Over the course of the expansions of Final Fantasy XIV, many new classes have been added. At the same time, existing classes are repeatedly revised and, above all, simplified. Now, the Director and Producer promises more individuality for the jobs.
Why is the community concerned? With each expansion, Final Fantasy XIV receives two new classes, also known as jobs. In addition, there are always major adjustments, sometimes even complete overhauls of existing classes. Two examples:
The Astrologian was a complex healer at release with a deck of cards. These had to be assigned to the correct group members for buffs. One had to think quickly to use the deck correctly. Meanwhile, the class has become far less complex after several fundamental revisions.
With the release of the upcoming expansion Dawntrail in July, the Dragoon will also have major adjustments. This class will also be much easier to play, as the position buffs from the single-target rotation and two of the three jumps will be removed.
MyMMO editor Sophia Weiß has played the two new jobs and the revised Dragoon. You can read her conclusion here:
In addition to the simplifications of classes, the developers have focused heavily on the single-player experience during the patch series in the current expansion Endwalker. However, Square Enix has already announced that they want to bring the MMO
back into MMORPG
in Final Fantasy XIV.
Accordingly, players are concerned about the future of their beloved class. They expressed this in a survey on Reddit. Now, Naoki Yoshida has spoken out.
It can’t get any easier, says the boss
What does Naoki Yoshida say? In an interview with the colleagues from Gamesradar, the Director and Producer of Final Fantasy XIV, Naoki Yoshida, talked about the classes. Specifically, he addressed concrete changes to the classes, aka jobs, in the game – including the Samurai.
Naoki Yoshida says that the jobs, as they currently are, cannot be simplified any further. Jobs such as the recently revised Samurai will not be made any easier.
At the moment, he is also concerned about the overly simple playstyle of some jobs. At the same time, he is also aware that there are players for both complex and simple classes. As with many topics in Final Fantasy XIV, he has to master a balancing act here.
A similarly difficult topic is the question of whether Final Fantasy XIV should have a new starting point like World of Warcraft: The head of Final Fantasy XIV wants you to see your friends suffer – Hence he won’t let you skip the story
In general, Yoshida says that every player should have the opportunity to showcase their techniques and abilities. This is currently not possible yet. However, the team is working on a solution for patch 7.2 and beyond:
We will look at the jobs and offer more individuality for them.
Naoki Yoshida in an interview with Gamesradar, 11.06.2024
Whether the changes mentioned by Naoki Yoshida will come and what they will look like is yet to be seen. However, it is certain that Naoki Yoshida and the development team of Final Fantasy XIV will continue to keep an eye on community reactions. By the way, for Dawntrail, they have also added a completely new dungeon feature to make it easier for you: Final Fantasy XIV changes one thing about dungeons and makes them much better
