MovieChat Forums > Fainaru fantajî VIII (1999) Discussion > Leveling Up Tips

Leveling Up Tips

posted 12 years ago by yishai4121-244-252287
7 replies | jump to latest

I played this game when it came out and had alot of good times with this particular Final Fantasy (damn, I feel old). Kinda where I started my gaming roots and love for the series. So to kind of help the levelers and starters of this game for you peeps just playing it for the first time, here's what I did to level up in the game.

Basic strategy of leveling

When it comes to leveling, obviously you'll need to stock up as far as items go incase your healer dies and your party has to recover quickly. I never bothered with single Phoenix Downs and always bought the multiple Phoenix Down, since in the areas I'll be suggesting, multi-character death is pretty common. I never mixed up my party personally, I always kept the same members in my team (Squall, Zell, and Rinoa) but had Selfie as a backup healer incase things got messy. But whatever your fighting style works for you is fine. Just remember that if you lose an important part of the party, you need to recover or replace it quickly.

Another important asset to your party is the Initiative skill. Basically, this ability lets your party instantly be the first ones to lay the starting blows to the enemy. A good way to do some quick defense spells or cast Aura to immediately start Limit Breaking those monsters.

Also, another small note...Don't be afraid to run away! Keep in mind that these aren't Boss fights, and retreating it ok. I tended to hold my ground and push my luck, which usually got me killed and lots of frustration when it comes to redoing everything. Since technically you'll be running around on the World Map for Tip 1, you can save between fights.

Tip 1

This is the hardest way to probably level up, but it's actually a good way to teach yourself how to prepare for future battles and handle worst case scenarios during fights. You won't be able to do this until later on in the game (disc 2 or 3, can't remember too well) but you can go to the Islands Closest to Heaven and Hell to level up. They are islands located far East and West of the world map directly off the continent (you can google a FF8 world map and find them pretty easy). Be warned though that these islands are insanely difficult to even fight the monsters, as the worst one is the Malboro monster (native to the Island of Hell closest to Esthar) that inflicts pretty much every ailment status with it's Bad Breathe attack. The other monsters are relatively easy to deal with as long as you use your wits during the fight but the Marbolo are the worst.

As far as customization, you'll have to tweak your defenses to specifically counter these guys. You won't be able to stop all the ailments the Breathe attack will inflict, but you should be able to stop the big ones that will let you cure yourself so you can counter-attack. You can use this link to better understand what you need to do to prepare for it (they also explain it way better. lol)
http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Malboro_%28Final_Fantasy_VIII%29

Tip 2

Now, your second best option without having to hoard magic to even defend yourself against the bigger, badder monsters of the Islands Closest to Heaven and Hell is to go to the Centra Ruins where you get the GF Odin. Go there (you can get there as soon as you acquire the Garden to fly around) and simply start murdering Tonberry's. Killing Tonberry's is pretty easy, but don't bother trying to use status ailments against them as they are immune to everything. Just start hacking and fighting as soon as you start.

The only real threat of attack you have to worry about the Tonberry and also is totally unique in the game is that they walk forward usually every other turn they are not attacking. Basically, this is a countdown that you need to hurry your a** up and kill the thing. 5 steps forward total will put the Tonberry infront of your party, leaving it free to use its deadliest attack: Chef's Knife. Basically an instant death, it will simple stab your character and kill him/her. The attack doesn't reset as it reaches 5 steps, it'll stay infront of your party and will only need 3 turns from there to kill everyone. If you think your lucks not gonna cut it that fight, simply run away and try again.

The payoff of xp is pretty good and since most of the time you only fight one of them in a battle, you should be pretty well off.

NOTE: There is a sidequest involving killing 18-22 Tonberry's to meet the Tonberry King, whom if you defeat will join you as a GF. The Tonberry King, along with any other GF you have to fight, is extremely difficult if your not prepared. Keep this in mind during your rampage and keep count.

In Closing...

As I said, I played this game religiously back in 1998. I know I left alot of holes here and there but feel free to reply with a specific question and I'll get back to you. Have fun and enjoy! Remember, Patience!

Jesse

[–] hairpolice 12 years ago

There's no sense in levelling up in this game.

[–] Abbykat 12 years ago

An important thing to keep in mind is that the enemies of the game scale in level according to Squall's level, so going out of your way to level up will actually result in more difficult battles - enemies will have higher stats and stronger abilities than they would if your level were lower. A low-level party with high-end magic junctioned to their stats has a much easier time than a high-level party.

Thus, if you're running into difficulty - especially with random encounters - the best thing to do is not to try to level up, but to stock and junction more and stronger magic to your stats, and to accumulate AP to open up more GF abilities. For the former, the Card and Card Mod GF abilities and the GF abilities related to refining magic from items or other spells are the best ways to go (and Card also prevents you from receiving XP for the converted monster, useful if you're trying to stay low-level). For the latter, Cactuars on Cactuar Island give comparatively high AP rewards.

"You always know where the X-Men have been, because it's always on fire."
- Pete Wisdom

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Abbykat 12 years ago

True, but in almost all cases the same spells and items can be obtained much less tediously via Card Mod and other refining skills.

"You always know where the X-Men have been, because it's always on fire."
- Pete Wisdom

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Sleazy_E 12 years ago

Yep it's much better being low lvl with high end magic junctioned to stats. Though being lvl 100 isn't that bad if you have the lvl down skill which can let you lvl enemies down to like 10 and with you being 100 hahah. About getting rare items, you don't even need to lvl up to 100. Either just use the lvl up skill(I believe there is a lvl up skill aswell) or just travel to those hell island and mug enemies. I think between lvl 35-50 is the best lvl to be in the game.

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[–] Getoboy730 11 years ago

I agree with both sides. You really only need to be around 30 for the good spells to kick in. But I play a lot of cards, and have all of the available Magic-RFs ASAP, so that's fairly pointless except for a few spells. At that level, you can be pretty strong, while the monsters aren't that strong. However, carding to avoid EXP can be boring, and killing monsters is fun, so levels will inevitably be gained.

I'd say, stay low until mid-Disc 2. The when you have all the stat bonuses, kill off two party members and go fight like crazy. I use LV UP to increase exp, and decrease the number of fights I need. My goal is to have my players be the same level, then consider whether or not to go stat maxing. I'm at this point of the game right now. Squall is lvl 70 and everyone else is lvl 40. I'll get em on the same page first. Not sure if I wanna get to 100. I know staying low makes it easier, but I already have a pretty easy path ahead of me due to my card playing and modding, so I'm fine with tougher fights. That is the only thing I didn't like about FF7 vs FF8. In 7, they don't lvl up with you, so most enemies are pretty easy one you reach a certain point in the game. For me its usually the end of disc 1.

And with no materia to have to level up, fighting in 8 is a big more pointless. Unless you don't card mod, and only draw once per fight. I also realize that if the have strong spells, stat maxing isn't completely necessary, but it's not like you have each character carrying 500 ultimas, triples and full-life. So it is somewhat necessary. The stat bonuses add that old aspect of job and classes, since you can either balance everyone, or make mages or fighters, depending on what you do with you abilities. Money is useless in this game and it's not acquired in fights, so that's another couple reasons not to fight. But I love a challenge. But I don't have the Ragnorok yet, so can you get to the Hell/Heaven Islands with the Garden. Until now, I haven't played this in over a decade.

Embrace Debate.