These days, video games love to add RPG elements. It's a great way to give players a sense of growth while playing the game. The best way to tell how they've grown all they can is the level cap. which is when they've acquired all the skills and XP they can for an adventure.
Some games meticulously balance the level cap, closely keeping players from growing stronger than the most dangerous enemies. Japanese RPGs often set the level cap at a standard 99 and call it a day. But some games let characters grow to a ridiculous extent, allowing them to steamroll their enemies.
10 Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot's Level Cap Is Placed At 250 For Endgame Bosses
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot's a fantastic way to experience the original Dragon Ball Z storyline, even if it isn't a great RPG. Most of the RPG aspects simply offer an illusion of choice. It's extremely difficult to power-level through most of the stories, with new moves often being given just before a major fight.
However, grinding is still possible, and there are some surprise boss fights for people who go looking for them. As difficult as those end-game bosses are though, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot lets players level up to 250 to hand out the kind of one-sided beatdown that normally Vegeta has to take.
9 Skyrim's Multiple Patches Put The Level Cap At 255
Skyrim's leveling system works a bit differently than most games, with players leveling up their skills through usage over time. When the game launched, the level cap was 81, which meant every skill maxed out at 100. However, a later patch allowed Skyrim fans to remove that level cap by allowing skills to become "Legendary," where players could reset every skill and level them up again.
By making every skill Legendary, players can effectively level up to 255. No opponents in the game are anywhere near this level, but this does give players a reason to keep wandering around their favorite game a little longer.
8 Final Fantasy XV Raised Its Final Level Cap To 120
Final Fantasy XV had a lot of problems that Square-Enix had to improve on, but it became a better game through DLC. Like with most JRPGs, its normal level cap is level 99. Most players will never actually need to go that high to beat most of the enemies in the game.
Even the final boss can be defeated with around half that much strength, leaving only the super bosses as proper challenges to players. However, one of the game's patches raised the maximum level to 120. These additional 30 levels raise the protagonist and their crew to the same level as some of the strongest super bosses in the game, so grind-focused fans have something to work for.
7 Fairy Fencer F Adds DLC That Changes The Level Cap To 999
Developer Compile Heart isn't exactly known for stellar RPGs, but Fairy Fencer F can at least be known for having one of the highest-level caps in video games. The main game has the traditional JRPG level cap of 99, and players likely won't ever need to reach that to beat the game.
But there's a DLC available that players can pay for to engage in some of the bonus content that raises the level cap to an astounding 999. Of course, there are also additional difficulty levels to provide at least some challenge for players who just want to keep leveling, too.
6 Hyrule Warriors Changed Its Level Cap To Stop At 255
Koei-Tecmo's Musou genre has experienced a renaissance working with Nintendo franchises like Zelda and Fire Emblem. They've expanded the lore of their universes and experimented with RPG mechanics to freshen the genre up. With Hyrule Warriors, the characters are able to level up to 99 at the beginning, though most enemies won't require enough grinding to make that worth it.
As Koei-Tecmo introduced more content and characters though, they continued updating the level cap of the game. Each time they raised the cap by 50 levels before finally getting up to a whopping 255. Almost zero enemies will pose a challenge at that point, but that's part of the fun of a Musou game.
5 Trails Of Cold Steel 2 Has A Level Cap Of 200
One of the best things about Falcom's Trails of Cold Steel RPGs is they don't pretend like the previous game's development didn't happen. In most sequels, the next game will knock the protagonist down to level 1 and come up with excuses for why they don't have all their cool stuff.
With Cold Steel 2, Falcom keeps the protagonist at the same level and with the same techniques since the sequel takes place just a few weeks later. The level cap in both Cold Steel 2 and Cold Steel 4 is raised from 99 to 200, which keeps with one of the game's themes that there's always room for more growth.
4 Star Ocean: The Second Story Has A Level Cap At 255
Star Ocean is tri-ace's biggest IP, legendary for how it blends the use of sci-fi weapons and ideas with fantasy worlds. It's also known for sneakily having a ridiculously high level cap. As early as Star Ocean: The Second Story, players were able to finish most of the game at around level 75-80.
But players who think that's the level cap for the game are quickly shown how wrong they are. The final set of bosses is much stronger than most players will get without grinding, which reveals the true level cap of the game: the max level for Star Ocean: The Second Story is 255.
3 Elden Ring Has A Level Cap At 712
Like many Souls games, Elden Ring's level cap isn't based on just leveling up. Instead, as the player continues leveling up their stats, their level grows in response. The actual cap on leveling comes when the player has gotten every single stat up to 99.
This regularly means players go past level 100, which is probably a good idea for players who want to beat some late-game enemies. But functionally, that means levels max out for the players at 712. It's a strange number, but it also means players can play Elden Ring for hundreds more hours if they want and experience this groundbreaking open-world title longer.
2 Disgaea's Level Cap Is 9999
Nippon Ichi's Disgaea series was a strategy RPG franchise that took off in the 2000s. Disgaea was primarily known for its unique underworld setting and its brand of humor, where they were constantly willing to break the fourth wall for the sake of humor. The series offered high customization for every character and famously had one of the most absurd level limits ever: 9999.
Disgaea doesn't require this level to beat the game; players could just do it if they wanted to experience having the most overpowered character ever. Basically, players could become the light novel protagonist they always wanted to be.
1 Rune Factory 3 Has A Level Cap Of 10,000
Natsume's Rune Factory series started out with the expected level cap of most JRPGs by stopping at 99, but later games made massive changes to this level cap. Rune Factory 3 raised the level cap to an astounding 10,000. The main game will never require anything past the first 100 levels, meaning the player can likely one-shot the boss.
Outside of that, the bonus dungeons require levels well into the 200s, but still nothing anywhere near the level 10,000 cap. Even beyond that, players can continue to raise the strength of individual skills, raising the skill up to over 65,000 at max, though visibly all skills will only show 999.