For me, it was. I don't have the patience, waiting for that bar to fill up... So I mainly just used a normal attack, lol. Then, I finally found out the effectiveness of skills... When I hadf figured that out, I had no problems, at all... Healing items? I dind't know THAT! It's probably because I'm one of those, who are used to start out with no items, which means that I don't even bother to check, if I have any.
Anyways, I liked SOTE. Mainly for it's simplicity, but I like this new version, as well.