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To say that there were not healers, tanks, and damage dealers in non-MMOs is wrong. Take the Knight job from FFV, for instance. Its job command is Guard, allowing it to prevent incoming physical damage, and its passive ability is Cover, to protect its allies. This is a tank. Yes, it can do fairly large amounts of damage, but thematically, the job is a tank.
Knight, Mystic Knight, Dragoon and Samurai are all Heavy Frontliners in FFV. Knight is the first one unlocked.
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You can also see the difference in Cecil in FF4. As a Dark Knight, he sacrifices HP to unleash a devastating attack. This is the Dark Knight's only defining trait. Its role is to deal damage. After his change to a Paladin, he gains Cover. This allows him to use his own body to take attacks in place of another party member. This is a tank.
Cover made Cecil a better tank but the enemy AI would naturally attack the 2 or 3 characters in the front row the most often. This led to Cecil (both as Dark Knight and as Paladin) + Kain/Yang/Cid defaulting to tanks in FF4.