Was anyone else disappointed in RDM? anyone?

[Duelle]

Red Mage was mostly always casting spells from range in other Final Fantasy Games serving as either the sub-Black Mage or Sub-White Mage until the player could obtain a actual decent Black Mage or White Mage character to replace the Red Mage.

As I've said before, this is was due to the limits of turn-based combat. There's little else you can do with a job like RDM in turn-based combat. Hence why gimmicks like Doublecast had to be invented. Almost every mechanic that makes a hybrid shine does not work in turn-based games.

This is correct. White and black mana are not requirements for executing weaponskills.

I don't think anyone can claim the sword skills cannot be used on their own. The issue is that doing so is very likely to be suboptimal (because of how enhancements and spellblade activating past 30/30 seems to work). Which means if you're using sword skills as more than mana dumps, you're no different than an ice mage.

Moreover, Chainspell appears to enhance the effect of a weaponskill which wasn't elaborated on. The Chainspell buff was consumed and the weaponskill was accompanied by a large fiery attack.

The fiery attack is most likely Katon, since on the minimap you can see the NIN that's Yoshida's companion running well within range while staying out of camera. After Katon(?) hits, they run away from Yoshida towards the FATE taking place northeast of him.

I'd say all using that melee attack did is drop the Chainspell effect, which is no different than breaking a combo.