And why, pray tell, should we trust the opinion of some random guy on an internet message board over someone who reviews games for a living?mjemirzian said:Translation: We're bad at video games and our brains couldn't handle the mechanics, so we're going to claim you need to grind to progress even though people have already perfected grind-less speed runs to unlock difficulty modes 1-10. More 'games journalism' failure.
And of course people were claiming the same thing about Valkyrie Profile 2, by the same development team. Every time a new RPG comes out that is slightly above average in difficulty, the 'grind whine' crowd comes out.
Writing a video game review without competently understanding a games rules and mechanics is like trying to recap a chess match with no clue how chess is played.
My review of this game will probably be one of the most technically competent on the net.

In seriousness, have you played the game yet, or are you basing this on track record (such as what you say about Valkyrie Profile 2)?
::edit::
Nevermind, the detail in your first post certainly sounds like you've played it.