[RELEASE] Golden Sun: The Balance Age

[Seestern]

Hey found this hack a few days ago and really enjoyed it so far:)

I just finished the fight against Agatio and karst and had only an Issue with shebas tendency to get downed especially in djinnfights , but it does Add to the difficulty

Im looking forward to what kind of surprises the Superbosses will offer and i really want to try the cursed mage set as it sounds very interesting.

I DID get a look at the new endgame weapon Alactors mace... I dropped it four times from seagulls... i believe they are suppossed to be drop Sacred feathers :D

[VardenSalad]

@#$%, I forgot to mention that. Cal, seagulls have your super-mace dropping at a 1/2 rate.

[Caledor]

Good grief... that's what happens when you don't test things on a separate rom. Well, thanks for reporting guys, I'll upload a fix for that in a few hours.

yeah, the only reason I asked about the hex editor was that I saved my dump file as test.gba, only for it to get saved as test.gba.dmp.

you can just rename the dumped file afterwards to remove the .dmp part.

EDIT: v1.34 hotfix is up. I'll edit this post later to explain the other changes.

Incantatrix got Fume because Jenna lacked a heavily Mars-oriented tri elemental class, and the class line itself became strictly worse than the Miko line after the former lost Revive.
Dragon Cloud and Epicenter became added damage cause a single target BD spell for the worst tri elemental caster was basically a wasted slot. Also, on average Epicenter should be better than Quick Strike against bosses.
The Ninja's Annihilation now is about as strong as a Samurai's Quick Strike.

[Rolina]

Looks like I'll have a new version this coming week.

Anywho, here's the week in review:

1 - Took down the Hyrdos Statue.  VERY MUCH improved over last time - not sure what did it, but it wasn't a joke anymore.  Did it only have one turn before or something?
2 - Made it through the Lamakhan Desert.  This area is always annoying, even in vanilla.  Boss was tough, though mostly because I couldn't heal poison fast enough.  Began to spread around a few antidotes to each person after this.
3 - Found out that revival djinn aren't garbage anymore.  Thanks, Caledor!  Don't have to spam reset on a KO anymore now. 
4 - Backtracking to get new thiiiiiings.
5 - Bring on the Kraken! F*** THE KRAKEN.  Stupid break being a hard counter to my strategies GRRR.  Still don't think it should auto-succeed, but it's tied into the ability - not exactly something that can be easily fixed.  I still think it should be a separate check vs each buff, and have diminishing success rates rather than a full party effect.  I'm cool with it having a high enough success rate to nearly neutralize the central target... but I don't expect this to be a change, as I imagine recoding how break works would be a freaking nightmare.  I will copy paste this every time I face a boss with break, by the way, but will change out the boss' name as appropriate.
6 - Crossbone 1-4 were simple enough.  Fights were kind of challenging, but not infuriating.
7 - Went through and got some more djinn, including an early jump ahead to Suhulla Desert.  Two people can reach 6 djinn classes now.
8 - HOURS OF LUCKY FOUNTAIN.  Lucky wheels was done in like, fifteen minutes, though.
9 - Got Babi.  Irked at the Prophet's Hat receiving no upgrade.  I want my witch hat useful, dammit!  PP Regen, Luck, Max PP, elemental power, SOMETHING...  One point of defense isn't worth the -20 speed.
10 - Did the colosso.  Also, wait - Ivan loses access to growth? Why?
11 - HOUR OF LUCKY FOUNTAIN.  Stupid last hood being stupid annoying to get.

Seriously, F*** the lucky fountain.  Oh, I got one of everything.  But when it's down to getting specific things, it hates me.  It took me an HOUR to get that last Black Hood. >_>


Goals for next week: 

To Lunpa!  Gonna get everyone in Tri-element classes for a while afterwards.
To Crossbone V2!  Gotta get that seventh djinn.  Also Cleric's Ring.  I hope it's not -10 luck still, I think that's too much of a negative.  IMO, it's better to have the negative stuff on the cursed gear and just have no stat change on the Cleric's Ring, but that's just me I guess.
Vs Tempest Lizard!  Or which ever one that boss is.  I actually outran it once... I wonder if I can do it again?  Gonna try for it. :3c

I think I should have this game done in the next couple weeks.  After that, Imma take a break before TLA though.

[Caledor]

1 - Don't remember what did it. It's been like 10 releases since i fixed that, lol.
3 - You're welcome. Actually, this is among the few things i wanted to fix since before i started working on the mod itself. Drain and Revive having a chance to miss is something i always found ridiculous.
5 - Break is gonna stay as it is so i guess this will become something like the class system argument :P
6 - Good
9 - I'm inclined towards +Max PP for prohet's hat, but there may be a reason if this hasn't been done until now so i'll have to check that first.
10 - Cause it's absurdly difficult for me to find space for weak spell lines, especially in mage classes.

* SPOILER * Cleric's ring is still -10 Luck and i have no plans for changing that. The way it is fits perfectly with my concept of dark items users. Also, on many dark items i don't even have the space for the luck drop and even if i had it it'd be tricky to balance luck drops on them all, taking into account every possible setup and similar headaches. So, a single drop on the ring that the cursed gear user wears was like the perfect solution.

[VardenSalad]

Hey Role, I know that WAY back when, you tried tinkering about with the 54-3-2-1 elemental level set-up in order to make it so that party characters would be weak to their opposing element instead of their symbiotic element. I also know that it initially didn't work, at all, and broke your patch.

In the 5 years since then, have you or anyone else figured out how those numbers work and how to mess around with them?

[Aile~♥]

Hey Role, I know that WAY back when, you tried tinkering about with the 54-3-2-1 elemental level set-up in order to make it so that party characters would be weak to their opposing element instead of their symbiotic element. I also know that it initially didn't work, at all, and broke your patch.

In the 5 years since then, have you or anyone else figured out how those numbers work and how to mess around with them?

I think it just screws up which class values represent what element combination in some fashion? Not sure.

[Rolina]

It's because of how it handles classes.  It could still be done, but you'd have to completely change the order the classes are in.  The fault here lies with the fact that it looks for element level, and not djinn.

@5:  Actually, the reason I figure Break will stay as it is is because you'd have to completely reprogram it.  I'm not about to ask you to do something that intensive.
@10:  That's funny, because I could easily find a location for it. :P  Though, I do have a question - why does Wild Mage get Planet Diver instead of a base damage spell similar to it?  For example, if Punishment worked by class upgrades rather than as Fume does in vanilla.  I thought it odd to give a caster class something that used attack as its base.

[Salanewt]

Wow, this has come a really long way; nice work!

Can't remember, did you ask me to help out with something a while back?

[Caledor]

5- No, I'm really fine with how Break is now. And yes, the different check thing could be very hard to accomplish, but i could still give it a chance to fail and lower is range from All to 7, greatly reducing its effectiveness on targets different from the main one. I've stated before that there are things i'd like to change but don't get touched cause it'd be too much of hassle or too difficult. Break definitively isn't among them.

10- Wild Mage is meant to be odd. It's the 4th tri-elemental Warrior-Mage hybrid that got added with the last big class update.
Quoting myself from back then (when i created the Wild Mage and Worldwaker lines):

Worldwaker & Fury: Dark Shaman was so underwhelming that i quickly gave up trying to save it. Then I noticed that 3 out of 4 sets of tri-elemental classes had a warrior-mage hybrid (Jonin, Valkyrie, General). So I moved the Warlock to Venus, buffed it and created the 4th hybrid as a counterpart to the Valkyrie. It also helps addressing redundancy, cause the Fury is something completely unprecedented. But obviously I realized all of this only AFTER i was done with creating it, cause as soon as i imagined Mia casting Planetary i was already done with thinking. :P

Being a hybrid, the Wild Mage has more HP, less PP, more Attack and more Defence than your average mage. Also, at Fury tier it has an attack multiplier of 160%, the same of Paladin and Shogun to name two. It isn't just a caster ;)

@Squirtle: Hmm, I don't remember asking you something recently. Thanks a lot though. :D

EDIT: Here's the partial changelog for v1.35 (still don't know when it'll be released). Many or those changes come from observing Rolina play and my own playthrough.

Potent Cure BP to 350. PP cost to 15
Classes tweaked: Phalanx, Sorcerer, Angel, Justice, Admiral, Radiant, Psy Champion, Sun Champion, Heretic, Incantatrix
Fixed PP growth for Chaos Lord
Elven Shirt, Water jacket, Black Hood, Black Garb, Kimono, Cocktail Dress, Feathered Robe, Prophet's Hat, Aerial Gloves, Spirit Gloves, Jester's Armlet, Astral Circlet, Fear Helm, Demon Circlet, Safety Boots, Berserk Circlet tweaked
Spirit Gloves from TBS renamed to Mystery Gloves to avoid confusion with Spirit Gloves from TLA

[spoiler=Detailed changelog]Phalanx: -5% Dif, +5% Agi
Sorcerer: +5% Agi, -5% PP in the first 3 tiers only
Angel: -5% PP in the first 3 tiers only
Justice: -5% PP in the first 3 tiers only
Admiral: +5% Agi
Radiant: +5% HP, -5% Agi, gains Raise and Guard, Loses CP, Restore and Break
Psy Champion: Loses Ray gains Whirlwind
Sun Champion: +5% Agi, Loses Raise
Chaos Lord: PP Growth fixed
Heretic: +5% PP, -5% Agi, Loses Beam and Impair, gains Volcano and Demon Spear
Incantatrix: -10% Agi, +20% Luck, Loses Impact gains Weaken

Elven Shirt: -5 Agi
Water Jacket: -10 Me.Res, -10 Ma.Res
Black Hood: -5 Agi
Black Garb: +5 Agi, +10 J.Res
Kimono: +10 Ma.Res
Cocktail Dress: +5 Max PP
Feathered Robe: -20 Agi
Prophet's Hat: +20 MaxPP
Aerial Gloves: -5 Agi
Spirit Gloves: +5 MaxPP
Devil's Crown: +5 MaxPP
Jester's Armlet: -5 MaxPP
Astral Circlet: +5 MaxPP
Fear Helm: +10 MaxPP
Demon Circlet: +5 MaxHP
Berserk Circlet: +5 MaxPP
Safety Boots: Price to 600, bonus changed to MaxHP +5[/spoiler]

[Rolina]

5 - Would that work?  It's my understanding through my testing that break is programmed always to succeed.

@10 - Wow.  You and I view these very differently - moreso than dual element classes and spell progression.  My belief is that the character matters more than classes for where they stand on the sliding scale of Warrior to Caster.  Ivan and Mia I don't think should ever have those "hybrid" classes in the way you approach them, while they make tons of sense for Jenna.  Granted, in my system, Jenna still wouldn't have them, but based on what you said here, it makes tons of sense for them to be one of Jenna's main features, given that she's a jack of stats.  Makes sense for her to be a jack of trades too - I could see her Jupiter class being more mage like, while her mercury class would have warrior hybriding folded into it.

@Elven Shirt AGI - Isn't that starting to defeat the point of the Elven Shirt?  It's supposed to be one of the better speed items in the game.  You already nerfed it from +50% to +15, which I still think is fine for it, especially since it gives you a solid choice of whether or not you want to upgrade for better defense or keep the faster speed.

@Feathered Robe - Isn't that basically removing all the AGI from it?  Would it not be better to take from both the AGI and Power boosts?  Same with the Aerial gloves.  Those nerfs are large enough they seem to be undermining the point of the gear.

[Caledor]

5- It's just a guess but break is basically an effect so you can set the base success chance to whatever you want. If you make it dependant on the target's luck the same rules that apply to debuff would apply to break as well. And that includes diminishing rates for other targets if the range isn't set to "All". I haven't tested it but i can't see why it shouldn't work this way. But again, i won't change it.

10- Normally I wouldn't have done it, but it's great for addressing redundancy. Mia Ivan and Sheba have 3 tri-elemental casters that heal and have Luck above average. It's only fitting to add a berserker-style class weak to control to balance out that aspect. Even more so considering that Jenna's hybrid is more defensive (again, to complement the Heretic, that is all about offense). Long story short every piece fit. There's also the fact that in GS1 i lack a strong mars based offense like Fume.

Agility changes: they are still pending. For starters i wanted to balance out the bonuses by numbers only. Then i'll reconsider them all with actual testing one by one. I posted the values before the second phase cause i thought it'd be better having some feedback on that so thanks. Just one thing: i don't care how strong the original effect was, so the fact that elven shirt was originally +50% is pointless to me.

[Aile~♥]

I suspect Break is coded in such a way that it ignores any attempt to change its effect rate, but even so it should still be able to miss against non-primary targets.

[Rolina]

@Break:  I suppose it's just my dislike of something that powerful and almost universally punishing to the player.  I mean, it's not like the player really gets to take advantage of it like the enemies do, and giving it to most of the stronger bosses just feels cheap to me.  It's kind of like Djinn Storm in that regard - it's more of a "F*** you" to the player in its current form rather than simply a serious threat.  It's why I think that luck should play a factor, but if you have less than 15, you're gonna face a 100% dispell rate for all your buffs... but only for the central target.  Checking each buff individually also means that there's varying degrees of severity - it's not just all or nothing, but could instead have effects that cause the player to adapt on the fly to what's most important, rather than spam casting buffs all over again.

@Wild Mage:  Ah, that's a good point - I'd not thought of the lack of good mars animations to use.  It'd be nice if we could import the animations from TLA to TBS...

@Agility:  I think that if they had an original effect, that effect should be taken into consideration.  The Elven Shirt was the best Agility boosting item in the whole game, and was a major part of the True Godspeed Ronin setup for Garet.  Basically, its rather high speed boost made it useful even when it was completely outclassed in terms of defense.  As such, it makes sense that speed still be a major factor for this piece of equipment.  Even if you remove the multiplier, I think it should have one of the higher speed bonuses of all equipment so that it still fulfills the same purpose it once did.  That's why I didn't complain about the speed nerf to the Black Hood - I actually agreed with it.  I think its speed bonus should be less than the Elven Shirt.  Remember, just because you don't agree with how something was done doesn't mean that that thing doesn't have its purpose.  Swapping out its speed boost to be minor makes the Elven Shirt a throw away piece of gear, not worth holding on to.  And I mean to the point that a mundane piece of gear that just upgrades defense would be just fine.  If anything, I'd say buff its agility, but lower the defense.  So maybe  +5 Agl, but -2 or 3 Def to balance it out.  Its whole point is part of the speed set.  Likewise, many of these things you posted are just to nix speed, which basically negates half the point of the items.  Maybe you're worried about redundancy in gear... but in that case, would it not make more sense to simply tweak balance instead of flat nerfing?  I know the Aeolian Cassock and the Feathered Robe were similar, but that the Feathered Robe also boosted speed.  Would not the speed boost be the distinguishing factor there?  Would it not make more sense to nerf the elemental power and resist boosts so that if you wanted the raw elemental stats, you'd go with the Cassock over the Robe?  But you nerfed the speed, making the Robe less appealing over the Cassock's greater jupiter defenses...

[Caledor]

@Break is punishing if the players plays in a way that he deserves to be punished. Seriously. Anyway, Break could be coded in a million of different ways all of which would be good if you take into account every other implication.
What other implications?
1- Break doesn't deal damage so the enemy boss loses a turn.
2- Said boss at best has 3 turns, while your team has 4.
3- A fully buffed team can easily destroy anything. Break is necessary.

The Break you want is viable if:
1- The move deals damage
2- Enemies are stronger
3- The Enemy AI is considerably smarter at using it

Without any of those 3 a change to Break isn't viable IMHO.

About Djinn Storm, i don't really dislike it. For example, I like how it poses an extreme challenge for the player, something that feels very good if he/she overcomes such a trial. It's a move that a final boss and/or a superboss deserve.

I think (Elven Shirt) should have one of the higher speed bonuses of all equipment so that it still fulfills the same purpose it once did.

I agree with that only if such bonus is unique. But there are a lot of equipments that buff agility. What's wrong with giving a different item (Ninja Garb?) the same purpose of the Elven Shirt? Just because players are familiar with this or that? Please, no. I'm adamantly against this way of thinking. This and vanilla golden sun are different. Don't try to shoehorn old strategies, adapt and try to find new ones.

BTW, i've started the second phase (testing) and i've got to say that most of the agility nerfs got already reverted or decreased.

[Rolina]

"Familiar with?"  You misunderstand me.  The question I asked was "What was the purpose of this armor supposed to be?  How can I do a better job than vanilla of representing that?"  That's an easy thing to do, especially when you consider that end-game vanilla gear really doesn't have much choice.  However, if you can look at the pieces and say "how can I make these two similar items more distinct from one another" and "how can I change this, the obvious answer, into one of a few choices instead?"

Look at Riot Gloves vs Big Bang Gloves.  Here, Riot Gloves boost both attack and crit chance, which is pretty powerful compared to the other end-game gear, the Big Bang Gloves with their +40 Mars power.  However, if you were to drop the Defense of the Riot gloves so that it's a noticeable change, looking at the Big Bang Gloves as a defensive option while Riot gloves are attack at cost of defense, then it becomes a notable change that also gives a better sense of choice.  I'm not asking you to change things based on what players are familiar with - you've changed the mechanics, so it doesn't make sense.  The better question is what the purpose of the item is.

The elven shirt is clearly supposed to be a notable boost to agility, but nothing later compares to it, so one could argue that it's speed at the cost of defense.

@Djinnstorm:  Are you familiar with the concept of "Artificial Difficulty"?  Where the game stops feeling challenging, and starts feeling cheap instead?  Challenging is if it is a chance associated with each individual djinn.  It's powerful damaging effect, but not crippling.  The way it is in vanilla is crippling, though, and gives the impression of the game being cheap.  Dullahan isn't a good boss - he's a shining example of a bad one, and is infamous for making people devolve into summon rushing just to win.  With how things are going, I'm not going to be facing Dullahan in my run.  Simply put, between the buff, the djinn storms, and now the inability for me to summon strong summons until later, I don't think it's worth facing him unless I grind to super high levels.  Want a good boss?  Talos/Deadbeard.  Sentinel.  Star Magician.  These are good, challenging bosses, but NONE of them are cheap.  Hell, Star Magician is known for being a tough fight, but never for forcing people to devolve into cheap attacks.  If Dullahan is who I have to face to get Iris (a summon I will basically NEVER use anyways), then what the hell is the point?  There's no reward.  What, he drops the "mind ribbon?"  So?  All that does is take up an inventory slot.  There's a difference between challenging and frustrating.  You want it to be challenging.  But not frustrating - if the player feels it's cheap, it just encourages them to be cheap as well.

@Break:  The enemies ARE stronger.  You made them so.  I don't buff nearly as much in vanilla.  Hell, I use djinn and summons in your hack, things I never do in vanilla outside maybe Opening Megearas and vs Valukhar (I use djinn like they're equipment usually).  I've had to constantly change my strategies here, even resorting to using consumables far more than before and even stalling to recover PP before bosses when in Vanilla I'd not have worried about it. You've watched me change my strategies after being punished for playing like I'm on vanilla, especially when relying on spell heals out of battle.  On top of that, I'm pretty sure I've suggested adding break effects to various enemy attacks, so technically by what I've been advocating for, both 1 and 2 would be in effect.  Hell, you KNOW I've been a big proponent of having a greater use of abilities with added effects being more prevalent.

[Salanewt]

Jamie/Break: Oh no, you can totally change its effect rate and it will work. At least in GS2.

As for this whole "should be able to fail thing", Caledor has some pretty good points against it unless the success rate is considerably higher than it tends to be for other ailments. Even then Caledor might have to balance several different enemies again, to ensure that any changes made work well with what they have in mind for the hack.

Djinnstorm: My only issue with it is that it and other moves like it aren't introduced until near the end of the second game, so it feels like a last-minute addition to help a select few bosses deal with summons. Almost as if they realized "oh, summons are broken; maybe we should have actually tried using them before we finished making this mostly unoriginal two-part sentence simulator with battle mechanics" a couple months before launch. I could see it feeling less cheap if those types of of move were more common throughout the game.

Not really sure how/if Caledor made djinn moves more common or anything (now waiting for the patch to be done), just my thoughts on the matter.

[Caledor]

"Familiar with?"  You misunderstand me.

Great. Then evereything's fine. Sorry but I had to be sure this wasn't the case.

Djinnstorm:  Are you familiar with the concept of "Artificial Difficulty"?

Just read it. I partly agree with what you said. There's no doubt the developers took the easy way out when deciding how to make Dullahan "difficult". There's no doubt Sentinel and Star Magician are more enjoyable than him (just not Deadbeard. All you had to do against that idiot is seal him). But if you think that Djinn Storm alone forces you to resort to djinn rush or seal that move cause there's no other way for you to win, then you're wrong. I lost count of how many times i beat him in hard mode TLA and i always faced djinn storm/charon head on cause i didn't know i could seal that. It's perfectly doable. Actually, if there's one move that worries me, that's Dark Contact. The very first thing i did right after i gave Drain a flat 100% success rate was to halve the HP healed by that move.

if the player feels it's cheap, it just encourages them to be cheap as well.

That's up to the player. I have no control over what people might or might not feel. There are also players who say "bring it on" for example. That's why i'm okay with dullahan being not that rewarding... he's mostly here for the challenge. whether said player wants to take it or not is totally up to him.

The enemies ARE stronger.

If buffs are less vulnerable to break they need to be even stronger.

Hell, you KNOW I've been a big proponent of having a greater use of abilities with added effects being more prevalent.

Of curse I know, but we still lack the third one. Which is by far the most important, cause i'm pretty sure that if we try to add a break effect to various attacks, the enemies would be absurdly inept at using them. Like attacking lightly buffed (or not buffed at all) party members cause the move still deals damage.

Not really sure how/if Caledor made djinn moves more common or anything (now waiting for the patch to be done), just my thoughts on the matter.

What do you mean with "made djinn moves more common" and "waiting for the patch to be done"?

[Rolina]

@Squirtle: I've always believed that the rate should be high enough to pretty much negate all of the central target's buffs unless they have a luck build.

@Deadbeard:  Fight him normally and he's a tough fight.  IIRC, the only way to get a seal on him is to use a djinn for a guaranteed seal.

@Dullahan:  I never said it forces you to do anything.  I said people fell back on summon rushing.  Dullahan is a puzzle boss with no hints at the answer to the puzzle - basically causing people to resort to banging their head against a wall until they come up with something that works.  It wasn't until we could look into code that we figured it out, which is why many people resorted to summon rushing.  Also, if a move is universally seen as being cheap by everyone but you, maybe you're the one looking at it wrong?

@Break:  So basically you're not satisfied doing this unless you can make buffs an absolutely necessary yet non-viable strategy at the same time?  Enemies are far more difficult in your hack than in vanilla, and I'd hate to face them on hard mode.  Even normal battles can be stressful and encourage the use of buff and summon strategies.  And you think that they need to be harder?  But not only that, but that the enemies we're now being forced to either grind/overlevel against, or face being punished for using the buffs we'd have to use against them.  I haven't yet fought a boss where I'm not out of PP by the end, and that's AFTER going out of my way to restore my PP just before the boss.  Had I not played the game before and gone into this fresh, I'd have fallen far more than I have, and most certainly against the Killer Ape, where I had to resort to summon strategies to keep from using spells while I tried to recover PP.

This may seem an odd question, but...  Have YOU played your own hack?  I don't mean testing it, I mean playing it all the way through.  I think you're underestimating things.  There's also several things you may want to read regarding how to handle difficulty.

http://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/articles/hard-mode-good-difficulty-versus-bad-difficulty--gamedev-3596
https://gamedesignconcepts.wordpress.com/2009/08/20/level-16-game-balance/

As a general rule, games are harder than the developer believes them to be.  They have a far more in-depth understanding of the innards of a game than the player.  This is something that recently, with the Mario Maker game on WiiU, level makers have come to realize.  Though this is not a platformer, the same principle applies.  Play through your game alongside me, in your own way.  Learn first hand that I think you're underestimating your changes.


Now, I'm not saying you have to change how break works, I do expect you to at least start having a more open mind about it's nature.  In its current form, Break is more of a punishment to the player than a viable skill for both sides.  Foes don't buff enough to make it worth breaking them, while many bosses only have the spell to punish the player.  What should happen is that break should encourage different strategies, not enforce them.  And I mean on both sides - having foes that buff more often to make them a bigger threat encourages the player to use break (granted, as a level 30 spell, this is only ever an option in TLA), while on the other end, it encourages other strategies without completely crippling the player.  Or, and here's a crazy idea, give us more availability for debuffs.  If you've been watching my playthroughs, you'll see that I mostly use buffs because that's mostly all I get - I had to freaking hunt down res debuffs in that last session. 

[Caledor]

Also, if a move is universally seen as being cheap by everyone but you, maybe you're the one looking at it wrong?

There's no wrong nor right here. Heck, I think I've never stated I was "right" in 63 pages of discussion. That's just how i look at things. You might agree or not, simple as that.

So basically you're not satisfied doing this unless you can make buffs an absolutely necessary yet non-viable strategy at the same time?
Enemies are far more difficult in your hack than in vanilla, and I'd hate to face them on hard mode.

Not at all. Buffs are very useful but if you go overboard like stacking 3 buffs in a single turn you're asking for punishment. For example, if you cast a single buff per turn with your 4 man team against a boss that has 3 turns, the chances to be punished become zero. Why zero? Cause the best said boss can do is catch up in turns spent, since he'd gain the same amount of turns you spent by casting them. While you enjoyed those buffs for all these turns. It's already a win-win situation no matter how I look at it. I think break is necessary cause if you buff a lot any fight becomes a breeze. Against a weaker break, a start like Forge, Breeze, Megaera and a random fourth move, followed by resist impact would become so overused that it'd annoy the hell out of anyone after a couple times. To sum it up: Break is a tool some bosses have in order to be sure that the player doesn't go overboard.

@TLA Hard Mode: This mod is TOTALLY NOT supposed to be enjoyable in hard mode. I've stated many times i'd love to reduce the stat multipliers for hard mode.

I'm playing my mod right now. I'm at Lalivero, with Lunpa already done. I'm trying to stay ahead of you by a small margin so that i've already played any part you struggle with and it's been not too long ago from that so i can remember clearly.
And I have to say it's fairly easy for me, which is totally fine cause I know perfectly what to do at any point. And by fairly easy I mean: never bought healing (literally: zero herbs, corn and nuts), never run out of PP thanks to Mountain Waters despite using spells quite a lot in order to keep random battles short, never used summons/defensive djinn/buffs against random enemies. Maybe I've used djinn like Flint twice or thrice until now to deliver the final blow in a random battle. And finally, I walked to recover PP only twice: before Tret and before Saturos. BTW, If an enemy forces you to grind/overlevel i've done it wrong.

@Break. I've said there are a million ways to make it right. I've thought about it many times since the discussion came up in the Balancing Discussion thread. The vast majority of the ideas I had got killed by "I need a smarter AI".

@More debuffs: That's something i'm currently working on.