Remembrance of Old; A Galka's Tale of Character Uniqueness

[Kimahri]

Hello! Many of you are intriqued by the title so let me go ahead and explain to you what I mean. There is one thing I really miss about playing my old game, Final Fantasy XI, Job Uniqueness!

In Final Fantasy XIV we somehow came to the same road when it came to abilities and traits of certain jobs, yet somehow traveled in the other direction. Where's the uniqueness that let me pick my Samurai job over other heavy DD such as Dragoon, Dark Knight, and Warrior? With this game, it seems that whatever job I pick, I'm still playing the same one only with a different weapon. The same applies for the magic wielding masters of disastors.

Now I'm not saying, "Hey! This game sucks! I want Final Fantasy XI back, now!" I just want what every other Final Fantasy Fan wants.....A great game. This game has the potential to be great, but right now it just seems to be a garbled up game with too many defects. I can't list them all, but I just want to point out at least one in this post.

As I was saying before, the ability to pick a job over the others was what had me intriqued with Final Fantasy XI rather than Final Fantasy XIV. With XI, my Samurai was completely different over a Dragoon. Not by weapon only, but by the traits and abilities it solely had proprietorship over. Sure some of them you could obtain through subjob, but they were still unique. You had to sub it to get it. Store: TP, Meditate, Zanshin. All abilities and traits that made that job stick out to me like a sore thumb to the rest of the line-up.

Black Mage is another job I wish to press on this blog over Character Uniqueness. It's sole purpose in the game was, you guessed it, distruction of everything holy with it's might of magic. Tier III & IV as well as Arcane Black Magic made this job a great choice for me. Not to mention the awesome traits and abilities: Conserve MP, Magic Attack Bonus, etc.

If you're like me, then you'll agree that the unique job abilities and traits were the pinacle of which jobs you liked best to use and which one's stayed with you through the years without ever being bored of them. This is what I wish to influence Square Enix to change with Final Fantasy XIV. Go back to that fork in the road. Take the old route again and see what happens from there. I'm sure your creative minds can come up with some idea's to not only bring back Character Uniqueness, but also give it some new potential for the new era of MMO.

Thank you for reading this post, and I hope that you also feel the same and come inspired to bring about this change that I so deeply loved about the previous works of Sqaure Enix.

[Blitz0309]

I agree completely.

[Alexios]

That's what I was talking about when I told that classes should be differentiated by their abilities, not the stats, when I was arguing against auto point allotment or removal of physical level.
Good article, Kimahri! If only there were more players like you instead of those idiots.

[Dargoth_Draconia]

They are planning on changing that to some extent but their goal at the same time was to allow the character to play how they want to play using what abilities work for them without people forcing others to have certain set up to even be able to participate in an event. The current system is lacking, but really does a good job of letting you create a character and play a character exactly how you want to play it.

I am not disagreeing with anyone, because I want class unique abilities and traits just as much as the next guy but at the same time I don't want them to totally scrap the system they got because I love being able to use abilities from other classes I have leveled.

[Leowilde]

I don't want them to totally scrap the system they got because I love being able to use abilities from other classes I have leveled.

It's true, and I agree with both sides of this discussion. However, I believe there is such a thing as too much freedom. The mere fact that we can swap between classes as much as we like, at any time, is quite enough. I never did like that we can play one class, while using a different class' abilities. Although there are limitations to this, it's still too open for me. It removes the uniqe feeling of the separate classes. So if someone ask "what class are you?" the answer will be - "I'm Conjurer rank 30, Archer rank 17, Pugilist rank 27" etc, rather than "I'm a Conjurer". Maybe I'm being stuck up, but there's little pride in being the class you have chosen when you can practically mix them together to one super class that takes the best from all.

[Celtodeno]

I am not disagreeing with anyone, because I want class unique abilities and traits just as much as the next guy but at the same time I don't want them to totally scrap the system they got because I love being able to use abilities from other classes I have leveled.

Me too! In fact ive level all 7 classes together so far and i love it. I really dont wanna find out ive just wasted alot of time. I think that they can find away to give each class it own abilities and a few abilities that you might wanna bring to your other classes as well. What i hope if that they end up having high end graduated classes. like lancer gets a dragon, Mar get chance to multi hit like old warriors, conj's get summons. something like that.

[Kimahri]

Me too! In fact ive level all 7 classes together so far and i love it. I really dont wanna find out ive just wasted alot of time. I think that they can find away to give each class it own abilities and a few abilities that you might wanna bring to your other classes as well. What i hope if that they end up having high end graduated classes. like lancer gets a dragon, Mar get chance to multi hit like old warriors, conj's get summons. something like that.

Yes, I know what you mean, Celtodeno. I, too, have leveled all seven ranks. I was never talking about keeping all the abilities of those ranks in the confines of it's rank. Only key specific ones that keeps the uniqueness of that class. As stated in some previous threads, there are just some abilities that would not tie into other classes. I do not believe elemental magic should go out of it's respective disipline. The same goes with weaponskills.

[Reika]

Yes, I know what you mean, Celtodeno. I, too, have leveled all seven ranks. I was never talking about keeping all the abilities of those ranks in the confines of it's rank. Only key specific ones that keeps the uniqueness of that class. As stated in some previous threads, there are just some abilities that would not tie into other classes. I do not believe elemental magic should go out of it's respective disipline. The same goes with weaponskills.

I kind of like being able to use Riot Blade as a Thaumaturge if I so choose to do so...

[Malakhim]

Ultimately, it all comes down to people wanting to be able to kick people who don't conform to their idea of what a class is supposed to be out of their party faster than they currently can with the armory system.

To these people, fuck you and your inbred idea of "class balance". You are the ones who ruined FFXI.

The post is sponsored by Red Bull

[MysteryG]

Great post! Very clear point and well argued.

I'm interested to see how the changes / additions go over, especially with things like Conjurer and people that have already leveled it all the way.