FFII - Part 2: Dreadnought Down

It's early, but I'm comfortable saying this game is WAAAY harder than FFI.

The two major dungeons I did so far, Kashuan Keep and Dreadnought, were both nasty. Kashuan especially made me glad that I gave Guy some offensive magic because of the Super Mecha Death Turtles (a.k.a. "Adamantoise") I ran into. Maria's bare fists did tons of damage, but Guy's and Gordon's weapons did jack shit. Gave Blizzard to Guy and Gordon though, so they helped a lot. Firion heals and buffs. He picked up the Berserk tome too, which is great on boss fights. A berserk Maria = scary business.

So what's harder? I think it's two main things:

1) The formation difference. In FFI, my warrior/knight was basically an impenetrable shield, meaning I rarely took any damage outside of big boss fights like Chaos and Tiamat who cast AoE spells. In FFII, Firion is the only party member I stuck in the back row, and the other three take more even damage, and a lot of it.

2) More harmful effects. In FFI, I rarely had to worry about these. Occasionally, I'd deal with stone or poison, but it was pretty rare. In FFII, for these two dungeons, I feel like I spend half the time blinded and poisoned. This tests my resource management a lot more, as I have to make sure I use Firion's mana efficiently. I also have to use my trips to town more wisely - stock up on eye drops, antidotes, ether, and a mess of potions.

Story-wise, I'm curious where this will go. The Empire's Deathst... ahem, Dreadnought is down, the king is dead, the Dark Knight is some big ol' mystery, and it's off to see the dragoons!

EDIT: ...I'm such a dunkus. The "Dark Knight" is Leon, isn't it?