I am a very experienced RPG player.

I have played every single ff game through to completion at least twice, some of them I have played dozens of times.

I played fable for 5 hours of playtime, had over a million gold, the solus sword and the strongest armours dark and light, and ownd several houses. (fable was way too easy)

I have played MMO's and table tops, so I know my way around an RPG.

Which mode is best, I am playing it on hard mode right now, but from what I can tell, its not any different then normal, except you get less exp and more everything else.

And exp in this game seems to be more important than gear, since you only have a set number of periods befor the game ends. (i have not beating this game yet)

So, should I restart on normal, for better exp, or will I be better off on the hardest difficulty.

(I have not had any problems with combat so far on hard mode and I understand the mechanics)

stay on hard. you get all of the charcathers, items, gear, dungeons in hard. in normal you get a majority but not most.