As soon as the MSQ is completed and dusted in Closing Fantasy XIV, and all your Jobs are at most stage, it’s time to expertise the MMO’s true endgame — glamour. The significance of piecing collectively new glam and expressing your character via in-game appearances is a sentiment a big portion of the neighborhood holds expensive, myself included. Nevertheless, as beloved as that system is, Job-locked gear can typically throw a spanner within the works.

Right here’s the factor: I’m not throwing shade on the FFXIV growth crew; I get it’s inconceivable to accommodate all of our asks. They do a unbelievable job of balancing fan expectations with what’s feasibly potential. Like most folk, I’ve received an extended checklist of needs with regards to new outfits, hairstyles, weapons, and so on. and so on. However the Glamour system itself — like how the factor truly works — wants some assist. After all I all the time need extra choices, however managing what I’ve now could be already a large number.

There are 22 battle Jobs (together with the restricted Job Blue Mage), three gathering courses, and eight crafting courses in FFXIV. That’s a complete of 33 Jobs which, in a super world, would all be capable to have their very own particular glamours to distinguish them each step of the best way. It’s a design philosophy principally upheld by Sq. Enix, giving gamers distinctive objects of some trend to each Job, akin to Artifact Gear for battle courses.

There may be, nevertheless, one evident drawback right here — we solely have 20 Glamour Plates. 

Look, 20 could sound like so much, however it’s not even sufficient for every battle Job to have its personal Plate, not to mention making an attempt to throw crafters and gatherers into the combo. For this reason, for essentially the most half, gamers may have a shared glamour for all Jobs of the identical position – one for healers, one for tanks, one for all crafters, and so forth. 

Again in 2019, previous to the discharge of Shadowbringers, producer and director Naoki Yoshida sat down with Kotaku and was requested if Job-locking gear would ever turn out to be a factor of the previous. Finally, Yoshida doesn’t appear too keen on sharing mismatched weapons between Jobs, and it’s a degree he’s principally stood by in interviews and streams since. Whereas I utterly perceive the purpose he was making an attempt to make in his reply, I’ve to confess that the rationale grows flimsy when prolonged to clothes choices.

I don’t suppose the playerbase needs weapons to be glamourable outdoors of their Job or Class, both. I do know I can tank a mob of Goblins in a bikini, however that’s inappropriate. No person needs to see a Darkish Knight wielding a Sage’s Nouliths, or a Botanist bonking a tree with a Gunblade. That’s not the difficulty. The true ache comes when singular items locked to a Job or Class, as an alternative of opting to a minimum of go by Position. Take, as an illustration, the extent 100 Blacksmith chest piece. 

That is merely a chest wrap, which admittedly does swimsuit the Blacksmith aesthetic, however it might additionally different crafters, like possibly your Armorer. Issue this in with a restrict of 20 Glamour Plates, and also you’ve received some powerful decisions to make about your FFXIV closet. Gamers simply can’t afford to surrender a valuable Glamour Plate for a singular crafting class, and it’s against the law we’ve received to half with among the sport’s unimaginable seems to be based mostly on Job exclusivity.

I perceive what Yoshida was getting at when he spoke about preserving the aesthetic of every Job, however that concept considerably goes out of the window when now we have stage 1 glamour units of all types that may be utilized to any position. There are Paladins in swimsuits, Astrologians operating round in a full chipmunk costume, and Gatherers within the absolutely armored Metian set. Gamers will all the time have their very own aesthetic they try for, and these stage 1 glamour items enable for that to an extent. 

I’m not saying that all gear units ought to be faraway from this Job-locked nightmare. I’ll concede that Artifact Gear ought to stay as it’s, with every Job getting their very own outfit when a sure stage is reached. It provides gamers one thing of a purpose when leveling related Jobs, particularly when mentioned armor units are as good as these launched in Dawntrail. 

Making an attempt to protect a Job’s common design and in-universe objective is all superb and dandy. I do know that Summoners have all the time had their ‘dong’ (the horn that sits proudly on their brow), whereas Black Mages have all the time gone for the extra goth aspect of trend. White Mages have, invariably, obtained white and crimson robes, whereas Dragoons all the time appear like strolling thorn bushes.

However what of those that already don’t observe that half-implemented gown code or just don’t need to? You can argue that they’ve loads of glamour objects obtainable to them already, and you’ll be appropriate, however that doesn’t remedy the difficulty of cupboard space and Glamour Plates obtainable. That is very true early into a brand new growth when all Jobs require leveling, and juggling glamours with a always overflowing Armoury Chest turns into little greater than a headache.