UBOAAAAAAAAAAAR!
Freaking HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE Warrior of Light and his lousy moveset. By the Five Directional Beasties, I hope he gets better at high levels. He's worse than Firion at this level (6). I know that's really early in his development, but he had to fight Sephiroth as his second boss and it was awkward and terrible because straight-line, slow, short-range moves SUCK. (HI THERE SHIELD OF LIGHT. GO DIE IN A FIRE, PLEASE.) His range is terrible except for the Red Fang Brave projectile (which has pretty decent homing and range properties but is fairly slow) and the Dayflash ground HP move (which has the whole straight-line and slow issues). Fast attackers like Sephy and Jecht really suck to fight against. He's a bit better to start out with in the NA version, with a nice attack that chains into Rune Blade, but it's not enough to really make him fun.
On the other hand, I've gotten a lot better with Tina; she really doesn't suck nearly as much as I thought she would, she just takes a bit of time to learn to play, as she's got quite a distinct play style among the Cosmos corps. (And for some reason, my Terra is level 12 with a D [up from H] rank on my Friend Card. O_o I didn't think I played her quite that well.)
Now for some differences I've noticed between the two versions of the game that I've played (besides the nerfing of the Butz). Squall didn't seem too different from the NA version from what I played; still had terrible early HP attacks, pretty good short range Brave combos and No. Freaking. Range. Also, vertically oriented attacks that are ridiculously easy to mess up, I hate you. Onion Knight's Thundara and Comet (aka the adorably-named Puchi Meteo) aren't quite as atrocious in the JP version, having longer range.
The NA version seems to have anti-aliasing measures in place that the Japanese version does not. I could be wrong of course; I'm not really good with technical issues, but the edges of the character models do seem more jagged in the JP version. I wonder why they removed some of the icons, though. The JP version has four more unlockable. I definitely love that the NA version has Free Air Dash available for everyone from the get-go. Grinding for the first few levels in the JP version features battles that are just sooooo slooooow. Another small detail that I appreciate the NA version for including concerns the labeling of cutscenes in the Museum. In the JP version, the Museum doesn't tell one whose campaign any particular cutscene belongs to (which is quite frustrating unless one makes/finds a guide), while the NA version does.
Incidentally, I have no idea why people whined about the original tutorial being too long. I finished mine in about twenty minutes in BOTH versions; it only takes about twelve if you skip the cutscenes and know what you're doing. The only things I noticed that were cut were simply explanatory speech windows. No extra cutscenes or enemies. In fact, I think the NA version has a LONGER tutorial because there are two of them. Whenever one starts a new game, one must immediately play an unskippable three-battle tutorial that is not present in the JP version as well as the normal one. (It makes getting a specific Friend Card colour a right pain.) Sooooo yeah. I dunno.
HWAHAHA RANK C BUTZ AND RANK B BARTZ. FEAR THE POWER OF ADORKABLE STUPIDITY.
On the other hand, I've gotten a lot better with Tina; she really doesn't suck nearly as much as I thought she would, she just takes a bit of time to learn to play, as she's got quite a distinct play style among the Cosmos corps. (And for some reason, my Terra is level 12 with a D [up from H] rank on my Friend Card. O_o I didn't think I played her quite that well.)
Now for some differences I've noticed between the two versions of the game that I've played (besides the nerfing of the Butz). Squall didn't seem too different from the NA version from what I played; still had terrible early HP attacks, pretty good short range Brave combos and No. Freaking. Range. Also, vertically oriented attacks that are ridiculously easy to mess up, I hate you. Onion Knight's Thundara and Comet (aka the adorably-named Puchi Meteo) aren't quite as atrocious in the JP version, having longer range.
The NA version seems to have anti-aliasing measures in place that the Japanese version does not. I could be wrong of course; I'm not really good with technical issues, but the edges of the character models do seem more jagged in the JP version. I wonder why they removed some of the icons, though. The JP version has four more unlockable. I definitely love that the NA version has Free Air Dash available for everyone from the get-go. Grinding for the first few levels in the JP version features battles that are just sooooo slooooow. Another small detail that I appreciate the NA version for including concerns the labeling of cutscenes in the Museum. In the JP version, the Museum doesn't tell one whose campaign any particular cutscene belongs to (which is quite frustrating unless one makes/finds a guide), while the NA version does.
Incidentally, I have no idea why people whined about the original tutorial being too long. I finished mine in about twenty minutes in BOTH versions; it only takes about twelve if you skip the cutscenes and know what you're doing. The only things I noticed that were cut were simply explanatory speech windows. No extra cutscenes or enemies. In fact, I think the NA version has a LONGER tutorial because there are two of them. Whenever one starts a new game, one must immediately play an unskippable three-battle tutorial that is not present in the JP version as well as the normal one. (It makes getting a specific Friend Card colour a right pain.) Sooooo yeah. I dunno.
HWAHAHA RANK C BUTZ AND RANK B BARTZ. FEAR THE POWER OF ADORKABLE STUPIDITY.