Your favorite job system?

[danzibr]

I'm a big RPG fan, and my favorite particular subsystem (if that's what you call it) is the job system. My first exposure was probably FFV, then FF Tactics. More recently I played Dragon's Dogma, with probably a few other games in there.

Of all the games with job systems, which game does it the best?

[erikun]

There are lots of games with job systems, but even with those that let you change jobs, most of them are pretty basic. You are either class A or class B, with not much room in-between.

Just judging by the class systems, I'd say the most interesting I've seen are Final Fantasy X-2, where you can freely change between selected jobs in battle; Final Fantasy Tactics Advance / Tactics A2, which offers lots of options and abilities and allow you to take abilities from different classes (like FFV/FFT); and the Wizardry series, which gives you skill points and spells as you level up, which you retain and can fully use after changing a class.

[Razanir]

It's not quite a job system, but FFII's is broken enough that I can't hate it. I very much appreciate 4 unarmed fighters with black AND white magic.

[The Dark Fiddler]

I have to say that Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and A2 (never played the first, but I imagine it's very similar) has to be my favorite. As erikun mentioned, I like the fact that you can (almost) freely switch between classes to gain whatever combination of powers you want.

[GloatingSwine]

It's not quite a job system, but FFII's is broken enough that I can't hate it. I very much appreciate 4 unarmed fighters with black AND white magic.

Dual wielding shields ftw....

[Razanir]

Dual wielding shields ftw....

Again. Four healing monks. They're all unarmed, so I don't have to spend any money on weapons. My entire budget can be spent on new spells and the fanciest armor money can buy. I don't even need too many healing items, because they can all support each other.

[GloatingSwine]

Again. Four healing monks. They're all unarmed, so I don't have to spend any money on weapons. My entire budget can be spent on new spells and the fanciest armor money can buy. I don't even need too many healing items, because they can all support each other.

Protip: Once you reach shield skill 16 literally no physical attacks will ever hit you, even with only one shield.

You don't even need armour.

In fact it's better not to have any because that reduces your evade and means you might be hit.

[Anarion]

I've really liked the systems in some of the Dragon Quest games, Grindy as they can be. They make changing jobs into a big deal using the temple, and the Akira Toriyama drawings of the distinctive style of each job are incredibly cute and have become highly distinctive over the years.

As among Final Fantasy games, I think the system in V was really well done. There wasn't a rigid lock in, but you could still specialize several party members differently.

[Razanir]

Protip: Once you reach shield skill 16 literally no physical attacks will ever hit you, even with only one shield.

Wat. My whole life is a lie.

[Togath]

My favorite is probably a tie between Golden Sun(where changing job mid-round can actually be used as a tactic) and dragonquest 9(where you can still use many abilities obtained from the jobs regardless of which one you are currently, with jobs being more stat-ratios and spells than standard ones.)

[Psyren]

FFV was my favorite as well. I love systems where mastering X skill lets you combine it with Y class. I had Dancing Bards, Gil-tossing Ninja, Timecasting Red Mages, Sword magic Samurai, Beast-taming Blue mages and Berserker Monks, and I would grind like hell to make it all possible.

But **** those Skull Eaters.

[erikun]

But **** those Skull Eaters.
Geomancers can kill them in one hit, and unlike weapons, geomancy almost always hits Skull Eaters. At least, that's been my experience.

[Psyren]

Sure, I know that now, but imagine being a pre-teen waiting for gamefaqs to load on dial-up while frustrated. I wanted to strangle everyone at Square. Never mind that my Pentium Pro could barely run ZSnes unless I cranked up the frameskip and thus couldn't enjoy any of the music...

[Philemonite]

Dual wielding shields ftw....

Dual wielding shields+Elemental Robe made you immune to Fire/Thunder/Blizzard in FFTA. A great setup for a caster, since they don't need a weapon. I should play it again.:smallwink:

[T.G. Oskar]

Final Fantasy Tactics A2: the combination of race and class, and how the inclination of certain races makes the choice of class and abilities essential for a balanced party (even if the game isn't THAT hard). It's twice as interesting because, despite the restrictions, it makes for an immense wealth of combinations of classes.

Seiken Densetsu 3: thus far, it's still the only system where no matter what choices you make with your three characters, it's always balanced (and not because the game is easy). You can deliberately try to sabotage it, and you still can't really ruin it.

Ragnarok Online: it's an MMO, but its class system is unique. For starters, the level of the character itself differs from that of the job. Second, the character begins as one of ten classes (six base, one thematic and two expanded, plus a gimmick one), and once it reaches a specific job level, some of these classes (all but the expanded and the gimmick one) are further upgraded into two distinct classes. THEN, you improve the class two more times, one requiring to "reincarnate" and re-level, and the other reaching the former level cap (thus officially increasing the level cap of the character). The ENTIRE progression defines the build, not just a few items or skills.

Etrian Odyssey/7th Dragon: similar to RO in that the class gains abilities by means of skill points, but you only gain access to one class, which also defines your character level. EO further improves the mix by adding a sub-level (as per FFXI), which further improves the amount of builds that can be made.

[Mando Knight]

I've really liked the systems in some of the Dragon Quest games, Grindy as they can be. They make changing jobs into a big deal using the temple, and the Akira Toriyama drawings of the distinctive style of each job are incredibly cute and have become highly distinctive over the years.

Yep, DQIX is one of my favorites as far as job systems are concerned. Getting everything is horrifyingly grindy, even if you have one of the random maps with a Metal King floor (by which I mean a floor in which every single encounter is guaranteed to have at least one Metal King Slime, for ludicrous XP), but niche combinations are completely doable.

Although I came in late to the series (IX was actually my first), I've been slowly making my way towards getting and playing through its predecessors... coincidentally, I just finished VI... (Mortamor's hands are jerks)

VI has its advantages compared to IX, since all spells count as skills that are unlocked permanently, but IX has so many more varied skill paths to invest in that the vocation system simply feels more complete.

[Castaras]

Uhh, what do you mean by job system? Doing a profession that earns money in a game, a combination of race/class, or set of skills?

For professions that earn money in game through doing a job, I haven't yet found a game that felt right when doing it. Most it's been a tacked on addition that didn't really have anything special about it or interesting. There's a Skyrim brewery mod which adds in a pretty nice bit of professions, except that it's more quest based rather than work based.

For combination of Race/Class, while Might and Magic IX was a pretty awful game, I loved it class and spell systems. You picked magic/non-magic, then as you progressed through the game, you did quests to specialise in specific areas (e.g. starting as an Initiate, you could become a Scholar or Healer. From Scholar, you could then become a Mage or a Lich.) FlyFF also has/had (not sure if it's still going) a similar class system.

[GloatingSwine]

Uhh, what do you mean by job system? Doing a profession that earns money in a game, a combination of race/class, or set of skills?
.

The job system is a particular subset of class based systems, where characters can be switched between classes somewhat at will. It's only explicitly named as such in the Final Fantasy series. Games 3, 5, Tactics, 10-2 and 13 run on variants of the job system.

[Castaras]

Ahhhhhhh. That makes sense now. Thanks! :smallbiggrin:

[Dihan]

I'm a fan of the system in FFV and X-2 but I do also like those found in IX and VI where each character has a defined class that they belong to. I'm quite looking forward to Bravely Default because it supposedly has a job system similar to FFV.

[SiuiS]

Final Fantasy Tactics. And none of this "advanced" malarkey; I played mine on a scratched disk in a grey rectangular prism uphill in the snow!

It wasn't unlimited; you had your locked in skill (for your current job), a second slot for other class' main menu abilities, and you had passive skills, movement skills and I think one other that were free form. A samurai always had sword draw as his primary, but could grab anything else for his secondary, along with the ability to move farther/hover/cross lava/jump buildings like superman/teleport, and his choice of two hands on sword, two swords, archery, a different weapon, and also a supplemental skill like XP up or something.

I ended up almost mastering it, with many thousands of hours on it, trying to shuffle the hidden summon from guy to guy, before turning it off one day almost in a fugue, putting it up and never playing again.


I've really liked the systems in some of the Dragon Quest games, Grindy as they can be. They make changing jobs into a big deal using the temple, and the Akira Toriyama drawings of the distinctive style of each job are incredibly cute and have become highly distinctive over the years.

As among Final Fantasy games, I think the system in V was really well done. There wasn't a rigid lock in, but you could still specialize several party members differently.

Dragon Quest was neat! The last one I really played was DQ advanced, when it first came out. I remember picking mostly female characters or specific classes because on some of them, that chin, my god.