Replaying on hard mode without stendhal and gommage

Basically that, I loved the game on my first playthrough but I found so many fights became trivial due to these two broken abilities. I was robbed (my own fault) of Clea's later phases when I gommage'd her and abruptly won, similarly I would use stendhal and insta win just about any fight late game. Yawn. So I guess unless these abilities are no longer broken, I'll play without them, which will be a game changer.

I'm sure plenty here have done it, was it more fun for you? Cheers.