In a recent interview with Famitsu, FFXIV Producer Naoki Yoshida (or Yoshi-P) talked about the process of creating the newly revealed Pictomancer job for the Dawntrail expansion. The developer also explained the decision to make Krile a Pictomancer. [Thanks, Famitsu!]
When creating a new job, Yoshi-P said that the Final Fantasy XIV team thinks about the role first, not the job itself. He added that DPS is by far the most popular role, so when creating jobs for a new expansion, the team cannot exclude them. Since tank and healer jobs were the last to be added, they decided to add two DPS jobs for Dawntrail, as this would not disrupt the game’s balance.
The team did not decide on Pictomancer from the beginning, but it was high among the options they were pondering. The developers considered the idea of a job that would replace performing attacks with the action of “drawing.” Eventually, they thought that Pictomancer would be the most fun and interesting job.
When asked if the team decided to make the character Krile Mayer Baldesion a Pictomancer due to her resemblance to Relm from Final Fantasy VI, Yoshi-P stated that this was not the case. However, he said that if people think that the team had planned to make Krile and Relm look similar from the beginning, that is proof that the FFXIV developers were able to work well as a team.
The reason behind Krile becoming a Pictomancer in FFXIV Dawntrail is related to her feelings during the Endwalker expansion. Yoshi-P said that when considering how she felt during 6.0, he knew that she would have wanted to be on the front lines with the rest of the Scions and the Warrior of Light. Yoshida had always wanted to represent these feelings in-game with a job change, but due to her role in the plot of Endwalker, the producer knew this would not have been possible until 7.0.
Final Fantasy XIV is available on PS4, PS5, and PC. The game will launch on Xbox Series X in Spring 2024. The Dawntrail expansion will be released for PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC in Summer 2024.
