There’s still very little known about Final Fantasy 16, but what has been shown so far seems rather impressive. Even the minute details of Joshua’s bookishness, Clive’s swordmanship, the world of Valisthea, and the ideas of Eikons and Dominants set Final Fantasy 16 up for a fitting return to medieval fantasy.
However, there’s one more major feature required for it to be a true return-to-form: classes. Some form of class or job system is practically synonymous with the franchise, but this is despite recent games abandoning the feature. It may even seem like Final Fantasy 16 may be pulling away from this, given Clive’s Swordmanship is in his background, but that’s not necessarily true. Indeed, with so little known, the next entry in the franchise is shaping up to be the perfect chance to bring these back.
First, it’s worth looking over the past few games and how it approached classes, but the simple answer is it’s been quite some time. The last mainline Final Fantasy release was FF15 back in 2016 (not counting the remake of Final Fantasy 7, which doesn’t really have classes either). Noctis and friends have abilities and skills that are not determined by a class system, but the game release before that, Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn, does have classes. However, there’s a bit of a caveat there.
First, including this title would still mean that a mainline Final Fantasy game hasn’t had classes since 2013 (or 2010, if considering the original’s Job system), even if across 7 years, that’s still just 4 games—one more to be discussed shortly. Secondly, it is a MMORPG though and not standard fare for the franchise. It may be considered mainline, but those who enjoy the single-player games may not have touched the MMORPG additions. 2013 also saw the release of another mainline game, Final Fantasy 13: Lightning Returns, which instead of jobs or classes featured schema. These were basically fill-ins for classes in the game, and while they are very class-oriented, it doesn’t really hit that same chord.
2011’s Final Fantasy 13-2, on the other hand, had the classic Crystarium of the first game, and seeing as these are sequels to the original, this is most likely the best point to consider a “class system.” In other words, it’s been 9 years since there’s been a mainline, single-player title with something resembling a solid class system. This could still be argued, but case in point: it’s been years since a simple class or job system has appeared in a SP Final Fantasy.
Notably, the more “sci-fi” a Final Fantasy game is, the further it strays from class systems. Final Fantasy 15 is very futuristic, with a patch even adding a flying car, and it abandons classes entirely. Final Fantasy 7 does something similar, and Final Fantasy 13‘s Crystarium system doesn’t cut it for some. As such, with Final Fantasy 16 leaning more towards medieval fantasy, it’s the perfect chance to bring back classes?
Of course, the question becomes whether or not it will. There are some hintings toward this (Joshua’s garb points to a White Mage), but that asks another question: is this a pre-defined role for Joshua, assuming he’s somehow playable? He’s probably not being a Dominant and all. On the other hand, Clive is the only character shown to be playable thus far, meaning Final Fantasy 16 could be abandoning the traditional party system and operating, at best, like Final Fantasy 15.
How that manifest remains to be seen, but even with Clive’s sword training, there’s plenty of melee-oriented classes he could be offered. If he’s joined by others in his journey, they too could have a smaller selection of classes (if there’s not some character who could do anything). No matter, it’s all up in the air for now, but if classes do make a comeback in the franchise, there’s really not a better time that the medieval world of Final Fantasy 16.
Final Fantasy 16 is in development for PS5.
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