With the new Ranged Phys coming up, I think Blitzballer would be the perfect fit! It'd be a perfect time to add Blitzball to the Gold Saucer too :)
Printable View
With the new Ranged Phys coming up, I think Blitzballer would be the perfect fit! It'd be a perfect time to add Blitzball to the Gold Saucer too :)
Give me Gunner instead, dual wielding pistol, purely focused on the guns, unlike the engineer that Machinist is currently.
Eh. I say do another healer role. With the Sword Master boss, I'm thinking Rune Fencer.
A melee healer with magical sword slashes who uses defensive and healing runes to support the party.
After all, not all healers need to be casters. Let some swing around melee weapons for variety.
During the last live letter Yoship said there was "multiplayer content" on the way for Gold Saucer, but that they couldn't talk about it until Fanfest. At the same time, if they follow the same pattern they usually do then a phys ranged job should come with the next expansion. Put those two things together and it would appear there's a nonzero chance for Blitzball + Blitzballer job to be added in 8.0.
I'd like to see a gunslinger or pistoleer type job. Pendulums show up a fair bit as weapons in anime and light novels. They tend to be used by assassin type characters, so it's an unlikely option.
A front line melee healer would be an interesting departure.
Catmancer let me summon fat cats.
Yoshi-P yelled “NO!” at Mr Happy when he just said “so, Blitzball?”, so it’s not likely we’re ever getting it as a mini-game. It’s been brought up before that we’re not getting it because they couldn’t decide whether to do the X or X-2 version and also that anything they did couldn’t do the game justice and that it could go like Lord of Verminion where they spend a lot of work on it and people only play it once and they never play it again.
That said, I’d really enjoy Blitzballer, the class, because unlike a lot of options I’ve seen people put forward like crossbows, throwing/kicking balls can be easily made to be visually interesting and have dynamic animations for the standard rotation without going into the realm of pure goofiness they had to do with MCH to make it less boring.
People have been bringing this up since the lead-up to SB when DNC was a speculated healer class, but a front-line healer is never going to happen. A healer that has to dodge melee AoE and can’t heal or has limited healing when outside of melee range would never get picked for raids over the existing healers and I think they’d have significant downtime issues that other healers wouldn’t have.
Balancing would be a nightmare for those reasons as well as having to make it fit in with the current healer ecosystem that ended up delaying SGE to EW anyway while they tried to figure out how to make 4 work. I wouldn’t be surprised if we never get another healer in the game.
I know there has been no shortage of goofy weapons in the franchise so fair enough, but what next them? A megaphone class because Cait Sith used one?
Honestly I'd like something else.
Since devs are super predictable, this is going to be another bard / summoner / machinist dps type of class that either does no damage, not fun and will have that "perfect" rotation that people will freak over if they can't have "parse" of 99.
I'm pretty sure they've said they don't want to do Blitzballer as a job...
And I don't know if I want them trying to do Blitzball in 14.
He also said glam wasn't going to be unlocked and then it was. Things change. To be clear I personally do not care about Blitzball at all and I agree it would probably be DOA if it were added to Gold Saucer. I'm just connecting the dots based on what he has said recently.
Attacking dragons by kicking soccer balls at them is pretty goofy no matter which way you slice it, but it's not any goofier than Picto throwing cartoons at the enemy so I can't hold that against it lol. I'd be more concerned with the gameplay and whether it's more of the same mindless job design we have currently.
I'd really love to have Blitzballer as a job, though if we're seemingly going to be having a more wintry-themed expansion next (personally hoping we're not tbh) I wonder how they'd make it work thematically. Not that that matters too much, I just feel like Dawntrail would have been the time to do it.
I don’t really see Blitzballer as a job on its own without some other reference to Blitzball being put in the game. Whether it be the Gold Saucer or a PvP mode, if there’s no ball games anywhere in the entirety of Etheirys, it just seems out of place. (But honestly I think a Blitzball PvP mode would be amazing!)
So really they have three options… continue to say “absolutely not” to any concept of Blitzball in 14, put in a phys ranged that just uses a ball with no other context making it a disappointment to Blitzball fans, or go all in with both Blitzballer the class and Blitzball as a game in whatever form.
Yoshi-P swore a blood oath forbidding the addition of Final Fantasy X content
Fair enough. I agree the MCH combo looks very silly. The old combo actions did look boring but I think they took the feedback of "spice it up a little" way too far. There are other MCH animations that did things much better where you just strike a cool pose while firing, no triple somersaults required.
If I had to choose one phys-ranged job I'd choose either a gun-focused job or Ranger, which would branch from Archer similar to how Arcanist works (though perhaps without the shared levelling) and focus exclusively on bow and arrow usage without the music. Maybe they could have a crossbow in the off-hand slot.
Considering the devs have mentioned that the single class origin for two split jobs was a mistake they’ve been trying to rectify, I wouldn’t hold my breath hoping for them to make a new version. SMN and SCH are only tied to Arcanist as a time-saving measure so they could release two jobs without having to make a new class. Now that classes have been abandoned, it’s never going to happen again.
I’ve seen a lot of people pushing gun or bow/crossbow class minus pieces attached to those that they don’t like (machinery and songs), but what is left after that? Ranger in XI just had abilities to “shoot more accurate” and anything else more interesting already exists on ARC/BRD, I’m not sure there’s enough to salvage after that to make a job identity. They have to have more going on, especially in a role that’s more support focused.
Where’s the sense of whimsy? This is Final Fantasy, we have dancers, paint mages, Gundam funnel-users, etc that are infinitely more interesting than someone who just uses bows/guns good. Juggler/Jester/Trickster can throw knives and molotovs. Blitzballers can throw/kick balls. I’d rather something that’s actually interesting and dynamic from a visuals and gameplay perspective than a job that is already similar to something else we already have.
I would love it! Blitzballer FTW!
Blitzballer wouldn't really make any sense to add. There's been zero mention of it in FF14, and so I expect that hamfisting it into FF14 just for the reference will feel like it's exactly that, hamfisted and clearly 'just for the reference'. Adding Blitzball to Gold Saucer also would feel hamfisted, the point of it being a thing in FF10 was that it was something that people all over the world could enjoy and draw a feeling of hope from. Does SE have to then add a Blitz team for each of the citystates of the world, to explain why Blitzball suddenly exists at the Gold Saucer? Or would it be against randomly-generated 'only exists inside the Blitzball menu' NPCs, making it feel less connected to the world at large and very self-contained?
I also don't really understand the hype around Blitzball as a Gold Saucer minigame in the first place. Playing Blitzball in FF10 was an exercise in frustration, and I would bet real money that most of us used some tactics that were a bit cheesy whenever we played. Passing back and forth between two backliners to run down the clock while you're ahead, making shots you know will not succeed from across the whole pitch so they take longer to travel and run down the clock, scoring once with Jecht Shot in the first match you have to play in the tournament and then hiding behind your own Goalie to bug the NPCs out and run down the clock, etc. Actually 'playing' Blitzball is a pain in the backside, and it'd be just as forgotten a system in the GS as the Triple Triad tournaments are, or Chocobo Racing, or Lord of Verminion
If 'Add Blitzball to Gold Saucer, and then add Blitzballer as a Job' is the plan to justify its addition as a Job, then there's genuinely more justification to add Chocobo Knight because Chocobo Racing (and the Breeding system) is in the Gold Saucer already. Or some kind of Job that uses Triple Triad, since people all over the world of FF14 play Triple Triad (even people on alternate Shards know of it)
Considering what they did to GNB this patch (turning Lionheart into a 60s '3 hits' design like Inner Release/Fell Cleave, Delerium/Bloodspiller, Requiescat/Blade combo (that one is 4 hits though, very different /s)), I don't think it's even worth them adding a new Tank, even if it has been so long since the last one. Better to spend the time making the current Tanks feel distinct from one another, rather than adding a 5th 'press this button every 60s, then 'big hit' button 3 times (or maybe 4)' design
Could make a Melee Healer where you're incentivized to be in Melee distance, but not 'required' to be there at all times. For example, having a combo which fills their Job Gauge (which is then spent on Healing OGCDs), but also having Ranged attacks of near-equal potency. Perhaps the Ranged attacks could build Gauge too, but at a slower rate. When you have to disengage to resolve fight mechanics, you'd use the Ranged attacks. When in Melee distance, you'd use Melee to fill your Gauge. If you need to be out of range AND heal with OGCDs at the same time, you'd pool resources to do so. 'Melee distance' can be 'not actually Melee distance' too, Phlegma for SGE is an example of this, it's longer range than actual Melee attacks, but some consider it a 'Melee distance attack'. It'd be a very mobile Healer, since the Melee attacks would presumably have no cast time
I'm not against them doing Phys ranged. I'm also aware the last Tank and Phys range was from SHB. I mostly just threw that comment out there just to get it out there.
On reflection it does feel kind of pointless of me to do that or post any job ideas. Because combat design is just not built for it.
I mean you bring up Red Mage having its sword combo made into a ranged attack when a skill is used. While I'm thinking about last week when my auto attack delt 1 damage to a Heavensward mob while I'm level 100.
I should just stick to non combat stuff. Like glam, mounts and character customizations.
I'm not sure what game you've been playing up to this point, but none of the expansion jobs in this game had any mention at all until they were going to be added and several of them were hamfisted into FFXIV just for the reference so I don't know what your point is.
- Gunbreaker very explicitly throws away the notion of how Garlean gunblades work so that Yoshi-P could insert FFVIII-style gunblades that operate completely differently (and don't even shoot bullets) and is probably the most egregious example, with them even giving away Squall's gunblade as a collector's edition item for Shadowbringers.
- Pictomancer is inspired by Relm from FFVI and we got a Chocobo Brush also inspired by a Collector's Edition item from that game with the job's release. The job in XIV just gets randomly tied to an "Archon Relm" we've never heard of before or since who has 0 involvement in the story at all and is not even touched up by Sharlayan NPCs in the expansion we go to Sharlayan in.
- Viper seems to be loosely based off of Zidane's "thief swords" from FFIX and fits right into a very FFIX-themed expansion.
So adding Blitzballer as a class based off a previous FF character reference rather than a specific FF classic job is something that has already been done before so there's certainly precedence.
And the earliest we see any new job is typically the patch before it's actually added to the game or in the expansion trailer. Ishgard pre-HW was known for dragoons, not dark knights and gunners. We had no notion at all that Ala Mhigo had red mages in lore until the expansion came out and even to this day, red mage aesthetics with their roses, fencing swords, and feathery caps completely clash with highlanders who shave their eyebrows and file their teeth to points and to Ala Mhigo in general. Bozja was just a name dropped in lore and had no gunblades or even Hrothgar until Shadowbringers. Thavnair had no dancers and Garlemald had no farmers picking up scythes and summoning voidsent until Endwalker.
The devs are freely allowed to just make stuff up out of nowhere and throw it in and they do it all the time.
Don't project what cheesy tactics you may have done onto the rest of us. Just because you didn't like it and you cheesed your way through it doesn't mean everyone else did or feels the same as you do. The fact that enough people liked Blitzball enough to continue to ask for it as a mini-game and to ask for a Blitzballer job based on Wakka shows that it is at least worth reminiscing about fondly.
Blitzballer wouldn't be my first choice, but I could see it being made into the "pair" with MCH if they plan on splitting physical range into "RNG with buffs" and "RNG with debuffs" due to Wakka's Slots Overdrive and how his part of the Sphere Grid had all the status infliction abilities.
MCH having some sort of "spin the barrel" mechanic for the RNG and using Tools to inflict status effects (of which half of the original Tools from FF6 did indeed do things like Blind/Poison/Confuse/forced elemental weakness) sounds sensible enough. Ugh... it's just the RNG part I hope they drop from all physical range (or at least keep miles away from MCH and the new physical range).
On a serious note, Blitzballer is one of the worst options for me, I hate the very concept of Blitzball, the most enjoyment I ever got out of it was knocking Wakka's balls back onto his head in KH1 so I could get a couple more levels through Tech XP and try to beat Riku like that, cuz I was a dumb baby who sucked at the game. And in a world where any given new Job is an opportunity cost for a different concept, I need to beg for anything but Blitzballer.
There's a blitzballer video on youtube, which is probably the source of this. That, and folks just really like blitzball.
Gambler could be an interesting option. There's something to said for dealing with problems by directly, and ballistically, throwing money at them. Perhaps the job could have a mini card game where different hands generate buffs or other effects. Nothing too complicated, as it shouldn't cause a distraction. Maybe the job gauge could be a tally counter, and there could be an "press your luck" mechanic that potentially "cashes out" for big damage or a bigger buff.
I think there is a bit of difference between some of those jobs, and a potential Blitzball-themed Job. For at least some of them, there's a thing in the lore to work from and start to build the lore of the Job to justify its implementation
- While GNB uses a different style of Gunblade from Garlean Gunblades, it's a little bit more than just 'reference to a character from one previous game'. All of the moves are named after Squall, Lightning, and a couple of Seifer moves. So it's a reference to at least 3 characters, rather than the one that Blitzball would be
- I'm not a massive fan of the PCT lore in this game either. Seemed to come entirely out of nowhere, and it especially stings due to BLU being from Tural but getting zero attention. If BLU were to become 'real' this expansion in some way, Krile would be the perfect fit, due to her Echo being a reference to the FF5 Krile being able to 'understand animals'
- Viper uses weapons that Zidane uses, but unlike GNB, that's where the similarities end. It doesn't use any moves that share a name with something in Zidane's kit. Solution Nine is probably the most well known action, and that's a location, not a VPR skill. Trance could have easily been the name of the 'burst window', but they went with Reawaken instead. It seems to me that they went more with 'the weapon looks cool, but lets use only the weapon and take the lore a completely different direction'
And special shoutout to the other examples. The Dark Knight wasn't mentioned directly as being a thing from Ishgard, but we did know of how oppressive and overreaching the Church was, so the buildup for a 'vigilante/works outside of the law' kind of Job was there. MCH did come a bit out of nowhere, I agree, but you don't mention AST, who was absolutely mentioned tons in ARR via the Coerthas section of the questline, and so AST being something we got access to in HW was heavily set up. We did have mention of 'BLM/WHM survivors of the Water Calamity ended up in Ala Mhigo' in the lore, I'm pretty sure, but not the details that they came together to create RDM to avoid the mistake of the past. We've speculated about Thavnair having Dancers ever since the Thavnairian Glam set dropped in Heavensward, and while there was no direct references to exactly how RPR works, we've known that Garlemald A: has no inherent Aether manipulation abilities (hence Magitek) so it makes some sense that they'd try anything and everything to survive, and B: Voidsent have been a thing in the lore since forever
Blitzball's source material would be Wakka, and only Wakka. In this way, it'd be comparable to either GNB (uses skill names from the source material to reinforce the reference), or VPR (does its own thing, only reuses the weapon). In the former's case, it wouldn't work IMO, since all of Wakka's attacks are just 'Dark Buster, Silence Buster, etc'. For the latter, the question becomes 'is it worth it to have a Job that uses a ball as its weapon', when there's other Ranged weapons that could be used instead (ie Crossbow, Hand Cannon, etc). I don't think the reference holds up on its own, when we look beyond the reference and start thinking about 'how to make the Job have a full rotation'.
So, what's the 'starting point' for the explanation of how Blitzball would make sense to be a part of the world? Are the Kojin handing out the 'breathe underwater' blessing to everyone nowadays? Or would it be more of a VPR situation, where the Job is not actually Blitzball related, the sport doesn't exist in FFXIV, the Job just happens to use a Ball as a thrown weapon like Wakka, but nothing else about the reference comes through? In which case, why a Ball? You've got Sniper/Ranger/Hunter and Greatbows as a weapon, you've got Cannoneer, you've got 'any Whip user from previous games', even more obscure things like Juggler and Gambler have more characters to reference than Blitzball-Thrower. Heck, you have an entire Job Icon in the game already, for an unused Musketeer's Guild in Limsa, why not expand on that after 11 years and turn that into a Job?
It took 6 years between Dancer being added, and this speculated 8.0 PhysRanged being added (if one is). With that in mind, I don't really see how to rationalize the Blitzball reference compared to something more... evergreen. The reference just isn't worth the wait IMO, both the wait between DNC and 8.0, and the assumed wait between 8.0 and... assuming there's a pattern going on, I guess it'd be 11.0 for the next PhysRanged? Imagine it from the POV of someone who doesn't like the idea of Blitzball at all, who would be so uninterested in it that they wouldn't even pick up the Job for whatever reason. It'd be 12 years between PhysRanged jobs for them, longer than the (post-rebirth) game's been alive for
AST being “teased” in ARR is a huge stretch considering it was never a FF job before, Ishgardian Astrology is just looking through a telescope at a single star to see if it dims or brightens to discern if dragons are coming and not an actual combat class with magic, and is associated with an entire other city altogether. I also don’t believe anyone made a connection of “Thavnair getting vaguely Middle-Eastern-looking outfits” to “Dancer will eventually become a job and it will be connected to Thavnair” all the way back in ARR when those outfits were released.
Every example you’re bringing up makes sense retroactively, which is the whole point of making something new that comes up out of nothing fit into an existing world and I don’t see why they wouldn’t do that with a hypothetical Blitzballer job unless they were to pull another Pictomancer again.
We already know that blitzball as a mini-game had made it to the developer’s table before as something they’ve considered adding so they might already have had a plan on how it fits for years. By now we know that the reasons we didn’t get it were gameplay related and not lore related but that doesn’t exclude the possibility of getting a Wakka-based class.
Bows already exist as a weapon and range in size from short bows to giant 6ft tall ones with giant arrows. That’s already done. Machinist already inherits Musketeer’s legacy with Limsans training them. Both the bow and gun class needed something more than “shoot but better” to round out their identity so they got songs and machinery respectively, I don’t know why people think a boring job that just exists to “purely use” those weapons exclusively as the second poster described is something that’s actually interesting.
There are over 20 other jobs for you to play. Not every one has to be exactly to your liking. This game is also a Final Fantasy theme park as specifically described by the developers that celebrates the series. I’d rather them give something to the game that calls back the series and highlights a game that seems oddly lacking in references despite being so popular and is something actually interesting and unique with dynamic animations.
Not everyone liked Pictomancer either because it messed with BLM or they didn’t like the cartoon animations. Not everything has to please you specifically. The fact that there’s multiple threads asking for it and even videos out there shows that the desire is there whether you personally like it or not.
For me it’s not the lore or even the weapon… they can retcon lore and the idea of a ball as a weapon sounds fun. It’s just that there is nothing in the game up til this point that I can remember showing anyone even having any kind of ball! lol Let alone the official game of Blitzball. Using PCT as an example, maybe we didn’t know about magic painting, although not much of a stretch when we have magic ink, but we did know painting itself was a thing.
I play every job… make a job using a ball and make it fun, and I’ll probably enjoy it. But if it’s just that, a generic job with a ball, and there’s no reference to Blitzball at all, and/or no accompanying game mode for context, I think a lot of people who wanted it so badly would be disappointed. That and the devs know, or should, that if they just put the job in the game, they’re going to be hounded for some playable game of Blitzball in some form or another. lol
Why not just do jongleur at this point? Blitzball would be a more boring version of the same thing. let em juggle balls, bombs and fat cats!
STOP IT YOU! STOP IT YOU NINNY! STOP BEING AFRAID OF CLOWNS!
https://i.makeagif.com/media/7-24-2023/mKB_du.gif
It's silly to get hung up on a lack of prior references to any potential addition to the game in a genre notorious for pulling entire continents out of its ass and hand waving it away after the fact. They'll add whatever they think would be fun to add and justify it however they need to.