The job system has become an iconic part of theFinal Fantasyformula over the years, having evolved from the handful of jobs in the original to the dozens available in MMOs likeFinal Fantasy 14. Now, with Team Ninja taking the reins onStranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin, the studio is making a point to both capitalize on and pay reverence to thejobs available to protagonist Jack.
In a recent interview with Square Enix and Team Ninja, Game Rant got the opportunity to see a little bit of the planned second trial version ofStranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin, as well as ask about the game’s future. Specifically, director Daisuke Inoue as well as producers Jin Fujiwara and Fumihiko Yasuda commented on how many jobs players can expect to see in the upcoming trial and for the final release.
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History of the Job System in Final Fantasy
The history ofFinal Fantasy’s job systemdoes extend all the way back to the original game, which is whereStranger of Paradiseappears to take a lot of inspiration. However, the evolution of this system has seen new jobs from the Dragoon to the Time Mage appear across several games, with some only being brought out for “spin-off” titles likeFinal Fantasy Tactics. It’s believed by most fans that many of these initial jobs, as well as the core of the original title, were built to resembleDungeons and Dragonsand other tabletop RPGs that had grown popular at the timeFinal Fantasywas first being developed.
So, definitely the job system is an iconic system for the Final Fantasy franchise. So, we did definitely look into how to incorporate that, how to fit that, into this action game.
Some of the most recent changes have come fromFinal Fantasy 14, withnew jobs like the Reaper, as well as taking the Dark Knight from being a one-off story element inFinal Fantasy 4to a fully-playable character. Even in games that don’t allow players/characters to change their jobs, the developers will often assign them to specific characters such as the Black Mage Vivi inFinal Fantasy 9, or the Engineer Prompto inFinal Fantasy 15. So, withStranger of Paradiselooking to further evolve the job system, it’s interesting to see how many new jobs will be available and how the classic jobs might be revamped again.
Jobs Originally Available in the Stranger of Paradise Demo
When players got their first taste of theStranger of Paradisetrial version, they were able to unlock three different jobs based on three different weapons. Once the weapon and job were unlocked, players could earn upgraded versions of each, which offered improved attributes as well as new base abilities. It gave the job system a fluid level of progression as players unlocked new forms of combat throughout the Chaos Shrine and against increasingly difficult enemies with new weaknesses.
But while the jobs could support different strategies when fightingStranger of Paradise’s first boss Chaos, the options still might have seemed limited. Not to mention, some of the jobs seem like upgraded versions of different ones, rather than completely new options. Thankfully, the second trial version introduces wholly new jobs for players to use and Team Ninja has confirmed that more will be available in the finished product.
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Square Enix Comments on the Job System
In a recent interview with Game Rant, Square Enix spoke briefly on the final job count in the game. While the developer couldn’t reveal the exact number that players can expect to see, it does appear that there are still more to come beyond theaddition of jobs toStranger of Paradiselike the White Mage or the Pugilist. Still, hearing that there is more to be seen is an exciting prospect for players that were already impressed by what has already been shown in previous trial versions.
As you saw in trail #2, you did notice that there were more jobs than before. In the full product version, we will definitely have more jobs as well. We can’t really give exact numbers of jobs, but there will be a good number.
It appears that Team Ninja has really taken the history of thejob system fromFinal Fantasyto heart when it comes to crafting a wide variety of choices for players to make when it comes to fighting styles. This is also a huge step forward in the context ofStranger of Paradiseas a Souls-like title, which has historically relied on more rigid builds rather than the open freedom of the job system. With some jobs even going so far as to make an unarmed combat style usable in this Action-RPG setting, the developers are going a long way to give players a much more approachable type of game.
Jobs that Players Might Hope to See in Stranger of Paradise
While the exact number of jobs or their names was not revealed, there are plenty of moments fromFinal Fantasy’s history that Team Ninja might choose to pull from. For instance, the Blue Mage, a magic user that generally steals abilities from enemies, might be able to enhanceStranger of Paradise’s instant abilitiesinto permanent collectibles for this specific job. Then there are more fantastical options like Summoners and Engineers, which could be fun in a Souls-like setting but would likely clash with the companion system that is already built into the game.
There’s almost a neverending list of jobs to choose from and there could be plenty of reasons to include or exclude anything fromFinal Fantasy’s long history. The point is that while the second trial version has already shown some new jobs, there are so many more from titles likeFinal Fantasy TacticsandCrystal Chroniclesthat might make for great additions intoStranger of Paradise.
Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Originis set to release in 2022 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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