I was not a fan of that game, but I have never been a fan of grinding in RPG and hard fights for the sake of hardness. I literally had to cheat on that game to get the ending, no way i am grinding LVLs or figuring the right order of executing comands to win an RPG battle.Dark hero party is a tough game. It evokes strong feelings and people deal with them in different ways. Some really enjoy it, some kinda lash out at characters.
Also that game is pretty old by now and for the time, it was THE ntr game. So for a lot of us, it does have that nostalgia feeling. Now when you already experienced a lot of other good ntr games, it might not hold up that much. I still think its pretty good, just need to have the stomach for it.
the only game whose battle system I have tolerated and had optional hardness was SEQUEL that game is perfect in balancing the amount of bullshit difficulty i am wiling to tolerate from an RPG. a lot of the hard fights are optional, most of the game is balanced so you do not have to grind too much to get to the appropriate level. and certain skills are both powerful and the items are useful.
anyways I never liked RPG grind, probably why i never got into MMOs