Producer for Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age hints at improving Zodiac Jobs system

In a recent interview with Siliconera, Producer Hiroaki Kato (Ivalice Alliance, Madworld, Dissidia) hinted a few things during the interview. Namely that the new Final Fantasy XII: Zodiace Age may see some expansion and other improvements to the games job system. While he never specifies any specific changes, he does go onto to talk about Executive Producer Hiroyuki Ito's usual desire to tinker with the gameplay mechanics first when thinking about changes they would do to Ivalice.

So what changes would you like to see?

It's hard for me to say for sure exactly what I would like to see, considering I've never had the chance to play the IZJS version. All I do hope for is something that is well-balanced and feels fresh to me as someone who's only played the base game.

Just let us switch jobs, that's all I want. Having to choose one and be stuck with it does not appeal to me.

The changing jobs mid-game thing would be good. It doesn't prevent those who want to play 'classic' IZJS from doing so (they can just stick with their first choice) and allows a degree of tactical role shifting. Assuming that you're refunded your LP if you switch up. Or you can level up multiple boards at the same time. Hmm.

Glad that they're going to tweak some elements, though!

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Originally Posted by Yar

It's hard for me to say for sure exactly what I would like to see, considering I've never had the chance to play the IZJS version. All I do hope for is something that is well-balanced and feels fresh to me as someone who's only played the base game.

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Ditto!

I got the impression they were probably going to add to the boards, maybe a few new spells or abilities. It will be interesting to see what they do.

It's been a while since I've played, but this is the excuse I need to play again!

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I got the impression they were probably going to add to the boards, maybe a few new spells or abilities.

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I doubt it. I think the improvements they're working on are more concerned with the groundwork; allowing for job changes sounds like a legitimate possibility at this point (I'm still against it personally).

As for what changes I'd like to see, well it's mostly minor gripes. Take Reverse out of the game, replace it with Zombie. Make it impossible for characters to switch equipment during battle, except maybe FFX style where they use up a turn to do so. Don't make Ethers/Elixirs/Save Crystals restore your Mist Gauge. Make Wither/Addle/Expose/Shear have an upper limit or only last for a certain amount of time. Remove Dark Energies from the game and nerf Meteorite D a bit (20k max damage). Remove Wither, Arise and Renew from the Monk's license board, maybe add Shear instead. Nerf motes, either make them not as strong as the actual spells or make them weaker (i.e. Haste Mote instead of Hastega Mote). Change 'rare poach' (5%) into 'unlikely poach' (20-25%) to make it an actually viable alternative for farming rare treasures. Increase chance to get a rare item with Diamond Armlet from 5% to 20%. Nerf Berserk by decreasing the speed boost characters get from it. Allow the player to do the Trial Mode in smaller portions across their playthrough instead of having to do everything at once. Make main game Yiazmat the same as Trial Mode Yiazmat. Make Drace use Curaga/Curaja/Renew on party members in Reverse/Zombie. Remove the invisible equipment - Seitengrat, Trango Tower, Gendarme - from the regular game and instead make them only obtainable in Strong Mode. And for god's sake remove the 99 cap on stats, it seriously harms end/postgame min-maxing.

I would love if you could pick two jobs for each. That way it could be kind of like FFV, FFT, etc where you can use abilities from two jobs and see how well they work. You'd have to balance how much to invest in one job vs the other, or maybe you want one to be your main and just take some highlights from the other, etc. So it would still allow for some strategy and customization and variety while also being more "locked in". I doubt that's what will happen but I would love it if was!

If it allows you to change jobs mid-game, isn't that kind of getting back to an equivalent setup of the original western release?

No Randy.

I honestly just wanna try the Zodiac Job System as it was. We get changing jobs often, so I think it's more interesting and fresh to have an imposed limitation on that.

If you don't want to change them, then just pick one and stick to it. Adding the option of changeable jobs has no downsides.

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Originally Posted by Randy

If it allows you to change jobs mid-game, isn't that kind of getting back to an equivalent setup of the original western release?

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Not if you only get the benefit of the active board.

In the original, you could do anything and everything, all at once.

Letting you choose would be like most games with the job system: You have to choose a specialty, but can adjust it for certain fights or just to experiment.

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Originally Posted by Elpizo

If you don't want to change them, then just pick one and stick to it. Adding the option of changeable jobs has no downsides.

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It has the downside that the entire game would again have to be rebalanced to acommodate changing jobs, thereby not making sticking to one job simply an option.

Just announce a damn PC release already. All of these details mean nothing to me without a PC release.

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Originally Posted by Fynn

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Originally Posted by Elpizo

If you don't want to change them, then just pick one and stick to it. Adding the option of changeable jobs has no downsides.

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It has the downside that the entire game would again have to be rebalanced to acommodate changing jobs, thereby not making sticking to one job simply an option.

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Why does it have to and how do you know that they're actually going to re-balance anything?

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Originally Posted by Fynn

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Originally Posted by Elpizo

If you don't want to change them, then just pick one and stick to it. Adding the option of changeable jobs has no downsides.

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It has the downside that the entire game would again have to be rebalanced to acommodate changing jobs, thereby not making sticking to one job simply an option.

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I don't really get this. Why would anything have to be rebalanced? Currently, the game is balanced so that you can beat the entire game with any job combination, right? It should be, since it's forcing you to make a permanent decision right at the start of the game, and it would suck to get 95% of the way in and realize you chose the wrong jobs and can't beat the last dungeon.

So, if you let us change jobs, how does that change anything? You're still limited to a job layout which the game was already balanced for. One job, per character. If you play through the game with White Mage, Dragoon, and Black Mage, or if you play through with Fighter, Thief, and Geomancer (I'm too lazy to look up the actual jobs again), why shouldn't you be able to play through half of the game with one of those parties, then switch to the other party after that? How does it change the game's balance?

Did they even change enemy stats and behavior in the International version?

I didn't read every response yet, so I apologize if this was mentioned, but what I didn't like about the IZJS boards were the tiles that were behind Espers/Quickenings.

I just felt that each job could never reach it's fullest potential because you had to pick certain Espers or Quickening slots to get certain abilities.

Outside of that, it's a pretty perfect game.

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Originally Posted by Colonel Angus

I didn't read every response yet, so I apologize if this was mentioned, but what I didn't like about the IZJS boards were the tiles that were behind Espers/Quickenings.

I just felt that each job could never reach it's fullest potential because you had to pick certain Espers or Quickening slots to get certain abilities.

Outside of that, it's a pretty perfect game.

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Really? I thought that was pretty cool. For espers at least. It forced you to make a choice as to which character gets a bonus and which lose out on it. Besides, the licenses locked away are always things that lie outside that job's regular ability set; for example Time Magic for the Machinist, Heavy Armor for the Archer, White Magic for the Monk - all things the jobs don't have (and don't need) any of otherwise. Some choices were really tough, too. Especially Famfrit who unlocks some really good licenses for four different jobs.

The quickening locks could've been done better though. All jobs only have 4 quickening licenses, and for ALL jobs besides the Hunter there is one quickening license that doesn't have any other licenses locked behind it, making the choice regarding what quickening licenses you activate pretty trivial. I think it would've been more interesting to have you make decisions here as well, where every possible choice has merit to it but you can't have them all.