Level up on play through or no?

The Scriblerian

The Scriblerian

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So, I'm about to start reawaken my love and play through this game once more. However, this time, I want to be sure I'm going about it the fastest most clear cut way.

My goal is to go from beginning to end and love the entire story.

That being said, is it fastest for me to just play through since monsters level up with your characters' level, or should you take the time to level up anyway as it's a huge boost?

It seems to me that leveling up only is useful for aquiring items and weapons and etc, and not so much progressing through the game since they will generally match your level.
 
Honestly, as you noted since the monsters level up with you it matters very little. What's important in this game is to get strong magic to junction it and boost your stats. That's what I did on my second play through. I suggest keeping a save file before the huge jump to Section 4 (Disc 4) because as you know most of the areas will become unavailable.

Just play with the boss fights vulnerabilities (the Galbadia President is a Zombie so... the big ass robot that stalks you is weak to lightning, so on so on).

Important thing, don't forget to Draw Magic. The stronger magic you get, the bigger posts you'll be able to obtain by junctioning them to you.

Junctioning made the game a whole lot easier. :monster:

(I love it far more than the Materia system to be honest... :hmph:)
 
*hm* I see.

Alright. Noted.

As far as getting the ultimate weapons early on in the game (Since I know it's possible), should I worry on that or is that once again something that is pretty frivolous?

In the past, I wasted HOURS on the first disc just fighting thing after thing trying to get all the pieces together to unlock Lionheart and etc, but looking back on it, I'm not sure it really did anything.
 
Wait till you get Diabolos (Diablos...whatever). If I recall correctly, he had this "Mug" command which allowed you to farm items from enemies. Increase your speed to increase the chances of a successful steal.

You should unlock most of the optional items and sidequests prior to venturing into Disc 4 because, unless you have Doomstrain and Tonberry, you'll be quite much in a stale mate when it comes to getting the Ultimate Weapons. Most (if not all) of the shops (towns) in Disc 4 will be closed leaving only certain areas (like the Centra Ruins) available.

Once you get the Ragnarok (ship) you can stop the main storyline progress and star doing the sidequests (flying everywhere makes it a lot easier).

You should check the FFWikia for details pertaining the Doomstrain Sidequest, as well as information about the Island Closest to Heaven/Hell.

Heck, I remember doing close to 9999 (like 9858...meh a mere short difference) with the Twin Lance to Ultimacia because I had good magic junctioned (I am not sure if I had either Quake or another spell junctioned).

Tonberry GF has the Call Item shop which allows you to access any shop you've visited in your playthrough from your main menu (which is awesome if you don't want to visit towns again or if you've just realized that you forgot something and you are already in Disc 4).

Doomstrain is a must if you want to keep making weapons during Disc 4, because he has this cool Junk Shop ability you can acquire from him which allows you to access Junk Shops from the main menu (again, awesomesauce).

For beating Ultimecia... just keep Squall alive. :monster:

Again, LVing UP matters little due to how much the Junctioning System can be whored/abused by ...us. :elmo:
 
Thank you.

Very helpful.

I heard the secret to beating her was simply using Squall's limit break like a pro.
 
In order to pull off a low level game successfully (where you will not be grinding enemies to level up to get strong magic etc.) you need to know how to abuse the card and item refining system to get yourself access to some very strong magic early on. This is especially apparent when you get to Ultimecia's castle and onwards, because even if the enemies match your level their base stats are still better than yours.

For example:
Blitz Card (1 refines into 1 dynamo stone which turns to 20 Thundagas.)
Snow Lion Card (1 refines into 1 north wind which turns to 20 Blizzagas.)
Vysage/Imp Cards (Very Useful; 1 of either refines into 1 wizard stone which grants you 5 Blizzaga, Thundaga, Firaga, Curaga, Stop, Bio, or 20 Dispels)
Abyss Worm (1 refines to 1 Windmill which refines into 20 Tornados(!))

There are way more options as well so once you obtain Diablos and Siren to learn their refining abilities along with your other GFs; experiment and go crazy!

That being said, I wouldn't advise going for Squall's Lionheart in disk 1 unless you plan on staying under level 20 to kill Grendels for dragon fangs, card-modding your Sacred card for Adamantines AND playing for 20 Elnoyle cards for the two energy crystals needed to make Pulse ammo. Though having access to Lionheart makes an already easy game even easier, the 5 hours or so of extra work to obtain it is kind of a stretch.
 
Sounds good. :)

The Scriblerian

This is a post count section, so please put a little more effort into further posts. Thanks.
 
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If your objective is to simply play through for story purposes, you can just about ignore level grinding. This is contrary to say, FFVII where having everyone at 99 is definitely easy mode.

The motivation for being at higher levels for me is the rarer items that drop from enemies and the magics being used. Of course, I'm the type person who cares just as much about character constitution (stats, etc.) as getting through the story; I enjoy both equally.

I can definitely feel you on just wanting to experience the story again, though. It's fantastic.
 
I normally always level up my charcters to 100 mainly because I like a challenge and as mentioned before the rare drops are a major incentive. I don't think I have ever tried not levelling up in this game mainly because i couldnt be bothered with running from every fight (as this effects the SeeD rank) or carding every single encounter untill I get No Encounters from diablos.

Then again there are easy and hard ways to do this.
 
Well, thus far everyone is around level 25 except for Squall who just seems to rise on his own to level 40. I'm in disc three and currently heading for Lunatic Pandora. I've really had no trouble beating anything at this point and simply keep using my junctions to keep everyone at the top of their game.
 
The Scriblerian said:
Thank you.

Very helpful.

I heard the secret to beating her was simply using Squall's limit break like a pro.
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Yeah, gotta love Aura, eh?

Speaking of which, I went OCD with drawing Aura from Seifer just before disc 4. Pretty useless when all the Ultimecia's minions went down after 3 hits. :gonk:
 
Power Leveling on FFVIII is only really useful when you have a whole lot of of the Attribute+ skills of Ifrit Strength+1, Siren Magic+1, Brothers HP+30, Carbuncle Vitality+1 and Leviathans Spirit+1 and the Cactuar GF who has all of these:ryan:

Equip these and stats raise hella fast!
 
Enemies level up with you, which totally defeats the purpose of leveling up. I have always been dissapointed with this concept. It doesn't make leveling up obsolete, but still..

Whyy?/ :rage:
 
I know this is a bit old but if anyone else wants to know.

This is taken from the tips section of my website www.ffviii.com

"In Final Fantasy VIII monsters and bosses (there are a few exceptions) level up depending on what your partys average level is. So the stronger you get the stronger your enimies get. If you play the junction system right there is no reason why you can't complete the game without gaining a single level (it's actually very easy). If you want to level up I reccomend you do it later on in the game when you have access to the level up bonuses. Below are how to get the 5 level up bonuses, note that you will have to learn all the stat boosting abilities first. I.e. if you want HP up you will have to learn the brothers HP+40 and HP+80 then HP up will become avalible to be learnt.

STR - Ifrit
VIT - Carbuncle
SPR - Shiva
MAG - Siren
HP - Brothers
The GF cactuar has all of these abilities.
By leveling up with the level up bonuses you will be reaching your characters full potential."
 
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Personally I always take my sweet ass time with FF8 because I love it so much and just level as I go. Maybe I'll spend some time here or there in an area I just happen to like for whatever insane reason my brain finds and fiddle around, try a build, try another build, get Squall killed a couple of times because I'm abusing his Limit Break because I'm a sadist...

...yeah I'd say take your time and just go with it.
 
I usually level up a bit because higher magic becomes available to draw from enemies and it's easier to draw such magic. I do it specially with Squall and Rinoa: Squall because I was told that it's easier for him to perform Lion Heart the higher his level (although I'm not sure about it, but he's done it more frequently when he attained lv.100); Rinoa because of her Limit Break Angel Wing, my favorite after Renzokuken. I junction 100 Ultimas to her Magic stat and set up a strong arsenal of magic for her, consisting mainly of Tornado, Holy, Quake, Meteor, Flare and Ultima so that she kicks some ass.
 
Huge thanks to you guys! I just started to play VIII myself and I'm so glad I came across this thread. I wasn't sure if the enemies levelled up with you but now I know. It's easy to believe that junctioning right is the key since early in the game Zell did about 20 more damage (from 70 to 90) after drawing like 7 more thunders to him.

But is grinding still good for your GFs? They learn abilities and you need those. Or do you get enough AP by just progressing through the story?
 
DyingBreed said:
Huge thanks to you guys! I just started to play VIII myself and I'm so glad I came across this thread. I wasn't sure if the enemies levelled up with you but now I know. It's easy to believe that junctioning right is the key since early in the game Zell did about 20 more damage (from 70 to 90) after drawing like 7 more thunders to him.

But is grinding still good for your GFs? They learn abilities and you need those. Or do you get enough AP by just progressing through the story?
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Yes grinding is good for if you want to work more to get your GFs to learn some great abilities, but if your playing the card games a lot and you gather lots of items, all you really need is to learn the refine abilities to get strong magic and other GF abilities wont become as important anymore lol I remember grinding to get the devour move though. That was my fave :P But yea the more moves a GF learns the more moves can become unlocked, etc.
 
Oli~SKX said:
Yes grinding is good for if you want to work more to get your GFs to learn some great abilities, but if your playing the card games a lot and you gather lots of items, all you really need is to learn the refine abilities to get strong magic and other GF abilities wont become as important anymore lol I remember grinding to get the devour move though. That was my fave :P But yea the more moves a GF learns the more moves can become unlocked, etc.
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I only have like 7 hours played but I still managed to get 100 curagas, firagas etc. right away by using GFs' refine abilities. I find junction system to be really refreshing and I'm pleased to know that I can forget that boring grinding for once! I rather play cards :D

Funny thing is that my friend used to say me "In FF8 you really need to level all the way up to 100 and final battle will still be hard." Now I know better!
 
Don't level grind. There's a better way to do it. Leveling up yourself in FFVIII is pretty much pointless. You don't get any stat boosts from it and the enemies just get stronger all around. Using Card on enemies will net you the AP for your GFs and keep you from leveling up. I'm sure there are guides all over for stuff like that. But as long as you can get some good magic junctioned, leveling up really isn't too much of a problem. Just don't go on a power leveling spree :gasp:
 
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