Final Fantasy XI's free trial loses the 14-day limit and climbs to level 75

Square Enix is lifting the 14-day limit on the Final Fantasy XI free trial and raising its level cap from 50 to 75. Director Yoji Fujito said on the latest development stream that he hopes to ship it as early as September: the cap first, with the monthly update, and the time limit removal after that, during the end-of-month maintenance.

The trial account stops being a demo on a timer and becomes a trimmed-down version of the game you can play indefinitely. The trimming happens on the map: base game zones only, without the expansions that piled two decades of content onto Vana'diel.

Everything else stays put, and there is plenty of it: a 100,000 gil cap, no trading, bazaar or auction house, no world transfers, no tells, shouts or yells, and no mentor status. You can wander Vana'diel as long as you like; the social half of the MMO stays behind the subscription.

Fujito explained the two changes separately: the level 50 cap felt short for what the base game offers, and two weeks felt tight for the pace people actually play at. Square Enix gave no exact date for either half, only September as a window.