RPGs with Job Systems, your thoughts on them

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RPGs with Job Systems, your thoughts on them

Postby LordShibas » Thu Mar 19, '09, 3:25 am

Okay, this has been a thorn in my RPG gaming side for some time now and I feel I must vent a bit. Why do developers put crappy job systems in RPGs? It's a cool concept and all but it's fleshed out poorly almost every time. The reason I'm ranting about this now is that I just started playing Final Fantasy III on DS for the first time and the job system is already getting on my nerves.

Raising job levels alongside your standard levels makes games even more tedious. It wouldn't be so bad if there was some sort of leeway in the implementation, but FF III makes things pretty brutal on the player. Warriors can't use any magic, White mages hit for like no damage, and thieves are practically useless. Switching jobs is an option, but you have a transition period in FF III where your characters need to adjust to the new job and are slightly less powerful in the interim. It also doesn't help that the game is plenty cheap, and awkward in presentation.

Seriously, I don't know why I bother with games that have job systems. I was turned off by Final Fantasy V for the same reason. Oh well, it's not like I don't have a ton of other games to play.

Any thoughts on job systems in games, or Final Fantasy III in general?
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Postby Snorb » Thu Mar 19, '09, 4:16 am

Final Fantasy III DS? I am so sorry. No, really, Shibas. I am So. ####ing. SORRY. I feel for you.

If it's any consolation, FF5Advance's job system isn't as crappy- you still have to earn ability points to gain abilities, but you can use them on any job. (So your Knight can use White Magic, or my personal favorite, having a White Mage fight unarmed as well as a Monk can!)
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Postby Lucas » Thu Mar 19, '09, 7:41 am

Yeah I really hate the crappy ones. Especially if you have to do them in order to unlcok stuff or progress with the story. It gets annoying after a while. :bang:
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Postby LordShibas » Thu Mar 19, '09, 12:39 pm

Snorb wrote:
If it's any consolation, FF5Advance's job system isn't as crappy- you still have to earn ability points to gain abilities, but you can use them on any job. (So your Knight can use White Magic, or my personal favorite, having a White Mage fight unarmed as well as a Monk can!)


I played FF V Advance a long time ago, but I do remember getting AP from battles was not as bad as FF III's system of using certain abilities in battle to raise your job levels. It's almost like a Saga leveling system. Either way, job systems tend to require copious amounts of grinding to get all of the required skills, and grinding just isn't very fun in FF III. I just wish I had a list of RPGs with job systems so I could know to avoid them beforehand.
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Postby pitohui » Thu Mar 19, '09, 1:13 pm

FFIII seems to be the exception, not the rule. I totally love job systems. FFT, FFV, and FFX-2 are some of my favorites.

The problem with III is that SE gave the game a beautiful makeover with an impressive localization while completely ignoring the archaic and largely rigid job system. I got about halfway through and shelved it.
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Postby Thoul » Thu Mar 19, '09, 6:16 pm

I usually don't enjoy job systems very much. It's a neat concept, but a good execution seems hard to find. I think it's mainly that I just don't like grinding a lot and so many of them require it. I don't have a lot of time for gaming these days, and I don't want to spend what I do have fighting the same battles over and over.
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Postby LordShibas » Thu Mar 19, '09, 8:31 pm

Yeah Thoul, I think that's what it boils down to for me too. Too much grinding in a single player RPG aggravates me. Most job systems require unecessary grinding which ruins the experience. If I want to grind I'll play an MMO, where I can chat with other people while I grind.
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Postby Schala Zeal » Mon Mar 23, '09, 6:29 pm

For me, I sometimes like job systems and sometimes hate them. I really like the Dragon Quest III job system; I liked the way that the characters could keep their spells from their previous jobs when they changed jobs. They leveled up pretty quickly, so I didn't have huge problem with leveling them up either.

However, in Radiant Mythology, I dislike the job system. Whenever you change a job in that game, all your stats would reduce down to level 1 stats and all the skills that you had for your previous job are all lost-- That is, until you change back to that previous job. All the jobs had their own levels, so you could at least change back if you wanted to. It's not a horrible system, but every time you changed classes, you have to level up for what feels like forever. ._.
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Postby Darkil » Mon Mar 23, '09, 7:23 pm

I prefer a job system like Dragon Quest III more so than any other one. There are a few that have great benefits without really making it a chore to get but there are a few that are a pain [FFXI I'm looking at you].
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Postby LordShibas » Tue Mar 24, '09, 1:48 pm

I never played Dragon Quest III. How does the Job System in Dragon Quest III compare with the job system in Dragon Quest VII?
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