To me, the overall problem with FFT's balance is that you basically have to use self-imposed limitations or mods to make the game interesting after a playthrough or two (or even reading guides for that matter) since once you know about them there's no reason not to use Math Skill or Martial Arts Ninjas to murder everything, grinding requirement aside. I mean, even just knowing that you can hire a 70 faith female character and make her a Wizard to do tons of damage early makes the game supremely easier. So it's a 'hard' game for people new to it, but very easy once you have done research on the game. I got a lot of replay value out of doing silly challenges, but after over a decade of hindsight, it's hard for me to say the game is well-balanced. It feels really obtuse for new players but doesn't give veterans much of a challenge on its own.
I dunno, this kinda statement is exactly what Fenrir was arguing against. Yeah, there's some comparatively obscure ways to trivialize the game, but I don't even consider it much of a self-imposed limitation any more than, say, not getting Knights of the Round is a self-imposed limitation in FF7. (Calculator I suspect was partially balanced around annoyingness to use + obscurity, too.) There are lots of games that you can freaking LLG and still not be too difficult; while you can absolutely lose a person (and thus reset) even with a party of Ninjas & Summoners at normal level not skipping random encounters. Not gonna hit the game too hard for Math Skill existing, especially when they took notable steps to balance it, e.g. making Calculator stats suuuuuck. (And the fact that you can get around said limitations is cool in its own way too, balance isn't everything.)
It's not just Calculator which trivialises the game, though. FFT is a game with a vast array of knowledge that can help the player, but once you have that knowledge not much is going to give you problems, provided you also have a good feel for SRPG-related specifics like positioning and setting up AoEs correctly (having watched many different people play FFT, not everyone does, though I suspect most people reading this thread do).
Consider, for instance, that the Chemist SCC, which is a severely restricted challenge run, is something that almost everyone finds easier than their first playthrough.
By a lot. (Both the Execution Site and Wiegraf/Velius are jokes on the Chemist SCC.) Why? Because both Auto-Potion (with the knowledge of its ability to use higher-level potions) and Phoenix Down are overpowered. So is Teleport. So is Summon Magic (provided you have good faith). So is Draw Out on a Wizard. So is a Ninja twinked for power/speed with a good support ability. So is Short Charge Meteor/Bahamut. So is gravity against bosses. So are Angel Rings (and if you can get them, perfumes). So is (obviously) Math Skill.
If you're like jsh or hinode or myself, then yeah, once you have this knowledge, the game unrestricted becomes very easy. It's not just one overpowered thing you can avoid, like Math Skill or the Chantage. Now, this knowledge is not easy to come by, because FFT has a lot of abilities to sift through (some of which are hideously bad like Charge+20), and a lot of nuances to learn even to make good use of the broken stuff (e.g. how Teleport works, how Auto-Potion works, the importance of Brave/Faith to certain abilities), and a lot of specifics for various fights (e.g. good places to set your PCs up on the pre-battle formation for individual fights) but once you do? Yeah there's a reason you'll see comments like jsh's and hinode's. If I played a normal unrestricted file of FFT now I would not have a single reset anywhere, I guarantee it.
I say this as someone who respects the game as challenging myself (because games shouldn't be judged for challenge by those who have all the knowledge ahead of time, unless we want to argue every puzzle/text adventure game is trivial), but yeah knowledge makes a huge difference in every RPG and this is more true of FFT than most. As Fenrir noted there's a pretty stark difference between FFT and say Fire Emblem in this regard. I would expect FFT to be harder than most Fire Emblems for the average first-time player, but as someone who is an expert at both I could much, much more easily get through FFT with zero resets today than any Fire Emblem.
