Did you level up the Magic?

[Wolf Kanno]

Even with the cheat, magic is still one of the most time consuming things to level up in this game except certain stats like evasion. Did you try to level it up as high as you could or just what you needed?

[Rez09]

I had grand ambitions at the start, planning to make a character with maxed spells, but then sanity kicked me upside the head and I just made a party of 3 fighters and Leon instead. The damage from magic, even when I was pumping it and not using equipment that dampened its power, was never impressive, and I don't think I got any spell levels over 10.

[Pumpkin]

I did level it up as much as I had the patience to

[Sephex]

A decent amount, yes. It's been awhile, so I can't remember. I think I had such high levels in other stats that magic didn't matter that much.

[Evastio]

I levelled up all my spells in general, even the status spells like Blind and Silence. though not as much as spells like Blizzard, Scourge, Berserk, and Cure. The latter I levelled to 8-10 while the damaging status spells would be around 4-6.

[Venom65437]

I think the ones I actually used were around level 8. I don't do the grinding thing a lot.

[Wolf Kanno]

I think I've tried in all of my playthroughs but eventually just get tired of the tedious nature of magic building in this game.

[Ayen]

I never paid attention to it.

[Forsaken Lover]

Yes. My one, nearly complete playthroguh had me go to this cave I think after Leila joins your party. In this cave there was a Gigas enemy, the first time you can run into them as regular enemies I think, and it kicked my ass something fierce. So I spent a good long time grinding up Magic for my party because physical attacks weren't doing jack.

And then when I got Ultima I got it to Level 10 or something and stopped.

I don't think I ever got any spell to Level 16...probably Level 12 was the best I got with Cure magic and the regular attack spells.

[Electroshock Therapy]

Yes. My one, nearly complete playthroguh had me go to this cave I think after Leila joins your party. In this cave there was a Gigas enemy, the first time you can run into them as regular enemies I think, and it kicked my ass something fierce. So I spent a good long time grinding up Magic for my party because physical attacks weren't doing jack.

And then when I got Ultima I got it to Level 10 or something and stopped.

I don't think I ever got any spell to Level 16...probably Level 12 was the best I got with Cure magic and the regular attack spells.

Did you keep the Ancient and Crescent Sword? Crescent Sword put Gigas to sleep and Ancient Sword lowers his attack and defenses (this works on many tough enemies and bosses, too). Couple that with Berserk, and Gigas won't know what hit him! (Especially true if you put him to sleep...)

Anyway, my only spell grinding is that I abuse not having Auto Target. In the overworld, I usually work on one enemy at a time so I can level up magic and weapons easier. It makes the battles longer, but I'm grinding without feeling like I'm grinding. I play normally in dungeons, though, because I want to live! Anyway, doing that keeps me about where I need to be for the next area.

So no, I don't really spend a lot of time purposefully leveling up magic. Just some of it here and there between dungeons. This game is pretty easy when you know what to do, so I'm almost never worried about being too underpowered.

[Skyblade]

I tried. Up until I understood how the Magic levels were managed and realized what exactly the game wanted me to do to keep leveling Magic up. Then I gave up.

[Cloudane]

Nope, couldn't be bothered - I played mostly a hack and slash, levelling up white magic as needed but mostly levelling up my HP through the effect of being clobbered and not needing to heal much.

[Vermachtnis]

I never went out of my way and I usually ignored magic until this recent playthrough. I'm just leveling it as I go and Maria is plowing through everything and MP isn't too much of an issue either.

[Tamagon]

In the older versions, I only use a handful of good spells like the elemental trio. Leveling magic just takes too long. I am more liberal with my magic use in the remakes, though.

[Electroshock Therapy]

I'm playing through this game again (I love this game!), but I am doing A LOT more magic grinding than I normally do. I want to see about how far you need to go before Ultima actually becomes a useful spell. And because I only focused on a few spells on my previous playthroughs, I want to see which ones I can focus on in future playthroughs to make the game even easier.

I'm filling up my mage's magic slots and grinding every spell to at least Level 5. I feel Level 5 is relatively decent for multi-targeting, and I'm hoping it will be enough for Utlima. While this was a pain in the beginning of the game due to the small experience gains from low-ranking enemies, I finally have a go-to spot for magic grinding once Leila and her ship are available. Palamecia Desert has a ton of Rank 5 enemies, and most of them do only simple physical damage and not nasty status ailments to slow things down. Because they are Rank 5, leveling up is pretty easy. Using a Level One spell once instantly gives you seven points, and an additional point per additional use. Level Three spells give you five points and Level Four spells give you four points... plus one for any additional use. It's still somewhat of a chore going from Level One to Level 5, but it's much better than gaining one point for a Level Two spells against Goblins or Bees. It's a great grinding spot if you want to level up one or several magic spells to a decent enough level.

BONUS: Grinding at Palamecia Desert is a great excuse to continue visiting the Chocobo Forest!

I will probably never do this kind of grinding again for this game. But I do want to have a workable Ultima spell in at least one of my playthroughs. It is a major plot point after all.