The job system has become an iconic part of the Final Fantasy formula over the years, having evolved from the handful of jobs in the original to the dozens available in MMOs like Final Fantasy 14. Now, with Team Ninja taking the reins on Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin, the studio is making a point to both capitalize on and pay reverence to the jobs 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 of Stranger 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 of Final Fantasy's job system does extend all the way back to the original game, which is where Stranger of Paradise appears 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 like Final 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 resemble Dungeons and Dragons and other tabletop RPGs that had grown popular at the time Final Fantasy was 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 from Final Fantasy 14, with new jobs like the Reaper, as well as taking the Dark Knight from being a one-off story element in Final Fantasy 4 to 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 in Final Fantasy 9, or the Engineer Prompto in Final Fantasy 15. So, with Stranger of Paradise looking 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

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When players got their first taste of the Stranger of Paradise trial 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 fighting Stranger 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

Final Fantasy Origin Final Fantasy 14 job system comparison

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 the addition of jobs to Stranger of Paradise like 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 the job system from Final Fantasy to 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 of Stranger of Paradise as 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

Heavensward Dark Knight - Final Fantasy 14 Expansions Ranked

While the exact number of jobs or their names was not revealed, there are plenty of moments from Final 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 enhance Stranger of Paradise's instant abilities into 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 from Final 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 like Final Fantasy Tactics and Crystal Chronicles that might make for great additions into Stranger of Paradise.

Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin is set to release in 2022 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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