not certain how much of it was because of the rebalancing on the remasters' part but i kind of vibed with the leveling system up to a certain point. kept me engaged with all the actions i was doing in regular battles instead of just mashing through my strongest moves to win and it was an interesting way to mold my party according to my own desires. guy was an insane dual wielding barbarian freak by the end of the game and was doing like 2k damage per hit by the end of it. it was sick. that being said once my party got powerful enough i was kind of mashing through battles anyway so does it really matter in the end...

the emperor coming back from hell to take back his throne before your rival boss fight can even happen is an all-time hater move