When I play RPG's, I typically don't go that extra step to be ultra powerful. When I'm not strong enough to take out the enemies of the next area, I tend to stick right outside of town and fight just enough enemies to be a little stronger. This is usually because of the challenge factor. Even though it's a game with experience points and leveling, I still want to feel like it is a little difficult. In many games, I also subscribe to the belief that it's the equipment that makes all the difference, so I also work just hard enough to get good equipment and continue on my journey.
But that's not always the case.
In Final Fantasy, I spent A LOT OF TIME grinding (the act of leveling up from random encounters)! In other RPG's, I can usually take care of the level grinding from side quests (for instance, the Sphere 211 in Star Ocean: Till the End of Time or the Hunter Marks in Final Fantasy XII.). Yet in Dragon Quest and the first Final Fantasy, I would walk repeatedly back and forth fighting random encounters until I became strong enough to take out my enemies with some more ease. Maybe this is because in these titles, gaining a level actually meant a big difference in stats.
Let's talk Final Fantasy. When you gain a level, you gain some stats that make you stronger. When you gain five levels, it's like gaining ten levels in other games of the series. This is because the level cap in the first title is 50! Granted I am now at a point where I have great equipment, a complete spell book, and enough items to stock a warehouse, I wanted to make sure that the end of the game would be a breeze (As you'll see in the finale, the final dungeon is a long one filled with dangerous encounters, bosses, and no save points or revival items!).
How did become the beast in Final Fantasy? I did a lot of research on the best areas to level up. During the Floating Castle run, I thought it would be a good idea to return to fight those enemies over and over again with the chance to score some serious experience with the occasional War Mech battle. But I also remembered how difficult and unstable those conditions were, as well as how long it took to reach that part of the castle.
General consensus from FAQs and forums across Wikia and GameFAQs seemed to agree the best places to level up were using the spots in front of treasure chests where enemies would always re spawn. I call these tiles "hot spots", and according to my research, the best spots were with the Zombie Dragons in the Ordeals Castle and the Eyes in the Ice Cave (both mentioned in Part 10). Even though they do not give as much experience as other formations of enemies in the game, the Eye is a very quick kill. As long as you have the Aegis Shield or Ribbons equipped on your characters to prevent instant death, each Eye will take a few seconds to kill, giving you a huge amount of experience over a short amount of time.
If you want the math, each character gets 806 experience from killing the Eye, and at this point in the game, it takes about 31,000 experience to gain a level. This means that for every 39 fights, you gain a level for each character. Now before you say that's insane, each fight only takes a few seconds (Make sure your message speed is high to make the battles flow faster.).
How did I have the patience to put up with gaining ten additional levels this way? Easy. I watched a lot of TV while leveling up. It was a great way to catch up on some shows I missed out on. If I didn't have the TV on, I'll be honest. I probably wouldn't have done it.
But now that I have, I can't really say I REGRET becoming the four-man-army. While I will miss the challenge and fear that comes from heading down a difficult dungeon a little under powered, there's just something to say about being able to strike down enemies with little to no problems.
And now I leave you with a little comic I drew about the subject. I hope you've enjoyed the first Bonus Round.
Coming next time! Final Fantasy Finale!
Thanks for reading, and leave your comments below!
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