Ludicrous difficulty spike

[Professor Complexity]

I always had a hard time there too because I hate grinding. Running around in circles in the same spot fighting the same monsters for three hours is not fun. It's work. I play video games for fun.

True enough, but I like a challenge - and defeating Grand Dragons on disc one constitutes such a challenge.

I didn't really grind a lot in my current playthrough, and I can't recall anything that looked like a difficulty spike there.

I've pretty much played from the beginning of the game to Iifa over the last 3-4 days or so.

From my own memory Final Fantasy IX doesn't have such a spike unless you deliberately go looking for Yans or Ozma when you aren't prepared for them.