Director of Final Fantasy XIV, Naoki Yoshida, spoke in an interview about the jobs that players can expect in the future. He said that the team will likely only create “brand new jobs” that have not existed in the Final Fantasy series before.
Yoshida said: Actually, the head of FFXIV was a guest at an interview about FFXI, but even then, the topic swayed towards his main MMORPG towards the end. Together with FFXI producer Akihiko Matsui, he philosophized that naming in MMORPGs is incredibly difficult.
According to Yoshida, this is especially evident with jobs. He stated that it is very hard to create new jobs for the games.
It is pointless if the only similarity of the job to its namesake lies in the name. The [new] gameplay experience must fit traditional designs.
Previously, both FFXI and FFXIV drew from the long list of already known and popular FF jobs. Classes like White Mage, Summoner, Dark Knight, or Dragoon are familiar to fans of the series from many earlier games and were taken over by popular characters like Kain (FFIV) and Yuna (FFX).
But after many years of development and 20 jobs, the development teams have “no choice but to invent brand new jobs that have never existed in the Final Fantasy series before,” Yoshida said.
“The fans of Puppetmaster are currently in shambles.”
Some players say: The interview with Yoshida quickly made its way to Reddit and social media, where it was discussed by fans. FFXIV received 2-3 new jobs with each expansion, many of which were based on players’ wishes. These include Red Mage, Samurai, and Dancer, for example.
But now it seems to be over, and that makes some fans sad:
- The top post in the reddit thread about the interview reads: “The fans of Puppetmaster are currently in shambles.” (1,043 Upvotes)
- He receives agreement that this is also true for fans of Geomancer (602 Upvotes)
- Slightly further down, a player comments: “I have to accept that I’m not getting a Time Mage.” (255 Upvotes)
Other comments discussed that after 20 jobs, only a few remain that would be suitable for MMORPGs. After all, the development teams must pay attention to balance and adhere to the rule of the Holy Trinity.
There is also speculation that in the next FFXIV expansion, there could be only 1 new job instead of 2.
Is there really no chance for the old jobs? Whether the fans of Puppetmaster or Geomancer will ever get their dream jobs is not set in stone. After all, Yoshida is known to backtrack on some of his statements from time to time.
Thus, there has been a new playable race of Viera since Shadowbringers in FFXIV, even though the head of the MMORPG announced after the Au Ra that no new races would come. The male Viera were originally not planned but exist nonetheless.
So it is not completely excluded that one of the old jobs might make it to FFXIV. However, the hopes of Puppetmaster and Geomancer fans are currently shattered.
