Highlights
- Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail is introducing two new jobs – Viper and Pictomancer.
- However, Square Enix has nearly exhausted most of the jobs it can lift from past games.
- Going forward, it may have to introduce wholly original jobs designed specifically for Final Fantasy 14.
Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail, the latest expansion, is introducing a couple of new DPS jobs – Viper and Pictomancer. Both follow director Naoki Yoshida’s two core tenets that are vital when expanding the roster, 1) standing out from existing jobs and 2) being fun in a multiplayer context.
There are plenty of other existing Final Fantasy jobs that fans want to see brought over, like Time Mage and Beastmaster, but Yoshida says there aren’t many left which would work in the context of FF14.
Having that job be suitable [for MMO gameplay] is extremely important.
“Time Mage is known for using time-related abilities such as haste to speed up the party or to stop time,” Yoshida says. “All of the abilities related to the Time Mage were designed to be fun to play using active time battles.
“However, in an MMORPG, we can’t stop time, and another aspect is that it would overpower the job. What would be the point of a Time Mage that couldn’t manipulate time? We do place importance on maintaining the legacy of the Final Fantasy franchise, but we now have fewer jobs that we can work with. I think moving forward, we will have more original jobs for Final Fantasy 14.”
Final Fantasy 14 Is Also Running Out Of New Weapons
Not only has Square Enix almost exhausted most of the jobs that can be lifted from past games, but it’s also running out of weapons to give these jobs.
“We already have most weapons in the game,” Yoshida says. The team considered adding a whip, and Yoshida joked about adding a Morningstar, but he tells us that each weapon needs several unique designs to stand out in the loot pool.
“In Endwalker, we implemented the Sage, but I remember that we had gone through many different ideas about which weapon to use. The worst idea was just holding a huge orb and fighting with that. I thought we could not possibly implement that.”
Final Fantasy 14
Square Enix’s popular MMO, Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn, has players step into the role of the Warrior of Light in the world of Eorzea. There, they find themselves testing their mettle against Primals, the Garlean Empire, the Ascians, and plenty of other threats.
This award-winning MMO now has multiple expansions to its name, with the most recent Endwalker expansion bringing the Hydaelyn/Zodiark arc to a close. Director and producer Yoshi-P has promised lots of plans for future content and the game has regular updates to keep players occupied.