Linear, linear, linear

[R041]

So, real quick... not a single ARR ability was pruned in Heavensward. Nor did HW prune Additional Actions or Additional Attributes. That all didn't happen until Stormblood.

Yeah I wouldn't say Heavensward destroyed classes exactly - It mostly added abilities for the individual classes, but then ignored the possibility of expanding the cross-class system itself. They kinda just stopped working on it altogether. It was the start of the formfactor we have today.

So Heavensward changed the environment, exploration systems, and dungeons mostly, then Stormblood finished it off with the class adjustments and cross-class destruction.

It was like a 1, 2 punch. lol

[Shurrikhan]

Yeah I wouldn't say Heavensward destroyed classes exactly - It mostly added abilities for the individual classes, but then ignored the possibility of expanding the cross-class system itself. They kinda just stopped working on it altogether. It was the start of the formfactor we have today.

So Heavensward changed the environment, exploration systems, and dungeons mostly, then Stormblood finished it off with the class adjustments and cross-class destruction.

It was like a 1, 2 punch. lol

Ahhh. Okay. Just because I didn't consider "leaving it to fizzle" as quite a change in itself, that didn't quite register for me. I get yah now.

I feel like even if they wanted to salvage those systems, though, it would likely have felt to them too late to do anything particularly well, as they had already removed Character Levels (where class/job Ranks were instead horizontal progression) and never mapped out any sort of criteria for proficiency growth (where XP in playing DRK might bleed slightly into experience also with other Tanks, other sword-users, etc.).

I'd still have loved to see it given a further shot that capitalized on the "All Jobs on One Character" aspect, though, yeah, by perhaps lowering the grind walls and increasing casual/midcore content engagement and longevity in their place.