Final Fantasy with Class

[Depression Moon]

I probably wouldn't be wrong if I took a quick look at XIII and say that the party isn't job based like some of the former FF games. I haven't touched the game myself, but by going on the character designs and what I know about the combat I can assume that this game lacks a class based-structure.

Out of all the FFs I really like those that stick to making the party individually different to play with. In games like VII, VIII, X-2, and XII your parties lack unique playstyles and everyone can feel like clones. X-2 may not exactly be like that, but all three of your party members can have any job leaving only their limit breaks (special dresspheres) for individual playstyles, though some of those can be alike too. XIII probably falls on terms with VIII and VII in this category. I don't know if they have limit breaks to separate themselves at least a little bit in the game, but if they don't then I guess it's a worse case.

I still have fun with those games, but it always seemed a little funner if my party was designed for specific roles. IX, X, and IV. I really enjoyed because of this. VI seemed like it also went with that structure, though anyone can cast any spell or summon in that game. Umaro was the only one that really seemed confined to his job (Beserker?).

The question here is would you like to see more job-specific FF games in the future outside of the MMOs?

I certainly would and we need something very unique for that cast instead of something predictable that the last ones followed.

[Hot Shot]

I love job-specific FF because it makes you choose more wisely about your party and requires you to battle with intelligence. With FF XII (I haven't played XIII yet either) you could just choose the characters you like and shape them the way you like them, which is cool I guess, but I like it when each character has their own purpose in battle which the is set throughout the game.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

I prefer this kind of system due to the holistic satisfaction of a character's gameplay-bound capabilities being directly tied to their story-bound role and personality. If your bare-chested monk guy can cast Fire just as well as your mage type, it's like, why even have a Fire spell, man?

[VeloZer0]

Though I am not a fan of having characters as jack of all trades I do like the idea of being able to pick my party based on who is my favorite character. I don't like having to chose between a character I like but has a skillset I don't, or a character that I dislike but is too useful to pass up.

[Depression Moon]

What characters were like that for you in a previous FF game?

[Wolf Kanno]

Actually, XIII does have a bit of a class system. Although its possible for all characters to use each role, they all have a specific role or two that they are generally better at than others. Snow for instance is the games best Sentinel (He's a Monkadin!) while Fang is the best Commando and Hope is the Best Ravager. The main exceptions to the rule is basically Lightning cause she tends to be balanced between a few classes. She's a mix of Commando and Ravager so in a way she's like a Red Mage.


As for the topic, I prefer the job class system (FFV). I don't mind the Class system but I feel only IV and IX have done it right.

[Depression Moon]

That sounds to me like with VII you can have certain characters better suited to be magicians because some characters have higher magic stats than others and others would have higher str stats.

In discussion of seeing future FFs with more direct class-based structure a unique party I would like to see would be

Ninja- Main Character
Beastmaster- someone who fights by releasing captured monsters and can capture certain bosses and use them for limit breaks
Time Mage
Dark Sage - focuses on inflicting status ailing spells
Gambler - Unlike Setzer he should have a large set of abilities that centers around luck like hiding your characters underneath cups and the enemy chooses a cup to hit. If it hits anyone but the Gambler, the enemy gets inflicted with a ton of damage, if the enemy does hit the gambler then the gambler dies automatically.

Summoner- Only summons, though it would be hard to make it feel different than the Beastmaster

Sage- Both black and white magic

Gunner-

Berserker

[VeloZer0]

What characters were like that for you in a previous FF game?

Thinking about it and the FF series hasn't been so bad for me.

In FFVI I didn't like using Mog in my party because I though he looked stupid (now I'm going to get hated on). As such I never got to use dance as a move set
In FFIX I dislike Quina with a passion and would like to limit her screen time as much as possible. Because of this I never get to play with Blue Magic in FFIX. Ditto for Steiner, so no magic sword.

In FFXIII I don't particularly care for Hope, I would much rather have another character in my party. His abilities, however, are indispensable to my play style.
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Regarding FFXIII:
In that game each character only has access to 3/6 classes for the first half of the game, and even when the other 3 are available they blow in comparison. The first tier of a class costs ~100-120 (I think) CP per 'sphere', whereas for one of the characters secondary classes it is 3000-6000 CP. By the time you get to Tier 4 it is 12000-24000 CP per sphere, and you are only getting ~+6-10 to a stat. If you were to use the pre-post game last level it would cost 12000-20000 CP for +20-40 in the same stats. So spending CP into classes that your character isn't default in is only worth 1/4 as much as if you had just stuck to the default.

Hope it made sense. Bottom line is you can spend any points in any class, but anything other than the 3 innate to the character is a huge rip of and inefficient use of experience.