Wondering how many people like leveling up their characters to god like status and simply crush everything in their path, or do you try to keep your levels fairly low throughout the story until the end boss?

My preference is to not tarry at any point in the game to level up and keep the fights a challenge, I do this until I get to the end boss, then create one save to go straight to the end of the game and one save to level up until I can beat the optional super bosses.

Doing this makes the games much more fun to me, although there have been a few times where it has gotten me into trouble (FFT being the most notable example where I got to a boss when I was around lv 33 and couldn't beat it or go back to level up, when I looked at gamefaqs they said people should be around lv 70 for that fight, eventually I beat it but it took about 7 trys).

I tend to forgot to level up properly because w/o special items it takes too long of a time (ea FF7, FF9)
I'm not underpowered, just barely though xD

I always want the killer team ofcourse ^^; have the bestest spells and such and just kill them all with one move >=)
.... .aaah *hugs FFX*

i try to level up though whenever I can, I just need a free travel around the world moment :E

Final Fantasy 7, Disk 1, Level 56 Cloud, higher level for Aeris, the rest... Well, were in the high forties if nothing else.

Final Fantasy 8, Disk 1, after the SeeD test, Squall Level 30, Zell and Selphie in the late teens.

Final Fantasy 9... I only played once, and had to go back to level hugely in order to beat the final boss

Ditto Final Fantasy 4.

So it varies from game to game, really...

I like to level up my characters, even though I sometimes get bored of all the fighting.

*sigh* My killer team was in FF6: Twelve characters had level 99 and knew all spells, but I got too bored to train Gau, so he had to live with level 65.

Especially in the later games... well, the story captivated me too much, I wanted to proceed faster, so I didn't spend much time on levelling anymore. Or trying to figure out best equipment and similar. As a result some battles became quite hard. (Ever spent five hours fighting one final battle?)

I usually find that just by playing the game and never running away, my characters are strong enough as is. Sure, for the optionnal super bosses I'll have to level up, but that's only IF I want to take on them. It depends on what reward they give, like a very good item. Otherwise, I don't bother.

To play the 'normal' Final Fantasies I find I don't have to level up - and there's really no real drive to, either. I defeated Safer Sephiroth with Cloud on Level 60... when I finished FF8, I think that some of my characters were still on Level 15 o_O

FF Tactics Advance is different, though - that game, (and it's the same in FF9), there is a reason to go provoke enemies - abilities. The only way to learn abilities is by equiping a weapon and getting A.P., so if I want all the cool stuff, I have to go level up.

On the other hand, in RPGs like Baldur's Gate (and the game i'm currently obsessed with, Knights of the Old Republic), you need to level up, otherwise you get deaded :(

First runthrough a Final Fantasy, I usually only level up a bit if I feel that I'm not getting enough levels just from random encounters. Second and future tries through, I try to max out.