A recent discussion on the SomethingAwful forums' Final Fantasy megathread was highly interesting to me and I'd like to continue it.

It basically started with someone criticizing FFXV's gameplay and the ranking system and I chimed in saying I didn't like ranking systems a la XIII. They "criticize" you for playing how you want to play. WHY do I have to beat this boss as fast as possible? Why can't I play defensive and heal a lot?

This launched a whole discussion about what game designers' intend and if there is such a thing as a wrong playstyle. Amidst that, I tried to be clever and say "hey, didn't Bravely Default do well and it had a turn-based system." I've never played BD but apparently, turn-based or not, it rewards hyper aggressive gameplay and punishes turtling. Something to do with amount of actions you get and how the bosses react to them or something.

Then of course I was reminded there hasn't been a "traditional" White Mage in years. They've done their best to give them damage options as well. This was a general topic about "pure healers" in gaming so it branched off into other things, like someone mentioning how apparently Clerics were a joke in old D&D where older playes forced them on newbies and subsequent editions did their best to give Clerics damage options, just like White Mage got in later FF's.

Basically, with the way games are designed now, it seems like dedicated healers are obsolete and the game designers themselves want you to just attack a lot, not turtle up. I mean, you can be strategic about how you're attacking of course, but you need to keep up the offense.

Also the Souls games were brought up and how inefficient spear/shield is but how a lot of games prefer it because it's the safe and familiar route. I've never played a Souls game but that's kind of where I was coming from. A dedicated healer in a JRPG is my "safe and familiar route." But I'm a dinosaur I guess and need to get with the times.

What do you all think? Are new RPG's not compatible with how they used to be? Is there no room for a Healer who is just there to be a healer?