Rogue/Ninja Starting Class?

[NoctisUmbra]

Also, regardless of any story limitations, ninjas and rogue players will be wandering the world. Trust me, they will be everywhere. I wonder how that will factor into the lore? Will SE block us from seeing any ninjas until we unlock that part of the story?

Difference here is there is already precedence for this in the form of Dragoon. As far as the Dragoon storyline goes, there can only be 1 Dragoon at any given time. The title is passed on. If you were to factor all the other players running around as Dragoons, the storyline would make no sense. Therefore, the concept here is other players don't matter in the form of who they are and what jobs they play as far as the storyline is concerned, they are simply referred to as "The Warriors of Light", and their fighting styles assumed to be accommodating to the story.

As far as the storyline is concerned, you alone are the Warrior of Light in this story, or you lead a small band of warriors with you. Your "static" as far as the game is concerned. You, the Warrior of Light in question, and your crew. You, the player, have numerous interactions directly with Thancred. His reaction to Yugiri's fighting style in a post-lv 50 storyline quest would be wholly lore-breaking if you, the latest member and close colleague of his have been running around fighting with the same techniques all this time.

Games != books

The best AAA games do not sacrifice gameplay for story/lore

They absolutely *should* do the best they can to maintain both the lore and casual/streamlined gameplay experience. However, in the hypothetical scenario where they must choose narrative against gameplay, gameplay should win. This is a game after all.

Except Final Fantasy has always been a series that places strong value on their lore. If they didn't intend to gate Rogue and Ninja behind the MSQ, they would have at least had the sense to not develop a whole storyline that makes it essentially impossible to introduce the class and job any other way without shooting themselves in the foot.

I get that having it available as a starting class would be more convenient. However, not everything that would be convenient can be considered good game design. There have to be things to work towards and achieve to keep players playing. They seem to have chosen to make the Rogue class one of those things for 2.0. Perhaps in 3.0 they will be available as a starting class. Who knows.?