If you love the older FF games, I do recommend the Pixel Remasters. They don’t come with the extra content they added for the GBA/DS re-releases, but they are very good remasters that do a great job of keeping the pixellated look and feel one might (generously) remember while visually improving everything in just about every regard.
And the redone soundtracks are phenomenal.
Ouch, my sympathies. That’s the point where I’d unapologetically use the built in cheat modes and auto battle back to catch up, but even then that’s a pain to work back through. At least it was just 2 and not one of the longer ones like 5 or 6.