The game by design is to make it super easy on those who really grasp the system and a pain in the ass to those who ignore it. Make it through the game with out linking materia and coming up with combos and without level gaining your ass off.

I went for the low level challenge of ONLY boss fights. That is smurfing tough at times. You end up relying almost 100% on items that you steal(never finish the fight ). Like most RPGs...you have to make the battle system hard as the game will just make it piss easy.