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Final Fantasy 14 boss Naoki "Yoshi-P" Yoshida is working hard to tease the new jobs for Evercold without actually revealing what they are. We know we're getting a new tank and ranged physical DPS – beyond that, there's little to go on except whatever vague hints exist on Yoshi-P's latest T-shirt. But apparently, the MMO's players have already guessed what one of the new weapons is right in front of Yoshi-P himself, no less.
During a stage Q&A at this past weekend's FF14 Fan Festival, Yoshida turned the tables to ask fans what new weapons they'd like to see added with future jobs. Among the answers shouted out were crossbows, hammers, punches (never mind that we already have the Monk), and morning stars, as well as more exotic options like a dual-wielded gun and sword. Two options drew direct responses from Yoshida: a yo-yo, which would apparently "be easy to make," and a whip, which would be "really challenging to animate."
Amid all the chaotic shouts in the crowd, however, somebody apparently had a bit of foresight. "We heard a lot of different ideas come up" from the crowd, Yoshida teases, "and, you know, we actually heard one that pertains to the new job. But I will not say which one it is."
Personally? My money's on the whip. It'd make sense for a ranged physical DPS job, and it'd be quite a flex for Yoshi-P to say it'd been too hard to animate when, in fact, the team was already doing it. But that's just a wild guess from a lapsed FF14 player, and we won't get real answers until the Berlin edition of the Fan Festival arrives on July 25.
Yoshida also offered some insight into how the team selects new jobs for each expansion. It starts not with the job itself, but rather the roles. "Of course, when we look at the player data and information that we have on hand, we do see that the DPS role typically has the most players in terms of what they main," Yoshida explains. "As such, recently whenever we think about a new expansion and introducing the two jobs, we would like for one to be accepted or well-received and enjoyed by as many players as possible."
That's why we keep getting at least one new DPS job pretty much every go around – though that "might change down the line" – but deciding the other is a much more abstract process of looking at how the current tanks and healers are being used and deciding if a new one needs to be introduced. Or whether, as the case may be, the team wants to add multiple DPSes.
Once the roles are set, the battle system team holds an internal contest where they pitch ideas for each job. "With Evercold, we had five ideas for the tank role and then I believe we narrowed it down to three ideas for a ranged DPS," Yoshida says. "Then I joined the discussion to kind of refine the idea even further. Looking at the gameplay, or how the job feels when you control it, was different than that of what we had in our Final Fantasy series thus far, so we decided it's going to be a 14-original job. So I guess the process of selecting jobs depends on what kind of experience we want to deliver. How do we make it fun and interesting? But if I keep talking, I might spill something about the new job. So, I'm going to stop there."
