Warrior is the first melee-focused job that excels at physical damage. The Advance skill increases damage and reduces defense (by 50%-140%, depending on the job level) for the next turn.

Monks: with enough job levels, can outperfrom any melee class due to gaining +2 bare-handed attack per job level, and they have the highest physical defense & HP growth available at this point. Their Retaliate skill is basically the "Guard" command with a 200% damage counter-attack if hit. But they can't wear any armor and are very weak to magic damage.

White Mage can use nearly all (up to level 7) white magic spells, mainly healing and (at higher levels) reviving characters, but MP is very limited for higher spell levels.

Black Mage can use nearly all (up to level 7) black magic spells, but MP is limited for higher spell levels.

Red Mage is the most versatile job with a wide variety of available equipment, decent all-around damage and defense, and the use of both white and black magic spells up to level 5.

Thief almost always acts first in a battle, can steal items from enemies and, if placed in the top party slot, open locked doors without using Magic Keys. However, he isn't impressive damage-wise and there aren't many doors in the game (and the keys can be bought at a special shop available soon after encountering the first locks). The only unique item that is available by stealing is the Gungnir spear from Odin in Saronia Catacombs, but the Thief must be at job level 71 or higher.

Ranger can use heavy armor and do full damage with a bow from the back row, and exploit enemies' elemental weaknesses by using different arrows.

Knights have the best physical damage resistance due to their high Vitality combined with armor, can equip most swords and armor, and cast level 1 white magic. They also automatically protect critically wounded party members from physical attacks by tanking the damage for themselves. Damage-wise they start to lag behind other melee classes in late game due to lack of new weapons, but can catch up in the endgame.

Scholar Doubles the effect of all offensive and healing items s/he uses, and the "Study" ability not only displays an enemy's weaknesses, but also removes any protective/boost spells the enemy has cast on themselves. However, Scholar also has the second lowest Vitality in the game and does very little damage after early game, and any white magic user can find out the enemy info with Libra spell.

Geomancer Casts powerful, but randomly selected spells (not black magic) depending on the terrain, without using MP. The spells include multi-target and insta-kill (not guaranteed and don't work on bosses) ones.

Viking focuses more on defense than attack with a high Vitality stat and a Provoke ability that forces an enemy to physically attack the Viking. Mainly useful at higher job levels as a tank with tough bosses and to prevent enemies from casting magic or attacking other characters.

Dragoons quickly start dealing massive amounts of damage as they gain job levels and equip good spears, they always do double damage against flying enemies, and their Jump ability (which also temporarily removes them from the combat until the end of next turn) can add another 50%-140% damage depending on the job level. However, they have low Vitality (lower than even Mages), making them one of the most fragile melee jobs.

Dark Knight is an average melee job, but has Souleater ability, which spends 20% of current health to deal physical damage to all enemies (the higher the health, the more damage).

Evoker uses summoning magic for one of two random effects for each summon. For most summons, one effect damages enemies and the other casts status effects. Powerful when dealing damage, but unreliable because of the randomness.

Bard Bard uses Sing ability to assist the whole party (increase defense, increase attack, damage enemies, recover HP or reduce damage received), depending on what harp is equipped. This makes it the only job in the game that can heal a party without spending items or MP (by equipping Dream Harp), but the amount is only 10%-20% of maximum HP, depending on job level.

Black Belt: a more extreme version of Monk — even higher Vitality and damage (highest in the game, given enough levels), even lower magic defense (lowest in the game).

Magus: natural upgrade for Black Mage, can use level 8 black magic. Has a more balanced MP distribution between spell levels.

Devout: natural upgrade for White Mage, can use level 8 white magic, which includes Arise (reviving with full HP). Has a more balanced MP distribution between spell levels.

Summoner: natural upgrade for Evoker, uses "High Summons" which have no randomness and just deal damage to all enemies.

Sage: versatile support caster, can use all white and black magic (although with less MP than Mages), and Evoker's randomized summons. Does not have the Red Mage's melee skills, though.

Ninja: natural upgrade for Thief, loses the lockpicking/stealing abilities and some of the speed, but can use more powerful weapons and can throw weapons, including the Shuriken. Weak against both physical and magic damage.