Originally Posted by
Enkidoh
Red Mage by design uses both White and Black Magic and sword skills, while with the Armoury System Job abilities can not be shared cross class - nor is there any 'doubling up' of abilities between classes either, which would leave the Job with just cross class skills to use (which after all, when cross classed abilities lose their potency that they would have on their native class.
Plus, spells and abilities often associated with the Red Mage (like 'Convert' or 'Doublecast') are already used by other classes and Jobs, meaning it simply wouldn't have anything to really set it apart from other classes and Jobs. Even their weapon type (swords) are already taken by another class (GLA), meaning they're pretty much rendered superfluous I'm sorry to say.