Job Systems (Forced or DIY)

[Loony BoB]

Final Fantasy often has a job system - do you focus on a balanced tank/healer/dps system or do you try to have jack-of-all-trade jobs where possible? For those games without a job system, do you try to have designated healers in a kind of DIY job system?

[Wolf Kanno]

In the past, I would say I went for Jack-of-all-Trades types but as I got older, I started to appreciate more defined roles for each character so I go that route when I can. In games with actual Job systems I tend to to have at least one mage class and one strict melee fighter with the third/fourth changing depending on my needs or if I wanted to check out a particular class.

The only entries I don't really do this for are VII and VIII cause the lacks of variety in major skills, especially in the early game, makes it difficult to stick to defined roles that are fun to play as. In games like FFII, I go in with a plan on how to build my party.

It's funny you bring this up cause I've been playing SaGa Frontier 2 which like FFII gives you characters who start in certain roles, but can be made into anything you want, yet it's more fun to stick to their starting classes for me, especially considering how mage heavy this game can be.

In retrospect, while I love me some Job System, I've come to realize that I tend to like RPGs that give me characters with per-determined roles better than games that let you build anything.

[Vermachtnis]

I've grown to like the trinity. So yeah, when given the option I'll make a healer, tank, and DPS. Sometimes I like to make elementals too. But even then with Final Fantasy and Lightning, Ice, and Fire; it turns into Lightning=healer, Ice=Tank, and Fire=DPS. Lightning is light and holy and also wind which is usually healing spells in Final Fantasy. Ice is sturdier and I usually give them Earth spells later on too.

[Jessweeee♪]

If they let me DIY then everyone pretty much just ends up the same because I can't break old habits. I like the expert sphere grid in FFX where everyone has a defined job but you can decide who gets what. But then endgame they all end up the same still.

[Rez09]

As a general rule, if my characters can do everything, ala FF2 and X, they likely will end up doing everything, if only due to my compulsive time-wasting nature. If they have set jobs but I have control over what those jobs are, ala FF1 and FF3, I tend towards a balanced mage / fighter party. If the party's jobs are completely fixed, basically just FF4 and FF9, I'll pick . . . well, you don't have much of a choice in 4, but in 9 I stick with one healer and 3 DPS.

[Mercen-X]

I don't really care about what stats or skills I have access to. I feel a character job class should effect their behavior and overall role in the plot not just how they contribute to combat. I'm basically a hack-n-slash kind of player (I mostly use melee attacks when playing Destiny), so with any freedom to customize my characters, I'll lean toward more physically powerful and fast attack stats and maybe a single cure spell for each character.