I sort of wish players could only choose one job.

[ispano]

One of the first things that comes to mind when I think of Final Fantasy are the jobs, like White Mage, Black Mage, Monk, etc and that the characters were normally reined to one role and thus were indispensable for their unique abilities. (Well, for the most part that is.) It is this, I think that allows others to more readily respect and appreciate the significance of that specific role and player when it isn't so easily replaceable, or if at all. The player and their name sort of becomes renowned with that role.

I mean when if I wanted Black Magic I think of Vivi, the black mage. Martial combat? The monk, Tifa Lockhart of course. The list goes on, but if these characters were allowed to change their abilities freely, like lets say give Vivi a sword and Tifa a staff they wouldn't be as iconic to these roles as they are now.

Lastly I feel like allowing players to change their roles at will takes away from the traditional Final Fantasy experience, and overall makes it less gratifying to play a Job when you can potentially be replaced by anyone and everyone in your party at the flick of the wrist.

In the end, I understand why others like it and why it's detrimental to playing online, but just wanted to share why I don't particularly like it myself. Perhaps my ideals are a little dated. lol

What do you think? (Sorry if this is a misplaced thread, or repeat.)

This probably comes from not playing the games prior to VI/VII. In FFIII and FFV your characters could be any job that you currently had access to, and could switch at any time for the most part. I didn't play XI, but they used something like it there as well. It's one of the things that comes to mind when many people think of Final Fantasy.

To be fair, the original versions of III and V weren't released outside of Japan, only later on other systems.

The idea was not to have iconic characters with a certain feel premade for you, but for you to make your own characters built how you want.