Aww man this is really confusing me. I kinda get it that you don't have to level up as long as you junction right, but after being so used to the other FF games this is all proving to be quite a headache. It sounds so damn complicated!!

All I seem to be doing is drawing to get 100 of each magic that I find, but that causes me to level up anyway which from what people are saying is messing my game up. I'm on disc 2 now, have I really been doing so badly?

At the moment I'm on my way to Trabia garden, could do with knowing if it's worth tackling some of the enemies around there. But am I right with the drawing thing? I do seem to be killing enemies easy enough, I only had trouble with NORG really. Squall is about lvl 34, and my other characters between lvl 18 and 24. Any good?

Allow me to teach you about the wonderful, funderful ability known as "Card." You see, when you use Card on an enemy (learned by Quezcoatl or however you spell it) rather than defeat it, you receive 0 Experience, but you still get AP. In simpler terms, that means you can collect Magic, have your GF's learn their abilities, and remain at a low level. Through the magical powers of Card, you, my friend, can make it through the game without leveling up once. Well, aside from the forced Experience Points you gain in the Laguna Flashbacks, but that doesn't amount to much. My point is there are actually ways around gaining Exp. without ruining your chances of drawing Magic.

*sales pitch-ish voice* BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE! There are actually other ways of getting magic if you have some patience. That's right, you can actually make it through the game without Drawing a single Spell. Through Triple Triad, you can gain cards like Abyss Worms, which can be Modded (through the Card Mod ability) into Windmills, I believe. Now, Windmills can, in turn, be changed into Tornado Spells, which Junction very well to Strength. That's how I got my Strength stat up to 110 before taking the SeeD Exam.

Ahem...anyway, yeah, you can get around leveling up if you're prepared to devote a little time into learning the neccessary abilities. Really, it's never too late to change your strategy, so don't worry about the levels you gained earlier in the game. With the right Junctions, the game will be pretty easy regardless of what level your characters are at. Admittedly, Carding takes a while to get used to, but once you learn Enc. None, you shouldn't even have to bother. So I'd suggest putting some time into raising Diablos.

Ok, thanks for the help guys!

Funny, I have the tools to do all that stuff already (card, cardmod etc) but never used them. I haven't even used my magic lamp yet

Err...yeah, it took me a while to figure out just how the hell the FF8 battle system worked, too. >_>" Definitely one of the more unneccessarily confusing engines in the Final Fantasy continuum. Once you get the hang of it, the game is laughably easy, though. Bosses go down in a few strikes without ever doing any real damage to you. Apparently, the game actually relies on the player not being able to figure out how to use the Junction System, considering how simple it is otherwise. Anyway, yeah, you should be fine as long as you have Card and Magic Refine Abilities.

Well when I was in disk 2 and with the Garden moving and all, I went to Island closest to heaven and Island Closest to hell, not a very good idea in those times but if I managed to defeat a monster I leveled up quickly.

Another good place to train was the lab where you found Bahamut and the Ultima Weapon.

Balamb Garden Training centre. i got to lv 100, it wasn't easy, F***ing boring tbh, but worth it!