I found that i spend A LOT of time leveling up b/c im obsessive about having all six characters at equal levels. And as much leveling as i do, i am still at the mimimum level required for beating certain areas, and its very taxing and annoying to do.

So what im wondering is, is it a waste of time to level all my characters? Or should i focus on my favorite three? (( vaan, balthier, and fran of course ))

leveling isnt as important as getting good weapons/armor but it does certainly help to be at a higher level

what i do is i usually have three people a few levels higher than the other three not much but like 3-4 levels or something and u can make the span a lil bigger as you go on in the game

Hey PoeticHomicide, i'm the same as you in that regard. I keep all six of my characters at the same level as much as possible. However, I've never really found my party to be under leveled. Sure, I'm often under the recommended level for an area but I've always thought the recommendations were to high anyways.

In short, play it the way you like it and don't worry about recommendations from guides is my advice.

quote Eternal Wizard

Hey PoeticHomicide, i'm the same as you in that regard. I keep all six of my characters at the same level as much as possible. However, I've never really found my party to be under leveled. Sure, I'm often under the recommended level for an area but I've always thought the recommendations were to high anyways.

In short, play it the way you like it and don't worry about recommendations from guides is my advice.

Thats the best thing to follow right there, but my advice would be to level your 3 favorite while your going through the story mode, then while you don't feel like advancing is when you should level the other three, but follow what Eternal said mainly.

My strategy:

Lvl up Vaan, Balthier, Penelo 1st.

Once all Lvled up, switch with Basch, Ashe and Fran.

FF12GM: Your comment (crap equipment) made me wanna post my newest challenge. While looking for a fun way to play through I've decided to go with the restriction of not buying weapons or armor unless from the Bazaar. I suspect it will not have a great impact on the late game but it sure is making the early/mid game a lot tougher. I Also have created a sudoku like puzzle outta my magic usage. Allowing Penelo to max out on all magic but having the other 5 characters with max scores of 7, 6, 5, 4, and 3 in each of the five schools of magic and making sure none of them has the same max score in a magic as anyone else (follow that?). Not sure why I mention this but I do find it a fun way to create a more challenging game but keep all the flavor available.

Well for me i just concentrated on three of my characters(vaan, balthier and basch) who are in level 90. The other three i just left it. They are in their mid 10s. And this did not stop me from being able to kill all the story bosses and most of the sub boss/espers though if you take up the streaker challenge; it might be a necessity to have all levelled up.

quote RikuNova

I always keep characters at the same level. That way when yo are defeated in a boss fight, your backup characters can revive you.

Exactly...

i level my 3 favourite characters till enough high level to beat up enemys in henne mines, second part. and then i beat them, and in last hits, i'm changing for my 2 low level characters, leaving 1 strong, of course i'm equiping embroided tippets for them to have better results.

I don't really have a main party, so I'm obsessive about keeping my characters at equal levels. But good equipment always helps, and can make or break your game when underleveled. Unless you're doing Streaker, like Mr. Grand Master over here.

quote Terrra

As for equipment being more important than leveling - well, the performance of any weapon is based on the level of your character. If you are level one and have an ultimate weapon (not a chance of that ever happening, mind you),

122333 much??? guess not.

I got a main party and a back-up party. My main does all the attacking. And if something happens to wipe them out, I whip out the other three to revive the main party. Then sub them back in when they die and revive them whenever I can during the battle in case it happens again.