XIII was objectively easy in that I never got a game over or rated under 4-stars my first time through it. Now, retry the NES version of FFII and tell me it's easy.
There's something I didn't factor in. Maybe the newer versions of FFII are easier. I played the PSX version, which to my knowledge is closer to how the original one was, so it was still a pretty big pain. Smurfing magic shops and their ridiculous prices.