Need some Final Fantasy VIII leveling tips.

I'm playing through Final Fantasy VIII for the first time right now and I'm enjoying it thoroughly. I have been having a very easy time though, as I've only died twice and I'm now half way through the third disk. My tactics have been basically to junction all of my GF's equally among my three party members and just level up the GF's as much as possible. I haven't done much of any gathering weapons or limit breaks or anything else than keeping my GF's in battle. Before I go to the final area of the game, I will most likely go and level up a lot more, and was wondering if anyone had some tips or suggestions for me, as even this far in the game I'm very confused on some of the gameplay mechanics and was wondering if I'm unknowingly playing the game wrong and will find it harderer very soon. If that makes any sense.

Get Holy Wars, they make you unable to die. Then get the spell Aura and cast it on everyone, their limits will come up every other turn.

When you level up in 8 the enemies level up as well. I found that you really don't need to level at all. All you need to due is junction amazing magic to the right stats and you are good to go. There are so really good guides on the google if you care to check them out.

@ballsdeep said:

This. Enc None is your friend, and draw draw draw draw draw draw draw draw draw.

You'll probably end up being forced to level anyway if you shoot for some of the optional GFs like Eden. Also suggest trying to keep your duders around the same level, as there's a lot of swapping about.

It's a really busted system if you try and read too much into it. And it's extremely exploitable.

If you're enjoying yourself, I'd say just keep doing what you're doing. Just don't worry about grinding levels, because the game is really bad with level scaling and you can end up weaker than you were.

It's a flawed combat system (but I still love it). If you really want to grind, you should go fight Cactaurs on the island in the south. They pretty much die in one hit and give crazy GF XP. You can then unlock all of their abilities and refine cards/items into some of the most powerful magic to junction. You can also get parts to upgrade to the best weapons.

Aura will be very useful on the last boss indeed. And some of the fucked up optional bosses.

As a couple of others have said, the enemies level with you, so that can be dangerous. However, if it seems to be working well and you keep rolling with it, I leveled up when I played it at the training facility on the Garden. There may totally be better spots, but it seemed easy enough to grind it out there.

I may be remembering this wrong, but isn't there an island with pretty tough enemies that you could limit break to get good exp? Island of Hell or something? Had T-Rex and other tough enemies like the huge plant thing. Man my memory of this game is shot to pieces.

The whole system basically hinges on you using your Draw effectively. Getting the most powerful spells to slot and use is key. A lot of the top end magic can be found on the two "secret" islands only accessible with the Ragnarok.

The Island Closest to Hell is the western-most island on the south-western side of the Galbadia Continent. The Island Closest to Heaven is on the far north-eastern side of the world near the heavily wooded area on the north side of the Esthar Continent. The enemies on both islands are lvl100 or close to it but each also have a bunch of draw points for high end magic.

Since you only need 100 EXP to level, when you're at that one Garden with the ice rink you can grind out to max levels there. Though I don't remember if you can swap characters at that point, so it may not be the ideal place to make it happen because of the way enemies scale. Great advice in this entire thread though.

Level up your free times by stop playing that game. I actually never got a good handle on how the leveling up works in the game. It does a poor ob explaining itself.

Sure is! But as others have, leveling is unnecessary, and the final area more or less negates the use of your abilities.

If you want to use your time wisely, it's piecing together Squall's ultimate weapon. The endgame is so horribly designed, I don't even know how it would be possible to do without his Lionheart attack

If you want to level the Island's closest to Hell/Heaven for Characters and Cactuar Island to farm AP for GF abilities.

The first time I played I didn't level really, but I also didn't prepare (no Guides at the time). When I made it up to Adel on Disc 4, I had no chance. I hadn't found any optional GF, or upgraded any weapons to their Final form. I had to start the game over. Leveling is definitely not necessary, but being extremely prepared for the endgame is.

As for you @mrpilkington, I would tell you that from then on, whenever I played the game, I always leveled up normally. I didn't worry about keeping my levels low. Nothing really was that harder, it just made some bosses a little longer to defeat. Whenever I got the Ragnarok I would always level to 100 with all of my characters, get all the GF abilities, ultimate weapons, and turn all the rare cards into items; but that's just how I play the game. Plus, I always beat Omega Weapon, and you need to be at level 100 for that.

I would say that you have to at least get some of the optional GFs, and get Squall's Lion Heart and make sure his attack is as close to 255 as possible.

Go to the islands closest to Hell and Heaven, walk around with Encounter None and draw the invisible magic points there. Switch between the two islands to let the other regenerate itself. Once you have 100 of these for all three of your characters, level up on these islands until level 100. Then, finish every sidequest before the Point of No Return (somewhere inside Lunatic Pandora, can't remember when exactly). Also, once you're set for the endgame, use your Quetzacotl ability to turn all of your cards into items. The Laguna card, in particular, is extremely handy, as it gives you items turning your entire party invincible for some time.

Level as little as possible until you have most of the GFs so you get access to the best stats bonus when leveling up. Not that it's really needed but might as well make the best of what the game offers.

One of the most fun Final Fantasy games to "break the system" in, I think. Never level your characters, always draw and equip spells to boost their stats. The enemies stay pathetically weak, while your characters become like gods trampling anything before them.

Only Final Fantasy 5 has a more fun system to break, in my opinion.

Why would you want to level before the final dungeon? Granted the way FFVIII's levelling works you could be level 1 and trivialize it; but it's a very good final area that's much better if you're not over levelled when you do it; there's always Ultima, Omega Weapon, and 2 Iron Giants for later.

This is a pretty good and fun to use guide for FF8. I used it last time i played through it on PSP a few years ago.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps/197343-final-fantasy-viii/faqs/4930

Goes into how to maximize your characters and break the game system. The most fun part of any Final Fantasy game.

My tip would be to not level, because that will make the easy game much easier.