Part 122: Characters - Golbez

Name: Theodor "Golbez" Harvey
Job: Lunarian

Description:

Golbez was the main antagonist of the original game. He'd steal crystals, kidnap dames, and brainwash the betrayal-prone. He took a revenge-driven meteor to the face and shrugged it off. After getting his ass kicked, he managed to deattach his hand to steal a crystal. Despite having the opportunity to kill Cecil several times, he never does so.

You see, Golbez was the brother of Cecil, and even when they were young, some force of evil tried to manipulate Golbez into hating his brother for killing their mother. Golbez resisted these callings somewhat, but by the time FF4 pulls around, he's full-fledged evil. He's got many followers around the world, manipulating the powerful Baron into doing his bidding for them, even brainwashing Cecil's best friend. At one point, he even has Cecil take a crystal from him. But even when Golbez has the chance to get rid of a nuisance, something unknown holds him back.

Then we meet uncle Fusoya, who tells Cecil that he's half-Lunarian, and then they run into Golbez, where Fusoya awakens his memory, leading to the big revelation. Golbez feels guilty for all the horrible things he did, and tries to earn redemption of his own in defeating Zemus, hoping at least to earn forgiveness from Cecil, which he finally does. Thus he goes to Lunar Slumber on the moon with Fusoya, knowing he could never return to the Blue Planet because of his sins. A nice tale of how even the darkest foe can find redemption.

It makes sense that The After Years would follow such a key figure, and right now he's with Fusoya investigating the strange going-ons of the moon. Considering he's currently on the Blue Planet incognito helping Rydia and Edge, there's still mystery concerning how he gets there, how much he knows about the coming evils, and what exactly he hopes to accomplish.

Abilities:

Black Magic

Pressure - Adds paralysis to an enemy, disabling that enemy for several turns. Works similarly to the Hold spell.

Taunt - Draws all physical attacks to Golbez until he takes an action.

Black Magic:

Starts With:

Fire
Fira
Firaga
Blizzard
Blizzara
Blizzaga
Thunder
Thundara
Thundaga
Bio

L32 Osmose
L35 Drain
L42 Quake
L55 Flare
L60 Meteor

Equipment: Swords, Hammers, Axes, Spears, Daggers, Rods
Best Stats: Stamina, Strength

Tactics:

Golbez is a Fighter/Black Mage hybrid, and works well as both. He doesn't get any status spells and thus lacks some of the versatility of specialized Black Mages like Rydia and Palom, but he makes up for it with his great physical prowess, strong magic power, and his abilities.

Offensively, Golbez has solid Strength and Stamina. He's no Yang or anything, but he'll hang with the best of the fighters. His Intellect is also impressive, not as high as Rydia's or Palom's, but still high enough for magic to hurt his enemies hard. This gives Golbez some great adaptation, using magic to nuke bosses and physical attacks for random encounters, or smacking around Reflect-prone enemies while melting Flans. Just having the option between strong physicals and strong magic makes Golbez fantastic.

But it gets better, as Pressure will paralyze enemies for several turns. It doesn't last long, and it doesn't always work, but when it does it can help your party heal or give them breathing room to go on the offensive. Taunt is great when you want to ensure that your weaker team doesn't get any hits, and Golbez's high Stamina ensures he can take those hits well.

One thing to note is that Golbez starts with very high HP, but it does not go up with level until L55. So while he starts off incredibly high, other characters will pass that eventually. Still, he has such a huge advantage that it'll still be above some characters when he does start gaining.

So yeah, Golbez is the best of both worlds. He has the stats to be both a great fighter and a great black mage. He has versatile abilities that are actually useful in battles. Whatever you need Golbez to do, he can do it. Overall, he's one of the better party members to have on your team, as he can kill enemies in a variety of wonderful ways, and kill them thoroughly through all of them.