i had removed my original post, as i decided to venture on and give it a full shot. i think it has been okay, but i do want to reiterate some of my removed points as feedback.
*SPOILERS*
i am currently escaping alexandria, at the freya/steiner/x and zidane/garnet/vivi split.
i firmly believe that item spamming is not a beneficial method of difficulty scaling. it just isn't that fun. i am going through potions and phoenix downs like crazy. i've never had to buy phoenix downs in a final fantasy before, that i can recall. there's several reasons why i am having to:
1. i just don't know all the modifications. before, i could go up to an enemy and know 'okay, i need to use one zidane attack, a vivi spell, and freya hit, then quina can eat it.' 'okay, we need to steal three pieces of gear from this boss. oh shit, they only have two and i just died because zidane wasted a turn.' now, it is all brand new to me. so, things throw me off. and that's totally fine, that's the entire point! it is a learning experience. i happily embrace that. i read the entire first post, and then completely forgot pinions are meant to remove doom. a certain... boss fight or two left me blowing through phoenix downs and just barely hanging on, with multiple attempts. then, about the third time, i just happened to have my <select> button info while i hovered over pinions, and i realized.
2. a lot of unique encounters seem scripted. *SPOILERS AGAIN* zorn and thorn don't seem to care if you mitigate their power, one of them can inflict blind on everyone but i think vivi. the other uses its spell and does like trouble or something. and you're left spamming eye drops with vivi since i think it is scripted to not apply to him, or maybe it is scripted to apply to 3/4 of the party. both attempts, i had to item spam with vivi. i finished with just zidane and steiner alive.
another example, the first or second freya/x bandersnatch battle. x gets instantly confused, and kills themself. i did not have to do this more than once, but i am 100% sure that is always going to happen, every single time. maybe the attack can miss? i suppose i understand that it is a challenge mod, but when i can smell the contrived nature, i just don't know... what if i had run out of phoenix downs and pinions at this point? i think i would have to reload all the way to the beginning of cleyra. were that the case, thank heavens i use a new save almost every moogle, but it would still be a pretty big buzzkill.
it seems like random encounter rate is increased. using 60 fps, my previous playthrough i could go screen after screen without any fights. now, it seems even on 60 fps it is more akin to the psx version. perhaps that is fair, i have just turned off random battles when i'm not trying to eat with quina. i don't try to avoid every single bit of exp i can, but i do try to keep it minimal til i grab better spirit gear.
quina's changes are interesting. i still think she feels awkward early on, but it's fun to try. giving her shapeshift is really cool, and the animation is pretty dope. i don't recognize it, personally.
i wish zidane's thievery was still in the mod. i've back row'ed him the whole playthrough, and think this is the perfect atmosphere to actually rely on him as an item thief in all battles, knowingly or unknowingly boosting his ultimate skill. i was stealing every normal fight until i realized there's no thievery. that being said, his access to some damage and additional utility early on is a great addition.
i think you buffed chocographs in hot and cold? i seemed to get the first eight really fast. like, 12-15 attempts. i'm curious to see how much of the treasure has changed. i think i'm missing bio from oak staff?? which is somewhat noticeable, since it was kinda broken in vanilla as early as you could get it. i actually had to use blizzara in cleyra haha. i think this is cool and i embrace that re-balance. the vivi attack-command alteration from memoria seems to only use blizzard, regardless of weakness. might be a discrepancy between the codes, or just to try and hit the new freeze added effect. not sure, but he's doing some weak numbers with it. it is nice for trying to time quina eats, since they are relatively weak.
abilities as a whole seem like a welcome change. i do want to mention, again, the contrived nature of having zero bright eyes access and having that altered zorn and thorn mechanic. you should allow the player even the slightest opportunity to prepare themself. i know i have every item available in the game thus far, besides any tantarion drop, and there are no opportunities to learn that ability.
my ultimate analysis so far is there are some really good QoL changes outside of battle, and perhaps even in random battles. my jury is still out on some of your boss changes. once there's a stable white mage, i'll revisit this. i don't like an item spam meta, but i do respect that there's a limited number of ways to adjust battle in this game and make it unique.
one thing i've really learned to do, using the memoria 3 battle speed, is to always open a secondary window and just await queued inputs. it almost begs for you to use the ffx style turn-based system available in memoria, but i haven't committed to that yet. but, opening and closing and a target or skill window definitely helps your ability to react on the fly. every command can matter, from what i've seen.
i know this took a ton of time and i thank you, and i'm gonna continue to the end, see what else lies in store.
