It’s time to do the drill, LEVEL POWER UP TIME!

After playing the same dungeon for over 8 hours now in Valkyrie Profile 2, I’m busy trying to level up my guys in an almost over powered level. Honestly, I’ve gotten quite sick of hearing the same battle theme (albeit it being a pretty good theme by Sakuraba), going to the EXACT same spot to launch my attacks, and I basically almost have this leveling up part down to a science for VP2. In this thread, state and describe how you level up your characters in RPGS, if at all. Several points to consider:

1) Do you level your guys up SIGNIFICANTLY higher than what’s expected for the current level/boss?

2) Do you level your guys up so they can fight the boss on more “equal” footing, but still have some difficulty?

3) Do you level only certain party members in which ever RPG you might be playing, or do you go the full nine yards and get everyone maxed out?

4) What RPG do you recall has having the longest time spent on pure leveling up? Alright, running to the local town to restock supplies you can count, as long as it’s mainly just raising the level of your characters?

5) Do you normally level up in every RPG you play? By that - ie grinding like an over-worked bitchy mom.

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For me, let’s see.

1) I usually like to level my guys up to a level where they can fight the boss on square footing, unless you’re talking about a super boss like the Ultima/Omega Weapon or some boss that’s similar.

2) I usually only bothered to level up characters that I know I would be using a lot. For Final Fantasy X for example, I only bothered to keep using Tidus, Auron, Wakka, and Yuna, if I remember, since they were basically the powerhouse team. I don’t see what was so special about using Rikku, since she’s not really a magic user, nor is she a heavy hitter type. Simliarly with FFVII, I think I only bothered to really soup up Cloud, Barret, Tifa, Cid, and Yuffie. The others I just stuffed in the back and hoped they survived Sephiroth’s first form.

I think the only RPG where I got everyone to level 100 was FFVIII. I’m not sure why, but leveling up in that game was easy, thanks to a constant 1000 experience required for each level. Still, I don’t think I ever did face of the Omega weapon – I beat the Ultima in the research facility.

3) For the longest time spent leveling up, my big multi-hour run of leveling up sure puts a spot up there, but I think it’s not the longest. I can’t recall off top of my head, but probably one of the earlier FF’s, like FFVI. Although since it had such a huge cast of characters, only a select few I kept using for the final showdown with Kefka.

4) I don’t level up for every RPG I play, although I might spend a few battles doing so to perhaps help me get past the next boss. I basically didn’t bother with anything else of Final Fantasy IX, since I was sort of getting sick of that game and wanted to see the “controversial” ending with Kuja and that other myserious freak that popped out of nowhere. Similarily, I’m still one the first disc for Lunar 2: EB, and yet I don’t think I’ve had a single level up session. Most of the regular enemies are easy enough, but I have to say the bosses are tough customers. Also I find getting items in Lunar 2 isn’t exactly easy. Not so much that it’s expensive, but you have such a tight limit of items that you can carry.

Well, that’s all I can think about leveling up. Also, do you find leveling up absolutely necessary for most RPGs that you play?

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Oh, level grinding, not familiar with that term. Usually I just say Concentrated Leveling Up or something.

::new RPG vocabulary::

There's nowhere I can't reach.

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Incidentally, I gave up on Star Ocean 3 because I felt like I needed to grind just to stay alivel, and that made it feel like work, not fun. That's something I thought would be revelevant to your topic. I like for the progression to feel natural, in a game.

Yeah, I hate that point where something that is designed to be fun now turns into mindless repetitive tasks. I mind as well go to work and fold envelopes cause I'm getting paid for it >_>.

Note to self, get Disgaea.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

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Final Fantasy X was a game that made me need to level up to keep the story going.

I personally found the story of FFX bleh, and I wasn't really looking forward to fighting some big blob of weird gooey crap, and I didn't quite like the sphere grid system, although it was neat compared to just simple level up stats, this time you have some sort of "control". Also I didn't see the need of levelling up, I just got all the Aeons to max overdrive as well as getting the Celestial weapons for the main characters.

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