What is the best way to level up skills/weapons?

[exirpit]

Hey, I've played this game since I was a kid and I never managed to get to lvl 99 in all magics and barely managed to get all weapons to their levels to get all skills for the characters you control. This is mainly because of the grind and maybe my methods not being the best, so I was wondering what people usually do to train their stats.

For weapons: (all of them)
I used to train my weapons either by using the play-fair tactic for max afk or manual, switching between combo and critical attack styles.

For magic:
(fire)
I used to just camp some decently high level place with the AOE burn spells, maximizing the hits on multiple targets. Sometimes I used the hybrid spells that were both fire/earth as well.
(earth)
Again either using the AOE spells or support spells like increasing the strength/defense
(water)
heals! usually in combat, however I've learned that you could just stand close to some damage dealing obstacle in the game and then heal off of that, then go recover and repeat.
(wind)
More AOE and support spells

[Thaso]

well, After some time the exp gets worse because you level too much.
For water you can chill at Dom ruins. like 8-12 hours per character and you are done with 99 water.
Rest is Patience.
When you have Dragon Cut on Justin he is fast on earth, fire and weapons.

[Thaso]

you can check out Primalliquid on youtube, he did an "Overgrind Run" and is not quiet finished.
its worth a look

[exirpit]

Originally posted by Thaso:

well, After some time the exp gets worse because you level too much.
For water you can chill at Dom ruins. like 8-12 hours per character and you are done with 99 water.
Rest is Patience.
When you have Dragon Cut on Justin he is fast on earth, fire and weapons.

Holy, 8-12 hours? :O That's crazy haha. I believe I've beaten the game like 3 times and on average it has taken me around 44 hours ish. That is with nowhere close to max levels. I've also seen a lot of people here on the forums say that the game is really easy to beat, meanwhile I've struggled like crazy at the end tower haha. Maybe I've not grinded enough

[Roulette]

If you have finished Tower of Temptation having the double xp items are helpful. That being said, I would recommend the following:

Justin: Even with zero weapons he will hit the alligators in the petrified forest hard enough to not make the time worth. For his weapon xp, if you dont have the prior exp from old party members, go to the Zil desert. Here you can be right by the save cone. Get in a fight with some scorpions. You can kill all but one and have Rapp or Liete use Gravity on it to keep it still. Then spam Aura. This is faster than alligators since you can runaway and keep the scorpion there to fight again while keeping XP. (Have everyone on withdraw and Justin on manual)

Feena: Even at mid/high 40s, with zero items she can just auto down the alligators in petrified forest. Have Rapp and Liete gravity them and let Feena wack away. (Have everyone on withdraw and Feena on play fair)

Rapp: This boy hits hard too like Justin. For him use the same strategy as Justin in the desert. Only here you can spam Mist Hide for easy exp. (have everyone on withdraw and Rapp on manual)

Liete: Probably the easiest one to level up weapon. For this you can use Feena's strat. Only here Liete hits for such low numbers as long as you are doing at least 1 dmg you can just let the game play out (have the other 3 on withdraw and Liete on play fair) while this is going on just go to bed lol.

For magic I think we all know that for Water magic to use the spikes in the Castle of Dreams to power level up Water to 99. If you want an easy way to level up earth and wind I would fight the Ghosts in Tower of Temptation and leave your team on "power up" this way when the characters sometimes do their combo attacks (make sure to have zero weapons as Liete will Star Symphony and boost power) they do next nothing. (Idk why they still attack when they are set to power up and still have MP to use). But then once you are done you can run away and rinse and repeat by using the save cone. Fire is probably the hardest to do. But I would probably cast burnflame on dragon knights in ToT since they are resistant to magic.
UPDATE: OK so FIRE, it took a lot of looking at bestiary but as I was farming off the ghosts in Tower of Temptation, I realized the Gaia Brains actually might be the key here. They take 80-90 damage from Burnflame and give 24 EXP(48 with Double exp item) when I hit a group of 3 AND THEY KNOW ALHEALER+. I got the same exp on lvl 54 Fire and 48 Fire. Also you can run away from the battle and the monster will still be there to fight again, unlike the ghosts. These mobs know Crackling so make sure to buff your team and gravity to keep them grouped and blast away for as long as you can. This is most likely the best way to grind fire for Liete and Justin. (IF YOU HAVE CLEARED THE 7TH FLOOR WHICH IS THE SWTICHES AND COLORED DOOR FLOOR THERE IS A HALLWAY YOU CAN FARM GHOSTS AND 1 GROUP OF GAIA BRAINS TO GRIND EXP ON EASY AND QUICKLY ACCESSIBLE)

[exirpit]

Originally posted by Roulette:

If you have finished Tower of Temptation having the double xp items are helpful. That being said, I would recommend the following:

Justin: Even with zero weapons he will hit the alligators in the petrified forest hard enough to not make the time worth. For his weapon xp, if you dont have the prior exp from old party members, go to the Zil desert. Here you can be right by the save cone. Get in a fight with some scorpions. You can kill all but one and have Rapp or Liete use Gravity on it to keep it still. Then spam Aura. This is faster than alligators since you can runaway and keep the scorpion there to fight again while keeping XP. (Have everyone on withdraw and Justin on manual)

Feena: Even at mid/high 40s, with zero items she can just auto down the alligators in petrified forest. Have Rapp and Liete gravity them and let Feena wack away. (Have everyone on withdraw and Feena on play fair)

Rapp: This boy hits hard too like Justin. For him use the same strategy as Justin in the desert. Only here you can spam Mist Hide for easy exp. (have everyone on withdraw and Rapp on manual)

Liete: Probably the easiest one to level up weapon. For this you can use Feena's strat. Only here Liete hits for such low numbers as long as you are doing at least 1 dmg you can just let the game out play (have the other 3 on withdraw and Liete on play fair) while this is going on just go to bed lol.

For magic I think we all know that for Water magic to use the spikes in the Castle of Dreams to power level up Water to 99. If you want an easy way to level up earth and wind I would fight the Ghosts in Tower of Temptation and leave your team on "power up" this way when the characters sometimes do their combo attacks they do next nothing. (Idk why they still attack when they are set to power up and still have MP to use). But then once you are done you can run away and rinse and repeat by using the save cone. Fire is probably the hardest to do. But I would probably cast burnflame on dragon knights in ToT since they are resistant to magic

Ooh, thanks for the in depth answer! I will try this on my current playthrough which I started recently :)

[Roulette]

Thanks! :D Grandia and Grandia II are my favorite RPG's of all time. I'm trying to find a better way to level up Fire as it is hard to find a consistent grind spot. My advice here if you are playing the game from brand new also is to have Sue and Gadwin use fire a lot cuz Liete and Justin dont know WOW! so you cant just spam that where Feena and Rapp do know the spell. I'll post a better fire spot if I find it :D

[exirpit]

Nice :) Grandia 1 is also my favorite JRPG game that I've played, it's just that I'm nooby at it haha. I believe it was one of the first games I got on the PS1 and it has stuck with me ever since!

[Roulette]

Originally posted by exirpit:

Nice :) Grandia 1 is also my favorite JRPG game that I've played, it's just that I'm nooby at it haha. I believe it was one of the first games I got on the PS1 and it has stuck with me ever since!

Totally agree. But not even a JRPG for me its any RPG.
UPDATE: I think I may have found a way to level up FIRE fairly decently. Let me first explain my thought process of where I wanted to be to grind.

For grinding, I wanted to be able to be in a point of the game that, you had not encountered Gaia yet and made Zil Padon ruined. I wanted a place where you could basically be on disk 2 and the second you had Liete you could start to grind. This way if you want to just destroy the side dungeons easy, here you go.

OK so FIRE, it took a lot of looking at bestiary but as I was farming off the ghosts in Tower of Temptation, I realized the Gaia Brains actually might be the key here. They take 80-90 damage from Burnflame and give 24 EXP(48 with Double exp item) when I hit a group of 3 AND THEY KNOW ALHEALER+. I got the same exp on lvl 54 Fire and 48 Fire. Also you can run away from the battle and the monster will still be there to fight again, unlike the ghosts. This is most likely the best way to grind fire for Liete and Justin. I'll add this in my prior post for people :D

[exirpit]

Thanks again! Will be interesting to try it out when I get there!

[Roulette]

Yeah Gaia Brains are just too good. If you are looking to level up wind or fire for anyone its just so fast with the exp those things give. Easy floor 7 and spam then run away and heal cone is close enough that you can just kill everything but the Brains and run back and forth. I'll be 99 everything aside character level before I go into J Base.