Do I need any other party members besides Squall? This is a serious question, and not a joke. Do I really need them? Squall is level 50, and everyone else is below 30. I've been trying my best to level them all up without getting incredibly sick of it, getting their stuff ... seemingly endless hours of Drawing this, Drawing that from enemies. I'm getting pretty sick of it, and I'm a patient person.

I just don't want it to be a waste of my time, which it seems like it is. Every time I turn around, there's a new spell to be Drawn from something.

Squall can pretty much one-hit everything. He has about 5.2k HP and his attack is pretty decent. Do I honestly need to level up anyone? In my prior Final Fantasy experiences...

Final Fantasy 6: I could solo Kefka if I honestly wanted to with Terra. I had a Gem Box on and double casted Ultima on him, ending the whole conflict in a matter of 3 minutes (maybe). She also had insane magic defense and he did nothing to her with the exception of "Fallen One" bringing everyone to 1 HP.

Final Fantasy 7: Cloud. I could solo the entire game, I swear to God, just with Cloud. By the end of the game, I had the Ultima Blade on Cloud (he was about level 60). I equipped him with the "Deathblow" materia, and the "Attack All" materia. He easily did 9999 every hit with Deathblow, and attacked all enemies in the area. When I fought Sephiroth, he never laid A SCRATCH on my party. He never even attacked, believe it or not. Because of Cloud using Deathblow on ALL his body parts at once, he spent the majority of his time healing.

So that's why I'm asking...I'm close to the 2nd disc now, and I'm REALLY, REALLY getting fed up with this CONSTANT, NON-STOP ANNOYING festival of Drawing spell after spell after spell after spell after spell after spell after spell after spell after spell.

Leveling up GFs and their abilities is not an issue. It's just the CONSTANT "ZOMG YOU HAVE TO DRAW THIS SPELL NOW" that's absolutely driving me insane.

Anyway, thanks.

Dude! You don't have to draw every magic you see, just keep the ones you have split or whatever and use the rest of the party for Squall's support, like healing, or hero drinks, and just solo the game, but at least level up the rest to a decent level, because their is some points in the game where your party splits up...

Dude! You don't have to draw every magic you see, just keep the ones you have split or whatever and use the rest of the party for Squall's support, like healing, or hero drinks, and just solo the game, but at least level up the rest to a decent level, because their is some points in the game where your party splits up...

Ok well I didn't mean to say EVERY magic I see, but I'm taking about Blizzara, Blizzaha, Fira, Firara, Firaga...etc...every time I turn around it seems like there's a new Cure or Fire.

Just draw the "...agas" and you'll be good, use the rest for junctioning other magic or something?

Well, I'm not one that's keen on "one character challenge" games, if you were on like the second or third disc in the middle I'd say stick with Squall. But you know, enemies level up with whoever's the highest and I'm not sure how the system works with levels but you may be fucked later on when you're at a boss that needs a strategy and no one stands a chance but Squall. After all you are only on the first disc and later on there are some pretty tough mandatory bosses that are near impossible.

I do agree with you that the other five suck hard with it comes to regular "Attack" compared to Squall, but everyone also has their own unique limit breaks that no one else can use. Rinoa's can save your ass a lot, Zell's is very useful against enemies with a lot of HP, Selphie's got the Full Cure and Wall on her slot, and finally Quistis has the most useful technique for leveling up - Degenerator. Mighty Guard and White Wind are needed a lot in some boss battles. Irvine's limit break I never used but it's pretty good. Limited though.

All I remember is at some point I needed each of them (except Irvine), and there are parts where the party is split off and you CAN'T use Squall.

You can EASILY level up with Quistis's Degenerator. It instantly kills basically anything as long as it's not a boss or undead. Even the most formidable "Ruby Dragon" enemies. If you wanna catch everyone up, go for that... forget the drawing. If you don't have it, you get it with the item "Black Hole" which you can get fighting Gespers (I don't know where they appear outside the Laguna dream but check gamefaqs) or modding the Gesper Card with Quezacotl's "Card Mod" ability, which is a really common card already at the beginning of the game.

If there's any game where a one-character-only is nearly out of the question it's this one.

As for drawing you only really need three sets of magic that you can exchange to whoever you're using. The first time I played, I made the mistake of spreading out magic over all six. I'm only saying this cause I wasn't sure what you meant about drawing.

Well, I'm not one that's keen on "one character challenge" games, if you were on like the second or third disc in the middle I'd say stick with Squall. But you know, enemies level up with whoever's the highest and I'm not sure how the system works with levels but you may be fucked later on when you're at a boss that needs a strategy and no one stands a chance but Squall. After all you are only on the first disc and later on there are some pretty tough mandatory bosses that are near impossible.

I do agree with you that the other five suck hard with it comes to regular "Attack" compared to Squall, but everyone also has their own unique limit breaks that no one else can use. Rinoa's can save your ass a lot, Zell's is very useful against enemies with a lot of HP, Selphie's got the Full Cure and Wall on her slot, and finally Quistis has the most useful technique for leveling up - Degenerator. Mighty Guard and White Wind are needed a lot in some boss battles. Irvine's limit break I never used but it's pretty good. Limited though.

All I remember is at some point I needed each of them (except Irvine), and there are parts where the party is split off and you CAN'T use Squall.

You can EASILY level up with Quistis's Degenerator. It instantly kills basically anything as long as it's not a boss or undead. Even the most formidable "Ruby Dragon" enemies. If you wanna catch everyone up, go for that... forget the drawing. If you don't have it, you get it with the item "Black Hole" which you can get fighting Gespers (I don't know where they appear outside the Laguna dream but check gamefaqs) or modding the Gesper Card with Quezacotl's "Card Mod" ability, which is a really common card already at the beginning of the game.

If there's any game where a one-character-only is nearly out of the question it's this one.

As for drawing you only really need three sets of magic that you can exchange to whoever you're using. The first time I played, I made the mistake of spreading out magic over all six. I'm only saying this cause I wasn't sure what you meant about drawing.


Thanks for the info, dewd...it helps. It's not leveling people that's my problem...it's the dreaded DRAWING. :P

You should still level them, though.

But I honestly have no idea what you meant by "there's always something to Draw I see there's always a new Fire or Cure", because ALL enemies have an infinite amount of magic to draw, it doesn't run out. And they're always gonna have SOMETHING... there has to be something available if you use the "Draw" command, I don't know if you're expecting the magics the enemies have to disappear, cause they won't. If it's a magic you've never seen before it will appear as "????" but only for that time until you draw it. You should always Draw the "????"s so they appear as normal, and if it ends up being something you might not need then its simple, don't bother drawing it anymore in battle next time you see it.

You should still level them, though.

But I honestly have no idea what you meant by "there's always something to Draw I see there's always a new Fire or Cure", because ALL enemies have an infinite amount of magic to draw, it doesn't run out. And they're always gonna have SOMETHING... there has to be something available if you use the "Draw" command, I don't know if you're expecting the magics the enemies have to disappear, cause they won't. If it's a magic you've never seen before it will appear as "????" but only for that time until you draw it. You should always Draw the "????"s so they appear as normal, and if it ends up being something you might not need then its simple, don't bother drawing it anymore in battle next time you see it.

No, I meant as soon as I finish Drawing 100 Firaras, it seems like Firaga pops up RIGHT AFTERWARDS.

I am still going to level them up, though. : )

No, I meant as soon as I finish Drawing 100 Firaras, it seems like Firaga pops up RIGHT AFTERWARDS.

I am still going to level them up, though. : )

Why do you feel the need to draw 100?? Draw as many as you think you'll use... if you're trying to get everyone to get 100 of everything that's a huge waste of time, hell most you don't even need more than 10.

And what do you mean pops up? Pops up WHERE?

As you level up, the monsters level up too, which changes their stats AND the magic you draw from them. So that may be it.

Drawing magic for casting is a COMPLETE waste of time. You really never need to cast magic, with the occasional rare exceptions of Aura, Full-Life, and Meltdown.

The main purpose of drawing and obtaining magic is to junction it, and most of the magic you find out there is worthless. Check out the notable threads thread and open the Junction Guide, and that'll tell you about all the various magics there are and what ways to get them. If you have any questions about finding a specific magic to junction or how to find magic for a particular stat or anything like that, PM me.

When I did my no-level up game, I basically got the majority of my magic at the beginning of the game. I played the Card Queen in Balamb, then got the "ALL" rule spread to the Garden. After getting a crapload of cards, I modded them into spells used for junctioning.

I would only collect the high level magic (suffix-agas)

Here are a few cards you can get at the beginning that help alot, if you don't like drawing.

Gaylas - Meltdowns
Abyss Worms - Tornados
Chimeras - Full Life
Mesmerizes - Regen

There's more, but those are the ones that I can get from the top of my head.

After skimming the thread, I think it's worth noting that the game actually punishes you for levelling your PC's by making your enemies (random and boss) stronger. If I were playing FFVIII again, I'd just mug and refine my way to the best spells and go along my merry little way.