Absurdly Low Level Cap

In games with Character Levels, many gamers take pride in being able to reach the highest level possible. These games are not for those people.

Note that this not about games with just low level caps, but games where the pacing of experience and level gains means that you will reach the maximum attainable level long before the end-game. A game could have a level cap of, say, 10, but if you only reach level 5 by the end of the game then this trope does not apply. Likewise, if the level cap is say 999, but easily achievable by the mid-point of the game, then this trope is in play.

Contrast Absurdly High Level Cap, although the two are by no means mutually exclusive.

Examples of Absurdly Low Level Cap include:

• In Realm of the Mad God the maximum level is 20. This can easily be achieved within as little as 30 minutes of play. Maxing all of your stats however, will take far longer but still a relatively short amount of time compared to many other MMORPG'S.
• In Sweet Home, the actual level cap (made more difficult to figure out due to the fact that you can't see your own level) of 20 can be comfortably achieved a little over halfway into the game.
• By comparison to many games of its type, Brink has a multiplayer level cap of only 20 (increased to 24 with the free DLC pack)
• Fossil Fighters has a level cap of 12. More than that, you earn points towards leveling up not just by fighting but also by cleaning fossils; the way it breaks down is that 50 points earns a levelup, battles are worth 1 to 10 points on average (more for bosses) while fossils can score between 50 and 100. Each vivosaur has four fossils to it, meaning up to 400 points or level 8. Then there are red fossils granting 25 bonus points, a whole set of those can give you two more levels for 10 out of 12. (The catch? Fossils aren't completely cumulative; if you score an 80 on a T-Rex skull but already have a 75-point T-Rex skull, you'll only gain the 5-point difference.) Stick with a few favorites and you should max out their levels easily, but this is balanced by the fact that you need to max out all 100 vivosaurs to get a Bragging Rights Reward.
  • The sequel raises the cap to 20, which is better but you can still get halfway there from fossil cleaning.
• In the Dragon Quest Monsters series, due to the varying experience point curves and level caps (Lv25~99) between individual monsters, it is entirely possible to have certain monsters reach their level caps before you're even a quarter of a way thru the main story. However, these monsters tend to be the initial monsters obtained at that point in the game and are often very weak, especially in comparison to the cream of the crop found near the end-game and especially so in the post-game content.
• In Mass Effect 3, multiplayer characters have a level cap of 20 (as opposed to 60 for singleplayer), because each of the six classes level up separately, and players are encouraged to trade in level 20 characters for War Assets in single player.
• A close example occurs in the original Guild Wars, where you are expected to reach maximum level (which is level 20) before the last stretch of story quests. The expansions play this absurdly straight, almost to the point of not having levels at all. You are expected to reach level 20 by the time you leave the starter area. You only get stronger by accessing new skills (which aren't actually stronger per se, they just give you more options), and getting better gear. But even the best gear, stat-wise, isn't that hard to obtain. In the end, the only things that are particularly valuable is the gear that does nothing more than look cool.
• Many people in the Rance series have only a cap of 20 or 30 when you need about 60 to fight the final boss. Thankfully, Rance can raise the level cap of grown female characters by using his hyper weapon. In addition, there are also usually items around that can increase the level cap.