The Job system was introduced in Final Fantasy III (1990 in Japan). It allowed a character to switch class mid-way during a heated battle, be it a Knight to a Black Mage, or even a Bard. In honor of Final Fantasy III’s mark on JRPG history, let’s list down five reasons why this system kicks so much ass. Well, four-and-a-half anyway; you’ll find out why:

i) It made battles challenging puzzles.…and memorable to boot. As if dungeons like the Slyx Tower and the few instances your party is afflicted with the Mini spell for the duration of the dungeon weren’t enough, players had to deal with bosses like Garuda and Ahriman.

Garuda shows up midway in the game, catches you off-guard in a dungeon, and can only be killed efficiently if you listen to the villagers in the previous town. Ahriman spams you with gigantic non-elemental spells, with the addition of having three other tough bosses softening up the party prior to this fight. They’re so legendary that Square created weaker nerfed versions of these beasties in future games. If you are an old school JRPG fan who bitches about how easy kids have it with the genre these days, you probably played this game back then.

ii) It introduces a plethora of classes….: Before Final Fantasy III, all we had was six classes that were based off of early Dungeons & Dragons manuals. Now, Final Fantasy games are littered with oodles of classes with different sets of skills and spells. FFIII introduces Vikings, Geomancers, Scholars, Masters, Ninjas, and Sages. Of course, Square didn’t have the advantage of foresight, and as a result, the latter classes were mostly used if anyone actually wanted to finish the game. As per the first point on this list, players will need all the “HAXX” they need to even reach The Cloud of Darkness boss.

iii)…which then led to Summons: Without the introduction of both the Caller and Summoner class, we wouldn’t get to see giant monsters based off of mythical stories coming down to the battlefield and causing pyrotechnics and graphical special effects that deal big damage to whoever is in the way. Ifrit, Ramuh, Shiva, Bahamut, and Leviathan made their appearance in FFIII and subsequent appearances. Whether they’re called Espers, Summons, or Eidolons, they still do the same thing: appear on-stage and f*** enemies up.

iv) It was used in future Final Fantasies to come: The system was apparently so good, it was used in other iterations of Final Fantasy in different forms. Final Fantasy V expanded the number of classes, Final Fantasy Tactics let you take a few skills from one particular class to another class, and Final Fantasy XI let you have two at the same time (with the only downside being that you have to play the game for oodles of hours on end, as it’s an MMO).

Hell, even Final Fantasy XIII has something similar to the Job System called “Optima Change”, though it’s a tweaked and minimized version of it. It still retains its flexibility though, and is a needed centerpiece in battle if players hope to finish the game and make it out in one piece.

v) You wouldn’t have met up with Moogles: This is obviously a stretch, but how can I exclude these iconic fluffy badasses if I’m given an opportunity to talk good things about Final Fantasy III?

If you want in on the flexibility of this awesome class-switching system, look no further than the Final Fantasy III remake on the DS. The game is tough in its own right, and the Ninja and Sage classes are toned down for balance purposes, but it’s as close as you’re going to get to playing a localized Final Fantasy III (unless you count emulators in the mix). Stick around this week as there will be something on part IV and part V, I hope.