Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles/Races

Clavat
The Clavats are a good-natured race of farmers and tradesmen who value unity and peace above all else. You'll find many of them growing crops at the Fields of Fum, and they are widely-spread throughout other towns and villages in the world. The Fields of Fum hold (incredibly slow-paced) cow races every other year, which you can bet on for some extra gil.

Clavats' weapons of choice are swords, and their supplementary equipment are shields. Swords have fairly variable and long-range focus attacks, and shields can be used with the Defend command to block any attack from the front, including magical or elemental attacks (like Gargoyles' elemental shots, for instance), but discluding actual spells. In most cases, simply dodging attacks outclasses the use of a shield, though it can be useful for stalling out the effects of debuff statuses like Slow and Fire when your character is afflicted with them.

Overall, they are the most balanced class in the game in terms of stats. They possess the second-best Magic and Defense stats and third-best Attack stat overall, making them jacks-of-all-trades. For solo gameplay, they are arguably the best race overall due to their ability to perform all roles well-- attacking, Focus Attacks, magical offense, and magical support all come easily to them. In multiplayer mode, they are less valuable due to their relative lack of specialization compared to other races, and they cannot compete with the power of the Lilties or the quick spellcasting prowess of the Yukes. Clavats are typically best used as secondary spellcasters who are able to step in to take the place of any role if one of the other party members is incapacitated or otherwise preoccupied, tanking like Lilties, or healing instead of Yukes. In a party where all four races are present, Clavats are best utilized swapping between the roles of a physical tank and a white mage, leaving the job of a black mage to the Yuke, who have more powerful magic offense (whereas Cure and Life can do their job regardless of the user's magic stat).

Two of the strongest pieces of armor in the game, the Gaia Plate and the Chocobo Shield, are exclusive to Clavats, making them among the best defensive races when fully leveled and equipped. They receive one exclusive weapon, the Ragnarok, which can be forged from a Dark Weapon scroll. Some of the best accessories for Clavats include the Talisman of Wisdom, an extremely useful item that allows them to cast spells even faster than Yukes, and the Force Ring, an accessory for all races that provides a basic-level resistance to all negative status ailments.

Lilty
The Lilties are a race of hot-tempered hellions, dwarfish in stature compared to other races. Their size belies their power and ambition, however, as the Liltian empire once spread across the entire world before their supply of iron ran dry. Older generations of Lilties still see their race as superior to the others, and some still harbor grudges and prejudice, though at their best they are fiercely loyal and honorable warriors.

Lilties carry spears as their weapon and use gloves as their secondary armor. Spears possess some of the most powerful Focus Attacks, second only to the Selkies and their quick charge time. Lilties' Defend command is essentially identical to that of the clavat, blocking all attacks from the front except for spells. They possess great strength and defense, being superior to all other races in both regards, yet inferior to all others in magical ability, with weak spells and very slow casting time. As such, Lilties are best used as tanks, getting up close and personal and relying on their brute strength to rip through enemies. Their poor spellcasting makes them difficult to use in single-player when spells like Gravity and Holy are needed, so there may be instances when they'll struggle when playing alone. However, a Lilty can be a powerful ally in multiplayer mode, where they serve almost exclusively as physical tanks, dishing out damage and taking it with relative ease. When supported by a spellcaster to Cure and Clear them, they are a constant and reliable source of damage for bosses and enemies. Multiplayer Lilties should put as much emphasis on Attack as possible, since their Defense gets plenty of help from their armor already.

Lilties also have access to the most powerful weapon in the game, the Longinus lance (crafted from the Celestial Weapon scroll), as well as another exclusive weapon, the Dragoon's Spear (though this is outclassed by the Gungnir, which is crafted from the Legendary Weapon scroll). Diamond armor and gloves are their strongest armor, and useful accessories for Lilties include the aforementioned Force Ring, as well as the Dragon's Heart, which boosts the power of their already-strong Focus Attacks.

Selkie
The Selkies are a nomadic race of human-like people, distinguishable from Clavats by their fur-clad outfits, natural agility, and wild hair of blues and greens. A nomadic people based in the Lynari Isles, they share a widely-held distrust of the other races, just as they are distrusted for their tendencies to resort to smuggling and thievery. At heart they are a spirited and carefree people, and Selkic merchants are among the best in the game.

In battle, Selkies wield rackets or paddles and wear belts in addition to regular armor. Focus Attacks are the forte of the Selkies, who have the quickest charge time of all the races, and a variety of ranged non-elemental attacks to wield with their cudgels. Their Defend command is quite useless, causing the Selkie to perform a simple backflip that requires precise timing and can leave them vulnerable afterwards (it's more efficient to simply dodge, so a Selkie's Defend command should pretty much never be used).

Like Clavats, they are balanced, though they have higher attack and lower defense and magical ability when compared to Clavats, making them relatively fragile and magically underwhelming. Selkies are best played in a guerrilla playstyle, utilizing their quickly-charging focus attacks for hit-and-run tactics. In solo gameplay, they can hold their own, casting Holy and Gravity spells with relative ease, and utilizing Flamestrike, Icestrike, and the like for elemental damage based off of their Attack stat for maximum elemental effectiveness. In multiplayer, they are almost as strong as Lilties on offense, yet they lack the Lilties' defensive strength, so they are best used attacking from a distance with Focus Attacks and picking off weaker enemies while Lilties deal with larger ones. With a dedicated cleric on duty to provide constant healing, Selkies can tank through enemies as well as any Lilty, however. Focus primarily on raising a Selkie's weak Defense with Artifacts in multiplayer, and balancing out his or her other stats afterward.

Selkies' best gear includes the exclusive Dreamcatcher (crafted from a Lunar Weapon scroll), as well as Diamond Armor/Belt. Selkies also get some of the best accessories in the game, including the Angel's Earring, which massively reduces the time they are afflicted by status, and the Thief's Emblem, which speeds up their Focus Attack charge time to nigh-instantaneous. Selkies can also optimize their equipment for guerilla tactics by equipping a Winged Belt alongside the Dreamcatcher and Thief's emblem, which combine blazing-fast charge time and the most powerful Focus Attack in the game with extended Focus Attack range and speed.

Yuke
The Yukes are a mysterious race of tall, masked sages, hailing from the lakebound city of Shella. Yukes were the only race not to be conquered by the Liltian empire during their reign, and the two races are about as opposite as can be-- Yukes are patient, tall in stature, and value knowledge above all else.

Yukes wield hammers as weapons and wear helmets for supplementary armor. Hammers, while no less powerful than any other weapons, are nonetheless quite weak in the hands of the Yukes, and their Focus Attacks tend to have short ranges, but stun-inducing area-of-effect strikes. Yukes possess easily the most useful Defend command, phasing their bodies to be completely intangible for an infinite length of time! In solo gameplay, this is no more useful than simply sidestepping, but with teammates, it can be used to distract enemies from teammates for an indefinite time period while they heal, cast Life, adjust their command lists... Needless to say, it's very useful.

Stat-wise, Yukes are specialized spellcasters, possessing the weakest attack and defense of any race, but the strongest magic attacks and the fastest spellcasting ability. In single-player gameplay, they possess the opposite problem of the Lilties, being capable of solo-casting very powerful spells like Firaga and Blizzaga, yet struggling greatly when physical attacks are required. In multiplayer, a Yuke is an excellent support character, being able to fire off Cure spells for the party quicker than any other race, as well as to provide powerful magical offense. As previously stated, Yukes are best relegated to the role of Black Mage when multiple spellcasters are present in a multiplayer party, though having a backup Cure on them certainly pays off if things get hairy. They can team up with Clavats or Selkies to cast Holy and Gravity, or even high-level elemental spells the impact an entire area. Specialize a multiplayer Yuke in Magic, giving him/her as much as possible to beef up his/her spell damage, and Defense whenever Magic is not an option.

Yukes receive no exclusive weapon in this game, which is fine, as they often have little need for it... the Legendary Weapon and Greatest Weapon scrolls provide Yukes with their strongest weapons, so these should probably be relegated to a Yuke in a multiplayer party (where all other races have access to their own exclusive weapons or armor). The Ultima Hammer (crafted from the Greatest Weapon Scroll) is particularly useful for Yukes, as it has a very frequent flinch rate which often makes up for their weak physical attacks. Armor-wise, Yukes have exclusive access to Slow and Stop-resistant helmets, though it's typically best to equip them with all Diamond gear, as they need as much protection as they can muster. Yukes also have two very useful accessories in the Wisdom Charm, which allows them to cast basic-level spells almost instantaneously, and the relatively difficult-to-obtain Forbidden Tome, which causes their spell damage to skyrocket.