Set jobs, or choose?

[Pure Strife]

I got round to thinking earlier, and it seems that FF has taken a step back to the job era in the most recent games. In 7 and 8 characters had no set "duty" as such. Sure, everyone made Aeris the magic user and whatnot, but with the materia system you could virtually make anyone do anything. Same with 8, due to the way the junction system worked, you could customise any character to anything (if you had a mind to). You could also do this in 5, with the way that system worked. Yet in 9 and 10 it's back to characters who have set duties.

Hero type: Tidus - Freya?
Status Changer: Wakka - Amarant?
Fighter: Auron - Steiner
Black Mage: Lulu - Vivi
White Mage/Summoner: Yuna - Garnet
Blue Mage: Kimahri - Quina
Thief: Rikku - Zidane

Some of those may be a little off, but there's definately a change to the more standard RPG method of assigning each character a specific set of abilities (I know, I know, you could eventually do most everything with the sphere grid, but that's not the point). So I was just wondering, which do you guys thnk works better in an FF game, the choosing system or the set system?

[tailz]

i like the set type more

[RedCydranth]

Hero type: Tidus - Freya?
Status Changer: Wakka - Amarant?
Fighter: Auron - Steiner
Black Mage: Lulu - Vivi
White Mage/Summoner: Yuna - Garnet
Blue Mage: Kimahri - Quina
Thief: Rikku - Zidane

Amarant was Monk class and Freya was Lancer/Dragoon class. FFII was similar with a few of their characters. Sure you could make Guy, Maria and Firionel anything you wanted but Josef was an early monk/black belt type. Mindu was a white mage, Richard was the first dragoon, Layla was a theif like pirate (reminded me a little of Faris).

Look at VII, minus materia, basing on personality, equipment and how they act... Cloud = Hero type, Tifa = Monk Type (fist fighting) Aeris = healer, Yuffie = theif or ninja, Cid = Dragoon. Sure these werent set in stone but you could easily portray them as such.

I really have no preference if the jobs are set or not. FFIX's set jobs were cool, but FFVII's build them as you like was great too. So long as the game is fun and playable, I'll enjoy the game.

Just for info, Status changer really isn't a class, just a side effect of one.. Wakka was more a Long Range character, like Vincent or Locke with the boomerangs. And FFX was the middle ground between IX and VII's "job" situation. Sure Lulu started out as the black mage, but you could mover her through Wakka, Tidus and Auron's area and make her a power hitter. It set up jobs for the characters but gave you the option to build from there. I liked that a lot. X-2 went more towards the set jobs. And, I did like dresspheres, too bad the game wasn't as fun as its original.

[I Don't Need A Name]

set type because its hard to choose who has what and when you become indecisive is when you die

[Zante]

Set classes are better, as they can be implemented into the story and you wont end up with a bunch of the same characters with limits the only difference between them.

[Snap Jumper]

Set jobs also add a strategic element. When you can choose party members, some thought will have to be put in. Do you want a heavy magical team? Healers? Attackers? Or a balance? If the game tells you who your party is, it adds the challenge of making due with what you got. Best example: Valvalis. (SPOILER)Think of how easy this battle would be with black magic. What happened to your black magic? Well, Rydia is catching up with friends in the Land of Summons, Tellah went loco on Golbez, and Palom became a statue. So you're left with Cecil, Cid, Rosa, Kain, and Yang; and if you lose Kain or Rosa, this becomes even harder. I like the individuality of the characters.

[TheSpoonyBard]

Definitely the predetermined jobs. Even when given the choice to customise all characters, I still channel them down certain routes. It just makes selecting a party much easier. However, this method does lend itself to neglection of lesser characters who I choose to leave alone. This can be dangerous when forced to use underdeveloped characters.

[MoonZapdos]

It's always good to costumize your own characters =)

[DJZen]

FFX didn't really have any set jobs. Every character could learn every ability, spell and skill in the game. The only way the characters really differ is in overdrives. I like having a set job better. Not necessarily one that's set in stone for each character, but the job system from FFV I thought worked well.

[RedCydranth]

No, but until you got the spheres to unlock the other sections Lulu was a Black Mage, Auron and Wakka were fighters etc. So they had a semi-set system. The characters were designed as certain classes and once you got to a certain point you could do what ever you wanted with them.

[rubah]

Definitely choose, or be able to alter.

[Shoeberto]

I like pre-determined classes.

[DJZen]

No, but until you got the spheres to unlock the other sections Lulu was a Black Mage, Auron and Wakka were fighters etc. So they had a semi-set system. The characters were designed as certain classes and once you got to a certain point you could do what ever you wanted with them.

Most of the abilities lay outside the direct path. Holy is VERY difficult for Yuna to get, and let's not even TALK about full-life. Kimahri has ultima in his starting sphere grid. After that he doesn't have a set path. Wakka looses direction after learning all his debuffs (and that happens relatively early on). They really set things up so that you could vary characters around. Sure, everyone starts on a path, but you can diverge from that as soon as you want. There's aren't really SET jobs.

[rubah]

Except that the game says 'oh, use lulu for fire against these perrywinkle blue lookin' monsters!'