My problem is lack of free turns though... oh well. I'll try again some time today.
Edit: I beat the Black Mages and got smoked in fight #5, Freya started dead (forced), Beatrix had 375 life which was killed in one thundara. I then checked Hyprophant's walkthrough and saw I was supposed to get the initiative- so it really pissed me off that the bar started about 1/3 full.