Free reign or Pre-determined?

[Hot Shot]

I wanna know, do you guys prefer a Final Fantasy where characters are already assigned roles (such as IV and IX) or do you prefer when a character can be customised just the way you like it (XII's License Board, VII's Materia etc)?

I personally prefer when characters have their own identity on battle which prevents them from being carbon copies of each other.

[Roogle]

I strongly prefer that all characters have defined roles in battle as I believe it positively affects the personality and background of the character. To date, most of the role-playing games that I have played and finished are the ones in which the characters have a defined role in combat.

[Del Murder]

I also like the pre-defined roles for characters. Their assigned roles helps flesh out their personality as well, and it makes battles more varied as no team will be alike.

[Clo]

I like to be able to customize my characters into a team of my choice, with the characters that I want. I don't mind pre-determined, but in my experience I have had much more fun with VII and XII's battle team customization.

[Jessweeee♪]

FFX and FFXIII are my favorite in that regard. They're pre-determined for the most part, but there is room for a little customization if you've got the extra experience. Others can get boring. When they're fully assigned, there's no room for experimentation. When they're fully customizable everyone ends up exactly the same and all I end up doing is mashing X. That said, I don't really mind it whichever way.

[Laddy]

I like it in VII and XII when characters clearly have roles better suited for them, and giving them defined classes based on said skills.

[Jessweeee♪]

I like it in VII and XII when characters clearly have roles better suited for them, and giving them defined classes based on said skills.

Not true! You expect Fran to be the obvious mage, but her magic stat has the slowest growth, and she is surpassed by Penelo, Asche, and Vaan in that area!

[kotora]

I prefer having a free hand in my character customization though it would be cool if they gave characters more than just their limit breaks to set them apart from each other.

[Depression Moon]

I also like the pre-defined roles for characters. Their assigned roles helps flesh out their personality as well, and it makes battles more varied as no team will be alike.

I agree with this. In other games like VII and VIII, in combat almost everyone felt identical and whenever I tried to give characters their own roles it didn't quite feel right, maybe because the game didn't give them personal roles or maybe the combat works against it. I think it's the combat. Whenever I tried to give characters in VII and VIII defined roles, but they just ended up being jacks of all trades anyway.
In VI the game felt like a weird mix of the two and it felt a little less special since everyone could learn every spell and summon. I still sort of clung to character roles though.

XII I felt more relaxed into customizing characters for certain roles, but it still didn't seem to be that supportive in the game. As I heard the international version makes it a bit easier to do with a refined license board. XII felt the most comfortable for me probably because the game gave specific weapons and armor that would be suitable to the classes rather than having Selphie who uses nunchakus play the role of a mage.

In XII you can pick the suitable weapon, armor, magic, and class. I do also notice that I tend to like the story of RPGs more that have characters who play a specific role in combat than those that don't.

[Vermachtnis]

I like to have a customizable team. That way I can use the characters I like and ignore the characters I don't like with little comeuppance.

[Del Murder]

Yeah, X-XIII are ok since the characters have a clearly defined path and you can assign their roles based on that. VII-VIII really had no path and I felt every character was the same. In fact I just directly copied materia/junction sets between characters when I switched up my party.

What I really like is when the character's job class has significance for the story. In FFIV, Rydia's home was burned by fire and so she couldn't use the Fire spell, and when she had to it made for a powerful scene in the game. Cecil's journey to become a Paladin also plays a significant role in the plot. Same with Dagger's role as Summoner in FFIX, as well as the story surrounding the black mages in that game. These things made the games more enjoyable and added another dimension to the battles. I felt like I was really playing those characters.

[Laddy]

I like it in VII and XII when characters clearly have roles better suited for them, and giving them defined classes based on said skills.

Not true! You expect Fran to be the obvious mage, but her magic stat has the slowest growth, and she is surpassed by Penelo, Asche, and Vaan in that area!

Fran? She's clearly descirbed as a "master of weapons." xD

[Jessweeee♪]

But she has the lowest Strength and Speed stat with everyone at level 99


I suppose she is like a red mage. A jack of all trades, a master of none.

[Flying Arrow]

I generally prefer the blank slate in FF games. I like being able to do whatever I want with whoever I want so I can concoct some really unorthodox parties. Out of my four favourites in the series (each one taking top spot depending on my mood) only VI does the predetermined roles thing - and even then it's not as hard a load-out as, say, IV, IX or X.

[VeloZer0]

I like a little bit of both.

What I like about blank state is that I can make anyone what I want to be, and pick my party based on who I like the most. It particularly irks me when I have to give up my desired playstyle because I don't like the character, or when I include a character I don't like as much in order to enhance the gameplay.

On the flipside, I don't much care for having a bunch of carbon copies with no identities.

There can be compromise between the two. Take FF3. Your characters have the physical ability to be carbon copies but by the end of the game this very rarely happens.

This is because it isn't advantageous to have them all the same. In FF12 for instance I found the build I thought to be the stand out and made all my characters that (to all of those who are going to derail this thread about me playing the game wrong: go f*** yourselves. Make another thread and we can talk about it there).. Also at very few points in the game of FF3 do you have the equipment necessary to class stack, usually only having enough of that classes gear to equip one or two of them.

If they could figure out a way to work it in 1990, I can't help but think they could have thought of methods that were a million times better.