ahh, i respect the vision. i'm a big fan of rpgs that use despair, frustration, fatigue etc. to convey their themes (ff2, fire emblem 5, arguably 7th saga...) so i feel a bit silly for not coming to that conclusion on my own. it makes a ton of sense for a game where you've been allotted 1 hour to prepare yourself for an unjust deathmatch
thanks for the guidance. it sounds to me like the thing i need to do to is to get better at grinding toward the midboss battles. i'm thinking that as i keep making attempts and get familiar with different bosses' stats/resistances/spells, it'll be easier to scout the boss out, go "ah, i know what i need to beat this guy (or the next best thing)" and grind just until i can achieve that, so i can move on sooner. i'll give it a few more tries and report back with the results!