My Vision for XIV - A Story of an Adventurer

Greetings,

I realize something like this may already have been divined by the great Yoshi-P and team from reading the outline of 2.0, though I have a particular vision whenever I login to XIV. I want to say now, this isn’t intended as some flame post or a get your stuff together type message, just my own thoughts and desires.

This vision is from having been a nerd raging fan boy of every single Final Fantasy title to hit US shelves. In short, I love Final Fantasy, every single tune from the series has been whistled from my lips while typing out a report at work, or driving, or in some cases while playing other video games.

Yes, I know, it’s very sick, but confession aside I have outlined my vision for what an ideal Eorzea would be for me going forward from 2.0.

Some of the staples of my vision are in Square titles such as Final Fantasy I, Final Fantasy III, Final Fantasy Tactics (as well as advanced), Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy XI.

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Snippets of the Vision (For the Short Read)

After the great cataclysmic events that seem to be coming to us come to pass, all players with soul crystals have them bound to them, and various trainers exist for those not bound throughout Eorzea now who have had knowledge awakened within them.

Adventurers, renewed from their torpor could set out to be or take up existing roles of the following:
GLA > Paladin - CNJ > White Mage - THM > Black Mage - LNC > Dragoon - MRD> Warrior - Archer > Bard PGL > Monk

Without the distraction of the Eorzea’s murky beginnings, the team could go forward and usher in amazing new things. Abolishing the current armoury system would assure the development more abilities, weapon skills and spells for example that represent our favored experiences in Final Fantasy.
(Skip ahead to Transition of Roles – A Soft Staple of Final Fantasy History for more info!)

Traits that defined our favorite job classes can be implemented, sub as Double Strike, Triple Strike, Counter, Dual Wield etc.

A subclass system, this time with a template to preserve the challenge of party play while making it easier for new players to learn what’s going to work for their intended role, could be implemented. Please see the example below.

Paladin Subclasses
White Mage, Warrior and Monk up to ½ of Main Class’ level.

Obviously job specific actions would need to be preserved, such as Jump to be DRG only, or Summons to be accessible only to Summoners.

The Armoury System

Instead of launching a character with a named class, a new player would open up XIV for the first time and design their character based on their favorite FF hero, what they think is cool or even what’s funniest looking. Next they would pick from a skillset, similar to how the slides load up now the option of swordsmanship etc will be selected. This would make the starting class appear simply as Adventurer, with Level 1 Swordsmanship.

Our Adventurer would reach level 15 in swords, and become interested in magic, obtaining a Cane from the shop like usual and level that to 15, seeing a shiny Paladin run by they would be mesmerized and decide they need to attain that, equip the sword again and get to whacking away.

Essentially, we would preserve the Armoury System, while also freeing our Jobs from the need to fit specific templates AND giving the true feeling of a Final Fantasy hero or villain to our players by being to decide from the ground up what their Adventurer is every step of the way.

Similar to Ragnarok Online, or perhaps Final Fantasy Tactics Squire/Chemist, the Adventurer would begin with useful abilities for low-mid level combat that would be replaced by the Job Classes they become.

Transition of Roles – A Soft Staple of Final Fantasy History

Our heroes, our villains of Final Fantasy have always had some kind of back history where they were in some distant war, lived in a noble household or worked as a covert operative for some vile corporation.

The transition from being a wandering, perhaps aimless Adventurer, into becoming a Hero or Villain with purpose has been pivotal in the role our favorite characters portrayed. I use Final Fantasy Tactics as an example, as it is a personal favorite of mine. Final Fantasy I can be seen as a great example of the kind of beginning a player could have in XIV as well.

“ Delita Hyral was a boy who was taken under the wing of the Beoulve household. His natural abilities made him fit for military training, which he excelled in possibly faster than his friend Ramza. The two rose in the academy quickly and acquired special missions, even as lowly Squires the two tackled every foe to come out victoriously.

His sister Teta was kidnapped, and eventually killed in the chaos that was the War of the Lions; thrusting Delita into an ambitious quest for power to right the wrongs that have been done to the people

Delita quickly learned that idle martial skill would not do for him alone, he needed to evolve, he needed to master the power of a Holy Knight to compete against the very tyranny he wanted to crush. A dusty boy clad in leather armor, made a change with time into a glistening knight to be reckoned with.”

Going back to XIV, beginning as an Adventurer marks the player character as something apart from someone who began as a Gladiator. A free spirited, talented young Adventurer expresses the heart of what Final Fantasy has been and such a change of the armoury system would not only advance the game story wise, but mechanically as well.

It would be far easier to not have to keep going back to the staple of the current system, and provide freedom of creativity for the development team ahead.

Closing Thoughts

I think the original development team had some really good ideas, but they were too massive to implement in the time the financial sector would allow them to implement them within, at least that’s the impression I get from the outside looking in. Final Fantasy should always be Final Fantasy, as Warcraft should always be Warcraft. Abandoning the principal elements of the Final Fantasy series I think was a major death below to the game a launch.

I remember the photo shopped pick of the Final Fantasy Boxset funeral, and sighing as

I closed my account down from disappointment. Naoki & Team have changed that for me, my subscription is back and will stay as whatever is decided on, I’m sure will be better than what began.

Thank you,

Sion