FFVI: Divergent Paths

I have made it to the stage where I am doing a full playthrough of the World of Balance to make sure everything works through that point in the game. Then I will release a WIP patch exclusively to this forum. I just finished the Snowfield Battle in Narshe, and it has been going well so far. Here's a couple of teaser notes.

* Banon the Mediator works SO WELL! Giving him "Control" as his command really plays into his characterization. From a gameplay standpoint, him being able to single out the strong enemies and control them makes it so that you will never miss "Health". Also, you FEEL Banon's frustration when Gau joins the party, as Gau's random attacks keep breaking his control over enemies.
* Taking away the AutoCrossbow in the first 4 hours of the game also makes Edgar more dynamic. In the absence of being able to damage all enemies at once, you have to think creatively about your use of the NoiseBlaster and Bio Blaster. This gives you a reason to actually equip a weapon to Edgar.
* Gau learning Rages after seeing an enemy once gives you a ton of incentive for keeping him in the party, even when you wouldn't normally do so.
* Celes having Jump also works well. It turns her into an effective back-row healer who can also take 2 turns to deal out a fair amount of damage when needed.
* I haven't completed the Genji Glove restriction patch yet, but I've been playing as it if were in place. That, plus the evade bug fix, make choosing equipment setup in your party quite interesting and strategic. (Okay... Sabin can't use the Gauntlet, but Cyan can't use the Genji Glove. Edgar can use both, but he'll spend half his turns using Tools. Hmmm...)

But probably the biggest surprise has been that I don't need to re-balance the game after dropping random encounter rates by 25%. Instead, 4 hours in, my characters are only 1 level behind where they are on my normal playthroughs. It's been just enough to add some teeth to the battles, but not to drastically change the difficulty. Dungeons, in turn, are far less plodding. The only bad thing so far has been that Terra doesn't gain ANY levels during her scenario. I'm going to have to figure out what to do about that. One solution is to double the experience on the Rizopas battle, but I need to check to see if the Veldt flag is already set at that point. If it is, then there is NO experience from Rizopas. The other, far more complex solution, is to put a Save Point and random battles in the Serpent Trench caves. I'm still undecided.