Anyone attempted some custom challenges with this game?

Whether solo, conditional saves, low levels, etc.?

Personally, I've recently been attempting a "no healing items in battle" challenge with this game, and so far I've been successful (I'm up to the 3Dazer quest now). Initially, the challenge was to not use any healing items at all, not even outside of battle (along with not using Egress Certificates or Teleport Amulets), but I had to change the rules somewhat when I got to the Halls of the Damned and past the Torture Maker specifically, as there was no way I was going to survive against the upcoming bosses (with Herasia and Baretta of all characters) without full recovery in between the battles. Sure, you had a few Full Recovery spots on the damaging tiles before the Torture Maker, but I'm sure you know why it isn't exactly a great idea to rely on those specific ones for actual full recovery. But so far, in battle, I have yet to use a single healing item.

It is not exactly a severe challenge, mind you. But it has been fun to try thus far, and it makes you really appreciate the usefulness of each character in your party, especially Sarah, Luciana, and Wendala.

We'll see later on if this challenge can even be possible against Rixian and the likes.

EDIT: I should say "limited" instead of "healing" as I forgot about the scrolls and such. So no limited items in battle is my challenge.

I'm past the 3-Dazer quest, and still successful to this point with the "no limited items in battle" challenge. Was even able to beat Lord of the Roots without using any items whatsoever (not even the limitless ones). It's just a matter of draining away at his MP until he can only attack, along with lowering his stats to the minimum possible. Once that was done, and the party was fully healed (thanks to Sarah) and beefed up in terms of defense (thanks to Luciana), that's when I unleashed double attacks on him (Random, Sarah, and Coryool) until he went down in just a few rounds.

The cheater Evalyn Almighty also went down fairly easily without limited items. I did have to reset a couple of times before I was able to beat her with a bit of luck (her Nymph's Para was annoying as hell).

The more challenging battles were with Coryool on his own. I was finally able to beat both the Solo Tournament and Karl Ludenbourg with Coryool without limited items, but I had to be really lucky in both cases. For some reason, Coryool just kept dodging Lanfest at one point, and that's when I was able to beat him. Same with Karl. Might have something to do with the Slash Up he was able to be taught after a certain quest (forgot which).

Now I can say that I have successfully beaten (but not yet completed) the game without using limited items whatsoever.

Rixian proved not to be too much of a challenge, probably because I had my party that was fighting it equipped with nothing but double attacks. Zoo, by the way, is deadly with both the Brosaline Whip and the Evair Dagger. The Guardians just couldn't breathe much because of him.

And Chaos Eye? They make it too easy for you once you get to that point.

The Royal Succubi and Hell Murderers were annoying as hell, but the key is to just use the best spells on them and not worry about MP much. And Floyd's Beacon helps a ton. Definitely a must.

As for Xayulda Earth Demon, easy peasy. I think once your party is maxed up in levels, and with double attack weapons, pretty much every battle in the game (aside from the solo ones and the Gralmaschoum battles) becomes too easy. A bit disappointed that they weren't more challenging, but what can you do?

I still have a few solo battles to focus on now. Some have been really frustrating.