Final Fantasy 14 free trial will soon include over 100 hours of content up to level 60

(Image credit: Square Enix)

The Final Fantasy 14 free trial is being greatly expanded and will soon continue through the game's first expansion pack, Heavensward. 

The free trial previously stopped at level 35, which greatly limited the number of quests and classes available. The level cap is now being raised to 60, unlocking all of the content through Heavensward - including high-level job quests, raids, and lots of dungeons - as well as three more classes: the Dark Knight tank, Astrologian healer, and Machinist ranged DPS. Oh, and trial players will be able to make Au Ra - basically dragon people - characters. 

With these additions, the Final Fantasy 14 free trial will be good for over 100 hours of fantastic MMORPG content. If you really tried to complete everything available, you could probably push the 150-hour mark, and that's without getting multiple classes to level 60. 

The best part is that this expanded trial coincides with the long-awaited tune-up for pre-Heavensward quests. The intro quests in Final Fantasy 14 tend to drag on a bit, which can make it difficult (and sometimes tedious) to get to the expansions, which are far better than the base game. Fortunately, Square Enix will address this – while upgrading basically every other system in the game – in patch 5.3, which is coming on August 11. 

The updated story for the base game will be more condensed, putting the best stuff up front and helping new players get to the better stuff much quicker. And trust me when I say this will be a godsend for trial players. 

Patch 5.3 will also introduce a new dungeon, the Nier: Automata crossover raid YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse: The Puppets' Bunker, Dwarf beast tribe quests, a new combat Trial, and plenty more. You can learn more on the update's dedicated page

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Austin Wood

Austin freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree, and he's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize that his position as a senior writer is just a cover up for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a focus on news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.