I have been reading walktroughs of this game and I am a big fan... I was on disc 3 when i was young now I want to play again but I dont have disc 1 so I got it... Now i have seen many people saying that you should avoid every battle in the game except boss battle.... I was lvl 100 before and it was a bit annoying but it was fun to lvl up... So what do you think?????
I am from Croatia so my grammar is poor...

Unless you have good magic to junction, then you'd best level up.

Actually, your time would be best spent going out and getting good magic to junction. I wrote a guide that you can link to in the notable threads that tells you what kind of stuff you can get at the beginning of the game.

Levelling up won't really help you very much in this game, whereas finding the best magic to junction will astronomically increase your stats.

While I usually LV up a lot in RPGS I've plyed, in this game it would also be a good idea to junction property.
Especially since the enemies in the game LV up as well.

it really depends on whether you want to spend your time getting good magic for junctioning or actually going out and leveling up.

Well I can do both.... So it is not a problem if I lvl up?
I was lvl 100 and I didnt have any problems...

it's not a problem if you do both. i did, and it made the game a heck of a lot easier than it already was.

Gameshark!

also...

Inb4mariashriver

No level up required in FF8, and you may even active the No Combat Skill from the end of the first CD. Simply go to the (two) Heaven and Hell islands, and steal the magics on the field. The Junction system is enough, if you own a full set of Ultima, etc... I think that I've done nearly zero random battle through the game... and I've beaten the optional bosses, obtained every GF and found every ultimate weapon. I had also reached level 100, it takes less than 30 min on the isles. Seriously. So I don't understand why people bother, this game's system is very well-done.

i kinda like being able to brag about the fact that i can and do level up plus all the really good magic that i do end up getting.

The game is more of a challenge to do it without leveling up.

Can you get Tonberry King without gaining exp?
Will it still work if you card the Tonberrys?

i cant say eatherwya i prefure to level up i didnt even go and fight the frist g/f untill i was level 23 i spent a lot of time in the trainaing room

The game is more of a challenge to do it without leveling up.

Can you get Tomberry King without gaining exp?
Will it still work if you card the Tomberrys?

No it isn't. Also, why would you bother making sure not to get exp from tonberries? They don't give you enough to level up unless you fight 1000 of them. No mother fucker will ever fight 1000 tonberries.

I would suggest not leveling up. Besides the monsters on the Islands closest to Heaven and Hell and Omega Weapon, everything should level up as Squall levels up. So if you have high level magic to junction, your fights should be really easy, even the final battle.

Also, there are certain abilities that allow you to gain a point in STR, VIT, MAG, HP, and SPR every time you level up. I would suggest that you level up only when you can equip 4 of those abilities onto a character. Alternate the junction set to whoever is about to level up next so that they get the boost. It would suck to be level 75 when you get those abilities and then you can't take advantage of getting around 90 or so points in 4/5 of those stats.

If you do Card a monster, you won't receive EXP, but you will still receive items and AP, so be sure to learn that from Boss AP if you want to take advantage of the stat boosts.

Also keep in mind that if you do level up early in the game before you ave access to strong magic to junction, you will have more difficult battles. However, this is a good way to manipulate the difficulty level of the game. It can be either real easy or real hard depending on whether or not you level up.

EDIT

Haha, thanks Cookie.

everything should level up as Cloud levels up..



???????

No matter what, I pretty much ended up leveling up anyway because I wanted to have all the abilities on my GFs learned. So it just sorta happened I guess :/.

No it isn't. Also, why would you bother making sure not to get exp from tonberries? They don't give you enough to level up unless you fight 1000 of them. No mother fucker will ever fight 1000 tonberries.

I did!

Biotch!

I did!

Biotch!

Haha, how did that work out man?

There's no real need to level up, seeing how if you have powerful magic you can easily junction your characters to kill everything in the game with ease.

I did!

Biotch!

You fought 1000 Tonberries? For the sake of humanity, I hope this is shenanigans.

The game is generally easier when you choose not to level up. Monsters are far easier too defeat and you'll survive with decent junctions available. I've just started again for the third time and this time I'm trying to avoid levelling up. However in some cases its not possible when you're trying to teach you Guardian Force Junction or Refining abilities... otherwise the games just stupidly hard and then its not that fun anymore -.-'

I usually reach around level 20- 25 as an absolute maximum.
And yes, T-Rexaur still have mega-normous HP at level 8 (13000+) which was rather annoying, even so, the battle just seems to fall in your favour at a lower level.

Originally posted by DragonWings.
However in some cases its not possible when you're trying to teach you Guardian Force Junction or Refining abilities...

Keep in mind that the "Card" ability eliminates the EXP reward from battles, but it does not eliminate the items or AP received. So just learn "Card" from the first few Boss fights and you'll be set. Of course some things can't be turned into cards, and you might accidently kill something, but get the feel for when to stop attacking and you'll do all right. There are still a few required fights in which you can't card, so you won't get through the entire game without leveling up, but getting Card will help out a lot.

You fought 1000 Tonberries? For the sake of humanity, I hope this is shenanigans.

I was bored and was using a gameshark for fun.

You have no room to talk Mr. AllThieves/White Mages!!

Well if you want the ultimate challenge (even though it's just one boss: Omega Weapon), level everyone up to 100. Junction whatever you want but don't go invincible. He'll fuck you up in no time.

Well if you want the ultimate challenge (even though it's just one boss: Omega Weapon), level everyone up to 100. Junction whatever you want but don't go invincible. He'll fuck you up in no time.

True strike.

Well if you want the ultimate challenge (even though it's just one boss: Omega Weapon), level everyone up to 100. Junction whatever you want but don't go invincible. He'll fuck you up in no time.

i did that, and got rid of half of his life... i wasn't able to win unless i was actually invincible.

Why bother levelling up? Just beat the entire game at level 1 or 5 and see what happens with the boss fights.

All players start at level 7 or higher if I remember correctly.

All players start at level 7 or higher if I remember correctly.

lol. i guess that rules out the "beating the game at lvl 1 or 5"

If you have excelent magic to junction don't level up, it makes the omega Weapon so much easier.

it really does, but it's fun to try facing him at lvl 100 w/ good magic, but not invincible. it's impossible w/o the gameshark.

You can use the Defend command to negate all the damage. I'm pretty sure this would count as Invincible, but you don't use a Hero to do it and you can't act that turn. I used Selphie and Squall the last time I did it. Selphie would keep using megalixers, defend, and Reviving Squall while he did all the attacking.

it really does, but it's fun to try facing him at lvl 100 w/ good magic, but not invincible. it's impossible w/o the gameshark.

It wasn't though. Good strategy goes a long a way. I don't understand what all the fuss is about Omega weapon being soooo difficult. But I digress. =\

In the end, I leveled up all my characters and junctioned good magic unto them. It's much more fun when you actually have a challenge in the game when it comes to battles then having them all be pushovers.

Yeah. I did that the first time. Level up and all that. Then a couple time later, I ended up thinking of ways to make it more interesting. So I tried not to level up. It was easier, but I wonder how I would have done if I had never played the game before and choose not to level up. Haha, someone hit me in the head and make me forget!