KYLAILA'S PROFILE

Merry Christmas : )

Lovely to have you here! :D
(also that avatar is hmmM! delicious)

I'm sure you'll have fun and make some friends. Maybe even games. It's neat.

*ponders* I never had that issue in most Atlus games (and EO) but then I am me.
I will say the main-series SMT games have deliberately challenging encounters from the start, mainly because you can't switch the difficulty once locked in. And I appreciate knowing what you are in for while you can still go back (is not too difficult either tho). I'd been replaying Nocturne and I actually had to reload a few times because missing on the first enemies made me die in hard mode, haha. I double checked out of curiosity, and that would not really happen in normal difficulty - you can take like, double the amount of hits. It didn't really waste much time, either. We're talking a few minutes until you actually can just smoothly continue and build a party that'll spread out hits.

The other side is how that is achieved mechanically.. I mean, Oblivion and such start out reeeelatively uh .. well they start like a challenge and then become cardboard. That happens in a LOT of games, simply because you get more tools and powers but no real challenge to follow it (and no.. longer HP bars/fights do not count for me if they are boring easy). THAT kind is a mechanical trap. It happens in a lot of games, sadly.

That said, having no time to get used to your arsenal is generally a bad thing - and that's also where devs might miss it. THEY know all the ins and outs playing and re-playing from the start. The player probably will not. (the above Nocturne didn't make you fail because you didn't you use non-existent spells/tricks incorrectly at the start. that starts building up)
If the rest of the game is easy, or it's actually easy once you understand the base system... then.. it's just a poor reflection of the game's essence at the start.
If all of the game is meant to be a challenge, it can be just right - but even then learning curve is key. Furi is a great example. Going back to beaten bosses, especially the first one, it feels super easy - but it was a big challenge at first and taught you the basics. Then you add more and more and some variations in focus (gun vs blade etc.) to give each boss a distinct feel and tactic in beating. But then it's more action-y to begin with and a different genre soo : D

I am late with the update, but I added some more specific suggestions.
Also uhm. Yeah, we can do this : D

I mean, it's pretty fresh out. The combat system got a massive update. Will see how it plays out~