FFXIV Sage Job Icon Being Changed Due to Trypophobia

The Sage job icon will look a little different in Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker than initially expected. Director and Producer Naoki Yoshida took to The Lodestone to announce that the development team is changing the design after people with trypophobia expressed concerns over it. As a result, he revealed the new Sage job icon for FFXIV.

The issue was with the nouliths, the weapons the Sage will use to fight in Endwalker. Originally, each one in the icon had a hole in its center, to represent how the equipment would look. As Yoshida noted, people responded that the image “made them uncomfortable or fearful.” This is because trypophobia causes discomfort when looking at images with clusters of holes. (For example, like a lotus pod.) Since the FFXIV Sage job icon would end up appearing prominently, the team decided to slightly change it.

Here is Yoshida’s explanation of what changed, as well as a look at the new FFXIV Sage job class icon.

The design concept is unchanged, with the icon being based on the four nouliths which form the sage’s armament. The holes in the original design were added for detail, but they ended up appearing as a cluster. To address the problem, the new icon reduces the holes while accentuating the design concept. Now, comparisons will inevitably be made, and some of you may prefer the original. But we believe that designs like this are things that grow on you as you play the job, and ask for your understanding as we head into Endwalker.

Final Fantasy XIV is available for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC. The Endwalker expansion will launch on November 23, 2024.