I sort of wish players could only choose one job.

[Yrusama]

Well, I'd like to hear why other player do, or don't like the multiple job mechanic. While I appreciate it's functionality toward online dynamics, it's the novelty that I feel takes away from the Final Fantasy atmosphere.

You think it takes away from the Final Fantasy atmosphere? Let's see...

Only counting numbered titles, no sequels

Games that allow job changing:

• III
• V
• XI
• XIII

Games that allow role changing or custom ability choices (ability swapping)

• II (any character can master any weapon or spell)
• VI (all characters can learn all magic, so any character can be the main heal/buff/nuke. stats are also manipulable)
• VII (materia allows ability swapping for commands/magic and stat changes)
• VIII (junction abilities like Mug or Steal, all characters can use all forms of magic)
• X (except for overdrives and summoning, all characters can do anything)
• XII (any character can use any weapon and all characters can learn all magic)

Games that use your system of locked roles:

• I (jobs chosen at start are locked thereafter)
• IV (characters have fixed jobs tied to their stories)
• IX (characters are locked in their roles, with limited customization for each)

I'm not willing to read the whole thread, so forgive me if this argument was brought up already. I'm willing to give you that in VI the characters are partially locked in their capabilities, and you normally don't bring a physical character like Cyan for the sake of nuking. That being said, most of the games to date have a great degree of role swapping, if not job swapping. Remember that I decided not to include the Tactics games, X-2, XIII-2, Dimensions, and even an off-shoot like FFCC: My Life as a King, all of which allow a great degree of freedom over jobs.

[Duelle]

VI (all characters can learn all magic, so any character can be the main heal/buff/nuke. stats are also manipulable)

I wouldn't call that "customization" when magic was pretty much the only thing that could be shared between the characters. Each one was built as their respective classes and then magic was sprinkled on top. Most of the personalities were even reflected by their chosen classes.

That being said, most of the games to date have a great degree of role swapping, if not job swapping. Remember that I decided not to include the Tactics games, X-2, XIII-2, Dimensions, and even an off-shoot like FFCC: My Life as a King, all of which allow a great degree of freedom over jobs.

Not so much role swapping. What they did is give the player a bunch of characters that were not defined by anything outside of what you did to develop them. The resulting game mechanic is great because it also plays into the fact that unlike MMORPGs, you don't need the trinity in a console RPG. You have have a heavy armor character with strong melee attacks and strong heals and no one would cry "OP" and demanding nerfs.

[Yrusama]

I'm willing to give back VI as an instance of locked classes. Technically if you build Locke up with a speed-boosting esper, you're essentially stuck with that decision. No swapping back and forth between high speed or high strength.

Even without VI, the majority is still in favor of switching jobs around on a whim. I think some of the Tactics games and maybe FFIII had a stat growth feature that would apply on level-up (so MNK characters tended to have higher HP even if they switched to WHM later on). But that's still only a small limitation to job/ability swapping.