How tough will it be to get everything in Riviera? Options

[Cyath]

Finishing up Yggdra Union now (around BF 44) and I am going to move on to Riviera next...I've heard tell that Riviera's a lot easier on completionists, but how much easier? ^_^

Actually I generally just play through RPGs normally and don't bother too much with the sidequests/extra stuff unless it's really interesting...but for games as good as YU and Riviera I tend to go the extra mile and try to see all the endings/get ultimate weapons etc. Will it be really hard to do that in Riviera? Will I need to S-Rank every battle and hoard TPs like there's no tomorrow?

No need for specific answers...I just want a general "feel" of the game so that I don't play a chapter or 2 and find myself having to restart (like I did for YU) The FAQs aren't that helpful because many of them are spoiler-ridden. :(

[Dr Strum]

items where you need a total REP of a certain number can be difficult to get.

No, because you only need to win a certain amount of times or lose a certain amount of times.

DARK MATTER!! I forgot to trade it away once and in one of the desert BFs every town I stepped on the citizens kept saying to "get that evil thing away from me" among other things like that.

That's the Skull Stone, not the Dark Matter.

This is, of course, kind of hard (in the first few chapters) given the nature of the first few chapters, but there arn't any items that require a total REP there, are there?

In the first few chapters? Of course there are. There're the ones in Verlaine, in the Marduk Forest, Lost Aries...