#2 – Ada Lovelace – Calculator
Quite likely the first computer programmer as well as an icon of ladies in science, Ada Lovelace was one of the few people who thought early computers could be more than just counting engines. She was stylish, smart, and had family trouble out the wazoo, so her story has something for everybody. She also died very, very young — only 36 — which is just freaking criminal.
In RPGs, Calculators are characters that use — shock shock — math in some way when they attack. This class is most popular in the Final Fantasy series, where they use magic attacks that hit enemies whose level or position are multiples of specific numbers. At first glance the decision to make Ada a Calculator might seem a bit obvious, but it really made sense to me that Ada would look at magic as just another problem that math could solve. Especially when you consider that her biggest insight was seeing how a mathematical engine could be used to solve non-mathematical problems.
About the Author (Author Profile)
I'm a video game critic and artist for RandomNPC.com, a site dedicated to console and PC role-playing games.Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
Oh gosh, I love the Tactics reference (if indeed it is one). I didn’t get why it seemed so familiar aesthetically until I read the description, but I agree it seems an appropriate class for her.
I think my favorite part of this is oddly the little patches of hatching that give it an old-style woodcut feel!
Ah, yeah, the outfit is definitely a FFT reference. Especially that panel on the front. ^^b