First and foremost, if you are about to scarper off to the comments to share the obvious answer to the question, please know that it is literally the first thing on here. I promise you, you are not going to spoil something I was unaware of, just as I am fully aware of both 1.0 and the stuff that was planned-but-not-implemented for the game. My character’s name is in the credits for 2.0, folks. I love you all, but I promise I do know a thing or two about Final Fantasy XIV. We good? Let’s continue.
In the vast majority of Final Fantasy games, the level cap is 99. This is not universal. The original Final Fantasy had a level cap of 50 (though rereleases have changed it to 99), Final Fantasy II does not have a strict leveling system, same with Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy XIII, and so on. But in most games, 99 is the top, and while 100 is only one more than that (because that’s how numbers work, yes), even Yoshida himself said during the fan festivals that they might need to do something special in the future. So what comes when FFXIV’s next expansion arrives with another raise of the level cap? Let’s explore some possibilities.
We reach level 110
I mean… let’s not pretend that this is not the obvious, easiest, and most likely solution. Right? This is the most straightforward and most likely outcome. We will hit level 110 and that’s that, discussion over. Yes, it’s a little bit unusual, but I’m pretty sure that it’s the most likely solution and all talk about how the developers will need to think about the next steps is just… talk. This is, factually, the most likely outcome.
I put this first but there’s really nothing more to talk about it beyond acknowledging that it is the most likely outcome. So before we go any further, it’s worth noting that this is probably what’s going to happen.
Job Points
It was considered a big deal when Final Fantasy XI finally raised its level cap from level 75 to level 99, but it became kinda clear after a while that the increased cap sort of needed something more for players to do. The cap staying at 75 had allowed for an alternate leveling system to exist for a while with merit points, but even that had its limits as a system. Thus, the Seekers of Adoulin expansion introduced the Job Point system, which allows you to earn points you spend on enhancements for your job abilities. Spending larger totals earns you Gifts at certain intervals, and once you’ve bought all the available enhancements, you get a flag for mastering the job.
Now, for a new expansion I imagine the system would be different than the one established for FFXI; that was very much built from the ground up to be a long-term grind. But it is also something that could work while also preventing a whole system of always adding new abilities (and this expansion shows that there’s clearly a sense of diminishing returns). Letting us enhance abilities within our existing toolsets would allow for a sense of control over the unlock order, and it might ultimately round to being a good enough system of leveling.
No, I’m not sure how this would work for new jobs. Would they always start at level 90? Would the number of available points just increase in the future? I’m not sure.
Subjobs
This is a system that FFXI used, but I’m honestly talking about something entirely different. This expansion in particular has really leaned in on the idea that our role actions are really a crucial part of our core ability set, just ones where it isn’t necessarily practical to make a job-specific version of Rampart or Swiftcast every single time. So I could definitely see a future wherein the next 10 levels are confined to a specific subjob for each role, or possibly even a choice between a couple of subjobs depending on which sort of abilities you wish to focus on.
Note that “choice” here would probably come down to something more like ranged options or melee options for melee DPS, not “more DPS or more support,” since generally speaking we’ve learned that when the choice is “more DPS or something else” the game’s design biases toward more DPS in nearly every scenario.
The up side to this would be creating some mix-and-match options for players and possibly offering some novel things that otherwise wouldn’t be possible, like offhand pistols (hey, last week’s article comes up again!) or adding in some magical flavor to otherwise not-really-magical jobs. The down side would be a combination of potential balance nightmares and just the general chaos of adding in several new jobs into the mix, even if they are only supporting jobs. While doing this and saying, “We technically added ten new jobs to the game” would not be inaccurate, it also would not really delight players who want new full jobs. (And this includes me.)
There’s also the fact that as it stands, part of why the bespoke rotations of each job work as well as they do is because they are very specifically limited to predicted and understood abilities. Adding in a bunch of new would-be role actions disrupts the way that rotations currently flow into one another and interact. That might not be a big deal at all, but it’s worth considering.
Narrative gating
This one definitely sounds the strangest, but I think it’s almost the most plausible because on a basic level, FFXIV doesn’t really need levels any more.
Leveling for your first job is really handled easily enough just through doing the MSQ and the dungeons associated with it, maybe with a dash of aethercurrent questing and role quests. That’s enough. That’s all you need to do. Leveling up your additional jobs does require some extra effort and daily roulettes, but on the most basic levels, that’s kind of a degree of busywork. It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if your level is removed altogether and just replaced with pure narrative progression; instead of having to grind up every job to level 100, you hit level 100 and then you have only narrative to be concerned with.
Of course, this would also massively alter a huge number of systems that exist within the game, like sidequests. But a lot of people engage in daily society quests that are meant for leveling just to raise reputations. Would placing softer progression gates change the game? Undeniably. But I don’t think it would necessarily change the game to be unrecognizable. I think it would just require a different focus and a different set of design principles, things that I think the game can definitely embrace if it wants to.
Do I think that it’s what we’re going to get? No. I think we’re going to get a level cap increase to 110. But it’s still fun to speculate a little bit on what could be possible.
Feedback, as always, is welcome in the comments down below or via mail to eliot@massivelyop.com. Next week, I want to talk about something that came up last week obliquely in the comments but which I think is worth considering: How little 1.0 matters at this point except when we get reminded about it.
The Nymian civilization hosted an immense amount of knowledge and learning, but so much of it has been lost to the people of Eorzea. That doesn’t stop Eliot Lefebvre from scrutinizing Final Fantasy XIV each week in Wisdom of Nym, hosting guides, discussion, and opinions without so much as a trace of rancor.
