Why are villains much harder to defeat than heroes?

[qwertysaur]

For leveling get the black chocobo playplan and all the Exp booster upgrades, then play on your special day. I got Kuja, Shantotto and Kefka to level 100 in reletivly short time from around level 20 with each Also you should get the AP booster upgrades as well for mastering more abilities while you grind.

[Wolf Kanno]

If there is an algorithm that determines the equipment setup that the computer controlled characters use, then I doubt that it differentiates between the heroes and the villains. Games rarely make that type of distinction. It would have been a cool idea if it was implemented that way, though, that Kefka or Exdeath would be more likely to have access to equipment that they normally wouldn't have at their level rather than the heroes who try to stick to their own level.

One quick glance at the Quick Battles shows you how the A.I. sets up characters They get a special A.I. script (Aggressive, defensive, Tactician), Levels, and Equipment levels. Other factors like the stage and whether the Chaos/Cosmos rules are in effect also help to change the enemy A.I.

SuperMillionaire: In truth, once you start playing the higher tier airship survival battles (Big Whale/Blackjack) you'll notice the playing field between heroes and villains becomes very even and after that point its up to how good you are. Jecht and Golbez give me the most problems of the Villains but Cloud, Tidus, and WoL give me the most problems with Heroes at this point as well. Who I am playing as will also change these factors. So in reality, though the villains are designed differently from the Heroes, it all evens out by the end.

[SuperMillionaire]

Okay, but I haven't even gotten up to that point yet. I generally spend all my playtime in Arcade mode. I have mastered normal mode, and now am just trying out hard mode, and the only two characters I have beaten hard mode with so far are Squall and Cloud. Unlike all the other modes, everything is fixed (except for which costume you want your character to wear).

[Wolf Kanno]

To be fair, I don't really touch Arcade mode cause my love for Dissidia comes from the deep customization systems. The real problem here is that your characters don't get access to all the equipment and abilities that make handling certain characters much easier.

Throwing into Normal mode real quick with Terra, I see they don't have her equipped with her more broken abilities and she's basically using her starting abilities... So yeah, the real problem here is that Arcade removes the customization system which greatly balances the game.

[SuperMillionaire]

Yes, that's right; all characters are stripped down to the basics to rebalance the playing field, and the only thing you can customize is whether your character will wear his or her normal costume or alternate costume (in particular, I tend to use Cloud in his alternate costume). You also cannot level-up in arcade mode; everyone is fixed at level 10 in easy, 50 in medium, and 100 in Time Attack. Time attack is a bit more complex than easy and medium modes, because all characters have a specific setup, which determines how the character will act in battle, and they also have a predetermined summonstone (there are no summons allowed in easy and medium modes). Further, in Time Attack mode, you are offered a choice on which set of opponents you want to face off against at the beginning of the round, whereas in the easy and medium modes, you won't know who your opponent is until right before the match, and they are determined randomly.