I have played this game for a couple of weeks now, and am interested in the basic framework and levelling system, but am finding the same grindy-feeling many other players are complaining about.
While I don’t mind that there are spots where the main storyline is too hard to carry on in, the repetitive nature of the challenges gets boring quickly when it is time to level up. I think if there were more choices in character design and I could experiment more with party selection it would help, or if there was more variation in the combat system overall it would help. The way things are set up now, there aren’t enough meaningful choices to make in the game, and waiting to open chests and get lucky with what rare or epic you get doesn’t overcome the grind.
My two basic suggestions are more variation between weapon/Armour levels (3 or 4 rare choices instead of 2, with different combat tactics between them), and adding occasional sideways screen epic battles. Like, some boss battles are the big dudes with big powers, but in other boss battles you have to face bigger parties of enemies on a bigger battlefield. You could keep similar attack patterns, but make the movements truly hexagonal instead of into the different level bands. I find it limiting, for example, to not even have the option to walk beside someone to attack an archer in the back row, and would do so sometimes even if it invited a bonus attack against me to do so.
The graphics and story of this game are on point, but expanding the mechanics needs to be the next big push.