I've never really played DoS, but I have played this party in the NES version. Early on some fights can be quite difficult(I can take out the wizards at level 5 or 6 but it requires using one thief as a meat shield). Once you get the coral, dragon, and rune swords the game gets a lot easier. Once you hit class change it gets really easy. At the end of the game you can have two ninjas with a katana, one with the defense sword, and give the masmune to the white mage which gives everyone in the party some pretty nice stopping power