It's easier if you quickly figure out how to maximize your powers. The first time I played it, I don't think I found its difficulty very different from the other games in the series.

In the end, none of the FFs are really hard. Most character progression systems can easily be "exploited" when you know how to do it. FF5 is also really easy to me now, because I know which jobs are the strongest, which ability builds are the most useful, etc. Same with FF7, I now know exactly which materia to give to which characters, where to exp for the fastest possible leveling, etc.

I wouldn't really call it exploit, as much as I would call it players figuring out how things work.