I found the optimization to be quite fun and incredibly well earned after a couple hours of grinding. However, I felt that the skill Erika gets halfway in was a bit of a win-button and made the second half of the game trivial as far as challenge (but not unearned!) I also appreciate that the last two bosses took that skill into consideration and didn't let me just sweep them with 12 actions, but they lacked any threatening attacks so ultimately they mostly just felt like damage sponges (though maybe that was because I invested in all the stat boosts lol)

It was a fun 2.5 hours though and I ended up liking the characters and lore more than I expected to. I give 4/5 only because I found the battle UI a tad clunky from the ailments or extra effects of attacks going by too fast to make any real sense of them (though I was glad they went that fast when I was grinding) and it was a bit easy to lose my cursor in battle leading me to accidentally pass my turn over to the enemy early which was never a setback because the enemies weren't deadly but it was annoying.

The balance overall was strong and felt pretty well tested (sans Hide healing an enemy apparently??) the combat felt fine tuned and the skills felt purposeful to different styles of play. And I'm always a fan of well balanced RPGs which for the most part this is. I do wish Valda got more fun skills for lategame but maybe I'll just have to build her that way next time since all I really got out of her were debuffs and weak aoes at the end (especially since the healing item droprate makes her healing spells unnecessary for my playthrough)

I was a tad mixed on the full heal after every battle since that means there's zero attrition (which I feel commonly aids optimization) but considering the game is balanced entirely around that it ultimately works. I was glad I felt the lack of MP creeping in during the last two bosses after killing the bosses beforehand in 1-2 turns as soon as I got Erika's ultimate skill.

Overall, I'm glad I stumbled upon this little gem. :)

Wishing you the best in any future projects!