Final Fantasy XIV continues to innovate with its ever-expanding world, introducing a fresh melee DPS class, the Viper.
Square Enix unveiled the Viper during the recent Final Fantasy Fan Festival held in London. This new class is set to debut in the highly anticipated Dawntrail expansion, which arrives next year, and it promises to offer players a dynamic and unique gaming experience.
In a departure from some of the more traditional jobs featured in earlier releases, the Viper is a brand-new concept for Final Fantasy XIV specifically. Director and producer, Naoki Yoshida, also known to fans as Yoshi-P, stepped on stage in a Viper-inspired cosplay, showcasing his commitment to the unveiling. The ever-vocal developer expressed that the Viper was conceived to cater to players yearning for another dual-wielding job option post their experience with the Ninja. These two jobs will share dexterity melee gear, and while the Ninja is rooted in Final Fantasy lore, the Viper stands as a signature "Final Fantasy XIV original".
The core of Viper's gameplay revolves around its ability to dual-wield swords. But what sets this incoming class apart is the transformative nature of these blades. In a rapid maneuver reminiscent of Bloodborne, the Viper can merge these two swords into a single, more formidable two-handed weapon. The gameplay trailers showcase the Viper's agility as it unleashes swift assaults with its dual blades, keeping adversaries on their toes. When the two blades are united into a staff-like weapon, the character adopts a more deliberate stance, magnifying their damage output through a sequence of more powerful, measured strikes. Fans with a penchant for the Final Fantasy series might find parallels between this mechanism and the twin daggers and staffs used by Zidane in Final Fantasy 9.
