FFXIV classes and progression system – new approach?

Since it was announced at E3, I’ve had an eye on FFXIV watching for the direction Square-Enix plans to take their next MMORPG.  I wasn’t a big fan of FFXI because of the horrible controls and overall boring feel, but I’m hoping that this one will be different.  Recent interviews and magazine scans have revealed a bit about the game detailing how XIV might be trying to go a different route than the norm.

A few quotes and snippets sum up this new direction shifting gears away from a Leveling Up and Experience Point system to something that resembles, in theory, Darkfall or UO.

“[Players] grow naturally from their experiences”

“…based around the weapons and equipment players choose to use.”

“The focus here will be on weapons. Your weapon will determine how you play. Your weapon will determine how you fight.”

On paper, in theory, whatever… it simply can not account for how such a system will be implemented, which is truly all that matters in the end.  This could be great or it could be epic fail.  Either way, it’s worth watching closely over the next few months to see what additional information they release.  I have yet to really play a game that presents itself in such a way and find long-term lasting appeal.

The next bit of info comes through magazine scans posted on a forum [Here].  New names for races, a slightly different archetype system, but overall very much the same Final Fantasy XI approach.  This is only truly interesting because they’ve included a crafter and gatherer in the list of classes.  Maybe it’s a mistake, not clear that these are crafting professions, or maybe it’s an approach I would welcome very much back to the MMORPG scene today where players can actually choose to play a Crafter as a full-time role and fill a void left very empty as of late.

I’ll continue to watch.  My faith in the Eastern market is growing significantly.  I’m no longer dismissing these titles right off the bat, but rather finding that they’re hitting closer to the mark than anyone else.

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  • I think the old names were more pronouncable. 🙂 I loved Final Fantasy XI, so I’m really looking forward to this game. The only flaw with the last FF Online was its grind, but they seem to be really trying to combat that this time around.

  • I never played 11 but have read a few blogs and maybe the subjob’s will be a big part of this game as well which is where the crafting professions would come in? Although I would love it if you could make crafting your main profession, it adds a lot of depth to the game. I really liked how Vanguard tried to do that with diplomacy, crafting, and adventuring all taking about the same amount of time in theory to hit level 50 in.

  • Having played a bunch of Ryzom, I know that I’ll enjoy being able to make tangible progress on gathering/crafting professions without necessarily having ever care about combat. It’s a fun change of pace.

    I’m definitely looking forward to hearing more about FF XIV.

  • I wonder if we’ll be calling this the ‘Free Realms’ model in the future?

  • Ironically I never played 11 but Final Fantasy is my favorite RPG series. I didn’t have the internet when it was launched due to being super poor for a time.

    I look forward to seeing anything Square is willing to try. For along time they were the only company I had faith in.

  • Sounds like they’re just hiding classes. Use weapon X to become class 1, use weapon Y to become class 2, etc.

  • @fenixstryk – They never said there weren’t going to be classes, they said there wasn’t going to be leveling/experience.

    I think the game sounds pretty intriguing so far. I played FFXI briefly and It wasn’t too bad. I like a lot of stuff about it actually. One of the main things I liked about it was being able to play every class with one character. I didn’t really care for the sub job system however, hopefully it will not reappear in XIV. I’m glad to see they are sticking with the design of being able to change jobs and play them all with one character though.
    I also think it would be pretty interesting if they designed crafting into the job system itself. This is definitely one of the future titles that I’ll be keeping my eye on.

  • I played FFXI quite a bit, and I’m not really keen as much any more because of SE’s track record on it. A jobless system sounds nice, but SE never really was good at balancing the jobs in FFXI, with some jobs winding up bringing nothing to many situations, like endgame or experience partying.

    I’ll keep an eye on it, but with SE I have to have specifics before I can get excited. The FFXI developers are pretty notorious for communicating poorly about their game.

  • Anything Final Fantasy will have a certain amount of automatic success. I’m not a fan of the series directly but I love Square, they’ve developer some great material over the years.

    Having that built-in success meter could give them a lot of room to maneuver in creating something more original than the current baseline.

    So yeah, even tho I’m kinda cold on the property, I’d say it’s worth watching out for, absolutely.

    As an aside, there are a couple of other games that I’m curious what Square will do with. They’re partnering with GPG on Supreme Commander 2, plus with the acquisition of Eidos they own Tomb Raider and Hitman. Of course at this point they’re so big that it’s hard to separate publisher and developer (kinda like Blizzard that way now).

    Anyway, I’m getting off track. I disliked FF XI but this looks like it could be more appealing.

  • I have seen the massive amount of arguments against “skill based” (UO sytle) MMOs. Many of them are quite reasonable and accurate. That said, I still love them!

    This is really exciting for me! Hopefully it won’t just be as simple as gaining levels in a particular weapon.

  • Um… as I recall FFVII, FFVIII and FFIX although having a level system for the main characters also had a skills available based on weapon equipped or skill based on the materia attached to the weapon you are using. The characters not only had their own levels they had development on the weapons/materia as well. They may simply be using a variant of these mechanims for FFXIV.

  • Ha I posted this on my guild forums and everyone is already willing to leave WoW for it. I guess it helps that 90% of my guild was formed in FFXI.