classes and rp- what would happen on the rp front if they were removed?

[Kallera]

How would you feel if classes were removed from the game and the only thing players were referred to was as jobs? As in, no more pugilist or arcanists, just monk and summoner.

 

I'm not sure what to think of it. I started the game as a pugilist in gridania way back in 1.0. While I don't play pugilist now because the content makes it necessary to be a monk, I don't think I'd appreciate it, not in some way like ilvl and stats, but I'd feel something about my character would be lost, whitewashed over and replaced with "nope! she's the warrior of light and has always been the warrior of light", as if she never existed in the seventh umbral era.

 

What would you think if classes were removed, would it affect things for you as well?

[Unnamed Mercenary]

I don't think Square Enix has completely thought it through.

 

The class quests and storylines were already designed to end at level 30, which is where the job quests take over. Rewriting the stories to remove them sounds like way too much effort on their part for a change that isn't required.

 

Now what I can see them doing is removing the ability to differentiate between a class and a job later in the game. Perhaps we won't be required to level up the secondary class to 15 before we can immediately go into the job quests. Or they'll phase out the "oops I forgot to equip my job's soulstone" thing. It could be nice for newer players to be able to continue on without having to level anything else up, although I feel like that could make their experience very different from mine.

 

One major issue I see with my speculation is the Arcanist to Scholar/Summoner split. There's no good way to easily handle this as some form of a class/job merge. While it may be the only class split into two jobs, it's still going to cause a headache if they try to break Arcanist apart since those jobs really only split with the types of books you equip.

[Kilieit]

I use my class hotbars for RP - I have them set up with a bunch of useful emotes and flashy abilities for that class, plus the gearsets I regularly RP with in it. I'd be pretty miffed if they took that away.

[Nebbs]

Depends how they do it. I don't base my characters around a class or a job, so it would not make much difference to me. Instead I give them a role in life and appropriate skills to match from what is sensible.

 

However, the IC guilds for the classes do provide some good RP features in the game and to remove these would fundamentally upset the setting I feel.

[Virella]

Probably very little. Unless they retcon the fuck out of jobs and classes their stories. But I hardly see that happening.

[Aedan Marceaux]

I, admittedly, may be missing the point of the question... but i don't see how this matters.

 

Not all sword/shield wielding people are gladiators/paladins, rp-wise or lore wise.

Not all people that punch and kick things are pugilists/monks, rp-wise or lore wise.

On and on...

 

The only difference would be the magic-wielding folk imo. But even then, eh.. maybe?

 

As Virella said, short of them flat out saying Ul'dah never had the bloodsands or equally wtf retcons... the removal of the job/class distinction should have pretty much 0 impact on RP.

[Flynn Bladebreaker]

I highly doubt they'd remove classes all together, otherwise they'd have to retcon the entire 1-30 stories. At the very least I see them staying, SE are just removing the need to level another class to unlock a job. This way you'll start as GLD for example, once you reach 30 you're a PLD when you do the quest and grab your soul stone. Also quest placements being in high level areas, unless they do some sync thing or move the quests to different locations... no, I just don't see that happening.

 

But if they were removed? Like, removed from the game and lore existence, including the guilds? Where would anyone go to learn? All the RPers who have used the class guilds for story will have to remove them, too.

[Valen]

Probably not very much. I mean, just because you use a lance doesn't mean ICly you have to be a Dragoon, and just because you punch good doesn't automatically mean you must be a Monk. Your character may fit the archetype, but that doesn't mean they have to be labeled as such.

 

Even in games like Final Fantasy VII, Cid has the Jump ability, but he's not called a Dragoon. Barret uses guns and gadgets, but he's not called a Machinist. The only person from that game that outright says they are a certain "class" would be Yuffie.

 

So even if in-game everyone is playing Jobs, that doesn't mean ICly they will have to abide by that.

[Aya]

They can remove the classes but not the concepts, so absolutely no effect at all

[Delilah Scythewood]

They can remove the classes but not the concepts, so absolutely no effect at all

Pretty much this. At worst? People just explain/describe their jobs IC. Some already do that if they try going outside the traditional in-game mold. 

 

So yeah, I don't see it doing much that a little extra description and imagination can't fix.

[Kellach Woods]

Even in games like Final Fantasy VII, Cid has the Jump ability, but he's not called a Dragoon. Barret uses guns and gadgets, but he's not called a Machinist. The only person from that game that outright says they are a certain "class" would be Yuffie.

 

Bad example since the series straight up did away with classes for main series games starting with VII (with three exceptions in certain characters in IX and the MMOs).

 

VI Japanese version had classes for everyone, for example - Which didn't get localized for the SNES version (GBA version restored those, with some wonkiness, such as Shadow being an Assassin instead of Ninja).

 

* * *

 

In so far as mechanics are concerned, I expect SE to get rid of the "15 in another class" requirement and have much more linear progression with each class. Especially since they seem to be doing away with cross-class abilities to favor placing certain abilities in a shared role pool (E.G.: Every Tank gets Provoke mainline and not just PLDs.)

 

Thing is, they've said squat about the revamping of the battle system so we don't know.