goggle5 Thanks for the review. As for your major criticism, It is like that for two reasons. The first is to discourage the player to grind. The second is to keep it somewhat noticeable for the entire game. The increase in stats is in a geometric progression, which means you grow less at the beginning than in the end. If it was an arithmetic progression (which means always increase the same numbers no matter when), proportionally, you'd have a big change at the beginning, but at the end, you'd barely notice any increase in stats. In a geometric progression, you keep seeing some difference at all level-ups, even if not as big, but it's there.
All in all, the game was balanced taking that into consideration, and in the last version, the game got significantly easier, allowing you to use skills more frequently, and having more attack and defensive items. And while gold is scarce, from the quests and sidequests you get more than enough to buy everything you need, and the rest can be used to buy extra resources. Yes, the better healing items are better, but for the mob encounters the lesser healing items can keep you alive well, especially if used to fill your HP before the battles. Bosses also give you a ton of exp, especially considering you're only expected to get one or two levels in each dungeon. I also don't think you struggle too much if taking the quests without the proper gear, the only one you should struggle with is the one Alice always recommends you to do the last, and until there, you should have money enough to buy your gear.
Again, thanks for the review, I'm glad to know you liked the game.
