so you think I should stick to it and play it through? I have next week off, and I'm considering whether to invest the time on FFIX (on PSP, playing it for the first time) or FF Tactics.

I have enjoyed the Tatcis game on GBA. 

A two handed monk? haha thats quite a brawler. 
I have a whitemage whos second job is a mediator.
she has a 36% success rate of inviting enemies.
Its nice having extra teamates in the battlefield.

so samurai is going to use one of those 1600 gold katanas up each time I use that ability? i see there is a katana for each ability now, so some abilites are going to cost $7000 each time???

any other suggestions on games I might like if I like Tactics, going to give Jeane De'Arc a try soon, anything else?

my main guy is a monk and his setup is:

First Strike
Equip Heavy Armor
Lifefoot

2nd job is chemist atm but i was doing that so he could use mana potion on my other guys but now he has Chakra which gives mana , so any suggestions for his 2nd job? or any suggestions in general for him?

my samuari is probably going to be a Dragoon soon, I dont like eating up all that money for attacks...

well make a save first, then try it out.
Build? Its a strategy game, figure it out on your own
seriously though, Its more fulfilling when you try the different combinations by yourself.
unless youre a highly competitive multiplayer, Personally I like the jump attack because you become invulnerable when you jump, plus you deal more damage. A jumping monk sounds nice, Youd be like one of those heroes in old chinese martial arts films

Jeanne D'arc is more "casual accesible".
That would translate to "very easy game"
though I would still recommend that game.
Its fun and the visuals are beautiful for a psp game.
Pitty it didnt sell any better...

Other games?
Disgaea thats the only other tactics game worth mentioning I know for the psp.

if you have 60 hours of time to spend on it i would. i think it's alot better than the gba version, i'd go with ffix first though.

disgaea is very good, IMHO nippon ichi makes some of the best TRPGs, and while not a Tactical game per se, Riviera is pretty cool.

if you have a ps1 or PS2, let me know, I can reccomend quite a few Ps2 games that are similiar. 

I got a 20GB PS3, so I can play any PS2 game. Its not tactical per se, but I tried Tales of Radiant Mythology on the psp and hated it - just to give a little better sense of my taste. Jeanne D'arc is more like FF:Tactics then Tales , right?

heh till reading these posts I couldnt really figure out what good jump was, other then that you go away for a turn and cant be hit. Now I see you can jump ON people to do major dmg, right? will spells that are charging and targeted on the unit before you jump hit you?

my main 5 are

monk

samuari

orator/lvl8 white mage (its pretty much a white mage with a mithril pistol)

Black mage/time mage (this guy is ALMOST qualified for arthmetics)

and i swap the 5th between : Luso the hunter, another black mage, thief, or archer/chemist

you guys got me wanting me try out dragoon more, but my only character that can do that job is now my samuari that I worked so hard to get and am now disappointed in. the thief guy i mentioned as one of my 5th guys, is training to be a dragoon.

and finally, WHY WAS THERE NEVER A SEQUEL TO THIS GAME?????

the psp version is almost a direct remake of the PS1 version, right?

Yeah Jeanne d'arc is definately more like FFT than a tales game..

as for the jump ability:

nope you are essentially temporarily off the screen so you get missed unless they have drastically changed it since the ps1 version. It works really well in boss battles where they summon really bad crap to attack you :) I remember maxing out a few of them in jumping height and length and equipping really strong lances, you could dominate anything from like 12 squares away without a scratch, or immediately jump to the top of mountains and hide etc....

I would definitely say that you should at least rent Jeanne D'arc and disgaea and see if you like them, if so almost all the games by nippon ichi are similar (phantom brave, soul nomad, makai kingdom, la pucelle etc...)

one of the best ones ever is Tactics Ogre for ps1, but good luck finding that for under 100 bucks, its from the same guys that made FFT. they also have one for the GBA.  I also really like the growlanser sereis (especially 2) because some of the battles are full of strategy rather than just attack until everything dies.

you might also check this out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tactical_role-playing_game

the chronology list is useful

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_tactical_role-playing_video_games