Rigid class structure vs jack-of-all-trades in RPGs. What's your take?

In general, there are two kinds of RPGs, and JRPGs.

1. Games that adhere to rigid class structure, such as Diablo games, and Dragon Age games. In them you really roleplay a certain class, be it a wizard, warrior, or stealth based hero. And are restricted to skill sets of that said class.

2. And then there are games that let you do anything you want from magic to swordplay to stealth. Such as Skyrim, where you can throw spells around while waving sword with other hand, while you sneak in heavy armour.

Which sort of (J)RPG do you prefer when it comes to this?

Do you prefer the Skyrim/Fallout/Amalur approach of jack-of-all-trades? Or would you rather play a rigid class with all the restrictions it entails?

Personally I prefer rigid classes. It gives game a tremendous replay value when you can play it thru with completely different character classes. Also, rigid classes give meaning to a party of heroes, as every member of the party has his or her own skills and duties in battle.

I generally prefer rigid classes, but having options within that is better.

I like how in WoW you can further tailor the class to a certain specialization, and choose professions that add more layers to what your character can do. Or in some Final Fantasy games where you can train in different job classes, and equip a sub-class of some sort.

Souls games are kinda funny in this. You have to start with a class, but then you can buy any character spells and miracles and suchlike, so you end up with a game that does not have classes at all.

I like classes to be classes, makes no sense to offer them if they mean little.

Then again, I can't decide on anything, so like being able to mix it up, where you just pick a main, and can still do other things.

In Skyrim and Dark Souls when I made a wiz/sorcerer, that is just the class I did, but spent half the game with a bow/spear.

Rigid

I especially love games where race affects your role as much as class. WoW is surely such game. Your chosen race has just as much effect on your game as your chosen class.

In skyrim, race only affected your look, not the game. I played thru Skyrim with lizardman too, and it really did not differ from earlier plays with human/elf characters. Shame.

This also. I would actually like it if classes and races offered even more passives and abilities and such to your character.

I think the more 'RPG' in an RPG, the better. It really allows for more choice and customization on the part of the player.

Usually a really well-done game has a deep double-edged-sword system in place where, sure, you could even be a battlemage proficient in magic and weaponry, but there will be weaknesses to something else that start to form. Or your spells and weapons might not be as high-tier as some of the more focused classes. Things like that.

Rigid with moderate freedom like hybrid classes. For example, in Mass Effect you could play as a Vanguard combining the Soldier and Biotic classes.

Traditional WRPGs have both bonuses and weaknesses to races. Dwarfs would be more resistant to everything, but have -2 to charisma and so on.

This can lead to racism, tho. -2 to charisma on every dwarf is basically saying all dwarfs are ugly. +2 to thief skills on halflings is basically saying all halflings are thieves. People might object.

I hate WRPG style RPG like Fallout and Elder Scroll.

I prefer JRPG in general when I play a RPG.

Final Fantasy did do the specific class and the whatever you want.

But still even in the whatever you want they still gave the caracter a specific hability so you may prefer this or that. Which was the case for Final Fantasy 7. Specific class was more like in Final Fantasy 9 ... and 10 was a hybrid since for like 90% of the game you have specific class and then you can branch out and get the habilities of every caracters.

Haven't given it too much thought but most likely rigid.

Rigid forces you to adapt to a situation, which is good, as it forces you to plan ahead. Did you know that is also why Halo introduced the 2 weapons limit instead of letting you carry all weapons at all times?

I don't hate the WRPG style but I agree with the rest of this post. I prefer the JRPG style where every character is already who they are because it falls in line with the story and makes more sense. You still get choices of what abilities to choose when you're leveling so you still somewhat have freedom and choices too anyway

I think it was smart move, to limit weapons. But I always wondered how you could find Alliance weapon stashes in places where humans have never been...

Proper Fallout isn't the same and very different from Bethsturdia's "any character can go anywhere and do anything they want.... at any time" philosophy though.