The FFXIV community is no stranger to stunts being pulled by the development team which stoke conversation from fans, from Masayoshi Soken’s performance of LaHee during the digital FanFest in 2021 to the Global Community Manager, Toshio Murouchi, cosplaying as a Loporrit to coincide with the release of the Ear Wiggle emote during the Live Letter from the Producers 73, where he gifted the audience with a live performance of said emote.
This time, however, the FFXIV community are turning detective in an attempt to decipher the meaning behind the shirt of none other than Naoki Yoshida, the man who most if not all would consider the father of Final Fantasy XIV as we know and love it. There have even been previous instances of Yoshida hinting at upcoming jobs with his attire, such as wearing a Batman shirt before the announcement of Dark Knight, or wearing a Spiderman shirt before the announcement of Samurai because the name of the director, Sam Raimi, sounded similar to Samurai. The FFXIV community is not new to reading into his choice of shirts and this time is no different.
Let’s take a closer look at the shirt
The shirt, which we’ve found available for purchase at Hot Topic, shows the four Ninja Turtles in varying action stances, underlined by the words “mutant mayhem”. It’s a strange choice of shirt at a fan convention, considering the rest of the development team were wearing event merchandise, so the mere appearance of this shirt has set the FFXIV community on fire with speculation as to its hidden meaning. Especially given his convenient reveal, directly after Yoshida insisted that he would not provide details of the two new jobs coming in 7.0.
But what does it mean?
Within the FFXIV community, there is a constant conversation about dream jobs that players wish to see added to the game and with the new information concerning 7.0 and reveals from FanFest 2023, this conversation has exploded in intensity.
With 19 jobs already available in game, 20 if you include Blue Mage, there is no shortage of variation, but as always the FFXIV community is chomping at the bit for more. With a history of taking classes from previous iterations of Final Fantasy games, the community is used to looking within its own fandom for clues and this time is certainly no different, though there are ideas from outside of the fandom that are sparking imaginations worldwide.
Knowing that we’re looking at one melee DPS and one magical DPS, let’s look into the possible job additions when taking the hints from Yoshida’s shirt into account.
Physical DPS
Whichever new physical DPS job we end up with, it’s a safe bet to assume that it will share Scouting gear with Ninja. The last physical DPS addition, Reaper, shared maiming gear with Dragoon and that left Scouting as the only gear type that only has one job to use it. With this in mind, one could assume that any new job would be similar to Ninja, but as we already have this dual-wielding class as well as Dancer, which also dual-wields, do we really need another dual-wielding physical DPS?
Beastmaster
Beastmaster is one class that doesn’t seem to be high up on anyone’s list of expectations, but we think it might be worth looking into. In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Splinter is known as the master to the Turtles and mutant could be taken as another way of saying beasts – does this mean that we may get the long awaited and highly coveted Beastmaster job? Who knows, but even if we don’t you can bet that the FFXIV community will still have it on their wishlist. There are already known Beastmasters within the game, though they are foes during battle, such as Lyon Helsos.
Beastmaster as a concept first appeared within the Final Fantasy franchise in Final Fantasy V. Able to manipulate enemies and capture a weakened foe in order to use it later in a single attack. Beastmaster also notably appeared in the previous MMORPG title, Final Fantasy XI. In XI, a Beastmasters EXP was determined by the status of their pet and they were able to call a nearby enemy and have them fight by the party’s side.
As a side note, a similar job in Final Fantasy XI was Puppetmaster, who had the ability to control and customise an automaton.
Corsair
The favourite and most common theory within the FFXIV community currently, Corsair also previously made an appearance as a playable job in Final Fantasy XI. Resembling a pirate, Corsairs equipped guns (similarly to Machinist) and their abilities centred around rolling dice for certain effects in a similar fashion to Astrologian pulling cards and assigning them to the appropriate party member. Each roll provided a buff for individuals or a party wide cast. The question remains, though, how can Corsair be a physical DPS class if its main weapon is a ranged gun?
Maybe it’s not as simple as simply copying the Corsair class from FFXVI; perhaps the concept of dice rolls and party buffs is taken from Corsair and applied to a different job altogether. Back in Final Fantasy VIII, there was a character called Selphie Tilmitt who fought with Nunchaku, something that is synonymous with TMNT. Even Cait Sith uses a dice in order to cause damage to an enemy. These jobs have the more loose name of Gambler.
Magical DPS
Historically, magical DPS classes have always featured in every Final Fantasy title and FFXIV is no different. In FFXIV, you can currently play as Summoner, Black Mage and Red Mage, at least during actual content. Blue Mage is classed as a “limited job” and therefore has its own side content to complete. With only three classes, magical DPS is the most limited role in the game so it’s overdue for there to be a fourth, unlimited job added. Let’s look into what the FFXIV community at large has come up with in terms of possibilities.
Pictomancer
As a job, Pictomancer has a long history within the Final Fantasy franchise, starting way back in Final Fantasy VI with the introduction of Relm Arrowny. Relm had the ability to sketch or paint a copy of a targeted enemy and magically summon a copy of it which would then fight alongside the party. An archetype of the illusionist class, Pictomancers are able to blur the lines between reality and the art that they create and their weapon is their paintbrush.
The reason the FFXIV community is so convinced that Pictomage is a definite possibility is that each of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is named after a classical painter; Michelangelo, Donatello, Leonardo and Raphael. It’s definitely an easy leap to make and considering how the FFXIV community has been chomping at the bit to get their hands on this class for years now, we definitely wouldn’t be surprised by its addition in 7.0.
It’s worth noting that Pictomancer was also a popular theory back in 2016 when Yoshida revealed his Spiderman shirt ahead of the release of Stormblood, which brought with it the announcement of Samurai as a playable class.
Time Mage
Within the Final Fantasy franchise, Time Mage has long since been a staple in the series since the release of Final Fantasy V. Although this class didn’t appear in Final Fantasy XI, that doesn’t put it out of the running for a release in FFXIV in our minds.
Their speciality magic, Time Magic, consists of spells that, well, control time. A Time Mage can apply debuffs to enemies including Slow and Haste, though these are already present within other classes in FFXIV (unless the developmental team perform major overhauls to current jobs, which they have done in the past, most notably the complete change to Summoner with the release of Endwalker.) They also hold the ability to control the world around them and manipulate the forces of gravity.
Historically within the franchise, Moogles have been known to possess Time Magic. This provides a link to the already established story of FFXIV, as we are very familiar with the Moogles.
How does this relate to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Well, the FFXIV community is nothing if they’re not hopeful and this correlation seems to come from the title of a TMNT game, Turtles in Time.
The FFXIV community just needs to wait and see
At the end of the day, no amount of speculation will help us determine what the new job additions in 7.0 will be. While the FFXIV community can look back within the franchise to seek hints on what may be to come, we’re also aware that a new job addition could be entirely new to the franchise, as Reaper was in 6.0. While it’s fun to play detective and research the lore and history behind these jobs, it’s also safe to say that we really shouldn’t pin our hopes on getting any specific job. Let’s wait until October 21st and see which shirt Yoshida chooses to wear, then go from there.
Find out everything else we learned from Yoshida’s keynote speech at Las Vegas FanFest ’23
