But going on, here's the tip o' the week...er...two weeks. =D
Leveling Up. Probably the most important thing in the game, besides beating it, that is. It's a good idea to level up as much as possible early in the game, as it will greatly affect you later. As weird as it might seem, Destiny Islands is probably one of the most important leveling-up places.
Battling Riku, Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie is a pretty good start. While I'm mentioning this, I might as well tell you the easiest way to defeat them also.
Selphie is probably the easiest out of the four. Don't bother equipping any potions, because you probably won't need them. To start off the battle, Selphie will swing her jump rope at you. The best thing to do is to hit them back at her, which will result in tech points, very important in this stage. If you successfully reflect the attack, it will hit her on the head, stalling her for a minute. This is the perfect time to unleash a combo. Immediately following, run back and wait for her to attack again. This fight is more of a hit-and-run. It's a repeated pattern and sooner or later, usually sooner, she'll go down.
Tidus has a totally different strategy, which involves more upfront whacks. No hit-and-run with this one. Well, maybe if you think about it, it could be. Anyway, to start off, thwack him with one combo and run away. If you manage to knock him to the ground, quickly run to the side, because he will flip up and hit you that way. It's basically a run-whack-dodge-whack sequence. You can parry too, and that should help with the tech points.
Wakka is my favorite to fight, because I love hitting his blitzballs. He's a long-range attacker, heaving his blitzballs at you from afar. If you time it just right, you can hit it back at him. Usually, it might miss because he runs away while you are in the process of hitting it. But there's a 75% chance you'll hit him. When you do, not only will you gain tech points, but he'll get dazed, which again, provides an extremely able attack opportunity. If you hit his glowing blitzball, you'll gain TWO tech points. Draw out the battle as long as you want, but make sure your HP stays up.
Fighting all three of them can prove to be a challenge if you aren't experienced enough. But the best strategy is to go at them, one at a time. Selphie should be your first target, as she goes down the easiest. After that, try to switch off from Tidus to Wakka once in a while, as your bound to get hit by one of them every so often. Once you beat them, you should have atleast upgraded one level.
Riku is harder than the three of them put together. As Tidus puts it, "He whooped us all!" The only strategy I can think up here is hit and run. If he's down, he stays down, for atleast a second, anyway. He's bound to rebound at you one point in time. He pulls off "Tidus's" a lot, jumping back up and hitting you. Avoid these, as they can take off a chunk of your HP. He's also rather speedy, which can be annoying. Don't fret though, just keep hitting and running, and you should be fine.
During the invasion of the Heartless is the best time to level up, and get some stuff in the deal. After you recieve the keyblade, take about a half-an-hour to kill some shadow. They keep spawning, so you don't have to travel that often. They will drop potions a lot too, so keep that in mind. No doubt they'll come in handy. By the time Sora battles Darkside for the second time, Level Ten is a great level if you want to keep it nice and short. Trust me, the longer you draw it out, the more frustrating it gets.
Well, that's leveling up for Destiny Islands! Later, I'll tell of some other great places to level up and more! That's all for now, folks! ~Sea
Okay. There are a ton of other places to level up really fast, but it depends on what you want out of it. If it's purely experience points, the Coliseum is the best place. If you have the Hades Cup Option, your good to go! But if not, you'll have to rely on doing whatever Cups are available to you right now.
Traverse Town is a good place to train, especially if you've battled Riku #2. You can get so much experience. But then again, Traverse Town is a good place to train all together. If you've defeated Riku, the Second District is mostly for health, and the Third is for munny. Darkballs, or Pinatas, as I call them, are in both districts.
For everything before that, both the Second and Third Districts offer the same basic heartless. There are Shadow, Soldiers, Air Soldiers, Nocturnes, Rhapsodies, Operas, and Round Bodies. So go and raise your heartless count!!! :)