I'd actually argue that the original is superior to Unmei no Wa in a lot of ways, but it has its own foibles. It's significantly more difficult than the remake, particularly in the early game where a single level has a proportionally huge impact on stats, let alone 2-3 levels. Coupled with automatic, full strength counter attacks and a death system closer to Fire Emblem, it's a lot more unforgiving than the later release. It has per-action EXP (like FFT) and this does scale depending on the level difference, but it's often not enough to keep units from falling behind, forcing you into the training mode between story battles. It's significantly faster to raise an under level unit than it is to raise a brand new class in the PSP version, however.
Character building is a different beast. Levels are individual rather than classed based, and gaining a level while in a given class grants stat growth unique to that class. Classes are (mostly) unlocked by reaching stat breakpoints and are restricted based on unit gender and alignment. Over the game, the classes that a unit has gained levels in will have a large impact on how they perform in combat -- a terror knight that has spent time as a ninja will have much better hit rates than a terror knight that spent most of its levels in berserker, for example. Whether this is a good thing is kind of debatable. It's not that hard to break the game by prioritizing AGI growths, because it's a pretty loaded stat.
Overall, though, I would argue that it's
mostly better balanced than the PSP version. PSP's "everything and the kitchen sink" approach kinda flattens things a bit, despite there being more options overall. For example, PSP clerics are almost completely invalidated by shared inventory, the lobber, and in-battle grimoire use. In the SNES version, on the other hand, units have to carry consumables on their person (only 4 item slots, shared with equipment), there is no lobber, and spell scrolls are equipment rather than consumables. Specialist classes just don't feel that important in the PSP version. Another negative impact of the skill system is... the AI doesn't actually know how to use most active skills, but it will waste resources to use them anyway. I don't know if the AI is actually any more sophisticated in the original, but the lack of "bad" options certainly makes it feel that way.
I could write a book on all of the other notable differences, but I think from here I'm just going to list a few things:
- Unique equipment is more fun to find in the original. Drops are guaranteed and there are no level restrictions on equipment, so you can use cool stuff as soon as you find it.
- A lot of classes and equipment grant passive effects. Terror Knights have a passive "fear" effect that weakens enemy units within two spaces of them, Dragoons and a handful of swords do bonus damage to dragons automatically, and gear like Flying Boots work just by equipping them. On PSP, all of these have been moved to skills that require activation.
- Equipment is unrestricted. Exorcists can equip heavy armor, knights can use bows, ninja can wield heavy battle axes, etc. Instead of restrictions, classes have preferred weapons; valkyrie favor spears, for example. When attacking with a preferred weapon, they'll receive a small bonus to the damage and will perform a special animation instead of the standard attack.
- Permadeath is much more unforgiving. Characters die when they reach 0 HP, and are removed from the battlefield. If they're not revived before the end of the battle, they're dead forever. And revival options are extremely limited. For most of the game, your only option is Blessing Stones, which work by automatically reviving the holder if they fall in battle. They're also rare. You eventually acquire the Revivify spell, which only the Priest class can use. The spell is pretty forgiving, at least (there's no time limit as long as you rez the dead unit before the end of the battle). Though... IIRC, it's actually possible to miss it on the L route.
