I'm on disc three ready to go meet Kiros in the "real world" and im only at lv 28......where are some really good places to level up?!

island closest to hell and island closest to heaven(actually, island closest to hell is more better cuz it has harder monsters that give you good exp!)

Grandidi Forest (north of Esthar) is fairly good... lots of Marlboros though, so make sure you're protected from status ailments like poison, sleep, beserk etc!
Failing that, take a trip to the Islands closest to Hell/Heaven (furthest East/West on the game map), and stock up on magics like holy, ultima, meteor, full life etc. Utter bastard monsters abound though, so I'd head to the forest first.

EDIT: Check up on getting as many GFs as you can, especially Tonberry (the same place you got Odin, just fight 15-20 Tonberries in a row, then the King will drop down automatically) for the 'Call Shop' ability...which'll come in pretty handy soon after you get to Esthar, really!

Go to the Island Closest to Hell, it's by far the best place to level up, also a tracik,keep pressing X there, there are around 30 hidden draw points with the best spells in the game, and if, at level 28 you have difficulty killing the monsters, get everyone in critical status before the fight, thne limit break each turn, worked for me.

im lv 32 now. and the GFs i ahve are - quezecol, shiva, ifrit, siren, brothers, levatian, cerberus, alexander, pandemona, diablos, cactuar, and i think that may be it, i forgot to get carbuncle....and i went to the lunar tear thing where the lunar pandora is, and i got that ring that summons the GF.....but i don't have 666 items yet, i have like 1000+ lol. but i've been leveling up really good in esthar. the only problem is, idunno where to meet kiros, i ran all around town, i don't see him anywhere! was i even soppost to meet him there O_o (i don't always read everythign)

woah, i think theres a glitch. i read a walkthrough, and i went to the prediential palace, and there was no laguna.....theres guards that say "entry not permitted"

Have you been back to Esthar Sorceress Memorial yet? Have you revisited the orphanage and seen the scene with Rinoa / gotten the call?

I dont think that level makes a massive difference in any of your stats in this game, all you need is enc none and the ragnorak, just go to island closest to hell or heaven and draw 100 of each magic and your set.

but if your levelling up i'd have to say the deep sea research facility.

i totaly agree but you dont need to be a hight level to have strong characters take my game for example ive started a new game ive just beat edea and my characters hp is 7999 and attacks are roughly 1500 so there u go but if you want to train then i sugest deep sea research centre (bottom left of the world map)

I'm on disc three ready to go meet Kiros in the "real world" and im only at lv 28......where are some really good places to level up?!

you dont want to level up in FF8... you do however want AP... just fight some enemies anywhere and card them

why not level up in ff8? it's easy! but i also agree that AP is also good.

Get to level 100 and everything is still fairly easy, with the right stats of course.

The main reason to Level Up in FFVIII is if you want draw lots of better magic and get better drops from the enemies and such. Of course, Tonberry's LVL UP ability essentially accomplishes the same thing. Needless to say, my characters on my savefiles are all at Level 100 anyway, just to max it out.

i went to the lunar tear thing where the lunar pandora is, and i got that ring that summons the GF.....but i don't have 666 items yet, i have like 1000+ lol. You don't need 666 items, you need 6 of three different items; Remedy +, Steel Pipe and Marloboro Tentacle. Remedy +s can be gotten by using Alexander's Med Lvl Up ability on 60 Remedys, Steel Pipes can be Mugged from Wendigos, found in the same forest in which you experienced the 2nd Laguna sequence (where Galbadia Garden used to be), and Marlboro Tentacles (probably the most difficult to get, but not that hard), is easiest when you have Quistis in a critical condition (eg. low/yellow HP), with the Initiative ability, running around on the Island Closest to Hell until you find a Marlboro, use her Degenerator Blue Magic (learnt from a Black Hole, by modding a Gesper card) and you'll get about 8 of them.

Once you have all of those items in your inventory, select to use the Solomon Ring in the item menu and you'll recieve GF Doomtrain.

If you find that you're having real difficulty with the Malboro Tentacles, you could also mess about with the card game for a while. Head back to Esthar and find somebody that plays Malboro cards, four refine to one tentacle. Of course, if you didn't get Alexander, you're screwed.

well i got past all that, and im lv 47 now. but im at ultimacia's caslte, and everything is sealed up because of the whole time thing, but i went to the deep sea research center, and its easy....but im still looking for the island close to heaven and hell...i still cna't find it. and im also working on gettin the tonberry GF,, and at ultimacia's castle how everything is sealed, i defeated 2 bosses, and unlocked Item (by accident) and then GF, i wanted draw the first time, but i pressed X by accident. and yea. my GF's have mastered everything, and its kinda borring, cuzz all they do is level up now,

The island closest to hell is on the Far West of the world map, while the Island closest to hell is Far East of the map and up a little