Lately, I’ve been putting some real thought into the selection of starting jobs in Final Fantasy XIV, what cities they’re connected to, and what the flavor of those cities is. In particular, I think, were I able to do so, I’d make a few changes.

For those who haven’t played Final Fantasy XIV – here are the starting cities and their general flavors.

• Limsa Lominsa: Pirates, with a side of “legitimate privateers with official sanction” vs. “renegade pirates who prey on the innocent, and smuggle nasty shit (and may also work with slavers)”
• Ul’dah: Desert City run by rich merchants with heavy class stratification.
• Gridania: Forest city with a heavy focus on living in harmony with nature, with various outlaws around the city.

Or, if I was going to describe them in terms of sub-genres of fantasy and adventure literature…

• Limsa Lominsa: Swashbuckling Adventure
• Ul’dah: Swords & Sorcery (particularly Lankhmar, and the Conan the Thief stories)
• Gridania: Romantic Fantasy (not Romantasy) like Mercedes Lackey.

This part is fine – no complaints, no notes. However, it runs into problems once it comes to the job selection per city, and what those jobs become:

• Limsa Lominsa
  • Marauder (becomes Warrior)
  • Thief (becomes Ninja)
  • Arcanist (becomes Summoner and Scholar)
• Ul’dah
  • Gladiator (becomes Paladin)
  • Pugilist (becomes Monk)
  • Thaumaturge (becomes Black Mage)
• Gridania
  • Lancer (becomes Dragoon)
  • Archer (becomes Bard)
  • Conjurer (becomes White Mage)

The problem is like this: the Paladin and their flavor doesn’t quite fit with the narrative tone of Ul’dah for me. What Ul’dah needs is, well, thieves. Thieves are a fixture of that particular flavor of Swords & Sorcery story. Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser, in addition to all their other skills, were thieves. Conan’s urban stories were about him as a thief, and sometimes a gladiator, but not really as an honorable knight. The Gladiator does fit, though. While you’d think “Thief” as a concept would work with a town full of pirates, the problem is that “Thief” in Limsa narratively serves as a secret police. This both doesn’t fit with the flavor of Limsa, and hits the ACAB squick (especially with Secret Police now – though that’s not YoshiP’s fault in this case).

So, I think the changes I’d make would go something like this. Swap Marauder/Warrior moves to Ul’dah – Marauder takes on the Gladiator name and flavor, and continues to Warrior at higher levels. “Marauder” becomes “Ranger” and shifts to “Paladin” at higher levels – taking on the swordsman flavor of a Strider (or Faramir) style Ranger instead of a sneaky bow-wielding Robin Hood type, and moves to Gridania. The Paladin flavor becomes a Parn-esque Free Knight.

Moving on to the DPS classes, Archer moves to Limsa Lominsa, and the flavor becomes that of a ranged combatant in sea battles. Pugilist moves to Gridania, and fits with some of the classic martial arts films and anime images of the Monk, with the Pugilist also fitting in to the aspiring martial artist sent on various grueling tasks by the master until being formally inducted into the ways of martial arts. (This also sets up scenarios with, say, meditating under a waterfall because now you’re somewhere that has waterfalls to meditate under). The Thief Job goes to Ul’dah, with a narrative explicitly built around the city’s class stratification, with the Thief in opposition to the various members of The Syndicate.

Moving the Thief to Ul’dah also has the advantage of, at higher levels, being the place where the player meets Yugiri, so the Ninja class quests could, in theory, have her more involved in the plot, until she becomes more actively involved in the main story quest as of Stormblood. While Limsa has a seaport to Doma, there’s the ferry between Limsa and Vesper Bay, which is also not far from Ul’dah, so that, plus an Ala Mighan resistance group in Thanalan, and the Samurai Questgiver starting in Ul’dah, makes that fit.

Is it perfect? No. I’d prefer if all 3 cities had a Tank job – and a Healer job as they all have a DPS Caster job and a DPS Melee job. However, with the limitations of what’s available in the base game, I’ll take what I can get.

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