Job Specific Traits?

[Evogolist]

I get what you all are saying, but it just eats at me. For all of that, why even allow us to change classes/jobs on the go? Or for that matter allow us to level multiple classes/jobs on one character? It might as well be and play like every other theme-park MMO out there. It takes away the special parts of what Final Fantasy jobs are about. Forgive me if I'm stuck too much on the old days of Final Fantasy, but at times it just feels like a normal theme park mmo with a final fantasy skin and name slapped onto it.

[Joe777]

I get what you all are saying, but it just eats at me. For all of that, why even allow us to change classes/jobs on the go? Or for that matter allow us to level multiple classes/jobs on one character? It might as well be and play like every other theme-park MMO out there. It takes away the special parts of what Final Fantasy jobs are about. Forgive me if I'm stuck too much on the old days of Final Fantasy, but at times it just feels like a normal theme park mmo with a final fantasy skin and name slapped onto it.

Quite a few Final Fantasy games allow you to change jobs freely actually, with the exception of FF3 which required Job Points to be able to switch.

[Enla]

Quite a few Final Fantasy games allow you to change jobs freely actually, with the exception of FF3 which required Job Points to be able to switch.

Hell, some of the most beloved battle systems had this exact mechanic. FFV and FFX-2 are generally praised more for their job systems which influenced FFXIV than for anything else in my experience.

[Talraen]

I get what you all are saying, but it just eats at me. For all of that, why even allow us to change classes/jobs on the go? Or for that matter allow us to level multiple classes/jobs on one character? It might as well be and play like every other theme-park MMO out there. It takes away the special parts of what Final Fantasy jobs are about. Forgive me if I'm stuck too much on the old days of Final Fantasy, but at times it just feels like a normal theme park mmo with a final fantasy skin and name slapped onto it.

I'm curious what you think "Final Fantasy jobs are about." The example you gave, where Dragoons could have an advantage over dragons, isn't particularly universal. It's in FFXI, but I don't remember it appearing anywhere else.

The thing that defines the Final Fantasy series is that each game makes its own rules, particularly when it comes to the combat and leveling systems. I think FFXIV has done a good job of keeping the essence of each job. Dragoon, for instance, has always been about using spears and Jump. Well, except FF2, where they were introduced, where they did neither, but did have a wyvern... which is something only seen one other time, in FFXI. Which is kind of the point.

Also even if FF jobs really were so specific and consistent that they "should" have the types of abilities that make a specific job favored in an MMO context, FFXIV is smart not to have those things, because they're not good game design in an MMO.

[Nora_of_Mira]

I get what you all are saying, but it just eats at me. For all of that, why even allow us to change classes/jobs on the go? Or for that matter allow us to level multiple classes/jobs on one character? It might as well be and play like every other theme-park MMO out there. It takes away the special parts of what Final Fantasy jobs are about. Forgive me if I'm stuck too much on the old days of Final Fantasy, but at times it just feels like a normal theme park mmo with a final fantasy skin and name slapped onto it.

I think you missed the point on why we can "change classes/jobs on the go". THAT is in fact SE's view of customization, you can be w/e job you want at anytime. And that is WHY FFxiv is not like every other theme park MMO as older MMOs lock your character to one class/job.

edit: I'd also like to add Japanese developers generally stick to a "restaurant" philosophy when making games. Think of a fancy restaurant that prepares meals in a very particular way. They have a 100% complete idea of what they are serving, and what they think the customer is going to enjoy and they very rarely deviate from their design. Some restaurants will even deny you sugar or sauce after a certain time, depending on your meal because that's how important they take it. Generally, they think "we know what the player will enjoy more than the player". Western MMOs (and even Korean MMOs) favor the player a bit more and offer typically more customization.

Having played a ton of different MMOs, I've learned to really like FFxiv's direction overall because playerbases rarely know whats best (and to extend the analogy, customers too.)