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

Usually I will level along with the story. Its very rare that I will sit mid way through the game and grind up 30 levels. In FFVII I never spent time levelling, I merely fought what was thrown in front of me until I got to the final cave, where I had to start grinding because I just couldnt beat the final boss as I was. In most RPG's I will just enjoy the story and let the levels come naturally.

However...

Once I get to the point where it says "This is it, no turning back after this point, make sure you get all your affairs in order" I will explore the worlds and obtain as much as I can as long as it doesnt involve too much repetitveness. For example, I set Quistis to yellow HP and ran around the high level mob areas in FFVIII using Destruction in every battle. That got my characters maxed in very VERY little time, so I kinda enjoyed that. In Kingdom Hearts II I completed the story and fought the final boss, then after watching the ending I decided to try my hand at the Goddess of Fate cup and killing Sephiroth. I found a very quick way of getting Sora to 99 (I was level 34 at the time) so I did it. Made Sephiroth a little easier and also alot of other stuff.

I think if a game is playable without having to "grind" then its a successful game, if a game requires you to sit in the same area for hours on end just to get strong enough to fight something in the story, then its a flawed game. Its this reason why I think the Final Fantasy series are perfect, because I have never had to grind much to complete them. Fair enough, you have to "grind" to kill some of the extra bosses cause its not necessary to see the ending, but you should never have to commit to a repetitive system to complete it.

Jam it back in, in the dark.