Leveling up.

[Summoner Yuna]

Ok, so a friend of mine gave me his copy of VIII because he says he doesn't want it anymore, so while I order IX, I'm gonna play that. I've heard many things about this game, and one of them is that the less you level up the better, because the monsters get stronger. For example, if all your characters are on level 100, the final boss becomes virtually impossible. So I want to know how people have approached this game. Is leveling up a hinderance or is it actually a good idea? How should I approach this game since its system is quite different? Any useful tips would be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[Ilyena]

The monsters do level up with you but I didn't find that to be much of a problem. I was on level 100 when I fought the final boss and it was pretty easy. I think the difficulty really lies in how you use the junction system.

If I remember correctly (it's been years since I played the game), you don't get armor so you have to rely on junctioning to raise your stats. Magic isn't all that useful so its easy to keep a decent stock junctioned.

 

[Warbsywoo]

Yeah, it's really not that much of a problem once you get all the better weapons and stuff. It's all about knowing when to cast certain status effects on yourself and on monsters that really make the difference between an easy fight, a medium-difficulty fight, and an incredibly hard fight.

Such as casting haste, aura, and all that other stuff to boost your power.
Also try to equip magic spells on weapons once you learn the junction through GF. Those really help.

Equipping Str + % junctions also help too.

But the thing with VIII is....you can beat the game under level 20 if you wanted to. You can plow right through the plot. xD

 

[Aztec Triogal]

Yea, don't bother leveling up. Just keep all your characters at even levels and it should help. This game blows. I blame the French. Either way, you don't worry have to even spending time on leveling. Just get good weapons and good junctions and you should be fine.

 

[Jack's Smirking Revenge]

Well to be perfectly honest if you level up, you're creating a challenge for yourself. So do you want a challenging game or not?
Of course if you don't level up then neither will the enemies, and will be just as strong as you and then will be just as difficult, I imagine. So really all you gain by levelling up is stronger magic and higher stats.

 

[F. F. Fan]

Yeah, it's true... The monsters and the bosses level up in conjunction with your characters levels. In my opinion, using that no level up strategy really isn't the best way to play FFVIII, especially if it's your first time playing it fully through.

The truth is, there's always someone out there with a special strategy for circumventing the (Battle/Junction) system making the bosses and final boss a piece of cake to defeat, and if your experienced with the Junction system, that may be the case. However, the final boss can be both easy and impossible to beat at any level. Again, it really all depends on how well you learned the (Battle/Junction) system and the strategy that you'll end up using in the final encounter.

The best advice I could give, would be learning and using the battle system as the original developers had intended it to be used. Level up the way the game had intended you to. ALWAYS, always check monsters and bosses to see what you can draw from them, more importantly, don't circumvent the battle system with someone's guide on the net, you'll likely cheat yourself of a valuable magic or item with an intended use for later on. Like I said, if needed get a good (normal) guide on the net and play the battle system the way it was intended to be played. Trust me, it truly makes the game far more enjoyable, in my opinion.

Lol... Sorry for all the rambling above, but as you can tell it's my all-time favorite FF's. It's a great game and it has one the best endings, in my opinion. With that said, I really do hope you enjoy it this time around.

 

[joeyfinalfantasygod]

Yep every monster in the game levels up with you thats not bad because the game stays standard to your level that is good in other games if you are level 99 you can massacre even the final boss with one limit break.