[@Holy Soldier]Fair enough, I see your point of view. I knew the first draft would be off given the way the CS was set. 

As for starting items:
Silk robe provides the loudmouth ability, the loudmouth ability prevents silence.
You are asking us to use the very start level 1 equipment, as in start the game, hit pause and that is what you get?

Does Gordon freeman start with pistol grenades crowbar SMG and gravity gun in the first 10 seconds of play? I honestly do not know, I've never played Any of the half-life series.

I know Buck starts with his 4 weapons off the bat because I've played ODST.

As for strengths:
Focus is a selected ability you spend a round raising your magic stat by 1.25 and therefor deals more damage with spells. Focus can be performed over and over until the magic stat is 99. But these are static and arbitrary numbers in the setting we have so I kept it simple.

Trance is the only 'limit break' he gets in the whole game with 'double cast' being the only ability he gets for the whole game. It doesn't get crazy but I will move it where it needs to go easily.

As much as I like Vivi, I do not think the structure of FF9's system will mesh well with this particular game.

I think I'll try again with mega-man, now that I understand it a little better.