@emdude
Try taking out Aalia first, if you can. Then go for Bernard or Bartholio depending on what you're more outfitted for-magic defense or physical defense. If magic, go for Bartholio, physical, go with Bernard. It might seem best to take out Vennie before those two, but he's generally weak and without powerful attacks. That, and, if Bartholio is the last one alive, he gets the Berserk status, basically doubling his damage.
If all else fails, go level up or something.
Nope-you can't get it, ever, after the zombies. Your only option is to start over if you want access to the secrets in the Trilobite Cave, including the arena. I highly recommend doing so, because Chapter 3 has even more arena-related stuff, containing very good equipment at that.
Akron is actually quite easy if you take advantage of his weaknesses and focus more on staying alive than beating him to bits. Make good use of a maxed Regen and auto-life from Genesis or Revive, and use Lance's Poison Gas attack a lot, especially when the Evil Worm and Tail appears. Matt could act as a weaker healer with Power Metal, but remember, you need to keep your party alive more than anything.
I wonder why there isn't an Impossible difficulty badge for getting all the medals? Seems kind of empty with how it's basically a requirement to go through the game more than once to get all the medals, or just get really lucky, for some of the medals, like the Slayer one. Had to get a random critical Nuke for it to work, and my crazy luck made it happen on Akron of all enemies. :P
Really, though, given the unforgiving difficulty in getting some of the minigame medals (particularly Rock Dodger)...
I was playing on Epic Mode, fighting the Protector at a reasonable level, 24. I had thunder resistant equipment, had used most of the available stat boosting items, and had defended with everyone. Know what happened when it used its particle beam move? I had full health... Matt flat out died because I gave him the Soul Stealer, Lance AND Natalie got criticaled, Lance died, and then it somehow summoned some birds in the same turn and killed Natalie off. True story.
I'm kind of sad the final boss from Epic Battle Fantasy 3, Akron, didn't make an appearance... Would have been cool to see 'im as the fourth bonus, instead of the same final boss just with more bullets spawning bullets spawning bullets teleporting from offscreen and homing. :P
...Now that I think of it, it wouldn't matter all that much, considering you can't even see the boss with bullets covering 90% of the screen.
Simplistic yet fun- the first half reminds me of the cosmic clone levels in Super Mario Galaxy 2... and the latter half is fun because you have to match yourself to... well... yourself.
Hey, people reading this. Yes, you. If you get anything with Sanctify if you don't have it already, keep it equipped (until you get something much better or you have low max MP). When fighting a tough enemy, spam it on one area; it acts like you casted individual spells, letting you regenerate your HP at a fast rate. Useful, especially against bosses.
The boosting items shouldn't take up inventory space, or should be able to be thrown away or sold. Of course, if you lose it from a thief, selling it, or just tossing it, one should be able to buy it again.
Most of the achievements rely too little on skill and too much on pure luck. Not getting hit at all, and not killing anything? How does THAT work? There's plenty of times in the final few levels where you have to fail an achievement, out of dumb misfortune. Plus, you have to kill bosses, so the 'kill nothing' achievement doesn't make sense.
The 60 medal area is too annoying to get into-I can do every single minigame but the Rock Dodger one. I really think that there should be some way to make it easier to get the minigame medals, or instead of 60 medals to get into the room Death is guarding, 55. Then some 'congrats you did everything' message for having them all. I'm certain other people have issues with one minigame or another, too...
Freaking fifth minigame! I can do everything BUT that stupid game! I really want to get into the 60 Medals room, too, but that game is a combination of stupid luck and inhumane reaction time-it's like the rocks are actually homing in on you at the end and no matter what I do I can't dodge enough to get 180 points...
I wish there was a cheat or the 60 medals thing was lowered to, I don't know, 55. Then an optional point-achievement for getting them all.