FFTA2: Normal VS Hard

I finally got hold of this game this Christmas and I have been having a doozy playing it all the time. I thought I might have an easier time with it, so I selected the Hard mode in the game, and I am honestly surprised how hard it turns out to be. I am pleased with the challenge, but after having little difficulty with Rank 20 missions and then getting my butt handed back to me on a Rank 18 mission, I have to wonder how the difficulty is measured. The undead blow just so you know. So I have been considering pansying out and playing normal instead of hard, but just how much of a difference is there between the two modes? I know the enemy is stronger and has more life, but is there a percentage difference?

Thanks in advance, guys.

I started out on hard, got incredibly frustrated at having my ass handed to me by just about every mission that was available since the missions seem horribly paced (Yeah, Square? My level 12 party can't take out a level 50 Red Mage with dualcast and horribly overpowered status-inducing spells, why did you make me waste my gil paying for a mission I had no hope of completing?)

Then I switched over to normal and am cruising through the game. I'm somewhat peeved that they only have "super easy" and "extreme hard" modes.

If there is a percentage difference I have no idea what it is. I beat normal and didn't have any problems until the very last mission. Hard is hell compared to normal just because of the normal enemies, not to mention the overpowered bosses...

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I started out on hard, got incredibly frustrated at having my ass handed to me by just about every mission that was available since the missions seem horribly paced (Yeah, Square? My level 12 party can't take out a level 50 Red Mage with dualcast and horribly overpowered status-inducing spells, why did you make me waste my gil paying for a mission I had no hope of completing?)

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Sup, optional boss fight?

Hard is hard near the beginning, but both normal and hard become easier once you have access to the broken setups.

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Originally Posted by Zeromus_X

Sup, optional boss fight?

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Well, yeah but that was just one example. You gain most levels by doing optional missions. When you can't do missions because they're too hard, you don't level up. When you don't level up, you can't get farther in the story. Which means no new missions. Again I say to you, horribly paced.

That and I'm very very very very VERY OCD when it comes to completing all missions I have means of accepting at the time. That's why marks in XII bug me so much, since you can get VII rank ones when you're still struggling with V or even IV ranked ones. They're just sitting there in my clan primer mocking me. MOCKING ME, I SAY!

Lol I feel your pain. I decided to go through on hard once I beat normal. However, I am stuck in normal, and I am still trying to figure out just how many missions there are, and whether or not I can skip some without risking not being able to do them again.