The level cap being 50 implies to me that they don't intend to fully reset everything, otherwise they'd have just let us get to 99. At the same time, they still don't know how many games this is going to be, so it wouldn't make sense to start off the second one with fully maxed out materia and a bunch of weapon skills. Yes there are levels above Firaga in some FF games, but not enough to justify continuing to max out materia for several new games.
Though I still think people are too caught up in viewing this like an episodic release of one game. The devs have made it clear it's more like a series, and future games will be sequels to this one. Characters starting over is a given in the vast majority of video game sequels. Nobody really complained when they were Level 1 again in Mass Effect 2 or 3. Nobody wondered why at the beginning of Majora's Mask Link didn't have all his Ocarina of Time equipment. Honestly, I think when they try to address it things only get worse. Kingdom Hearts making Sora being weaker than before a plot point in both 2 and 3 only drew attention to that fact when I think most people would have been fine accepting it as a video game quirk.
Though I still think people are too caught up in viewing this like an episodic release of one game. The devs have made it clear it's more like a series, and future games will be sequels to this one. Characters starting over is a given in the vast majority of video game sequels. Nobody really complained when they were Level 1 again in Mass Effect 2 or 3. Nobody wondered why at the beginning of Majora's Mask Link didn't have all his Ocarina of Time equipment. Honestly, I think when they try to address it things only get worse. Kingdom Hearts making Sora being weaker than before a plot point in both 2 and 3 only drew attention to that fact when I think most people would have been fine accepting it as a video game quirk.
