The powerlevel was kind of totally not the issue people took with the guy. It was more getting rid of the chess pieces, which were a fun gimmick that set the character apart and had good progression to them, and replacing that with just ripping off the Monado. Getting rid of something nice and fun that no one else was doing in favor of being yet another magic swordsman, not even an original one to boot. Also, that the given elemental weaknesses made no sense what with being immune to ice magics, but cold harmed him and whatnot. 

Honestly, and this is just my opinion, I'd get rid of the cyber swords and super duper psychic powers and just work with a cool chess set gimmick. It's something fun, that no one's doing, lets you fill in the petmaster role which is a fun one and meshes better with the super IQ, actual chessmaster stuff. Like, the cyber swords and psyker powers seem tossed in because you think they're cool and they kind of are, but they don't particularly mesh all that well, neither with eachother nor the chess powers beyond correlating high intelect to psychic abilities.