Job system

While each game in the Final Fantasy series features their own systems, such as the Materia or the Junction system, one that has reoccurred most often series has been the Job System, also known as the Class System or the Job Class System. The basic concept of the Job System is that each player character starts as a blank slate on which to choose character classes, much like computer RPGs, and has development directly controlled by the player's decisions.

While this system was a fundamental element of Final Fantasy initially, today it finds much more use in the Final Fantasy Tactics sub-series, as the Job System puts heavy focus on complex statistical decisions, which suits a Tactical game, over the plot-related character development that modern Final Fantasy games have become more involved in.

Each game that has featured the Job System has expanded on it and changed it in their own ways.

Final Fantasy
The Job System in the original Final Fantasy, much like the rest of the game, is some what simple in comparison to it's incarnations today. At the start of a new game the player picked one of six available classes for four different characters, much similar to the popular computer RPGs of that time such as Ultima (who's influence on the series has been noted often, most especially in the older games). Each class featured their own unique ability the player could use, such as the Thief's ability to Flee or the Black Mage to use a Black Magic spell. Upon reaching a certain point of progress in the game, the four classes the player chose for his characters would all upgrade into a masterful version related to their basic starting class (i.e. a Thief becomes a Ninja). While basic, this was the starting point for the Job System to gradually progress from.

Final Fantasy III
In Final Fantasy III the system was somewhat similar in progression compared to the first Final Fantasy, but had a good deal of changes and improvements to it. One major change in particular is instead of picking a class at the start of a new game and being locked into it, all the characters started as a basic "beginning" class (The Onion Knight/Onion Kid in the NES version, Freelancer in the Nintendo DS remake). Eventually after making some progress basic Jobs such as the Thief and White Mage would make themselves available for the player to select, but in addition the player was allowed to freely change between Jobs whenever they wished and make accumulating progress in each. Also expanded where the individual Job abilities, with advanced ones such as the 'Scan' for the Scholar and 'Steal' for the Thief.

Like the first Final Fantasy, reaching a point in the plot will bestow the player with new "advanced" or "master" versions of classes - except in Final Fantasy III this will occur up to 4 times (including the first encounter yielding the basic Jobs) and you do not need to make progress in a "basic" class to use the "master" one (the master classes make themselves available depending on their power - i.e. the most powerful classes will be available last).

Despite that, having your characters undergo progression through drastically different branches of Jobs can be both a blessing and a curse as statistics gained during a class accumulate into the permanent abilities of the character - a Thief will not make as powerful of a Knight as a Warrior would, yet that Knight will be quicker than one that developed from a Warrior. The capability to freely manipulate the development of your characters as the player wishes became one of the integral parts of the Job System in Final Fantasy III.

Final Fantasy V
Final Fantasy V retained the concepts of having a basic starting Job which to make progress with and the ability to freely switch between classes while retaining progress in each. New to the Job system, though, was the concept of Ability Points and multiple skills per Job to be purchased by them. After a successful battle, AP would be earned along with XP and the player could use this AP to buy one of many skills available to the Job chosen for a specific character, as jobs were no longer just '1 Job = 1 Skill'. This became another major part of the Job System and contributed to more flexibility and diversity available to the player.

In addition, the concept of having a "basic" class, such a Warrior, and an "Advanced" class such as a Knight became less prominent. Instead the game offered a variety of very different classes to the player, who beared little relation to each other. The classes present in Final Fantasy V included past staples such as the White Mage and Thief, but also included new ones such as the Blue Mage and Samurai which became staples within their own right in the series.

Final Fantasy XI
Final Fantasy XI's presentation of the Job System included many classic Job types, as well as a few that unique to the 11th installment, but changed some of the mechanics of the system to be more in line with computer MMORPGs, which in a way is a modern version of what occurred with the first Final Fantasy. Most jobs retain their archetypal expertise and many abilities commonly associated with the jobs from previous installments. Other aspects of the system do remain such as the player picking from one of 6 basic jobs to start with, the same 6 original jobs from the original Final Fantasy. Players have the option to change job it at will, similar to Final Fantasy V or Final Fantasy Tactics. This is unique to Final Fantasy XI among MMORPGs. Once progress has been made on a character to level 30, more advanced jobs types make themselves available to be pursued via specific quests made available at that point.

Final Fantasy X-2
As the Tactics series was now in existence to facilitate the Job System and the primary Final Fantasy games began to gravitate towards intricate plots over intricate statistics, Final Fantasy X-2's system was a compromise between these two polarities. More acute details of the Job System were shred in favor of putting production values to other things important for this release, but it still manifested in it's own way. Referred to as Dresspheres, the Job System in FFX-2 operates more or less like Final Fantasy V, with new Jobs making themselves available as you make progress through the game. The major change of the job system in this game was that Yuna and her companions could now change jobs in battle.

Only a few of the "classic" jobs were present in FFX-2, which featured fewer classes in general, as it tried to establish entirely new types which had been yet unseen (and are still currently unique to the game) while still being accessible - a quality over quantity approach.

Final Fantasy Tactics
Being in a game genre which focuses heavily on number crunching and player decisions, the Job System expanded intensely in Final Fantasy Tactics. In this game, the ability to freely change Jobs at will was more heavily structured. Instead of swapping in and out, the character had to make a planned progression of their character abilities to reach the destination they wished, such as to be a Ninja a character must have the prowess of an Archer, the agile skill of a Thief and the knowledge of a Geomancer - all of which find a distant root in the basic Squire class.

Starting off the player would again be given a 'base' Job as a starting point, but instead there were now two: the Squire (combat focused) and the Chemist (support focused). After choosing which their characters will be, progress is made much similar to Final Fantasy V's method of accumulating AP and spending it on skills - which have further increased in number per Job and have multiple categories such as 'Movement Skills' and 'Reactive Skills'. As the character develops in their Job further, new Jobs make themselves available and as you change between them skills will now be able to be transported over to the next (unlike Final Fantasy V, where skills were restricted to their individual Jobs). This addition of mixing skills (along with the jobs themselves) and the statistics gained from them further developed the Job System and also became integral parts of the Tactics series.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance resumes the progress of the Job System where the original Final Fantasy Tactics left off, again providing the same structured character progression and blending of skills. Changed, though, is how the skills are obtained and how to access particular Jobs. While Final Fantasy Tactics used Final Fantasy V's system of accumulating AP and spending it on a list of possibile skills, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance has the character learn their skills from the equipment they are wearing (much like Final Fantasy IX, which in turn was much similar to Final Fantasy VI's Esper system).

While worn, the skill present on the specific item is ready to be used, but once unequipped it is no longer available. To make the skill a permanent part of the character, the player must build up a specific amount of AP while it is equipped in battle. As the availability of equipment is limited to the progression of the player, this makes the development process somewhat more linear in regards to skills.

Despite that, the character options available to the player were expanded further by introducing character races such as Moogles and Nu Mou, who all had different varieties of Jobs and progression paths available to them. With that, many new classes were able to be introduced in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and many long unused classes found a revival, without seeming out of place (as the classes fit the personalities of the races) or overwhelming (as each race has their own limited and mostly unique sets of Jobs). This allowed players to add in more decisions on how they will structure their parties.

Final Fantasy Tactics A2
Final Fantasy Tactics A2, being a direct sequel to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, is for the most part the same in regards to the Job System. Many smaller mechanics were heavily tweaked to the wishes of players and it is sort of a 'refined' version of what was present in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. New races and many new Jobs were added to the game, furthering complexity in regards to those aspects. It features the most Jobs of a Job System game, with a large majority of them being new creations.

Jobs outside of the Job System
Many Final Fantasy games that do not feature the Job System often apply specific job archetypes to some characters, to varying degrees. In general, the closer a game's setting was to the typical "fantasy" setting of the original, the more closely the characters were tuned to particular jobs. The more "sci-fi"-based games tend to have characters which are much less distinct in their abilities.

Final Fantasy IV
Playable characters in Final Fantasy IV are all listed as having a particular job, but with the exception of Cecil, none of the characters may change their job assignments during the game. Cid has the Chief job, which is similar to Engineers or Machinists in other Job System games. Other characters combine multiple jobs. For example, Rosa learns all available White Magic spells, but uses a bow and arrows instead of a staff, and possesses the multi-shot Aim ability, both of which are more characteristic of Rangers. Both Tellah and FuSoYa learn spells from both White Magic and Black Magic categories, but do not have the typical weapon selection of a Red Mage or Scholar -- they are indeed combinations of the two mage jobs, similar to a unit in FFT with both White Magic and Black Magic abilities set.

Final Fantasy VI
The playable characters of Final Fantasy VI have no jobs displayed, but each character has one combat ability which is unique to that character, and corresponds roughly to a canonical job from the Job System. Though the player may use the level-up bonuses from espers to boost any ability on any character, each one has a natural growth pattern that makes that character best suited for the role that its analogous job would play. For example, Terra and Celes are the only two characters who naturally learn spells, and their growth patterns predispose them toward use of magic rather than physical strength, but Celes's growth is more balanced, like a Paladin.

Final Fantasy VII
The only distinction between the characters of Final Fantasy VII lies in their weapons and Limit Breaks. Each character may use only a single type of weapon, and each roughly corresponds to a distinctive weapon from a canonical job. Also, the characters' Limit Breaks exhibit characteristics of special abilities that are usually reserved for particular jobs. However, since the characters' growth patterns and abilities are so similar, the assignment of a particular job to each character is difficult, and does not carry as much importance as it would were the differences between characters more pronounced.

Final Fantasy VIII
The characteristics of characters in Final Fantasy VIII are even more homogeneous than in FFVII. While reflecting aspects of canonical jobs in their weapon selections and Limit Breaks, none of the playable characters has any affinity with a particular job that would significantly affect gameplay, with the possible exception of Quistis, who must learn Blue Magic abilities in order to use them.

Final Fantasy IX
The return to the series' fantasy roots in in the ninth installment also marks a return to more pronounced jobs. Similar to FFVI, each character has a unique special ability that suggests a strong affinity for one of the canonical jobs in the Job System. The growth patterns for each character are also heavily weighted toward a particular job. This returns an aspect of strategy and teambuilding to FFIX that had been absent in the previous two games, in that it once again makes a perceptible difference which party members you have active at any given time. It is interesting to note that this game is the first to have a Thief as the "lead" character in the party. The character of Vivi is also shown wearing the iconic garb of a Black Mage, complete with long black robe, and yellow eyes glowing from an invisible face, hidden beneath a large pointy yellow hat.

Final Fantasy X
Though there was once an age where high technology once ruled on Spira, it has become more of a traditional fantasy setting since the advent of Sin, and the trend toward more obvious job correlations in fantasy games holds true in this game as well. The game uses a Sphere Grid system that allows any character to learn any set of abilities, but each character begins its advancement in a different place on the grid, and the abilities available around each starting point are strongly biased toward the job with which each character has the most obvious affinity. For example, Rikku begins near Steal; Tidus, Auron, Wakka, and Kimahri are surrounded by large boosts to physical stats; Yuna is surrounded by White Magic abilities; Lulu begins at the center of the Black Magic abilities. Further, the characters' focal areas are arranged around the Sphere Grid such that, once a character has learned all of its own abilities, the closest other character's abilities are closely compatible, and make sense as a sort of "subjob".

Final Fantasy XII
In the original release of Final Fantasy XII, there are no pre-set jobs, but an analysis of growth potential, initial weapon/armor selection, and character personality can give the player a decent idea of the character's most effective role in a party, and these fall roughly within the lines of the canonical FF jobs. Vaan is a street punk, beginning the game with a dagger/shortsword, and possessing high Strength, Vitality, and Speed, making him an effective Fighter / Thief combination. Balthier has the highest Speed rating, is magically weak, and begins the game with a gun, which makes him an effective Gunner and Thief. Fran begins the game with a bow, and while none of her statistics is rated higher than 3rd place, they are decent overall, making her similar to Rosa from FFIV, but more of a Red Mage. Basch has the highest HP and Strength ratings, and has an affinity for Greatswords and Axes, but is severely lacking in Vitality and MP; these traits are similar to other Dark Knights, particularly from FFXI. Ashe and Penelo share the highest Magick statistic, the highest two MP ratings, and relatively high Vitality, making both well-suited for either the White Mage or Paladin role. Ashe carries the relic Sword of Kings (a greatsword), while Penelo uses a pole, suggesting that Ashe is better-suited for Paladin duties, while Penelo is best used as a pure mage, but their growth potentials make them interchangeable in this respect.