Romancing Monarchy

Solid game early on, really enjoyed it until...the monster "Spectre" in Shapeshifter Staff tower entered the chat. They are SEVERELY overtuned. The dark spell they cast is so much more powerful than anything else you encounter up to or at that point - nerf recommended strongly. As it turned out, I was able to bulldoze my way through that tower with a bit of luck and preparation, and several wipes, but then I got to the next part where you gain access to a ship and...the first random encounter I got on the ocean while travelling was even more overtuned enemies with more AoE magic. That seems to be the big problem for me with this game: enemy aoe magic attacks. They are just insane. My AoE magic does around 200 damage per enemy; the enemy's AoE magic does between 200 and 700 per hit per person. With my strongest, most tanky and HP heavy characters I only had 1300 hp. I guess I could grind for a long time in the area nearby the tower, but it just feels like a bad trope of old school games to level check you SO HARD right when you unlock something cool like a ship. Also, the guy in the village advises you to go to a place with Steel Slimes that give lots of exp...can't you let me get THERE to grind instead of making me grind in the suboptimal areas? Anyway, guess I just am not into the old school rpg vibes in those respects. I love a bit of grinding, but only when it feels good and rewarding. The power ramps vs exp rewards are poorly tuned in this one. I'm still going to give it a thumbs up because its a good game, but hopefully people curious for the vibe will read my review and treat it as a buyer beware kind of deal. The writing, world building, art, and rpg systems are neat and fairly unique, but the tuning of the enemies ruined it for me with how all over the map it was. 7 / 10