Is it too much?

I mentioned in my last post I was going to talk about the recent news concerning "Final Fantasy XI". I figure now would be the perfect time while I install all 3 discs worth of "Final Fantasy XIII" on my Xbox 360. Recently at VanaFest, which is "Final Fantasy XI" convention held in Tokyo, they announced some huge and truly game-breaking changes to "FFXI". For years, the level cap for a character on an particular job was 75. Now this wasn't always the case. It used to be 50, then got moved to 60, and eventually got moved up to 75, where it stayed.....until VanaFest a few weeks ago. They dropped an absolute bombshell stating that over the course of the next set of game updates, they were raising the level cap for jobs up to an astounding 99. The nostalgic gamer in me loves this boost in the level cap, especially since every single "Final Fantasy" game had characters you could level up to 99, with "FFXI" being the lone exception.

However, nostalgia only gets you so far, and nostalgia won't be as gamebreaking as a BLM99/RDM49. That isn't the only job that would be ridiculous though, just the first one that comes to mind. To their credit, Square Enix has said that jobs and abilities will be adjusted so that jobs won't be overpowered, but it remains to be seen what this will do to the overall balance of the game. Are they going to make certain spells and abilities main job specific? Are they going to raise the level of certain spells and abilities so they still can't be used when you are using these jobs as subjobs? Not only that, but will they adjust the current gear, or introduce a whole lot of new gear reflective of the higher level cap. While everything up to this point is anything but speculation, it will be interesting to see how the landscape of Vana'Diel changes going forward, which brings me to the title of this post. Is this increase in the level cap going to bring more interest to the game, a game that has been out for over 7 years, or is going to overwhelm players and drive them out of "FFXI", especially with "FFXIV" on the horizon.

It definitely remains to be seen how this really shocking announcement shakes up the "FFXI" landscape, and I do give kudos to Square-Enix for trying to infuse this game with some much needed new life. One thing I am curious is how long Square-Enix has been thinking about doing this. My guess is they have been considering this for a few years now, but I really don't know if they have thought about all the possibilities of what this change will mean to the players. Granted, I doubt they have thought of everything, and how could they, but knowing "FFXI" like I do, something will come up that Square-Enix was prepared for that could possibly have a huge effect on the game. Having played this game for almost 5 years, I will always have a special place in my gaming life for "FFXI", and I really hope this isn't a case of Square-Enix changing the game too much and in the end, killing it in the process.

Well, my "FFXIII" installation is finished so I am going to go have some long awaited "Final Fantasy" goodness. The nice thing about that is I'm pretty sure the level cap will already be set at 99.