It really proves that the game can be a normal JRPG, albeit a grindy one in the beginning.

It's unrelated to difficulty, but, is it a good one though? Being grindy to me is generally a pretty terrible thing in a JRPG. Part of marketing for SMTV's rerelease was nerfing the impact of level on damage, and basically everyone loved that.

I also don't see many defensive options for the half of the game I'm at besides Maelle's redirect, or maybe absurd defense/HP stacking, if defense even works.