My youtube channel has been really active lately, with a grip of Let's Plays and other miscellaneous game commentary, but I owe it all to my Final Fantasy VIII playthrough. Pretty late in blogging it, since I don't do the whole blog thing too often. Check it below and read on. (Vulgar Commentary)

No-Leveling

The playthrough is done without leveling characters until pretty much the end of the game, at which point I power level everyone to 100. The reason I avoid leveling other than just for kicks, is because of the leveling system in FFVIII. All the enemies and bosses will level up with you in this game, which means you can actually have just as easy a time at default level. And with tricks to obtain higher level spells (card modding, etc) you can actually have a bigger advantage junctioning said spells to your characters when you're still low-level.

Attribute Bonuses

There are several bonus abilities that GF's learn through the course of the game, called bonuses. Once you obtain all the bonuses, you can equip them in your ability slots and receive more attribute points at each level up, which is why there's a specific time to power level to 100. As you could gather from the information I've laid out, power-leveling from the character's base level nets you the most bonus attribute points, so the no-level run is multi-purpose. You're more powerful throughout the game without leveling, and then you become unstoppable when you finally do level up at the end.

Card Mod

Of course your GF's have to obtain AP to make all this happen, and normally you can't do that without gaining some sort of experience from battles. The loop hole there is the command ability card mod. This is an early-game Quezacotl ability that you should learn at the offset, as you can weaken your enemies to a low percentage of health, and then mod them into cards. This nullifies any experience you'd receive from that opponent, but you get all the AP (and a bunch of cards for playing/modding).

I don't want to spill any more beans on this Let's Play, so just check out the playlist above if you so desire. I love challenging myself with this sort of thing on RPGs I'm familiar with.

I've played through it twice and probably 25-50% of the way a few more times, but it never occurred to me to take this no-leveling approach. Seems pretty interesting.

Also, FF8 is my favorite one and probably my favorite PS1 game, which is saying a lot I guess. Usually, people look at me weirdly when I say that.

@Marino said:

I've played through it twice and probably 25-50% of the way a few more times, but it never occurred to me to take this no-leveling approach. Seems pretty interesting.

Also, FF8 is my favorite one and probably my favorite PS1 game, which is saying a lot I guess. Usually, people look at me weirdly when I say that.

No kidding. Everyone fawns over 7 or 9. 8 is the black sheep of the group, if they even remember it exists at all. FOOLS!

I love FF8, and for as many times as I"ve played it I've never actually done this. Sounds like it'll be fun!

I'm about to have loads of free time and might actually replay FF8 again.

In truth, I just want to play more Triple Triad.

@Marino said:

I've played through it twice and probably 25-50% of the way a few more times, but it never occurred to me to take this no-leveling approach. Seems pretty interesting.

Also, FF8 is my favorite one and probably my favorite PS1 game, which is saying a lot I guess. Usually, people look at me weirdly when I say that.

Yeah FF8 is my favorite aside from FFT (which you put in a totally different category). People talk about FF9 like the second coming, but I thought it was super dull.

@lordofultima said:

@Marino said:

I've played through it twice and probably 25-50% of the way a few more times, but it never occurred to me to take this no-leveling approach. Seems pretty interesting.

Also, FF8 is my favorite one and probably my favorite PS1 game, which is saying a lot I guess. Usually, people look at me weirdly when I say that.

Yeah FF8 is my favorite aside from FFT (which you put in a totally different category). People talk about FF9 like the second coming, but I thought it was super dull.

FF8 and FFT are my two favorite FFs of that generation. @Marino For me, FF8 sits behind MGS and Soul Reaver, but that's it. Top of a big ass pile! I never, ever thought to take a no levelling approach. Curious! You must run from a lot of battles before you have Random Encounter -50/100% or whatever that ability was called.

I always kept leveling to about an average until end game with the Island closest to Hell/Heaven, although my first time playing, I didn't get any of the optional GFs and was at a really low level when I got up to Adel. I could not even come close to beating her. I decided (which completely sucked, since it was disc 4), to start the game over, level up a lot and find GFs. Needless to say, I beat her.

I want to play through this again now and try the way you're playing.

When it comes to Final Fantasy tastes, folks tend to somehow believe they are persecuted or alone in their opinion -- when in fact there's approximately a bazillion people who will agree with whatever their game of choice is. And then they all meet up and fight to the death!!!!

I think that's one the most fascinating things about this series though. It really speaks to the diversity of each title -- you don't often see sects with such rigid game preference within a series. People can absolutely love everything about VIII, but be morally opposed to what comes outta VII, and vice versa! FFIX, FFX, FFXII... they've all got their clubs too. Meanwhile, take a gander at the Dragon Quest series, pretty much anyone who's a fan of one will love them all, because they're so much the same thing.

That was a bit of a tangent. Anyway! The no-level approach has always struck me as the ideal way to play FFVIII. I love the game, but it's probably got one of the worst encounter rates in the series. Getting Enc-None is practically a requirement for me to make it through with my sanity, heheh. I ignore what enemies I can, stopping only to Draw when I need to... (come to think of it... it's been awhile, since I last played. If you're not winning any battles at all, can you even get GF abilities?)

Regardless, I tend to end up high level by the time I'm at the end of the game. I've always wondered... does the final boss scale significantly? It could just be my imagination, but it seems like it's definitely way easier if you're leveled... while on the other hand, Omega Weapon becomes a huge bitch with all of that HP.

@Superkenon said:

When it comes to Final Fantasy tastes, folks tend to somehow believe they are persecuted or alone in their opinion -- when in fact there's approximately a bazillion people who will agree with whatever their game of choice is. And then they all meet up and fight to the death!!!!

I think that's one the most fascinating things about this series though. It really speaks to the diversity of each title -- you don't often see sects with such rigid game preference within a series. People can absolutely love everything about VIII, but be morally opposed to what comes outta VII, and vice versa! FFIX, FFX, FFXII... they've all got their clubs too. Meanwhile, take a gander at the Dragon Quest series, pretty much anyone who's a fan of one will love them all, because they're so much the same thing.

That was a bit of a tangent. Anyway! The no-level approach has always struck me as the ideal way to play FFVIII. I love the game, but it's probably got one of the worst encounter rates in the series. Getting Enc-None is practically a requirement for me to make it through with my sanity, heheh. I ignore what enemies I can, stopping only to Draw when I need to... (come to think of it... it's been awhile, since I last played. If you're not winning any battles at all, can you even get GF abilities?)

Regardless, I tend to end up high level by the time I'm at the end of the game. I've always wondered... does the final boss scale significantly? It could just be my imagination, but it seems like it's definitely way easier if you're leveled... while on the other hand, Omega Weapon becomes a huge bitch with all of that HP.

Omega and Island Closest to Heaven/Hell enemies don't scale. They are always LV 100.

@lordofultima: Huh. Guess it's just been too long. Coulda sworn Omega was easier for me to beat at a lower level, but there could well have been unrelated factors involved there.

@GERALTITUDE said:

For me, FF8 sits behind MGS and Soul Reaver, but that's it. Top of a big ass pile!

Where does the hyphen go? WHERE DOES THE HYPHEN GO!?

There are no hyphens in Canadian English!

@GERALTITUDE said:

There are no hyphens in Canadian English!

PRAISE CANADA BASED ENGLISH

@Superkenon said:

@lordofultima: Huh. Guess it's just been too long. Coulda sworn Omega was easier for me to beat at a lower level, but there could well have been unrelated factors involved there.

Yeah even the Brady guide lists his stats as variable based on level, but it's not true. Takes like 8 times the limit breaks under holy war at base level. I have my base level save so I could do a comparison for you if you want.

That reminds me, I still never beat omega, I got the weapons and ozma but not omega.