*This page lists videos and articles based on play of an in-development build of Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers, and content in the final version is subject to change.*
While doing the interview, I was coupled with influencer GoldenTot(Tate). Together we asked questions in regards to the future of content going into Shadowbringers. We only had a short period of time to test out jobs before speaking with Yoshida, but Tate did start to notice something about balance with the jobs with the time we had:
Tate:
So I’ve only been able to get my hands on a few classes for the demo so far, but something I’ve noticed is that instead of making certain classes weaker you’ve seemed to take the bottom classes and bring them up. I’m wondering if this is a conscious design choice on your guys’ part.
Yoshida:
Yes, it’s definitely deliberate. Of course the development members are also players of Final Fantasy XIV and we never want to nerf any particular element. Rather than taking something that’s cancelling above the others and nerfing it, we’d rather take that sort of bottom and bring it up. We’re hoping that kind of adjustment is also something the players would be happy about as well.
That being said there were certain mechanics that we realized were extraordinarily high that we needed to balance out. We didn’t want to remove it all together, we wanted to make it so that we would add another step that would allow for it to be a little more balanced than the other ones. Of course there are certain elements that we had to make adjustments to on a downward scale but I’m sure you’ll find that out as the game comes out and you try the different jobs. But those adjustments we made on a downward scale, just understand that the development team deliberated hard and it was not an easy choice to make some of those downward adjustments.
So it becomes clear that even the developers have to be very cautious when nerfing jobs, and do what is possible to avoid it. I would have to agree with this mindset, as most players would raise pitchforks if their favorite job suddenly wasn’t as powerful as it once was. Although, it must happen, it’s nice to know they fight to avoid it.
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