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5 /5

The story is a drastic alteration to the original, but keeps the same premise. I aimed to keep things mostly within established canon while trying to enrich plot development through better dialogue and a different story sequence. Nearly every text box has been altered in some form or entirely replaced. You're still the same Dark Knight serving Baron, although things very quickly deviate from the original game...

Most playable characters now have more than one way to "build" themselves using equipment. For instance, Edge can be used as a frontline Ninja, wielding ninja swords and dealing heavy physical damage, or you can opt for a build that takes advantage of Edge's Ninja magic and wield daggers that increase his magic stats instead. Rosa can be a traditional spellcaster, or she can focus more on her bow skills and be a hybrid. While each character still has a true purpose to the team, most now have at least some slightly differing options.

Enemies have been massively overhauled. Enemies in general have been given a stat boost and some have been given some debilitating status effects attached to their physical attacks. These are mostly based on monster type, so when you see a certain kind of monster you know to expect certain status effects.
With the sequence of game events heavily altered, just about every enemy has been adjusted to reflect their new place in the story's events.

The individual status clearing items have made a return. The catch-all Heal item still exists, but is far more rare. With the added status-inflicting monsters, carrying a decent stock of these items will be important to effective party management. Don't worry, the Fat Chocobo no longer requires anything to summon, so feel free to make use of one whenever you find it!
All shops have been completely rearranged. New items up for sale are *almost* always complete upgrades. No more worrying about which item to purchase and equip because it decreases your effective damage by losing a multiplier even though the attack power is higher. Shop prices are being adjusted so that the player may have to make some purchasing decisions.

A number of sidequests have been added to the game, roughly around the 2/3 point of the story. These open the game up a bit and offer the player valuable rewards as well as a break from the action.

While I did not set out to specifically make a difficulty hack, many aspects of the game are harder due to rebalancing and the frequency of status effects.