Final Fantasy 14's next expansion, Evercold, was announced during the fanfest over the weekend—and as someone who has had a laundry list of gripes, I couldn't be more excited. Square Enix has finally taken note of the fact the game's formula has grown stagnant, and promised all sorts of overhauls and reimaginings of what the MMO will be in the future.
Among these are "evolved" redesigns of the game's many jobs, both streamlining the amount of buttons they have considerably and making sure they each have a unique job identity. While I was skeptical at first, the actual demonstrations—wherein several jobs were seen to have unique, bespoke mechanics unheard of in FF14's history—has me more than cautiously optimistic.
But one thing does worry me: Square Enix is keeping the old job design available through a "reborn" mode toggle. And while this does make a certain kind of sense (old raids, etc. might simply not work with the new Evolved designs, and players still run those), it also has me a touch worried. Maintaining balance between two sets of over two dozen jobs sounds like a design nightmare.
Speaking at a Q&A ...
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