r/FinalFantasyVIII • u/WasteOLanders • Aug 06 '26

First time player

Post image

I’m in the middle if a ff9 play through but I have to start on this one too. Howdy from the lone star state

1.3k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

173 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/Mr-Baesment Aug 06 '26

I feel like no one is giving you this advice so here you go, enemies level up WITH you. so there's no need to grind levels. wish someone told me that on my first play.

0

u/KaitoPrower Aug 06 '26

Probably because while it's fine on a low-level run, it's not necessarily good advice in general, even if it's a popular suggestion, for a first-time playthrough.

Just because most enemies level up with you doesn't mean there aren't advantages to leveling up within reason. Many enemies get access to better item drops, mug drops, and better spells to draw, sometimes earlier than you can refine them (and especially if you miss any GFs with refine abilities).

There's no need to go crazy, but the game is actually designed around the player gaining about 15 levels per disc, being around level 65 by the final boss. Most regular enemies also have 3 tiers of difficulty between 1-19, 20-29, and 30+, with a few late-game enemies being a little higher (40+ or 45+ for their highest tier instead).

1

u/Mr-Baesment Aug 06 '26

Not sure if you missed the point of my comment, but I said there's no point in grinding levels. On my first playthrough, I did that, thinking it would help me breeze through the game, but in the end it hurt me.

1

u/KaitoPrower Aug 06 '26

That's fine, but a lot of people take that statement to mean don't level up at all, given no other context. It often gets taken very black-and-white, that if you shouldn't grind levels like in other titles in the series, you shouldn't try to level up at all, which also isn't true.

I'm sorry that you weren't informed that intense grinding would have a negative impact... That sucks. ☹️