Am I the only one who does this...

[xxpanzasanchoxx]

I actually take the time to master the first three Guardian Forces you get in the game. You get a decent amount of AP fighting the fish fins at the shoreline by Balamb Garden, but it takes quite sometime. Would it take the fun out of the game for you guys doin that?

[loaf]

There are many ways to play the game. Some playthrus I would just AP grind till I got one of the very good perks.

Other times I try and avoid as much battles I can. I don't go looking for random battles.

Farming AP early like you do isn't taking the fun out of it unless you enjoy the more weaker GF which can add more challenge to the game if it easy IMO. But it can be fun by having a maxed out GF whenever you summon it early on it just obliterates.

[Angel of Iniquity]

I have an emulator so I push the hyper fast fowerd button and just fight for about 10 minutes, meaning about 40 minutes in game.
Before the dollet mission I am at 19-25 lv
Though for that, I play squall solo

[Selcopa]

Enemies level up as you do.

I avoid as many battles as i can for the major part of the game, doesn't mean i run from every fight, but i try not to level up too much. That way when i get cactuar and the Ragnarok, i can goto island closest to heaven and kill enemies while junctioning STR,MAG,VIT and SPR up on level increase, and boost as many stats as i can.

I also catch a chocobo early on and get Boco and have him goin on the pocketstation whenever I can, getting him leveled up, as well as the items he brings back allows me to get very high stats.

After twinking my characters as much as possible, i take them to fight omega weapon, I use no invincibility items(no Hero or Holy War items) and try to kill omega as quick as possible, that also means no 20 minute limit break from Zell, I try not to summon GFs either as I want the kills to come purely from my characters.

[saio]

if you are refering to continuisly leveling up until boss's seam weak yes i do tend to do that although i hav'int finished ff8 the principul is still the same

[mineteaser]

It's funny that, although I do love the Final Fantasy series, I don't like to just sit in the games and level grind. I gotta be doing something else, like a subquest. So no, I don't max my GFs. People sometimes call me crazy cause I won't sit there grinding enemies, I'll just go to my next destination or explore.

EDIT: Actually, what I really like to do is go to the dungeon that I'm supposed to be in, keep fighting until I start to lose a whole lot HP or MP, then go back into town to heal and stock up on supplies from the gained Gil.

[xxpanzasanchoxx]

Well after the beginning where I max out the first three GFs, that's when I start really getting into the game. The plus side is that I max out on water magic too so I'm pretty equipped for a while.

[Zerobanshee]

I normally skip everything until Quetzacoatl learns Card. I don't fight a single enemy, I just run through the story and get AP from bosses.
Then, I use card to finish all my battles, to avoid gaining EXP. This sounds tedious, but right now I'm on a playthrough, and my highest lvl Charrie is Irvine at lvl 13. No joke.
Once I get Cactuar, I usually go solo train with Cactuar junctioned to gain as much stats as possible. Stat bonus for the win.

[smurphy]

On my first playthrough I lost against Elvoret and decided to raise my characters until they were really advanced in level(this being back in the day where I had the time and the patience) and 20 hours later the characters and GFs were lv 99. Nowadays I would struggle to raise the characters to lv 15 before battling Elvoret. I prefer going out of my way acquiring the strongest possible magic to junction to the characters. I find its a lot more efficient.

[Tulpa]

I did this with Shiva, ifrit, quezacotl, and siren. The rest weren't with me through all my leveling up grinding sessions, but they were still decently high.

[Keigo12]

My second time through 8 I did that, but I'd do it with every GF I got - once acquired I'd go grind. However, I find I enjoy the game the most when you play a low level game. The last time I played the game I made it to the fourth disc without having any characters above level 12. Did a lot of card modding and running to avoid the experience.

[the_savior21]

iv beaten VIII close to 20 times and i always fight the fish on the beach until Quetzacotl learns card card mod t-magic refine mid-mag refine and vit-j and shiva learns str-j vit-j boost i mag- refine gf hp+ 10% and sum mag+ 10% that doesnt take the fun out of it aside from the part that you can take awhile but i couldnt amagine mastering them you do mean level 100 right cuz if you do that would take forever

[matt]

I do it mainly cos I want the stat bonus and card mod, as soon as I get Diablo tho i master enc-none so i can get the most out of stat bonus, I kinda wish there was a way to get sorces like 7 tho that would make the game a lot better I think

[BDub2277]

So I don't really power level my AP for strong GFs, or level up my characters in FF8. The one thing I do almost everytime I play through the game is absolutely load up on drawing magics, maxing a hundred stacks for a bunch of them in order to junction them to character stats. It's kinda imba, early on in the game, with ex: 100 fires junctioned to Squall's strength even with him being a relatively low level.

[markandrewkinzett]

Everyone has there own style of play so if you do that it is your choice but personally I wouldn't do it.

[CrazedMonkey]

You're not alone my friend, I've done that too. I didn't do so too often because I tend to be impatient, but I have a couple of times gone out of my way to master those 3 early on. Makes some of those annoying bosses go by so much faster.