For anyone who might be interested I'll post some short notes about particular fights I thought noticably. During the game I gave most magic and speed tabs to Frog/Robo for their AoE healing but otherwise never did anything especially challenging like a low-level run.
The hack started out great: began a new game and promptly got my ass kicked by the forest enemies. Probably a first that regular enemies can cause a game over in this game. Think I did fine up until the Dragon Tank - had to get a few mid tonics from the guards, then I realized using whirl on the body damages all part except the head, thereby avoiding the healing counter. Battle became managable after the grinder was down. Yakra and the Guardian boss were still pretty easy.
Elemental resistence really becomes a thing in 65.000 BC, when many of the dino mobs start using fire attacks that can one-shot you otherwise. Black and Rust Tyranno were still a total snoozefest, but I've never liked fighting them in the original anyway. Golem fights in 12.000 BC also feel a lot easier, especially since you can change their attacks into whatever elemental your armor resists.
Sidequests were WAY harder than I anticipated, with Retinite causing multiple deaths - Mother Brain was also a cause of many resets, until I figured out how to outdamage her 'enrage' timer of sorts. Having easy acces to all endgame armors and helmets makes switching gear much less of a hassle, considering you do really need them in the final parts of the game.
Despite what I've read in some other threads here, the mutants at the Black Omen weren't all that hair-pullingly difficulty. Giga Mutant is managable with R'Bow helmets (charmed from the beasts in 12.000 BC) and water-resistant gear. Then it's just a matter of remembering its attack patterns and knowing when to heal.
Final bosses were fittingly rather difficult. I especially like seeing how how the stat progression of the game was taking into account (HP, MP and Mdef hitting their caps pretty early) with fights being based around that. Having attacks one-shot you unless you got either barrier or shield up makes these items and effect-providing armors much more useful.
Zeal's first form was surprisingly challenging (having her being a 'DPS' race of sorts is neat) until I started using Firesword 2, which feels like its been buffed incredibly. I estimate her HP being somewhat in the 20K, which took me about four dual techs hitting around 4K each and some attacks dealt by Frog. The Mammon machine is hard to lose to if Frog just keeps leap slashing every turn and Zeal's second form is a lot easier to handle.
I went to Lavos straight away after entering the EoT and got killed by the boss rush' dragon breath hitting for over 3K. While I hoped that somehow the entire boss rush was changed to be challenging to endgame parties, most of the damage was still in the piddling 50-100 range with Barrier + maxed Mdef. I think the HP totals are changed though.
Lavos' first form is a total b**** and fitting to be a final boss. My party consisted of Robo, Marle and Crono each equipped with Prism Helms / Nova Armor (shield + barrier for the guys) and the Safe Helm / Prism Dress for Marle. Shield is needed to live through the 'melee' thingies the arms throw, Barrier just because I figured there'd be a lot of magical damage. Lost when Lavos inflicted party-wide confusion, so Marle got an Amulet for my second attempt. With all defenses up + haste + lifeline the fight becomes easier once one of the arms is down, and a properly tabbed Robo has no problem keeping the parties' HP maxed with haste. I think I saw an enrage timer of sorts as Lavos eventually one-shotted my entire party with his Doom Blaze attack despite nobody having any status ailments and having auto-shell, but lifeline got me through that.
The inner core feels very weak in comparison... both Dreamless and Stone are simply healed through, Invading Light is remedied by haste and the two bits still don't seem very dangerous. I think my current party somehow managed to be the perfect counter to every problem the fight can cause - without haste and lifeline I probably wouldn't have won.
So, my compliments again on a very well-made hacks
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Btw, if anyone here has any other suggestions on enjoyable difficulty hacks here or elsewhere (especially SNES/PS era RPG's) feel free to tell me
