Not a real Final Fantasy

[Wolfandre]

OP, your way of thinking on the subject is slightly limited. Open up a bit and you'll find out exactly what I'm talking about. Let me demonstrate...

The Armory System was not built around your weapons 'giving' you certain abilities. That's FFIX. Rather, by using certain weapons, you learn to use them certain ways and adapt to their benefits and detriments. Think of yourself as a Disciple of War. You aren't a monk, you aren't a paladin, you are Tommy Toughnuts, and you hit stuff. Your goal is to make stuff die. How do you do that? By equipping certain weapons or arms. Which one? Doesn't matter. You hit stuff.

Some weapons let you parry with them, others let you dance around the battlefield, still other will cleave a monster in two. It doesn't matter which one you pick, because at the end of the day, you are still Tommy Toughnuts, and you still hit stuff to make it die.

You also have to remember that the abilities for most 'jobs' are still in the game for you to build with. Want to be a classic Red Mage? Go for it. Hop on Gladiator, equip cures, nukes, and light armor with a fast sword. But wait. What if you never liked the fact that Red Mage used a sword? What if your vision was a Red Mage with a spear?! Hop on Lancer, with all of the benefits and detriments of wielding a long, hafted weapon, and equip some cures, nukes, and light armor with whatever speed lance you want! Red Mage a la your wildest dreams.

I liked the original Armory System. It let you build whatever class you wanted to play. Were all of these optimal? Noooooo not at all. Were they hella fun? You bet they were.

So you see, tossing out the idea of 'jobs' and 'classes' was really Tanaka's vision of letting us, the players, go on whatever kind of adventure we wanted, as whatever we wanted.

Open-ended MMOs FTW. Too bad it never caught on.