Is levelling up that important?

Aeris · Is levelling up that important?

I've noticed that a lot of people don't bother levelling up throughout this game. I have played a game a few times but I always level up, it makes it a lot more work but I find it is worth it in the end. What about everyone else here? Do you level up all of your characters or do you not bother at all.

I have started playing the game again very recently and have decided to try not levelling up to see if it's any easier or better. If you have done this, do you think it's a good idea?

I'm rather curious to know if you are any better off not levelling up. Smile

Boco

Well, from what I've heard, if your characters are low Lv, your enemies will have lower Lv, too. I've never tried that, though, and I'm not even thinking to try it. All my characters were 100Lv, and it was easy for me, to finish the game. After all, I like random battles, and whenever I have free time, I will just fight random monsters and Lv up my characters.

However, leveling up, is not so important, if you still can finish the game. It's just better.

beniboo

DON'T LEVEL UP!!! all it does is increase your enamies stats, and u only get a littel boost yourself, best thing to do is encounter nul ability (diablose). the wayn to power in this gam is to upgrade your wepons and junction, to prove this, unequip all your junctions when u are far in the game, your stats are thjen minisquel regardless of leveling, showing that ther is no point in leveling up, so i say no, don't level up, its much better this way. i compleated the whole game, being a maxmum of level 18, lol.

Aeris

I always thought levelling up made the game more fun, especially using Lionheart. You can get like 9999 damage each hit which is great. I have started the game aned haven't bothered to level up yet, I'm not really liking it. It feels different, something is missing! It's not the same without levelling up. I guess it doesn't really matter if you do or don't, either way is good! I got through the game with my characters levelled up so it's all good. Laughing

Rufus

I like level ups. I trained to 100 both times I played. On the island of Heaven and Hell it's easy. Do it if you want, but I say it's worth it.

DragonHeart

It may not be necessary but I do it anyways, more out of habit than anything. Besides, the only way to learn abilities is to fight a lot of battles, so either way I end up leveling.

The only fight I can think of that is truly level dependant is Diablos, whose stats are calculated by your average level. In this case, lower is better.

Other than that I haven't noticed any enemy, boss or otherwise, becoming more difficult at a higher level. If anything, they get easier because you end up with more abilities, stats etc to draw on.

~DragonHeart~

setzertrancer

Not leveling up actually has major advantages in this game.

Did you know that not leveling up until you find Tonberry and Catuar allowed you to become more powerfull then If you just level up throughout the game?

This is because those 2 GF have a couple of abilities call Str up, Def up, Hp up and so on, that allows you to gain additional stat points when you level up. So if you start doing this when Squall is 7th level and keep str up junctioned until level 100 he will have 93 additional points of Str. I'm sure the designers intended this because the enemies stay at the same level as you and the bosses only give you AP, no exp. So it is entirly posible to do this. I've done it once before.

DragonHeart

It's possible but not really necessary. I didn't have any problems just playing through normally without much thought to stats and so on outside of junctioning stuff to 'em. I actually like the system cause it let me concentrate on the story without doing massive detours just to get X levels or Y items for Z battle.

~DragonHeart~

setzertrancer

It kind of sux being aware of this in the game, because it kind of makes it hard for me to just enjoy the game normally. I instead become a bit obsessive with the attitude that I can't miss anything. FFX-2 did a similar thing, with how you could only get Mascot if you did everything perfectly. In both cases it's hard for me to enjoy the game the way it was meant to be played now.

dimmufan

Heck yes it matters. Even though the mobs leveled up along side the characters, there were some creatures that had defined set of levels. If you weren't properly leveled then you just might get a game over.

Bekki

Yes it is a good idea to level up as if you come to a boss at a high level, then you could get wiped out and it is game over. At the moment Squall is at level 76 and the GF's that I have are at full level and can't go any higher.

NKOW ANIMA

It is a good idea to level AFTER you get your stat bonuses(ex. str bonus or hp bonus) because if you level before you don't get the additional stats on your chars.... and with those additional stats.... you're chars will be so powerful they're rigged

Squall333

Really I don't think leveling really matters. What really matters is what you juntion to your stats. If you have good magic then it doesn't really matter what your level it. I guess the enemies are weaker if you don't level up, but I never really had any problems with the game at high levels. I will level up sometimes when I play the game. It just depends if I'm bored or just feel like fighting a lot of monsters or leveling up.

Squall Leonhart

Not really, the junctioning system made it really easy to overpower your characters by adding elemental attributes. It also was useful to boost your STR, MP, DEF and other attributes to almsot the limit. I had numbers close to 9999 (9456 if my memory doesn't fails me) str with almost every character and they were around levels 47 to 50.

At the very beginning of the game I gathered enough magic in order to junction it to my stats thus making my life easier XD

Seltox

I'm sure you would have all heard of the "no level up" game. It is entirely possible to complete this game without gaining one single point of exp. The thing about the game is that enemies _do_ level up with you. It isn't perfectly with you, sometimes with a 20 level gap (you might be able to fight the same enemies from level 40-60 at the same point in the game).

The junction system makes it entirely possible to stay ontop of your enemies throughout the game easily. You can become exceedingly overpowered at the start of the game, with getting 100 Tornado's for each 3 active characters (300 tornados) possible before the SeeD exam.

Here's some stuff. I'm fairly sure it is possible to get 255 str at level 7 with Squall (thanks to ultima on strength, and str+60%,+40% etc). it is possible to get 9999 hp and all that junk. It is the junctioning system that allows you to do this, not the levels. levels make a minute difference. You don't notice any difference at all (You would probably notice a difference going from level 10 to 20 or 25).

I'm sure some of you might be questioning "How do you get the junction abilities from GF's if you can't get exp". The answer is card. If you card enemies, you get AP, but not exp. Totally boring and takes the fun out of the game, but makes it possible to complete the game without leveling once (The 'ultimate challenge' for Final Fantasy VIII. I think it's pointless). Personally I find the junction system to be the best thing in the game, and the worst. Once you have all the powerful spells, it is incredible. GETTING those spells is the worst thing ever.

Well, back on topic - leveling up in this game is entirely optional. I dislike random battles (well, not dislike, but I prefer them not to be there) in this game, so I generally end at a low level (unless I spend hours upon hours killing elastoids to try and get them to drop a damn item so I can get the Lion heart on disk 1 >_< level 80 Squall versus Edea the first time). It's all up to the players. But overall, no. You don't need to level. Infact I encourage you not to level until you can the ability+ things (str up, mag up and such). Using those to level will make you a much stronger party overall.