is easily his most viable Bravery Attack, unbuffed. It’s a good bombardment tool, supplementing allies from mid-range and giving Ramza space to maintain Focus, and can even lead to combo opportunities as mentioned.

During Shout, Ultima is bigger and faster and creates a much larger area-of-effect blast. Thus improved, it’s incredible for dropping into groups and atop summoning cores. However, since other Bravery attacks improve so much during Shout, you’ll probably end up using Ultima proportionately less often when buffed.

Reaper / Blade Flash

Ramza dashes in with a right-to-left slash, swinging with enough force to knock victims far away in one shot.

In melee duels, if you’re dashing around already, Reaper has much better range than Graceful Swings/Golden Cross (>  combos). It takes less overall time when successful, smacking the recipient away in one blow. Missing with Reaper is costlier, though, since it takes longer to evasion or guard cancel than after missing with the first slash of his multi-hit melee combos.

During Shout, the Reaper strike gains a projectile portion: Blade Flash. Ramza’s surplus of energy pours into his rapier, continuing forward after the swipe as a flat, wide force blade. Blade Flash doubles the range of his dashing attack. As with fully extended, buffed Golden Cross, the tip of Blade Flash serves as a safe poke from mid-range.

HP Attack Breakdown

Enervate

Ramza moves forward with repeated slashes, advancing after each one. The first two attacks build up Bravery a bit before the finisher, increasing potential damage but also perhaps providing a window for the victim’s allies to interrupt Ramza.

Each of the three slashes inflicts a different 15-second debuff on the target: first Rend Shield (defense -6.25%), then Weaken (attack -12.5%), then Lethargy (speed -10%). Connect with Enervate up close and you’ll stick all three enfeebles to the target; clip them with just the final slash of Enervate from mid-range, and they’ll have only Lethargy to deal with.

Enervate’s triple-debuff effect goes great with Galvanize, furthering the gap between your team’s stats and the opposition’s. And, as a relatively fast (for an HP Attack) close-range melee move, it can combo after wall rushes and capitalize on openings created by friends.

Earth Render

Ramza sends forward a wall of seismic pillars, eight total, that zigzag across the landscape toward the intended victim.

Earth Render is a shockwave-type HP Attack with good speed and range. The pillars are quite tall, able to reach all but the highest triple-jumping quarry. The sheer size of dangerous area created as the shockwave moves on makes this valuable and easy to apply. And, as with Chirijiraden, with perfect timing and aim (and some luck), you can also throw a swath of pillars just over the space where an enemy goes from being invincible to fair game, creating an unavoidable hit.

From the max range of unbuffed Ultima, Earth Render makes a good complement, clashing with opposing marksman barrages, covering a different vector of attack than Ultima, and smacking unaware enemies who aren’t actually the targets in scrums.

Holy

Ramza gathers heavenly light in his hands, then slaps it to the ground, causing a Holy explosion at the target’s location, or as close as possible, depending on range. As the explosion burns itself out, Holy bolts jet upward to the sky.

This has the longest range of any of Ramza’s HP Attacks, and covers the sky above, perhaps unexpectedly for any foe who tries to double- or triple-jump up out of danger as the luminescence gathers where the explosion will hit. Picking this HP Attack forgoes finishing your wall-rush combos, but grants extra power from fully charged Astral Munition/Ultima range.

Chirijiraden

Ramza pulls out the ultimate katana, a sword so powerful its mere exposure to battle can cause an eruption of flames. An explosion fans over Ramza in a big sphere, lashing nearby targets with Bravery damage before blasting their HP.

It takes Ramza just over half a second to draw Chirijiraden, and the explosion persists for over a second and a half. As the flames rage, a tornado-like draw-in effect extends out for a huge radius, pulling people in from early mid-range.

This is a powerful area-of-effect attack, covering basically all close range and even hitting above and below Ramza to cover typical attack blind spots. And it does all of this while still being fast enough to follow up on wall hits and other combo chances.

The long hitting period also means you can try for devious plays against foes who are about to emerge from invulnerable periods, as when resurrecting from incapacitation, or flipping out from knockdowns with air recovery. Place Chirijiraden just over where they become vulnerable again, and they can’t escape.

EX Skill Breakdown

Focus

Ramza hunches over, concentrating intently while golden magic energy swirls around him. He’s vulnerable in this state, but immediate action is possible by ending Focus. For example, if an attack is suddenly inbound while Focusing, release and then guard or sidestep as needed; there’s no lag on the action if you simply let go of Focus. This allows Ramza to judiciously squeeze in some Focus charge time even near battles in progress.

Finding places to Focus is a major part of playing Ramza, because otherwise his EX Skill cooldown for Shout/Galvanize is a prohibitive 180 seconds. With the use of uninterrupted Focus, it’s three seconds! Never get greedy with Focus; you keep the EX gauge you’ve built up even if Ramza is interrupted with attacks, but it’s never worth giving up Bravery/HP damage for free if you can help it. Drop the charge attempt, guard as needed, and pick up the rest of the gauge later—better safe than sorry.

Whether catching a half-second of Focus charge out in the open here and there, stepping behind a small boulder to grab a full second or two in the thick of things, or stepping back from the battlefield and getting the whole three seconds in at once, constant Focus is crucial to playing Ramza.

The only time you DON’T want to think about safe places to briefly charge Focus is when you’ve pushed Ramza to maximum preparedness: allies are Galvanized, Shout has Ramza in peak form, and Focus has already topped off the EX gauge, so you’re ready to refresh the first buff that expires. In which case, fantastic—it’s time for all-out offense while the team’s morale is jacked up by Ramza’s war cries.

Shout

Ramza spends his stored EX power with a stirring scream to psyche himself up.

For 25 seconds, this humble squire shows his true potential. He gains a triple-jump. His poise on Bravery Attacks increases from assassin-grade to vanguard strength, giving him full-tank punching power. And his combo chains can be performed even when the first attacks miss, like with Sephiroth. Not only that, but his Bravery Attacks all become slightly altered, with more range, damage output, and hit properties.

It can’t be overstated what a difference this makes. Ramza under the influence of Shout transforms from a merely functional fighter—not a compliment on a battlefield that includes deities—to one of the strongest in DISSIDIA. With effective Focus use, Ramza can stay in this state almost all the time, which is certainly something to strive for.

Galvanize

Ramza’s morale-boosting hurrah emboldens his partners, enhancing their power.

Galvanize is another way to spend Ramza’s EX gauge. This grants a 35-second buff to both teammates. Don’t worry about range—it’s global so it doesn’t matter where they are. Allies gain + 6.25% attack and defense, + 10% speed, and slowly gain a total of 280 Bravery (spread out over the 35-second period).

There’s no reason not to keep this party buff going all the time—the only cost is about three seconds of Focus time every 35+ seconds, a small price to pay. It’s a good idea to have a kind of rotation planned: prioritize Galvanize since its cycles are longer, buffing allies first, then worry about applying Shout to Ramza. With Galvanize already in progress, the full Shout duration can be used to chase after the enemy, with any lulls used in spurts to recharge the EX gauge with Focus. Keep an eye on the power-up icons shown under Ramza’s HP gauge, and next to his allies’, to keep track of how close the buffs are to expiring.

Battle Plan

Ramza is a bit of a mix of assassin, vanguard, and party support. This is all courtesy of his EX Skill set, which is based around his ability to bolster the morale of himself as well as everyone fighting alongside him. With a full EX gauge, he can Shout to radically power himself up, or Galvanize to power up all allies. When the EX gauge isn’t full, he can rapidly fill it with his Focus EX Skill.

Focus, Shout, and Galvanize are central to playing Ramza. You must learn to find constant gaps, large and small, to Focus, filling the EX gauge whenever possible. With that EX gauge, you must maintain Galvanize on the team and Shout on Ramza. In a way, playing Ramza is like juggling buffs that last a certain number of turns in FINAL FANTASY. If you don’t want to be constantly worrying about applying buffs to allies and yourself throughout the match, then Ramza probably isn’t for you. Shout is too good to pass up, and teammates will expect and appreciate Galvanize.

When the battle begins, your first Focus period should be right out of the starting gate; unless one of the enemy fighters makes a dashing beeline straight for Ramza, there’s time to fully charge and buff right away. The best choice for first buff depends on your team’s makeup. If Ramza is accompanied by lighter fighters (assassins and marksmen) then it’s best to Shout immediately and take the lead as the party’s vanguard. If you have a dedicated vanguard on the team, then lead with Galvanize.

With the first buff out of the way, the teams will already be engaging one another. It’s possible you can squeeze in another full charge back-to-back and get both buffs operating straightaway, but probably not. You’ll have to begin engaging normally usually; if you open with Galvanize, this will be at a disadvantage as Squire Ramza. Focus on staying out of the midst of things, and try to dance on the fringe and take shots with Ultima at enemies not actively targeting Ramza. Find time to Focus up for Shout. You can always squeeze in a few frames here and there if not under direct assault, but to really get Focus out of the way, don’t be afraid to duck behind large rocks or obstacles on the field, or to hide behind ledges or platforms where available. Also, when you bat a foe away with a melee combo, such as in retaliation to a missed close-range attack with >  attacks, instead of dash canceling to give chase like some fighters, use it as found Focus time, as long as no one else is bearing down. The same goes for times you’re blasted by enemy attacks, but not actively pursued when you recover.

Even when Shout and Galvanize are both going strong, it’s worth recharging the EX gauge so either can be reapplied as soon as they fall. This might seem like a chore initially, but if you keep playing Ramza, it will become second nature, and the payoff is worth it.

With Shout active, Ramza not only gains the triple-jump of a typical assassin, but also the poise of a vanguard, plus he can cancel chains on whiff. This means he can and should bully his way in like Sephiroth.

Ramza doesn’t do a great job setting up combos for friends, but that’s not really his job. His melee combos are over quickly and don’t leave any time for nearby friends to react and tack on something else. His ranged attacks don’t synergize any better, as single-hit moves. Apart from wall rushes, he helps allies with Galvanize, not combo setup or forbidding area control. This lends some clarity to his swordfighting purpose: he melees to bat enemies away, building Bravery and temporarily thinning hostile numbers, tilting numbers your team’s way.

Think of Squire Ramza as a team-assisting assassin. With Shout active, he’s an enemy-battering vanguard.

When selecting Ramza’s HP Attack, you’re choosing between two close-range and two long-range options. Enervate helps push the advantages created by Galvanize, while Chirijiraden’s speed and size are hard to ignore. Either caps off combos and instills close-range fear. If you prefer ranged KO shots, choosing between Earth Render and Holy equates to choosing between a lethal horizontal and vertical corridor. They’re especially useful if your allies are both melees too, glutting the front line. You can be flexible, adapting by sitting back, keeping Galvanize up, and giving brawlers fire support from the max ranges of Ultima, charged Astral Munition, and Earth Render/Holy.

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