One of the great pleasures of an RPG is how your party grows as you play; you start with a motley crew of strangers, but by the end of the game, you've seen them develop into friends and companions. This emotional arc is created through exploration, story progression, and battling — often through a great job system.
In RPGs, jobs are essentially character classes that you can choose from, letting you build out your party's abilities by selecting new moves as you level up. A great job system is flexible and fun, rewarding your creativity with ultra-powerful movesets. And these games have some of the best job systems of them all.
Updated on August 06, 2024, by Jon Eakin: It's a great time to be a JRPG fan, especially if you're a fan of Job systems. We've updated this list with new features and entries to better highlight this much-loved mechanic.
16 Final Fantasy 14
Dozens Of Options
One of the most successful MMO's in history, Final Fantasy 14 proudly draws on the history of the entire series to present you with an almost overwhelming number of Job and Class options. Gunbreaker, Black Mage, Summoner, and more fill out this impressive catalogue.
Once a Job or Class is unlocked, you can switch to it anytime by equipping the weapon associated with it, meaning you can freely change as you go. There are also crafting and gathering options, like Fishing, and even three different job paths for your chocobo.
15 Dragon's Dogma
Jobs Done Your Way
Capcom's undersung Dragon's Dogma is an excellent example of what crafty developers can do by combining action-RPG gameplay with a flexible job system. The game offers nine different Vocations, allowing you to choose between three basic ones at the start, slowly expanding your options.
You can grind one Vocation up to its advanced form, which offers expanded offensive options, or you can choose a hybrid Vocation that lets you combine two skill sets into one. You can swap between them at any time, and your AI-controlled assistants, called Pawns, can also use different Vocations. This system lets you change your setup for different situations, encouraging experimentation and creativity.
14 Golden Sun
It's Pronounced Djinn
Golden Sun is one of the best portable RPGs, and its delightful iteration of a job system is one huge reason why it's still so beloved today. The game uses elemental spirits called Djinn, which you can find scattered throughout the game's world.
Djinn are innately tied to character classes; if you equip enough Djinn of a particular element onto a certain character, they'll instantly change their class. Moreover, you can swap Djinn in and out during battles, letting you change your character classes in the middle of a tough fight. The Djinn create a game full of opportunities for unique strategies.
13 Crystal Project
Perfectly Unique
Crystal Project is an indie-developed open world JRPG where you choose how your adventure unfolds. Exploring the world for crystals unlocks new classes and abilities, and there are over 20 classes to unlock and customize.
Although Crystal Project may lack in plot and story, it more than makes up for it with its excellent exploration mechanics and self-guided play. Part Metroidvania, part JRPG, part platformer; Crystal Project takes the best aspects of each of these genres and rolls them into one unique and unforgettable game.
12 Yakuza: Like A Dragon
A Bold New Direction
Yakuza: Like A Dragon's punny title immediately indicates what it's all about. "Like a dragon," you know, like Dragon Quest? And like the series that inspired this turn-based take on the relatively realistic Yakuza universe, Like A Dragon has an excellent job system to go along with its turn-based combat.
Like A Dragon's system works fairly traditionally: each character is given a selection of classes that level up the more you use them. Each level will unlock new skills, but while most class skills don't carry over, you'll occasionally unlock special Character Skills that remain persistent even when you change classes. This creates a fun system that you can totally exploit if you make the right choices.
11 Blue Dragon
An Underrated Classic
Blue Dragon wears its traditionalist influences on its sleeve — which makes sense since the game was directed by Final Fantasy mastermind Hironobu Sakaguchi. This extends to its job system, similar to Like A Dragon's, in that jobs level up separately from your character.
But as the game progresses, you'll unlock new jobs for each of your characters automatically as you level up; you'll receive a new job to choose from every ten levels. Each job has unique skills, but a new job will also come with empty slots that you can fill with any unlocked skill from any other job. This gives Blue Dragon's system a lot of flexibility, allowing you to build bespoke classes as you go.
10 Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth
Ichiban Dusts Off His Resume
Many were skeptical at the announcement Like A Dragon would be shifting from being an action brawler to a turn-based RPG, but the success of a second game in that vein proves that it was an inspired choice. Infinite Wealth establishes itself as a heavy hitter in the genre, with exciting new jobs in tow.
With options inspired by American culture and the setting of Hawaii, new Jobs like Geodancer and Aquanuaut help keep things fresh. A new skill system also allows for skills to be carried from one job to another, opening up your options.
9 Fantasy Life
Always Something New
Fantasy Life is an action RPG for the 3DS that places you in the world of Riveria, where you can do pretty much anything you want to. After making your character and choosing between one of twelve different jobs; from Mercenary to Carpenter, you can explore the world and level up each of your jobs, changing whenever you feel like it.
Fantasy Life also has an incredibly charming story with memorable characters and tons of content to explore. Each job has its own story quests as well, and they all play differently from each other so switching to a new one is always a fresh experience.
8 Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark
Inspired By The Greats
Reviving classic RPG tropes isn't just for big-name developers like Sakaguchi. In recent years, indie developers have gotten in on the trend, resulting in excellent games that nod to the past while building on classic mechanics. Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark is one of the best examples.
It's heavily inspired by a certain tactical RPG that you'll see further down this list, and like its predecessors, Fell Seal boasts an excellent job system. The game lets you choose between twenty basic classes available to all characters, and particular characters will have their own unique classes to add to the list. You can also set sub-classes to expand your characters' abilities and movesets, giving you plenty of incentive to replay the game and try out new builds.
7 Dragon Quest 7
Spoiled For Choice
Dragon Quest 3 introduced a job system to the iconic RPG franchise, and every following game in the series has iterated on the concept. But for many players, Dragon Quest 7's take on the system represents the series at its peak.
As in earlier games in the series, any character in Dragon Quest 7 can learn any job, letting you build your characters however you want. But this game has more jobs to choose from than any other game in the series, thanks to the advanced classes that unlock when you max out a lower-level job; furthermore, you can unlock special monster jobs that let you learn abilities from enemies throughout the game. There's a ton of flexibility here.
6 Final Fantasy X-2
Y-R-P, In Position
Sure, mainline Final Fantasy games are plenty experimental, but the spinoffs and sequels are where the series really gets wild. For evidence, look no further than Final Fantasy X-2.
Final Fantasy X-2's Dressphere serves as the job system for this underappreciated sequel, combining character jobs and equipment into a single sleek mechanic. Each character has a Garment Grid that allows you to equip and re-equip Dresspheres, changing their skills and weapon loadout; moreover, you can switch your Dresspheres in the middle of battle, letting you change your strategy on the fly. It's a cool system that encourages experimentation.
5 Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Teacher Knows Best
In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, you play as a professor at Garreg Mach Monastery, teaching one of three houses of students in the ways of war. Outside of combat training, you can perform various daily life activities like eating a meal, tending the garden, or fishing.
Each of your students in Three Houses can be upgraded into several different classes, allowing you to customize your party for a variety of situations. Each class has different skills, adding to the strategic gameplay that Fire Emblem is famous for.
4 Final Fantasy 5
Freelancer To Full Time Job
But if you're looking for an excellent job system in a mainline Final Fantasy game, then Final Fantasy 5 is a great option. Though FF3 introduced jobs to the series, FF5 is where the system became a series mainstay.
Every character in FF5 starts as a Freelancer, a job with relatively balanced stats. You'll unlock new jobs throughout the game, each with different strengths and weaknesses compared to the base Freelancer job. Progression through the job system isn't a straight line, and your starting job may remain useful. Moreover, each job comes with unique abilities that, once unlocked, can carry over through job changes. This means you can build your own jobs as you go, making your party feel truly unique.
3 Bravely Second: End Layer
Not To Be Confused With Bravely Default 2
Though the Bravely Default series isn't technically related to Final Fantasy, these retro-themed RPGs draw obvious inspiration from old-school FF games like FF5, from their visual design to the deep job systems. And Bravely Second: End Layer, a direct sequel to the 3DS original, takes that basic formula and expands it to new heights.
Similarly to FF5, your characters in Bravely Second begin as Freelancers with balanced stats. You'll unlock new jobs by defeating specific bosses in the main story or in side quests, with a total of 30 jobs to find; as you unlock new job abilities, you'll be able to equip them across classes. This is all pretty basic stuff, but between the huge number of different jobs and the incredibly powerful abilities you can unlock, Bravely Second's job system is one of the most flexible and fun of any RPG.
2 Octopath Traveler 2
More Than Eight, Actually
Octopath Traveler 2 is a JRPG and a sequel to the original game, featuring a new cast of eight travelers. The Octopath Traveler 2 is defined by the ability to freely explore its world, experiencing whichever character's story you want. The sequel makes several improvements over the original, like introducing cross-path stories that feature the intertwining stories of its characters, and more robust party customization options.
There are eight default jobs in Octopath Traveler 2, and four secret jobs that can be unlocked throughout the course of the game. Plus, with the subclassing system, you can mix and match jobs together to make the ultimate team to conquer any challenges that await.
1 Final Fantasy Tactics
Yet To Be Surpassed
Final Fantasy Tactics is one of the best games in the series — and depending on who you're talking to, it might just be the peak of the whole franchise. Its complex job system is one of the big reasons why.
Unlike other FF games, which let you freely choose jobs, Tactics features a progressive job system; you'll spend Job Points on different abilities as you level up, slowly expanding your moveset. Furthermore, as you level up your jobs, you'll unlock new jobs that you can move to, opening up new pathways. The job system grows with you as you play, meaning that when you have super-powerful characters at the end of the game, you feel like you've earned them.
