My only complaint with the game is that your two cousins have randomly generated names. They may change that in the later versions, but on the NES I've restarted the game because of some pretty bad names. The combat was definitely made harder with the addition of parties and enemy parties. The weapon systems were a huge step in progress though. I enjoyed having a falcon equipped on my cousin, with it's weaker stats but ability to attack twice, and using the cursed Sword of Destruction myself. Having three shields of strength to proc as an on-use heal was nice too.